What not to do

[St Anna]

As Siamese says, but I think you do seem to get 'luckier' the more experience you have on the water/ in boats etc. You dont make the same mistakes, you find new ones aka challenges to get over.

I think you either 'effectively' rebuild an old boat and you really know the boat, or you buy one ready to go (all fixed).

Either way, a boat is a boat! Cost and maintenance exponentionally proportional to the lwl.

Welcome to the worldwide club of yachty's

[mdharnois]

Sounds like the story of my life.

Of course, to buy a boat ready-to-sail is wonderful if one has the money to do so. Don Casey's book sells zillions of copies not because all of us want to spend hours of toil in fixing up a boat instead of sailing it...it's because we face the choice between that and no boat at all. After four months, I finally have almost all of the leaks (above the waterline, thank you) repaired on the 1977 O'Day 37 that we call home, thanks to Don Casey and West System...yes, and West Marine. I have mixed feelings about dissing on West. Yes, there are less expensive places to shop...there's also much worse customer service out there. I drove down to Defender's outlet store a couple of months ago, and it was a really unpleasant experience. I can get what I need from West right now. And they will price match.

[mdharnois]

But no matter where you shop, it's still going to stand for

Break
Out
Another
Thousand.

[tager]

Can't argue with price matching, I use it all the time. They will even match internet prices to some extent.