Suddenly inherited old boat

[CBinRI]

The best of luck with this adventure. I became a boat owner well into my adult years. I was warned by someone more experienced that "owning a sailboat is like standing in a cold shower ripping up hundred dollar bills." I have found this to be true but would not trade it for anything.

[Bill Mc]

There is a wealth of Wit and Wisdom on this site so get as much information as you can before making your decisions. Slow and steady wins the race.

Fair Winds,
Bill

[Hierax]

Yes congratulations!

I cannot help it, but I have to recommend seeing the movie "Captian Ron". My wife and I saw the movie just before taking our first sail lesson, and your story reminded me of it.

We have bought our first boat (4 months after our three day lesson) and love our money pit (it is 27 years old and has not seen much maintenance).

Welcome to the new-to-boating-yet-we-own-fixer-uppers club!

[jswwrites]

Hi Stillinshock... I'm not quite in shock, but am in a similar situation -- my 92 year old grandmother, who has still been sailing with an 80+ year old couple! -- just gave me her 1983 Newport 33. It is in better shape than your boat, because the husband of the couple has helped my grandmother with maintenance since my grandfather died 20 years ago, and he considered it "his" toy. However, as he's aged, the fiberglass and teak haven't gotten attention, and some of his "fixes" have been a bit...interesting.

Right now the boat is in FL, and we'll be having it delivered to NC this month (cha-ching...I'd like to have done it myself, and would have if I'd known in June or July rather than mid-August, due to school schedules and things). I found a slip yesterday - hard to come by in this area - and am pleased because it's an old-fashioned DOCK rather than a new-fangled CLUB. Basically meaning I can work on the boat there and no one cares! And it's close to our house here at the coast, and we homeschool, so I should be able to do a lot before winter.

Here's what I know --

Fiberglass is seriously oxidized, chipped and dinged. We're going to try the New Glass 2 product on our motor boat and see if that works... If so, I'll do that plus Durabak (non-skid paint) on the deck. The bottom will need to be painted next spring, so I'll probably wait until it's hauled for that to decide on the hull fiberglass solution.

Whatever they didn't need for afternoon sailing hasn't been maintained: alcohol stove/oven hasn't been turned on since 1985, and the tank is scary; water tank has a leak "somewhere near the top" so they just haven't put a lot of water in it; head and shower are iffy; cushions aren't in too bad of shape but they are ITCHY and ugly.

The cabin sole teak was taken up after hurricanes left some water in the cabin in 2004, so it's just fiberglass now. I'm pondering that...

No electronics work except the engine hours, fuel guage (theoretically!), and the engine oil temp guage.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, I guess... The sails are being checked out by the guy who made most of them, and the self-furling jib is fairly new (but the main is original...). The rigging is new in 2004. The lines are mildewed and some frayed, but not terrible. The engine (Universal diesel 16hp) seems ok, throttle assembly ok. whew!

I'm looking forward to following your progress for inspiration on my own! Good luck!

[hellosailor]

jsw-
Beware of "miracle" restorers on fiberglass. Once the gel coat has taken UV damage and chalked, there is no real repair for it. You can wax it, shine it, polish it, or apply one of the new poly-whatever coatings to it, but many of those products will yellow and require stripping and re-application. Or, simply expensive application. And if you don't like them, removing them can be extremely difficult.
You might consider getting a plain old fashioned polishing wheel and looking for an auto body supplier in the area who carries 3M's refinishing supplies. They have the right materials to make old fiberglass and gelcoat look as good as it can, and then with routine waxing you have a fairly good solution that doesn't require an "miracles" to be invoked.
The rest is one piece, one system, one etc. at a time. The boat should be a good tool for home schooling, there is nothing like navigation on a boat to bring the real use of math and trig into this world.
Very nice of Grandma!

[jswwrites]

We're going to test the "restorer" on our Robalo 2020, which is a 2001 but apparently never compounded and waxed. I just spent several hours this weekend getting one of the gunnels done... Since this is an easily-redone boat and has some areas we can test (ie. the center console) without much risk and effort, we figured that's a good way to see how it does. I wouldn't test it on the sailboat!

I grew up sailing - we had a Morgan 30 for years, and at the same time my grandparents had an Irwin before they got this Newport. I have been away from sailboats for a long time, and only in the last 5 years have we had a powerboat to ski, etc. So I am excited to be returning to my roots, and I love to renovate, restore, etc. (have done houses), so I'm looking forward to it! My husband was glad it was free, since that takes some of the pain out of the cost of the renovation. lol

[tedsbeds]

Dear Suzanne,
It looks like a good boat,but the wrong boat unless you have unlimited funds. I am a boat addict and have resurected a few boats. If you want to go sailing soon, get your survey and put your inherited boat up for sale. If you want to spend years undoing ten years of neglect keep her. That boat might be worth $30,000 as is. $30,000 can buy a lot of boat that might be smaller but in better condition. But as I've said, if you'ld rather be scraping and painting and sanding and writing boat yard checks than sailing keep her.

[blt2ski]

Is home for this boat in Edmonds now, like E dock? A boat looking like this one showed up there about June or July!marty

[blt2ski]

Suzannes boat is Crystal Blue, which showed up on the E dock in Edmonds a few months ago looking like a derilect, now on F dock. While not a major transformation in looks etc, she is definetly looking like a boat that the owner loves and is taking care of her. She has gone from one of the worst looking/taken care of boats, to more on the ave look.

She has been out of her slip more than most boats, so I will assume Suzanne is taking her out and using her. Yes there is still more work to do, like varnish the exterior wood, refinish the deck and cabin top, ie repaint, but, still better than before, and a work in progress that I hope to see continue to make Crystal Blue look better.

Marty

[mike dryver]

congrats on your new/old (not) boat!!!!! i would not launch until the motor was running on land. sitting for ten yrs. can raise hell with them. rings seize, seals dry-out, hoses/belts rot, the fuel left in the injector pump,lines injectors ect. needs to be cleaned out, fresh fuel should be run thru the motor ect. you are right as for stranding rigging and running rigging ect. the chain plates should be checked thoroughly as well as the bolts for same . ditto for main from prev. post. don't rush better safe than sorry. check steering, thru hulls, seacocks would need to be serviced , hoses for same stuffing box packing needs to be replaced, as does the rudder box if there is one. the electrical must gone over with a fine tooth comb. actually the whole boat. i am not an alarmist, or extremist, but the safety of you and the vessel are paramount to anything else. 60 miles does-not sound like a long distance but when something goes wrong on the way it can seem like the end of the earth, and an eternity. good luck in your endeavors with your new found child fair winds and blue skies