Just to show it really is possible to get a nice 34 foot
boat for the
price of a
family vacation, here are before and after pictures of my 1968
Cal 34. At $4300 it came with a 250 hour
Yanmar diesel, new
wiring,
radar and
chartplotter,
roller furler, good
sails, 16K BTU AC, numerous nice modifications like
Edson wheel steering and short boom conversion but was cosmetically a disaster.
After a year of
work with
advice gained from reading CF, and on the shoestringiest of budgets without any unusual expenses and only a few surprises- just loads of
epoxy,
paint and sandpaper- I have a
boat I would be willing to take anywhere and which routinely goes
offshore. Under
power it burns 0.5 gal of
diesel to go 8 miles. Also it went from being one of the ugliest boats in a 90 slip marina to one of the nicest.
I think my $400 inside and out
paint job (RustOleum
Marine Gloss) looks pretty decent especially since I painted the
hull from a
kayak. And since it isn't awlgrip I can
repair any dings myself essentially for free. After six coats, it now only takes 4 oz of $12 per quart paint and 4 oz of mineral spirits to roll and tip another coat on.
Total investment: maybe $6000 including a 290 W
solar system and new
batteries.
.
.
)
Linear Mode
Recent Discussions