Vagabond 47

[Owen]

Has anyone sailed a Vagabond 47? What was your experience regarding how it handled in light winds, its seaworthiness, its ease of handling, etc?

[captden]

Originally Posted by Owen

Has anyone sailed a Vagabond 47? What was your experience regarding how it handled in light winds, its seaworthiness, its ease of handling, etc?

Owen, I have owned my 47 for 7 years now, the first 5 years it was in my yard on a total refit. I have limited time sailing it but I can say in winds under 10knts it's not a round the bouys type boat. When the wind does fill in this boat comes alive. Not the best boat going hard into the wind but fall off a bit and it's a lot of fun. As for seaworthiness I think it is one of the best boats I have sailed in, it will take bad weather with comfort and with the ketch rig you have a lot of options. As handling goes I was quite pleased all that weight and with that huge rudder it turns very nice and we are in a very small mooring area.

Captden
V47
Renaissance

[caymandj]

Captden

what a beautiful boat!!!!

my dream boat too!!!

caydj

[captden]

Originally Posted by caymandj

Captden

what a beautiful boat!!!!

my dream boat too!!!

caydj

caydj:

Thanks I hope your dream comes true
Captden

[Ladd]

OK Captden you have had your boat for a while, what can you tell me about chain plates? Who is the best way to inspect them?
Ladd

[captain58sailin]

Very nice looking vessel!

[captden]

Originally Posted by Ladd

OK Captden you have had your boat for a while, what can you tell me about chain plates? Who is the best way to inspect them?
Ladd

When I first started looking at these boats I did a lot of research on what to look for as potential problems and chainplate issues were pretty much on the top of the list. The quality of the stainless steel used on these boats was not the best. I did pull and inspected the chainplates and found that the chainplate it self was fine but the bolts that go through the hull were in very tough shape. You could see that water did get in between the plate and the hull and just where the bolts came through were rusted so bad that most of the bolts just snapped off when I went to remove them. Depending on what year the boat was built these chainplates can be very difficult to get at. On my boat, most of the plates were accessable from the inside as they are located inside of lockers, the only ones that required any real effort to get to were in the main cabin, and of course these were for the main mast. For these what I did was locate them by measure and drill a 1 7/8" hole through the wood batten and then you can get a socket on the bolt and remove (snap) the nuts. After replacing the bolts I just made a wooden plug to cover the hole. After getting all the bolts out I was able to just clean out all the caulking where the plate comes through the toe rail and then pull the plate straight up and out. After getting the plate out you can see that the water was getting in through the toe rail and caused the problem, so resealing at this point is the key to prevent this from happening again. Also make sure you seal where the bolts go through the hull as this can be a area where water can in and also cause problems. Been over five years since I did this work and so far all is dry and looking good but I do reseal the area where the plate comes through the toe rail every season.
Hope this helps, not a real difficult job to do but it is very time consuming.
Captden

[Ladd]

Captden; Thanks for the info, it helped put my mind at ease.
How did you happen to get rammed? That hurt, hope that Renaissance is all better now. I know, Blue took a small T-bone at the center cleat and it's not fun! Put us out of racing for 8 weeks (parts had to come from Italy, closed for Aug). Will pick your brain later for more on the 47's
Ladd

[S.V.Arebesque]

captden,
What or where did you get new chain plate bolts, assuming you used stainless 1/2 dia. with slot drive?

[captden]

The bolts I used to replace them with were ordered at mcmaster-carr McMaster-Carr they were hex head not the slotted screw round head that were on the boat. I replaced all of them so they all match
captden

[Boreas]

Beautiful looking Yacht just about to buy one but have asked many questions with no answers on this forum

[S.V.Arebesque]

what do you want to know?

[captden]

So what questions do you have?
captden

[captden]

Boreas I found your other post the only question you asked was about the interior wood, the short answer is yes it is all teak
Hope this helps
captden

[S.V.Arebesque]

yep, teak and generally glued and not easy to remove without breaking! At least on mine.