What's the Worst Boat YOU Ever Had?

[ScottMeilicke]

Originally Posted by Brasshopper

1972 era Sunfish 12. Ice chest with a sail.

Ah, but it has an ice chest! I have fond memories sailing our sunfish. Dad with his beer, me with my pop.


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[Sailuke]

Definitely our O'day 20. Non marine-grade plywood made everything inside deteriorate, and i dont know if you've ever sat down for a nap and fallen through your V-birth, but its an adventure to fix. Free-fall centerboard, kill me. Snapping halyards and bending spreaders, thanks for the warning. Chainplates that pull out on a port tack. Cleats that yank out when stress is put on them (bye bye brand new delta anchor!) Balsa core that soaked up water like a sponge, I'm TIRED of grinding out the soft spots. All in all, it was a good first boat, but much like an ex, I wouldn't ever touch another O'day if the previous owner paid me to drag it away from him.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

I was hoping to see someone come to the defense of the speed of the Folkboat/Contessa. They are not slow but are wet sailing.

You'll find the Catalina not as well constructed but lighter, more tender, more nimble and maneuverable and has less waterline so will be slower.

I'll come to the Contessa's defense.!... even though I stated it was the worst I ever owned! It was well built, pretty as sin. It was "worst" for me as it's just not my type of boat. I tend to prefer beamier designs with longer waterlines that don't rely on 50% ballast like the folkboat/contessa etc.
That doesn't mean the Contessa is a bad boat, just "bad" for me!

[donradcliffe]

I've never had a bad boat, but I've sailed some. High on my stinker list are the CT41 and Pearson 365 ketch.

I cruised a week on a CT41, and was able to sail for 4 hours, but still had to motor to make that night's anchorage. The pilot house to deck joint was rotted out by rainwater, which was common on those boats.

The Pearson belonged to a friend, who wanted to sail the South Pacific. We took it out on SF bay and were never able to tack it without turning on the motor. He got as far as Tahiti and sold it.

Oh, and there was the ferro schooner I sailed one year in the Antigua classic race week--brings back painful DFL memories.

[zeehag]

clipper marine 30. pos . rated unsafe in any water by uscg. ha ha ha is true pos. 1
choppergun crap not even good for lake sailing. aluminum pop rivets fasten hull to deck, wow.. aluminum pop rivets. not even heavy duty ones. wow ...

best boat has been my formosa 41. perhaps after ct left the formosa boat builders yard they fell into disarray.
no black iron anything, chainplates have lasted 40 yrs, as have masts, which are thai cedar, not spruce. all is easily accessible while under way in case one needs to repair some part of drive line.. even packing gland is easy to work on. love it.
only improvement would be if it were center cockpit. as that model has more living space.
in rain season i use waterproof covers on mine so as to prevent dry rot, which is caused by fresh water. mine even has the original water tanks.. stainless steel. the welds failed at year 38, but that is why gods made welders. funny thing about that..

iirwin citation model, 37 ft. crappy sailing boat in a busy sea. good for dock queening, tho.

[barnakiel]

I did not have that one but my worst (one of the worst anyways) experience was a Schionning cat. I think she was 54ft. I sailed and maintained that one.

b.

[GILow]

Bought a no name 16 foot ex hire boat once. Completely and totally ruined. Spent at least a month working on it, used it twice. Gave up and drove it to the tip.

A good lesson in project boats. I am very glad I had the experience. It was a cheap way to learn there was no such thing as a cheap boat.


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[Dirk Williams]

Shoal keeled islander 27. Picked the boat up for 500.00, sight unseen. Worked on the boat for two weeks, in prep for our first adventures on our local lake. Got a call for the marina, saying your boats sitting on the bottom of the lake, still tied to your slip. It was April fools day, so I blew them off.

Got the same call the next morning, went to Klamath lake, and sure enough my boat was 14 feet under. I'd never even sailed it. Long story short, the boat did have a nice trailer.

We floated the boat, loaded her on the trailer, took her to the dump and watched as the dozer driver took great pleasure in making short work of the sailboat. We did salvage the mast, boom and winches.



Dirk

[SailFastTri]

My first "dinghy" was in the late 80's -- it was a 12 foot rowboat from the late 50's or early 60's I bought for $20 and it was in rough shape, literally falling apart at the gunnels and transom. Appropriately I found an early 50's Evinrude 9.8 outboard to power it. The motor was green art deco styled like the one in the image -- it coughed and sputtered but it ran and the boat planed with it. It had one of those 2-stroke coughs every few seconds, even at speed, and it shook and coughed like crazy at idle. But it ran for several years before I sold the package to some poor guy at the boatyard who ran it several more before it went on fire at the dock. I don't know how a 12-foot open boat catches fire all by itself. Maybe it was a case of insurance fraud? (I never thought very highly of that guy.)

[Delancey]

Hating on a Sunfish?

Very sad. Maybe you just weren't sailing it the right way. Need to be careful not to pinch. Need to watch the luff of the sail and keep it on the edge.

Making a drink holder out of snow helps too.

[UNCIVILIZED]

How do I answer if I've only had one boat?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

I've never had a bad boat, but I've sailed some. High on my stinker list are the CT41 and Pearson 365 ketch.

. . .

The Pearson belonged to a friend, who wanted to sail the South Pacific. We took it out on SF bay and were never able to tack it without turning on the motor. He got as far as Tahiti and sold it.. . . .

Ha, ha. I have some experience myself with those Pearsons. The sloop version sails better than the ketch, but it's still a pig. We used it basically as a motor sailer (it had an excellent 4-108), and only sailed it on a reach.

Had other virtues, though -- very pretty, very solidly built, separate shower, nice nav table.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

How do I answer if I've only had one boat?

Should make it easier to narrow down.


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[Hudson Force]

The worst boat I ever owned was fine until I started redesigning it. About forty years ago I acquired a very nice little six foot rowing dinghy, but thought that it was too small for my needs. At this same time I had found an unopened plastic bag containing a large roll of woven roving fiberglass cloth floating in the river.

I was struck with a bad idea and poor skills! I cut the six foot dinghy athwartship and tacked a small frame of stringers spanning a two foot distance where I positioned the two halves on saw horses.

While I was laying up my cloth and resin my dinghy halves and frame fell to the ground!

As I was not expecting to find another bundle of fiberglass cloth floating in the river, I decided to lift the mess back into a semblance of it's intended shape. I ended up with a very ugly eight foot dinghy with a mid-section of wrinkles and crannies.

One Summer a couple years later this dinghy was left in the water with a large amount of filamentous algae growing in the wrinkled span. I watched a pair of manatees chew on this algae until they cracked through and my ugly dinghy sunk.

This boat, maybe the only one ever sunk by manatees, then went to the dump.