Info on this yacht

[Jp Nomad]

Hi all we are currently in the market.
And wondering if anyone knows any history or other details on this yacht or any other thoughts advice

https://au.yachtworld.com/yacht/1974-custom-70-7905372/

Many thxs

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Jp.

[HankOnthewater]

Very nice boat. It is also for sale here with different broker:
https://yachthub.com/list/yachts-for...g-ketch/251326

Being built in timber, it requires a lot more maintenance than most other materials. The blurb on-line explains some maintenance or replacements needs to be done. Carpentry skills also required.

If you need or want a boat this size and this looks.... go for it. Otherwise there are smaller boats that require less work and less money , ie 45 to 50 ft, and these 'smaller' boats are often still big enough for most purposes.

The electronics are pretty ancient, but if all working, should be OK, otherwise all needs updating or replacing.
When enquiring, ask the broker if the photos are recent.

[Jp Nomad]

Cheers for the feedback

I would prefer a glass boat
I like the look of the boat and we are chasing one around this size.

This one says it has been epoxy glassed?
I will get in contact with the broker

[boatman61]

Epoxy glassed from new okay..
Glass sheathing years after launch bad..

[HankOnthewater]

Yes, Boatman61 is right about glass or epoxy sheeting. I can be seldom done successfully afterwards (ie on old ply or timber)

[Jp Nomad]

I talked to the broker it was glassed when built
It has glass on the outside and some areas are glassed on the inside (maybe all below water line) the rest is epoxy coated.

You can see lumps and divets in the topsides from the rivets?
Worse at the bow

[Adelie]

Welcome.

I would suggest updating your profile with your general location and your boat make & model or “Looking” in the "Boat" category. This info shows up under your UserName in every post in the web view. Many questions are boat and/or location dependent and having these tidbits under your UserName saves answering those questions repeatedly. If you need help setting up your profile then click on this link: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3308797

I would happily help more if the link above is not enough.

[Scorpius]

A seventy foot, fifty year old wooden boat?
1. That's huge! Hopefully you are a VERY experienced sailor. I have 50 years experience and I'd be hesitant to take her out. And sailing her? The sails will be MASSIVE, the forces MASSIVE! The smallest mistake could be fatal - literally. If this is your first boat (and somehow I suspect it would be), IMHO it will be much too much to handle.
2. Hopefully you are an experienced shipwright who just LOVES to work on old wooden boats. GRP (fibreglass) over wood, even if applied at new construction, will eventually kill the boat. Water will get in somewhere and spread. The wood can't breathe and you have an anaerobic environment - perfect for those little rot fungi to do their thing. There are several thousand old Chris-Crafts dead and dying in yards around the world as testament to the foolishness of putting glass over wood - even during construction. Those bulges you are seeing indicate severe rust or rot under the glass at that location: a nightmare to cure.

I wouldn't touch this boat. The low price for such a large yacht is a red warning flag. It will only attract the ignorant. Stay away!

If you are new to this game, start much, much smaller.

[roverhi]

If the boat is typical cold molded wood construction it is essentially epoxy encased wood that doesn't suffer from the usual rot problems of wood construction. Depends on what the quality of construction was when it was built. Fiber glassing plank on edge construction is recipe for disaster as the movement of the planks will break the bond with the glass and allow water to saturate the wood. Cold moulded and strip planked hulls can be fiber glassed though it's typically during construction not after the boat has been painted.

[RiverRat37]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

If you are new to this game, start much, much smaller.

Listen to Scorpius. His only error with his warning was in not repeating "much" a few more times! And not using BOLD type.
The cost of upkeep on this yacht requires a bottomless pit of money (with the emphasis on "bottomless").

[billgewater]

Yes. A possible nightmare. But it does really look spiffy. I could not even afford the cabin door, let alone the saloon sole.

It is a possible tragedy in the making but its resurrection probably needs a gang of well heeled craftsmen with lots of time on their hands.

Definitely not for the amateur.

[JPA Cate]

If the hull is really got pimples, that is very odd for the type of construction, and I would really want to know what on earth was going on there. Modern composite construction is fine, doesn't worry me, generally-- we have a somewhat similar construction ourselves, except ours is strip planked rather than three diagonal. However, when the broker's ad advises timber skills, that is a real warning. It is easy to give a boat a fresh paint job for 25,000 AUD, and then try and sell it for 200k. You'd be buying some cans of paint, in a way.

It needs a survey by someone who really knows timber constructed boats, or I wouldn't touch it. It does have an interesting history, so I would think the original construction was excellent. But, and it's a big but, it was a long time ago, and it needs only one owner to have not added stuff right, and you could have major problems.

If you really want to buy her, be willing to be taught how to do things (for which you may have to pay), and to spend a lot of time on maintenance. It is beautiful, and spacious, with plenty of room for four, and as the person just before me wrote, it is not a boat for a newbie. She'll be a handful, berthing will be dear (one pays by the foot or the meter) and she may be difficult to insure. Most marinas in Australia require you to have insurance before they will be content to haul you out.

Ann

PS. All you really need for a circumnavigation is charts, a depth sounder and a VHF, friends of ours did it; but they also had some years of seamanship before they took off. Personally, I'd add GPS capability and AIS. Radar, too.

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Modern composite construction is fine, doesn't worry me, generally--
It needs a survey by someone who really knows timber constructed boats, or I wouldn't touch it.

Ann

Amen for both points.
I would perhaps want to know more about the engineering behind the keel and rudder.
The underbody isn't all that different from a Soling, on a boat that size the stresses on a short-deep fin and, (what looks like,) an ~9' deep spade have got to be incredible.
Being thrown across that saloon might be fun.
A 74' boat with a little round sink stuck out on the end of a counter?
Who ITH designed that?

[JPA Cate]

Well, our boat also looks a lot like an overgrown dinghy, too, except our rudder is on a structural skeg. Roughly 50-75000 n. mi. in her, mostly at sea, and the motion doesn't bother me. [She is lively at anchor.] I think any time you want a boat that will sail well in light airs, you're looking at lighter weight, easily driven hull shape, and a tallish mast for the sail area. And it's a kick seeing who you can pass that are bigger and fancier and more expensive than your boat.

Sea kindliness isn't just a full keel hull shape. It is the whole of the boat's motion at sea. If I can sleep, I'm happy. What you're looking at is a custom built boat built for a wealthy patron, I'm sure it was really state of the art when it was built. Fancy electronics are so not my thing! so I'd use what she had that worked and not worry about modernity, more to just replace with good quality when what she has fails.

But where the broker suggests that timber working skills might be necessary, it makes me wonder if it is anything serious that needs help, bearing in mind that I would not try to change her basic character. Once one has owned a timber boat, one becomes aware they really are different, they sort of have a "soul", and they ask different things of an owner. They are not for the remodel-with-a-crowbar kind of folks.

Ann