| Anjou,
My two cents worth. I have a William Garden Ketch 43 foot . The hull was laid up by a yard that went defunked while building it called Duncan Marine but the original owner bought the hull and fitted it out in a container port in Taiwan in Dec of 1980. And yes she has had all the problems that people talk about with the Formosas. But after 22 years I still love her to bits and I have lived on her all of that time. The guy I bought her from was single handing her and I have done most of my sailing two handing though when we race we take more (yes we can race the old girl so she does sail). I two handed across the Indian Ocean and back, as most people will tell you that two handing means you need to be set up for single handing and with an auto pilot I think she is. Probably even with out an auto pilot but wouldn’t really want to try. She is a drama bringing in and out of the marina (we warp out) so that’s when I really like having a second person to handle the warping line. But she can be handled by yourself. I do recommend you get some practice with some mates and bumpers first! My biggest gripe with the boat was with the deck. They used a sandwich of fiberglass plywood and fiberglass and laid the teak on top with screws. The plywood rotted and caused rot in all the stringers and Sheer Strake. Those all needed replacing. She now has a solid fiberglass deck with the teak on that. Another thing to watch is you said she has wooden masts. They are pretty and hold up well when things go wrong we parted a main shroud with everything up leaving Africa and the mast just bent slightly while we quick gybed around to take the strain on the other shroud to drop sail. But they are prone to dry rot. I had to pull them every couple of years and scarf in a new piece. Finally one year after a quick fix before heading out to the islands I had to head up to the top of the mast to sort out the halyards while under sail. The bosun’s chair broke and no safety line (you get complacent when you are up the masts every two months varnishing and that darn safety line keeps hitting the varnish). Anyway that told me to order new aluminium masts which we did to a slightly bigger size and now she even goes forward in a 4 know breeze.
The point of all this is. I still love the boat though I have sunk my fortunes into her more than a few times. I have friends that keep buying and trading boats cause they do this or that better or now it is time for a bigger boat etc but in reality they always griped about what their boat wasn’t from the start. If you love something you will stick with it, and still appreciate it after 22 years and laugh about the pains she causes. I do recommend that you take anything you buy out for a test drive and I would mean more than just once around the harbour. Try sailing on all tacks raise lower and anchor and be on board for docking in and out to see how she handles.
Far too long of post but cheers.
Mark
PS I always use a safety line now when going aloft |