Refitting that old bargain boat....

[Cheechako]

the plan......

[cabo_sailor]

That would be funnier if it wasn't so true. 😩


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[micah719]

[rognvald]

Cheech,
The best person to refit that "old bargain boat" is someone who has refitted many boats in the past. The sad reality becomes apparent when an unskilled/unknowledgeable owner buys the "steal" that is beyond his time and abilities. Boatyards are full of these gems that have had a string of multiple owners and never made it out of the yard. Even on well maintained boats, maintenance, at times, seems overwhelming. I don't know how someone could own a sailboat that didn't really love to sail . . . what's the point? Good luck and good sailing. P.S. Cute cartoon.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by rognvald

Cheech,
The best person to refit that "old bargain boat" is someone who has refitted many boats in the past. The sad reality becomes apparent when an unskilled/unknowledgeable owner buys the "steal" that is beyond his time and abilities. Boatyards are full of these gems that have had a string of multiple owners and never made it out of the yard. Even on well maintained boats, maintenance, at times, seems overwhelming. I don't know how someone could own a sailboat that didn't really love to sail . . . what's the point? Good luck and good sailing. P.S. Cute cartoon.

Yeah, experience does help. But I've been amazed at the things that have popped up as problems on boats I've bought.
That cartoon should have probably said :
"your plan"
"Murphy's plan"

[SV THIRD DAY]

Probably one of the biggest myths in the boating and cruising world is the plan of buying a boat that as the ad says, just needs a little "TLC" on the cheap. Once you price out all the new gear and labor costs....you are usually much better off to buy a boat with all of that work and gear already done.

[Clamdigger]

Don't I know that cartoon too well! What looked like a 'free boat' that needed a good bath turned out to be a sideshow wreck in the forest! "Oh, ALL I have to do is clear the cockpit of those SAPLINGS GROWING IN IT, then SHOVEL OUT THE FOOT OF COMPOSTED SOIL THAT ACCUMULATED FROM 15 YEARS OF VEGETATION ROTTING IN IT" Wait, it gets better! Satisfied that was the worst of it I drilled out the hasp and finally made entrance into AN AQUATIC CAVE!! The whole interior of the boat had a few FEET of standing water just below the windows (maybe THAT'S why it looked so dark trying to peer in the windows?!?!).3 weeks later still trying to decide what's really salvagable, lots of cast crap that snapped off with only 1 bolt to remove UGH! So far only mast and boom and minor ss parts *seem* worthwhile. Time it costs to remove crap is better spent working a paying job and buying the dang parts IME. If the boat's not sailing and has no interior water damage I'm not even looking at it from here on out! LOL! At least this thread let me laugh at myself for falling for a *free boat*, oh but it has a *free* trailer (with flat 17 year old tires and a #$@(!&^%$# YELLOWJACKET NEST RIGHT UNDER THE DANG WINCH!!! DULY NOTED! YIKES IS RIGHT!

[FamilyVan]

I consider my boat to be old, simple but reasonably well maintained. Some times I feel more like a helicopter owner than a sailboat owner. The ratio is often 1 week end of maintenance to 1 week end of sailing.

I do believe she's better off than when I bought her though.

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[darylat8750]

There should be a couple of pits of quick sand along that route. I bought a boat "cruise ready". It took me 2 years before I would trust it to cross the Gulf of Mex.

[Greenhand]

We put offers in on a couple of boats that clearly needed extensive work. In the end, they weren't budging on price and we weren't willing to pay that much for the projects involved (pretty sure a wooden mast had termites, for example).

We ended up with a boat that looked great, came through the inspection pretty well, and still keeps us busy working more than sailing. I cannot imagine my own state of mind at this point if we had bought one of the other boats with even more extensive projects.

[Cheechako]

Yeah, seems like when I buy the best example I can find in my budget I still end up with a Project boat!

[salticrak]

Not an old boat,nor free. But this past week i discovered that water had entered my mast,swelling and splitting the fibre glass sheathing, a tell tale sign theres moisture around.The area affected is 20 mm long a 50mm wide.A small area really.

But the job to repair the mast that I built took the best part of two days.

[Badsanta]

Yeah, no such thing as a free boat.

[DSDman]

All logic aside, I'm forever intrigued by the diamond in the rough!

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[Terra Nova]

Somewhere in our decision making process we asked ourselves if all the work the boat needed would be worth the effort, and if we would be up to the challenge. And our answer was: "No problem."