Cal 28 Refit?

[perrysplus]

So, I have been walking the docs for over a year now at the local marina and there is a Cal 28 down there that hasn't moved for a long time. Boat doesn't look like a 1969 model, so I am guessing a mid 80s boat? Anyways, there is moss growing on the top of the boat along the rails and the marina will not let me go onboard the boat (for obvious reasons). I did ask them to contact the owner and find out what their plans are for the boat. The marina thinks the owner died and the wife or kids of the original owner is paying the $250 a month marina fee. Anyways, I told them anything more than free is probably too much for the boat. So, assuming I can get it for free, do you guys think it will be worth a refit?
I really don't have a desire to gut the boat on the inside if there is water inside. Difficult to tell if there is water in there but the windows are completely glossed over so that leads me to think there is moisture inside the boat. Such a shame to see a boat like this going to waste.

Thoughts?

[CoolBeans]

Short answer?

No. . .

Long answer?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Now, that isn't saying you could have stumbled onto that 1 in a million "free" boat that just needs a scrub and you find thousands in well kept upgrades with a new engine and new sails still in bags in a berth with new cushions still in plastic and can become apart of internet legend

The more realistic outcome is you're going to spend hundreds if not thousands of hours and thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars resurrecting a derelict. I know several people at my old marina in "free" to nearly "free" boats that they gave up on and have turned them into weekend gin palaces. I do know of one guy in a $1500 37' sailboat boat that does use it, but it is a coast guard catastrophe waiting to happen.

I used to tell people that "if you have the time and money and love doing the work, go for it!" In all my years of watching rebuilds and refits and talking with people that like talking about the work they are doing on their boat (hell, even I fall into this category with my unfinished Ranger33 up for sale), none of them have ever finished them and they end up getting dumped.

I'm not cynical, I swear