Quote:
Originally Posted by brookiesailor
Thanks all. Still thinking on this one. As we are a long way from home we would have to hire out the deck refit. I have been given a quote of $1000 a linear foot, which is about what I figured. I wait on a quote for sails.
Hubby is an amazing guy. Besides growing up on a farm, his hobby is wood working, where he builds and repairs furniture. He is also a ships engineer so a really handy guy to have around a boat. He is constantly in motion.
The timeline would fit our scedule as we need two years to be ready to do some sailing. (Mostly to weed through the waiting time for a slip). The boat currently resides a couple hours from my inlaws on the hard. I would leave it there until the decks are done. Then move it south to our us home.
It is still just a thought so input is appreciated.
Brooke
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I have refitted several boats of my own and refurbished/repaired some
auction boats I picked up to flip and know the amount of work required. In my earlier life I've restored older
classic cars/motorcycles and built custom hot rods and motorcycles. All those experiences added to my skill set which made refurbing boats a natural progression, like your husband I'm a perpetual motion machine, oh, did I mention I've held full time careers and refurbed/rebuilt older rental properties to pay for it all?
But, in reality there are some jobs that you need to think about before
diving in.
What is your present skill set?
Do you have enough raw experience to learn along the way and refine your abilities?
What kind of free time do you have? Anything you redo on a boat will take 4-5 times as long as you thought it would if you've never done it before.
Have you ever taken on a large
project like this? If so, did you finish it or did it linger until you felt it was "good enough" and then let it die?
You can't do projects on a cruising boat that are done to a just "good enough" level, your life depends on it. If the boat won't float your going to have a bad day.
The
current boat I have is being fitted out to do
extended cruising, it too has teak decks over
fiberglass (not sure what Hans Christians have though) which need to be replaced. In my case I've decided to remove them and resurface the
fiberglass deck then put on non-skid, in the long run it is a better alternative. Even though I love the look and feel of teak decks even if I seal the decks and bond the teak to the deck instead of screwing it down there will still be a fair amount of
maintenance involved with having them.
If you decide to
refurb a boat there is a plus side to it.
You will know that all the work was done right, even if you did have to do it twice.
You will still be way under the cost of paying someone else to do a half baked job, even if you have to do it twice.
You will understand and be able to service/fix/ troubleshoot/ jury rig just about every system and part on your boat without needing a paid "expert" to do it for you.
Something to consider if you decide to travel to those far off destinations, self reliance can add a certain amount of confidence in your decisions.
Nothing has ticked me off worse than paying some "expert" to do a job that I had to then do over myself because they did it half-assed.
It's a true commitment of time and money, at sometimes it can seem like an obsession, but it takes a pretty dedicated commitment to
refurb a boat if you want to finish it. Finish being the key word here, I've picked up many cars, motorcycles and boats which were 75% done but never got finished by the original owner for a fraction of the cost they had into them.
Those have been some of the most profitable purchases I've made, they did most of the dirty work, bought all new
equipment then given up the ghost when their level of commitment didn't match their ambitious plans. Of course it's kept me on the
water in nice, newly fitted out boats at a fraction of the cost most people incur.
I've found the work to become a zen thing, when you've finished you have something to show for it that is rewarding, unlike most of the work we do in the modern world.
All depends on how you look at it.