Allied Mistress that needs a keel

[pvemp]

Hi everyone! There is an Allied Mistress available not too far from me that seems to have an interesting story. I think when the company shut down someone got a steal on an incomplete boat and it has passed to atleast two different owners without being completed. It supposedly has a new 50hp engine that is worth more than they are asking for everything.

Is it even practical to try and get a keel made for her? This would definitely be a long term project, but an interesting one. The Allied Mistress seems like a great boat.

-Shaun

[blt2ski]

How much time and effort do you want to put into it? y stepdad has been working on a boat for over 30 yrs, thought it would finally get into the water this year.......but, alas, it is not to be, due to being in his mid 80's, 2nd hip surgery in a year, along with a few other setbacks. I truly hope we get to see him sailing his boat at some point in time.

But I have to admit, building boats are fun from experience, just add about double the actual time you think it will take. If done right, you have something like Giulletta from the crazy pourtegues's point of view, altho his was very $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Is it worth it? Only you can answer that!

Altho, talking to a place that can make a keel is a good start, then how much it would cost to finish the interior, buy the mast, rigging etc if it does not have anything etc.

Marty

[BlueWaterMD]

You have to really think about the price of finishing out a boat like this. We often think of a boat as a hull, deck, keel, and mast. But there is so much more involved. Take a look at the NorSea website. They sell their boats in kits all the way from hull only to completely finished boats (price list online). While it is a completely different boat, you might get an idea how much extra it is to finish out a boat even once you have the hull and engine.

[capttb]

You could check with Marskeels, but this boat has already crushed the finances, time and will of two others and still don't have a keel.
MarsKeel - Technology

[sailingdog]

The Allied Mistress is a pretty good boat... this isn't an Allied Mistress. It is part of an Allied Mistress and probably going to cost you more to refurbish than buying an Allied Mistress in good condition would have cost to begin with.

As others have pointed out, two others have bought this boat, and failed to complete. Does it have a mast, standing rigging, sails? Is the interior complete or does it need to be built?? Does the boat have all the systems in place—electrical, plumbing, fuel, propane, etc—or is it just a shell?

How many years of work will this take you to complete, and can you afford the storage costs of having the boat on the hard where ever you will be working on it??

[T34C]

Dog- has the right idea, and the right questions. If this boat only needs a keel then you should be able to get it done reasonably easy. If it needs more parts/work then you have a lot of homework to do before making that decision.

[gc1111]

I have known a couple of people that have built cruising boats from "kits". Their consensus is that you do this only if you enjoy boat building. It will not save you any money and certainly cost a lot of time. But if you enjoy boat building or working on boats, then go for it.

[Allanbc]

It sounds like it might be cheaper to find an Allied Mistress that needs a new hull and then do a major transplant.

(I like Allied boats.)

[pvemp]

Thanks for all the responses guys. It is all great information. It may be too large of a project to take on but looking at MarsKeel's site it looks like it is atleast possible. I have much more research to do! If I do end up purchasing it I will post the details.

Thanks again!

[pvemp]

After taking a closer look at the boat, this is definitely not the project for me. Every bit of work on her has been done wrong. She needs to be stripped back down to a bare hull and started from scratch. An example of this is vinyl siding used as a liner.

If someone wants to build their own boat on a bare Allied Mistress hull this is for you, but not for anyone else!