Old boat fun means old boat work!

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by RickBarr

Ok were back, I offended him !! Were getting the boat hauled.. Told the broker the boat didn't belong on the Market it belonged in a Salvage Yard if it couldn't be hauled. I later learned the seller is an old Salty who has some health problems hence the boats non maintenance. Just holding onto the dream, I can sympathize . Seems he just wasn't up for moving it. Funny EJO mentions 5 grand that's what was offered before I made my offer and the owner flat out refused it. I offered 16 grand with a view to drop her to 10 with the Survey's punch list. Hope it works out... The bulkheads I don't mind doing in fact anything I can get done without her being on the hard I don't mind doing actually we were going to ask for some advice on good scarfing cuts that offer resistance to loadsl. Portland is bloody expensive all the do it your self yards must have beer flowing through their pressure washers and little elves that run round fixing things while your out sourcing materials, for the prices their charging I have to get that boat down river before we can work on the hull. It'll be worth it, the E 39 is often forgotten about when in the shadows of the great old IOR's but she's a contender if any of you ever sailed one you'll know what I'm on about. Not to mention flush decks are just more fun.. Thanks for all your support and advice.

Myt bet is that if you have a good surveyor, the value will drop to a lot less than $10,000...unless the offer recognizes the existing known faults, in which case you can't negotiate them when the surveyor tells what the repairs will really cost...plus more.

My bet...if you get a survey...you will never buy this boat.

[RickBarr]

You may be right, I slept on it and it might just be a waste of time having her surveyed. I guess we were being a bit over - optimistic blinded as such... I have lost out two Ericson 39's as the offers on them allways exceeded my limits. The decent ones that were on the market for `25,000 or so were allways snapped up before I could even place a bid. I just found out theres no tank for the head. I'm going to pass on this boat. Back to the search I suppose... why do people let there boats go to Sh** I'll never know. The owner lives less than two miles away from the slip. He payed month after month to keep her in the water and watched her rot. Is it so hard to get a boat on the hard and canvass her ? Ahh am getting emotional

[RickBarr]

By the way, "Sailing fool" we noticed your certified by the ASA to teach. I'm coming up on 4 years logged. We were thinking of going for the cert ourselves to start teaching here in Barbados. There has been a renewed intrest in getting the Sea Scouts Established again I want to be apart of that. A certified teacher on the Island would be a great step forward. The BSA certs aren't really recognised internationally. I hear the written test is quite the challenge. Any advice ?

[daydreamer92]

Yay, I've inspired others to save old boats.

I thought I'd stick my nose in again. Summer has been no end of "do this do that" with remarkably little time to write about anything fun. Instead I'm trying to make money at it. Whee.

Quickie update on Tigress (as quick as my verbose self can be):

Her chainplate knees are all out. They were as wet, stinky and gross as you might imagine a piece of plywood would be after 45 years bathing in a fiberglass-encased wet area (the wet no doubt coming from the chainplate/deck juncture). The chainplate themselves were merely a bit weathered, whereas the chainplate bolts were so rusted as to look like a tree where a beaver has chewed through.

I've scraped most of the cabin and some of the Vberth. Husband fixed the rudder foot thingie. My experiment with just oiling shows me the teak still looks better than it did, but not particularly interesting.

The last couple of weeks, we've been getting the boat ready to move, finally. She's going to go from Mattapoisett to Newburyport to a DIY boatyard. She's due to move Friday. Kinda exciting.

In the meantime, wanting to sail, dammit, I surfed Craigslist for a small (trailerable) boat we could pull behind the Escape for weekend splashes. I found a few great deals, but other people snapped them up before I got there. Took at a look at a nicely kept Day Sailer I in Mattapoisett but the price was more than I really wanted to pay, though it was sorely tempting.

Found a 1962 O'Day Ospray (yes, "Ospray", not "Osprey") in Maine for $400 with mast, sails, trailer and a little outboard. That whole saga is worth a post of its own; suffice to say that now I have two old boats that need work

Anyway, this coming week is moving day for Tigress, so I'm expecting we'll have a lot more time to work on her and no worries about doing so since it's a DIY yard. It's not exactly close, but it's closer than Mattapoisett. A pity, since I find it really like it down there.

[daydreamer92]

We named her "Trouble" before we had managed to get out of Maine with her, so you just know what kind of day we'd had. ::grin::






We found the mast had been bent almost to the point of being in two pieces. However, a previous owner had applied this expert repair:



Hee.

More later!

[MarioG]

I'm finding it tough to work on 2 boats at the same time. Working on the C-26 means only as it needs it, because we are sailing it. With very littile wind this last time we did get alot of little things done.

With the boat tools and supplies on the C-26, the heat and the family of wasp that moved into the C-22, even with it in the drive its not getting the attention it needs. If I sell it I'm sure I will replace it with a much smaller sailing dingy.

[daydreamer92]

In our case, the smaller boat needs much less work (at least that's our current assessment) to go anywhere. It's also much more simplified than the "big boat". For example: we went out and got a new mast. So the mast thing is taken care of. Most of the gear from the old mast was usable, except for three tangs, a turnbuckle, and a cleat.

Technically, the cleat was ok, but one of the ends was rough and I thought why not replace it. I found out that West Marine doesn't carry tangs (hmph!) so I'll order that. The rigging is otherwise usable -- no frays on the wires, etc. They had been using one of those yellow nylon ropes for sheets but we have a lot of lines from the Tartan we can put into service. The boom is in fine shape, as was the rudder. The tiller needs a quick sanding and some varnish. The sails are pretty worn out, but we don't have to replace them to go sailing.

So other than three tangs, and some paint, the Ospray should be ready to go in a week or so, while the Tartan is going to take much longer.

Here's another pic of the Ospray. If folks aren't familiar with 'em, they were made between 1959 and 1969. Looks like a smaller Day Sailer really. This is not the same boat as the similar-sized Osprey of the UK.

She wasn't too dirty inside, but definitely needs paint. One of the coamings has a section missing, but the mahogany cockpit floor boards you can see leaning against the garage in the previous post belongs to the Ospray. With some paint, she's gonna look rather nice.

[daydreamer92]

So we've got some paint on order, mast tangs supposed to arrive tomorrow. This means that we should be able to measure, drill and fit the old fittings to the new mast.

We'll probably have to cut down the new mast a bit too; they cut it long. Not a big deal; we can take it from the top and plunks the masthead back in. It's just a few inches.

The Tartan gets moved this Friday. I'm a little anxious -- not because I think the boat will fall off the back of the truck or something -- but just to see her in a new home. This yard is arranged so there is never anything in front of you and even has a little private storage shed. No more lugging things back and forth! Whee!

[daydreamer92]

Saw this sight while driving by to the yard to pay deposit on storage for the Tartan 27.



Came back for more nosing around.



(cell phone pics don't come out that good, but it was an "oh! I'll stop and look" moment.)

Peeking in over the transom. Skinny! Can't see too much, too short.





All wood, beat up, neglected.

Of course I want it. (I know I know, wooden boats, nothing but trouble, expensive, may not be restorable. Do not try cloud my wants with logic!)

Did find out she is a 1951 Geiger design, brought up from VA when she was found sinking at a dock (awww). Nice current owner, super friendly! He has a 50 foot wooden one he's working on, two was too much.

[daydreamer92]

Husband worked on new mast for the Ospray yesterday. Today he got a root canal. I bet he liked the mast stuff better.

We bought a turnbuckle to repair the "repair" a Previous-Previous Owner had done for the headstay, which was tie a bunch of knots to secure a short length of rope between the broken end of the turnbuckle and the ... ah poop, blanked on the name, the u-shaped thingie that you put a clevis pin in the end of to secure a stay to it. Husband isn't sure how to put the new one on, but I bet Don Casey will tell him how via one of our books. ::clings to This Old Boat and the other big blue one::

We also needed three tangs for the mast since the iron splint repair had put bolts through two of them and the third looked rusty. I looked at West Marine and the cheapest was about 12 bucks each, but would require us to drill holes through 'em. ("Need a drill press!" was the dubious opinion of West Marine desk guy, perhaps thinking, as a girl, I could not muster such a tool. "Mmhmm," I said, knowing husband has a drill press at work.)

But you have to order these things rather than have them at the store, and hell, I can do that and probably find cheaper stuff.

So I did. D and R Marine, which stocks a lot of Pearson and O'Day bits and pieces, had tangs for a Javelin which looked exactly on target, for like $5.50 each. They came in yesterday. All the rest of the fittings looked good enough to reuse.

Husband also sawed off the extra four or five inches of extruuuuuusion (I like that word) aka "mast without anything on it" and riveted on the mast head with a rivet tool I'd bought.

He kept grilling me about the tool. "You sure you got a rivet tool?" "Yes." "Was it like this one?" "Yes." "You sure?" "Yes, husband, I am sure."

Hmph. I think he just wanted to spend more money at Harbor Freight. BTW, if you think the lure of the catalog is tempting, don't go into the store. We went into it with an empty basket "Just here for a socket set!!" and came out $130 later. I got a $9.99 palm sander out of the deal. I also heard an older guy totally fail at the "quietly passing gas in a store" deal in the aisle next to me and had to keep my adult "I hear nothing!" face on while the 5 year-old in me was giggling up a storm. Hee. Anyway.

Where was I? Mast. Anyway, we got halfway up to turning our 24' extruuuuuuuusion into a proper mast when the drill decided it had enough. I think it heard my husband talking about another drill he wanted, a corded one that didn't randomly drop the bits out.

Drill: "Oh, suddenly I'm not good enough? Well F--- you!" ::quits::

Or maybe it just needed to be recharged.

So. That's where we stand with the Ospray. Tomorrow, paint is supposed arrive and then I can practice on a small boat what we'll need to do on the BIG boat.

Pictures when we get done with the mast. It really just looks like a big aluminum pole right now.