More info and a bit of
history …
mostly to gather my own thoughts, and update my generous CF advisors and maybe let someone thinking of doing similar things to look over my shoulder.
So off I drove to Tucson the first leg, meeting my architect/occasional
charter partner and and friend of 35 years, who’d agreed to come along.
The boat is
on the hard at the Guaymas yard, not the gringo Marina Seco in
San Carlos, the Gringo boat village, mostly sport fishers in the marina with a big
hotel, mostly empty (the
hotel, not the marina). The Guaymas yard has all sorts of sailboats, a few nice cats down to seriously decayed hulks, in various stages of
storage ($124 mo), live aboards
on the hard, and rebuilding projects. Unlike the
San Carlos dry
dock you can do whatever you want in Guaymas, do the
work yourself,
live aboard or let it rot and bleed you to death for rent.
The survey took from 9am-3pm, with the owner, the Surveyor and his two young Mexican assistants, and an anglo retiree sailor, adding to his 201k no doubt, rig inspector who went up the
mast checking each component and connection up to the top, where he spent 30 minutes or so, about 45 min total. I have some photos coming from my friend’s
camera that we sent up with the rigger and am chomping at the bit for the disk-in-the-mail and some emailed advance candy. He said the rig was strong, recommending only two things, wrap the spreader tips w/figure 8 (they are secured so I assume for genny protection?) when I got around to it, and change the forestay pin (2.75” x .75” stainless. He said it could be perfectly fine, but with so much rust on it, he’d change it out if it was his. Owner said he’s sure he has another pin for it. A good report.
The main surveyor had two Mexican young
men checking the bilge and cubby holes with a fiber optic viewer. He and they had already been over the hull and chainplates previously. No
corrosion, no crazing. Everything was reported as good, and often the phrase ‘overbuilt’ was used. There had been one spot of
delamination fixed aft of the
keel to starboard. The owner’s pics showed like-new wood under a 3’ x 2’ area where the glass had been removed. The
repair is undetectable now. I had been under the impression it had been a rot fix and was relieved to know it was just delam. The bilge was dry, as the owner said “it would be and had always been.” Of course, it has been sitting on the hard for 18 mo in a desert. But I buy his story and think he’s a good guy.
There is about 800# worth of lead ballast foamed in the bilge, and loose in bags distributed forward under the Vberth and a few aft, I forget exactly where, that can be shifted if I were to get a new
dinghy or
anchor of change the balance in some way and wanted to retrim. It has two 44# bruce anchors on the double rollers, with a total of 840’
rode, 180 3/8” chain. The
current owner, who has cruised her for 10 years, before grounding her in Guaymas 18 mo ago, from
Vancouver to
Panama and back to
Mexico, uses an unusual
anchor set for storms. He inlines both bruce’s, one 30’ behind the other on the one rode. I'm a bit hazy on the rig. I think he uses his 30' of spare chain. He claims it won’t foul like a 45* double set does sometimes and they reset together quickly. Hmmm. He sets his snubber about a dozen feet in front of the rollers and double ties it to the cleat on the windless and the forward ¾-forward cleat, tug boat sized. They’re that way all ‘round the
deck, lots of ‘em.
CBurger, after comparing, it does look like a modified Atkin design. It compares closely with the hull and ballast of of his Gundred, a foot shorter than Tryst-Umiak, but with the ballast, similar numbers. Although I don’t think Atkin ever used a bulb, like she has, with 6500# of lead and a total lead
keel of 12,500#. The overview of the hulls is similar as well, tho’ not the layout.
The
engine room, right behind a basic
galley, is a trip. Entry/exit to the aft berth are 4’ high, a rebuke to my chubby butt, is through the engine room. On the
passage aft, the
electrical panel is on the left, the engine to the right, two
fuel filters immediate right, on the bulkhead, with one large
racor and a small one for the 12 gal.
emergency tank one can switch to if gunk shows up in the big filter. Clean it out and switch back to the main
tanks. Across the engine room is
storage for lines and life jackets, harnesses, etc. I saw how to bleed the injectors and loosen the drip on shaft bearing. Aft
cabin has a 1.5 berth, with
toilet covered with raise up box. A
bronze step allow exit through the
hatch to the back of
cockpit, and that is where you would steer with the
emergency tiller, attaching to the rudder post just aft of the bunk, with your foot.
Tankage is good. Two 60gal
fiberglass fuel tanks under the sole in the
galley and two 60 gal
fiberglass water tanks just ahead of those, over the bilge, low in the boat. Carl’s sail calculator gives her
capsize ratio of 1.48. Oddly, the aft
head has a 12 gal
holding tank and the forward head/shower/vanity does not. 6 gal hot water
heater, “enough for two of us to shower”, says he.
4
batteries, no dedicated start batt. There are only two, he says he will install the other two. He says the 4 have always been enough, through often use of the engine, I imagine. The 102 hp Isuzu is a monster, sweet running (IR analysis of it running showed it all heated up evenly and ran at 180*, which is what owner said before hand) He seemed genuinely surprised it didn't start immediately after sitting 18 mo, as it always had. So he manually bled the injectors and off she went. It idles sweetly at 600
rpm and will
power the boat a couple of knots at idle. He uses 1250
rpm for
cruise which yields 5.5 kts @ .75 gal per hr. He claimed to have only used max
power once in reverse when he hit a sand bar, which he said raised the stern into the air. I’m thinking
solar on either or both of the
wheel house roof or
davits. Auto pilot was disconnect “because it used too many amps, brain is gone, it was an old wagner. Bummer, no AP.
I have confidence in the boat but there are issues. I would really like AP for
singlehanding then
solar and
radar. The galley has a two burner
Origo alcohol
stove, which is not my preference. There a small
propane stove that bolts on top of the
Origo that has a small tank attached to the aft rail. There is an AC small front load refridgerator. A top loading ice box at least would be nice. The two big stainless sinks are great tho’. Only 4 berths, the settee, the v berth, and 1 or two in love in the aft bunk. Maybe not so bad. I’m 6’2” and there’s enough
headroom in the
salon, but the roof of the
wheel house is about 6’. The framing is down to maybe 5’11”. I see lots of
head bumps or stooping. My architect buddy says no big deal to cut the supports and raise it 5”. Not sure how that would look.
My head is full and
racing. It’s like someone here said in an earlier thread, maybe Capt. Gracias, the moment I shook hands on the deal, things sped up. Suddenly, I switched from skeptical inspector, to a list maker, way behind on a thousand things to do.
Enough for tonight. I know most of you folks are shy about expressing opinions and discussing options.
But feel free to speak up.
speakeasy
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