Good Morning friends

[coppertop]

Good Morning friends,
I'm new to this forum and a novice sailor. I'm looking at an Islander Freeport 41 as my next boat. Sounds crazy? Probably, but there it is. I'm interested to hear anything good or bad about the boat and looking for a good surveyor in the Ventura Ca area.

[Training Wheels]

Surveyor: Mike Pyzel!

[coppertop]

Thanks for the suggestion Training wheels

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, coppertop.

[coppertop]

Thanks for the welcome Gordmay (gordy?) any thoughts on the Freeport?

[markwesti]

I have always liked them , a friend of mine has one . Hers has a lot of canvas (dodger , weather cloth) on it plus a rather large davit which all really complement the lines . Are you looking to live aboard , how will you use the boat ? My friend lives on hers and loves it , she even had a washer /dryer on it .

[coppertop]

My Intent is to stay busy in retirement, do some coastal cruising, keep the tanks full just in case, and maybe liveaboard if the situation calls for it.

[markwesti]

Stay busy , good one . A while back I knew a guy who had bought a sailboat for the first time , he said "well now I don't have to worry about what to do with my spare time". One cool thing about the Freeport Islander is that it lends it's self to stuff like wood shell turning blocks , wood name boards and belaying pins and all that salty stuff . Also it has enough exterior teak to keep you plenty busy .
003 by mark westi, on Flickr

[Cheechako]

The Freeports are cool. They dont sail to weather as good as many but who wants to do that? :>)
Be very careful about core problems though.

[coppertop]

Good Morning again,
I'm deep in the process of the purchase (Islander Freeport 41) getting my bank to cooperate, scheduling the survey and moisture check. I've lined up a couple of friends, one being a rated captain, to sail the beast home. The boat has radar, chartplotter, two Vhfs, an epirb, and an ais transponder. Getting quotes for insurance, sixty days of Seatow free from the brokerage. Buying a boat is a full time job. I'm starting a checklist for necessary stuff for the trip. Wow, giant run on mess of a post.

[markwesti]

Where is home ? When was the last time the Diesel tank was checked ? I ask about the Diesel because my cousin went on a delivery . The supposed "Captain" was not really a Captain and had the boat (a Westsail 32) going through Point Conception 2pm in the aftrenoon . It got pretty bad , huge swells and wind the sails ripped they started the engine but the boat had been rocking so bad all the crud in the tank got kicked up and plugged the filter . Captain called CG , they had to swim to the basket . The Westsail continued on by it's self and then a SeaTow guy came out and got it .

[coppertop]

Home is Suisun City which is east of and connected to SF Bay. Thanks to good advice from this forum and others I have arranged a survey and haulout by a really good Surveyor, Mike Pyzell. I talked to him today and researched him a little and so far like what I see and hear. I'm buying an AIS transponder and an autopilot for the trip. The PO claims the tank was just cleaned out completely, along with $6,000 worth of work on the engine. (He sent receipts)
I'm thinking Mike will sort it out. I'm super exited to get a Freeport 41, not for it's performance upwind, but because it A. Tickles the Admiral, B. Seems to have great resale value, and C. Tickles me. Next to a Formosa it's about as salty as a production boat gets. Just my humble opinion. As far as sailing ability I just wouldn't know the difference. Sad to say.

[coppertop]

Good Morning All,
It's been a pretty exhausting couple of weeks for me, and quite an education. Place not your confidence in a prior owners veracity or good nature. I bought the Freeport, went down to Ventura and started getting her ready to come home.
1. Engine wouldn't start, out of fuel.
2. 50 gallon waste tank had 55 gallons in it.
My education started with learning to speak diesel, I read up on how to prime a diesel that has run out of fuel. It says right here "turn on lift pump" I found the lift pump but there were no wires hooked to it. I found the wires tucked under a hose and hooked them back up, traced the wires and found the switch under a bunch of winch handles in the cockit. I started the lift pump and it's pumping merrily away, no evidence of leaks or malfunction. Next on the list is to bleed all the hose connections to the injector pump, did that, all good. next move is to use the plunger on the injector pump to bleed the injector pump. OK the plunger supply line is disconnected and nowhere to be found. OK drop back ten and punt. Tried to start the engine, fired right up. Then it died as soon as my finger came off the switch Rinse and repeat several times, no joy. OK back to the engine, I inspected every hose and fitting again, all good. So, we have fuel, the engine will start, but won't stay running. I dove back into the engine compartment and started doing an inch by inch inspection of the engine controls. Nice shiny new bracket for the cables but the cables were poorly aligned, ok fixing that and I found that the shutoff cable is missing a spring and possibly the throttle cable as well. Somebody had put a cable clamp around the control cable to stiffen it up i assume (it was very stiff), fixed that. Now, when I adjusted the alignment on the shutoff cable I noticed that the shutoff wasn't against the stop. O gawd, so I verified it was in the correct position, climbed back in to the cockpit, went through the engine start procedure and AHHHHH fired right up, purred like a kitten. no more hunting, fires up easy, all in all a win for Mrs Packs little boy Rich.

[Cheechako]

You must have bypassed the survey? ...and were blindfolded when YOU looked at the boat?
Anyway, glad you are getting it sorted out.
FYI , NEVER trust what the broker or owner says. I was buying a small powerboat several years ago, and many sellers said or eluded to "the engine has been rebuilt". I started pressing for answers like "receipts" etc. The answer I often got, after pressing hard, is "the guy I bought it from said his previous owner had it rebuilt"!

If you DID have a survey, ask for your money back. The main goal of a surveyor should be protect you from a bad purchase, not to note that "double clamps" are missing or "flares are out of date"!

[coppertop]

No, I wasn't blindfolded, I knew the engine needed a little help but the price was Very attractive. I had the survey done, and the surveyor recommended an engine survey be done. After the recommended engine surveyor flaked and didn't call, I made a gut call and decided to skip the engine survey, possibly a bad call, maybe for the best as my understanding of diesel systems took a quantum leap. I've also been an aircraft, auto, and finally an industrial mechanic for about forty years. I teach apprentices the fine arts of hydraulics, pneumatics, machine tools, plumbing and carpentry. I'm mostly frustrated about the conditions with the tanks, I wouldn't do that with a buyer and I assume most others wouldn't either. I didn't mention that aside from the frustration, I had a blast working on my new girl. Next I'm installing an autopilot and AIS transponder, oh and I need to rebuild both heads. That might sound like a pain to some but I enjoy making old things new again.