Gear Reccomendations

[sailingdog]

Be aware that most of the recommendations of Sailormann's while very good, are very expensive... just price a Baby Blake's marine head... you can buy five or six Raritan PHII/PHCs for the price of one Baby Blakes IIRC.

[jason3317]

Dude...you already have a signed agreement, so this is more soapbox than advice....

You know that by time you get done with these projects, you've have invested 2x what you paid for this boat. 1x for boat + 1x for 'projects' = 2x.

You will NOT get this 2x investment back, so I hope you are doing this for love.

I am all for 'upgrades', and I am guilty of some additions that made me happy, rather than necessary....but I just can't help but feel you are going down a slippery slope here.

If you had doubled your boat purchase budget, it's possible you could have found a larger boat with more load capacity in similar condition, that already had most of the amenities you are planning (head, roller furling, canvas, proper 12VDC system and capacity and, maybe, a chartplotter/GPS).

I'd add that you will probably need to plan for a new bottom job cause you're going to need to raise the waterline once you get all that stuff on board.

Either way, good luck, ANY sailboat is better than NO boat....

[DropTop]

Originally Posted by jason3317

You know that by time you get done with these projects, you've have invested 2x what you paid for this boat. 1x for boat + 1x for 'projects' = 2x.

You will NOT get this 2x investment back, so I hope you are doing this for love.

I actually expected that going into this boat, and I did look at boats that were double the purchase price of this boat (my original purchase budget), and you're correct, I was able to fine ones between 100% and 115% more expensive that had all of the options and gear I wanted. Those boats were older, some just a year, others 10 years older, and much or boat of the gear was ageing. The boats all still needed something, and were starting to really show their age (gelcoat has no shine left, evidence of 20-30 years of maintenance and equipment upgrades etc... Most, if not all of the "pre-rigged" boats I found had at one point in their history a survey showing moisture somewhere in the deck or hull that needed attention. Sails were often past their prime, etc..

The owner of this boat needed to sell badly (I beleive he's lost his job, and moved to Florida to live with family, so I got a VERY good price given the condition of this boat), he was the original owner, and had spent a fortune on having her professionally maintained for him since she was new. The sails are still like new and the hull both inside and out is in immaculate condition (save a coat of hard bottom paint that was applied over a old coat of ablative paint that had a few areas that hadn't been properly cleaned, and therefore has flaked off in spots.)

To make a long story short, this boat looks practically still new in most aspects, and I got it for half the price of nicley outifted older boats that weren't in half the condition she is in.

I don't expect to get out what I put in her in equipment, but I beleive that after i have her properly outfitted I should be able to get 150-175% of my original purchase price if I was to sell her in a year or two (which I don't expect I will, but who knows what things will be like in the coming years). Yes I'm going to take a hit on the eventual sale price, but it won't be huge, and I'll have had plenty of use out of her, and lots of fun outfitting her the way I want until then.