need feed back on a possible boat purchase..

[john232]

My Wife and I found a Spindrift, 1984 sloop, made by Formosa building yard. The yacht is immaculately clean and well maintained. I love the lay out and the wood work is impeccable. The boat had new rigging including mast and boon replaced in 2005. This is a HEAVY displacement sloop that should be able to take a beating and keep on tickin. It should track like a train and be very forgiving, and easy on an auto pilot, This boat should "heave to" and hopefully claw its way of a lee shore, But I dont know to much about this particular boat except its got an all glass hull and is dry as a bone inside. The owner wants around 130K for the boat. I wish this boat was faster but I can't afford an Oyster or Swan. Thanks for listening.

[ehmanta]

John,
This looks like a great live-a-board, but your right....it sure won't be a fast boat!!! Since it's a 1984 and built by Formosa, you're gonna want to double and triple check the deck for water penetration. You said that it's bone dry inside, so maybe the maintenence has been kept up.
Where do you intend on sailing? Are you planning on full-time cruising? This boat wouldn't be my first choice for the Chesapeake, but if I was going to the far reaches..........

[JohnRPollard]

Do you have any definitive information on why the mast/boom/ rigging were replaced in 2005? That is a somewhat unusual maintenance upgrade for a 1984 vintage boat (my initial though on that is 2005 was a bad hurricane year.) Where is the boat located?

[CBinRI]

Originally Posted by john232

My Wife and I found a Spindrift, 1984 sloop, made by Formosa building yard. The yacht is immaculately clean and well maintained. I love the lay out and the wood work is impeccable. The boat had new rigging including mast and boon replaced in 2005. This is a HEAVY displacement sloop that should be able to take a beating and keep on tickin. It should track like a train and be very forgiving, and easy on an auto pilot, This boat should "heave to" and hopefully claw its way of a lee shore, But I dont know to much about this particular boat except its got an all glass hull and is dry as a bone inside. The owner wants around 130K for the boat. I wish this boat was faster but I can't afford an Oyster or Swan. Thanks for listening.

I am a big fan of Swans and think that you could find one in that price range or cheaper. Here's one I found on the net, with new teak decks. It's a 78, but they are built to last.

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listi...dinavianyachts&

[Moonfish]

John - I'm VERY jealous! That's the boat I want, a Spindrift 43. Is this the galley down version? I've been keeping an eye on these for about 6 years now, and I've seen them as low as $89K, and as much as $145K. Of course, those are asking prices, but the average for a Spindrift 43 in better than average condition seems to be around $120K. The predecessor to the Spindrift, the Landfall 39 (same Ron Amy design) is generally known to not be as well built, but they've ranged from $39K to $100K, with the average around $65K.

I know of a couple cruising very comfortably on a Spindrift (I think they are in the San Blas Islands now), and met another couple that has cruised theirs extensively when I was in Antigua a year and a half ago. Their beautiful Spindrift (Formosa built) had survived a hurricane bashing on the beach. You couldn't pry their boat from them...

So where is this one you've found? Is it on Yachtworld? I want to see pictures so I can live vicariously through you.

[john232]

Originally Posted by JohnRPollard

Do you have any definitive information on why the mast/boom/ rigging were replaced in 2005? That is a somewhat unusual maintenance upgrade for a 1984 vintage boat (my initial though on that is 2005 was a bad hurricane year.) Where is the boat located?

The Guy who owns the boat as of now said he hated the "in-mast furling" because it used to get stuck all tha time and he hated climbing the mast to fix it. so he had all the rigging replaced on it in 2005. The boat is located in south TX, it is listed on Yachtworld as a spindrift 43 in corpus. I was told that the hull AND deck is solid FRP.

[john232]

[quote=Moonfish;244998]John - I'm VERY jealous! That's the boat I want, a Spindrift 43. Is this the galley down version? I've been keeping an eye on these for about 6 years now, and I've seen them as low as $89K, and as much as $145K. Of course, those are asking prices, but the average for a Spindrift 43 in better than average condition seems to be around $120K. The predecessor to the Spindrift, the Landfall 39 (same Ron Amy design) is generally known to not be as well built, but they've ranged from $39K to $100K, with the average around $65K.

I know of a couple cruising very comfortably on a Spindrift (I think they are in the San Blas Islands now), and met another couple that has cruised theirs extensively when I was in Antigua a year and a half ago. Their beautiful Spindrift (Formosa built) had survived a hurricane bashing on the beach. You couldn't pry their boat from them...


So where is this one you've found? Is it on Yachtworld? I want to see pictures so I can live vicariously through you. [/quote...Yea its listed in yachtworld in TX as a Spidrift 43. This boat will be cruised everywhere. Like Europe, Greece, Spain, Through the Canal and to the South Pacific. I will be retireing in 2 months from General Motors and hope my retirement will finance my endeavers (about 3K a month) First we will move aboard and take about 3 years to pay boat completely off while doing fiberglass work and wood work on boats freelance with a friend who does diesels and rigging. I should learn alot and have some fun and hope everything works out as planned, MY WIFE IS VERY EXCITED and ready to go, She is Smart, athletic, sexy, and wants to leave yesterday I will be 50 in Feb, and she is just turnind 46. We are real blessed which I will talk about later.

[kymbie]

Did you end up buying the Spindrift?