Where Dreams Go To Die

[redhead]

I hate seeing this.

Three or four times a year we see these boats lined up at our dock waiting for demolition. They were abandoned, the port tried to auction them and now they are going to the wrecking yard. When boats are abandoned, the port tries to auction them off, if there are no buyers they get junked.

One of them, a 1980 Hardin 45 was owned by an older man who had lots of dreams but neither the skills, the money or the patience to fix her up. When he died he left a dozens of half finished projects - the SSB is disassembled and scattered all over, engine parts laying all over. Boxes and boxes of parts.

When someone writes here on CF and says "I want to sail around the world, how do I start?" Part of me wants to encourage them and part of me wants to show them these pictures. I don't know what makes one person dream and do it and another just dream and futz around but I know these boats deserve better.

Rant over - it just pisses me off.

[redhead]

Sorry, I got so worked up I forgot to post the pictures

[HeinSdL]

[QUOTE=redhead;3389517]Sorry, I got so worked up I forgot to post the picturesAttachment 236689[QUOTE]


Nothing a bit of polish won't fix


Edit: that picture did not get posted again. I refer to the boat just needing some polish.

[xxxxx]

I'm doing this right now. I think people get overwhelmed.


I would expect it's even more true of people who have never worked in construction/trades. You need to be able to visualize the project and how it has to all come together.


It's a grind.

[redhead]

Originally Posted by xxxxx

I'm doing this right now. I think people get overwhelmed.


I would expect it's even more true of people who have never worked in construction/trades. You need to be able to visualize the project and how it has to all come together.


It's a grind.

I agree and I salute you for doing it. I know just how hard it is.

We bought this old boat that hadn't been taken care of for decades. It's six years later and still lots to do, but it's not longer stuff that'll sink the boat, now it's roller furlers or a sew a new bimini or learn how to reupholster.

My point is, these boats don't benefit from someone who dreams of martinis on the deck but they don't have the vaguest idea of how to bring a boat back to life. I just hate to see these poor old boats suffer because there are no plans, no money, no skills.

Good luck in your project - after six years in I think it's worth it.

[sailingabe41ds]

On a similar note....
A few years ago I remember the first and only time a big tow truck dragged out a 30 something abandoned sailboat out of the water with the hull screeching on the concrete ramp. I thought, that boat was once proudly built by someone in a factory and helped provide food for his family. The owner was so happy to have her as he sailed with his wife and kids during the weekend making them closer as a family. The boat changed hands a few times till one day it just became a scrap of fiberglass not worthy of maintenance nor of providing a slip for her comfort. That boat once had a name, maybe two or three...now not even a name it has.
It was so heart breaking to see this boat meet its end. To me it was once a living thing and now not even a soul to remember her nor to say goodbye, except for romantic me who's mind just gets carried away sometimes.
And so another dream dies....along with the shared memories.

Abe

[redhead]

Originally Posted by sailingabe41ds

On a similar note....
A few years ago I remember the first and only time a big tow truck dragged out a 30 something abandoned sailboat out of the water with the hull screeching on the concrete ramp. I thought, that boat was once proudly built by someone in a factory and helped provide food for his family. The owner was so happy to have her as he sailed with his wife and kids during the weekend making them closer as a family. The boat changed hands a few times till one day it just became a scrap of fiberglass not worthy of maintenance nor of providing a slip for her comfort. That boat once had a name, maybe two or three...now not even a name it has.
It was so heart breaking to see this boat meet its end. To me it was once a living thing and now not even a soul to remember her nor to say goodbye, except for romantic me who's mind just gets carried away sometimes.
And so another dream dies....along with the shared memories.

Abe

Exactly. You said so well what I was trying to say.

[HankOnthewater]

Redhead, thank you for the sad observation. It is so true, and we see it too often. The owners get ambition and capability mixed up, or sometimes just health issues become overwhelming.
Either way, it is sad. And yes, we should show the newcomers to boats the road to their dreams, and that road is not always straight and wide, and that road has many forks in it, and many of those roads do not end up in dreamland.

Having said all that, I know also of others who have been working on their project for years, and know in their hearts that their boat will never take them out to sea, however at the same time, it gives them a purpose, and gives them pleasure to mess with with boats, albeit on land.

[Uncle Bob]

If I may be so bold, the dreams and memories are long dead, what remains is the carcass, and like all expired carcasses should be removed and not left to rot and decay.
Look forward, not back at long dead dreams.

[xxxxx]

Originally Posted by redhead

My point is, these boats don't benefit from someone who dreams of martinis on the deck but they don't have the vaguest idea of how to bring a boat back to life. I just hate to see these poor old boats suffer because there are no plans, no money, no skills.

Good luck in your project - after six years in I think it's worth it.

I agree and thank you. We're at the 14 months mark, but a lot of that was lost to COVID.

Originally Posted by sailingabe41ds

On a similar note....
A few years ago I remember the first and only time a big tow truck dragged out a 30 something abandoned sailboat out of the water with the hull screeching on the concrete ramp. I thought, that boat was once proudly built by someone in a factory and helped provide food for his family. The owner was so happy to have her as he sailed with his wife and kids during the weekend making them closer as a family. The boat changed hands a few times till one day it just became a scrap of fiberglass not worthy of maintenance nor of providing a slip for her comfort. That boat once had a name, maybe two or three...now not even a name it has.
It was so heart breaking to see this boat meet its end. To me it was once a living thing and now not even a soul to remember her nor to say goodbye, except for romantic me who's mind just gets carried away sometimes.
And so another dream dies....along with the shared memories.

Abe

That's how I feel about them too. That's why I chose to refit an old boat instead of buying one ready to go. First, the "revival" is a nice notion to me. Second, there's no better way to thoroughly get to know your boat. The boat has a history... a life.


I like to know who owned it beforehand. The man I bought it from was in his 90s, and has since passed on.

Life is not a sprint, nor an endurance run. It's a relay.

In the boxes of boat gear, there was an old VHS tape of Jean-du-Sud. A JDS-like trip is one of my goal, and it's one of the reasons I chose an A30. It's clear the Previous Owner Owner at least found the idea interesting. I hope by refitting this boat and doing my best to accomplish the JDS goal, it is a sort of "nod" to the previous owner. A passing of the torch, so to speak.

My opinion is that when people refit these boats, they should let go of any fantasy of a perfect show-room boat. For me, clean, safe and functional is enough.

[Ninedotsix]

Yes, indeed - clean safe and functional.
At 17 years in on a “project boat”, the tasks have evolved time, and beginning to reach some “redo” work.
All gratifying for me, but most people wouldn’t spend days on end doing in frame engine rebuild, or every other weekend for a whole winter on the gravel of a boatyard fixing latent defects in the hull from the molding 45 years prior. More recently, it was 18 months in the yard for glassing and repainting the hull. All of this is to say that some things just wouldn’t be done by most people and no money to pay a yard to do it for them.
Looking forward to sailing over the next few months, and having only missed 24 months out of the last 17 years can say it’s been worth it to me, and I hope to keep on.
No need to start over on another boat, no need to calculate relative values.
A friend I sailed with who was a Naval Academy grad and competitive sailor, now picking stocks fir hedge fund managers once proclaimed to me while gesturing at the dock queens at a nice marina “Just look at all this money invested....”, to which I quickly replied - “it’s not invested, it’s spent...never coming back”
Just like my sore knees and all, I’ll not get any payback, except for the satisfaction of keeping on....
Cheers

[Mithril Bham]

In the PNW it's hard to find a yard that will allow you to do much of the needed work and paying for it to be done professionally is cost prohibitive.
All things die, even boats. The cycle of life. Sad but true.

[Rubicon King]

Looking at these pictures, I now have the theme song of Sanford amd son playing on a loop in my head. Thx. LOL

Originally Posted by redhead

Sorry, I got so worked up I forgot to post the picturesAttachment 236689Attachment 236690

[joelhemington]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

If I may be so bold, the dreams and memories are long dead, what remains is the carcass, and like all expired carcasses should be removed and not left to rot and decay.
Look forward, not back at long dead dreams.

Not bold at all. Maybe with a few less derelict boats clogging up the limited harbor space, the rest of us could find a place to park - so we'd have something to take our kids sailing on and guys could make a living building new boats We all know how these stories begin. Somebody gets a burr under their saddle to restore a boat without any good knowledge of how much money and time it really takes. Municipalities that have a similar problems with down trodden real estate offer investors tax incentives to clean up those properties. Scraping a fiberglass hull could not be cheap - their dollars could be better spent promoting the refurbishment of these boats with incentives conditional on not simply taking the boat offshore and pulling the plug.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Mithril Bham

...
All things die, even boats. The cycle of life. Sad but true.

Exactly.

At least the boats in questions were being disposed of properly. Unlike so many, too many.

Where we are sailing, there are a few boats that have been beached and just rotting away. One is an old trawler but another is/was a beautiful ketch. They have been there for years and they should have been removed years ago.

There are at least three boats in the marina that are someone's dying dream. I know one of them is owned by a man in poor health. He really should sell the boat but I am not sure he can even give it away.

One of the boats has had the jib and main tied up with sheets for years and the sails, sheets, and sail covers are all moldy. One of the boats had green growth of the decks that was an inch or so high though that did get cleaned up last year. The dock lines have not been check in who knows how long.

If it is so bad on the outside, I wonder what horror show is happening down below.

It really is sad.

There is a You Store It Yard near us, and we are hours from the ocean, where a 36-40 foot sailboat was brought in and store many years ago. I used to see a guy working on the boat but I have not seen him in years. Granted, I don't drive by much because of the pandemic, and he could be working down below, but I just never see anything change. At least the boat is not rotting in the water.

I think many people have the dream, but the dream dies from reality, the owner does not want to face that reality and selling the boat would be a recognition of the death of the dream. By the time reality is realized, the boat has degraded to a point where it is not financially reasonable to resurrect the boat...

Later,
Dan