Just got back from an interesting trip to Honolulu to buy a boat. It's a 1988 Brewer 40 pilothouse, called a 3 Seas 40. I've been looking for one for quite a while and had talked to Ted Brewer several times about them. Didn't really want to find one in Hawaii though, but those are the breaks.
It turned out (when we got over there) that the owner had misrepresented the boat to the broker(who was very helpful and embarrassed, I would definitely work with him again). There are a lot of things that don't work and will need to be repaired/replaced when we get it home. We were not looking for a project so we were pretty disappointed and actually rejected the boat and went over to the big island for a couple of days thinking we were not going to buy it. But we couldn't get it out of our heads, there was so much to like and everything wrong was "relatively" minor. The boat was sound and had lot's of gear with it. So..... we made an offer based on what we estimated it was going to cost to have everything fixed and it was accepted. Back to Honolulu the day before we were scheduled to fly back to Seatlle, to sign papers and move the boat to new moorage (that I had already arranged). We did get to have a great (but short)downwind sail towards Pearl Harbor and then into the marina, and then it was time to crawl all over the boat, toast the new boat with several rums, up early, double all the lines and add chafe gear, close thru hulls and head to the airport. We were definitely hoping the flight was overbooked so we could go back to our boat, but no such luck.
I won't get to sail it back as I had hoped, but now that I am here and it is there all I want is to get it here asap. Working on shipping it.
I'm planning to put roller furlers on headstay and staysail, and probably remove the teak decks. Batteries need replacing (4 8D's), some wiring that the PO did needs re-doing, needs bottom paint, a couple of thru hulls need attention. The PO was a jouneyman plumber, so guess what needs the most work, yep, you guessed it. A couple of days re-routing hoses etc. There will be a lot more as we go through it and want to upgrade things but the surveyor was extremely thorough (email me if you want his name) so I don't think there will be many surprises. I just wish it was here so I could dive into it!
Here are some pics that I'm looking at WAY too much. Didn't really get much time to take many good ones (poor me). We are really excited about it and it's going to be a great boat when I get done with it . Oh, we had dolphins swimming with us on the sea trial, a rainbow waiting for us at the new marina, and the biggest full moon I've ever seen the night we spent on the boat. Good signs all. John
It turned out (when we got over there) that the owner had misrepresented the boat to the broker(who was very helpful and embarrassed, I would definitely work with him again). There are a lot of things that don't work and will need to be repaired/replaced when we get it home. We were not looking for a project so we were pretty disappointed and actually rejected the boat and went over to the big island for a couple of days thinking we were not going to buy it. But we couldn't get it out of our heads, there was so much to like and everything wrong was "relatively" minor. The boat was sound and had lot's of gear with it. So..... we made an offer based on what we estimated it was going to cost to have everything fixed and it was accepted. Back to Honolulu the day before we were scheduled to fly back to Seatlle, to sign papers and move the boat to new moorage (that I had already arranged). We did get to have a great (but short)downwind sail towards Pearl Harbor and then into the marina, and then it was time to crawl all over the boat, toast the new boat with several rums, up early, double all the lines and add chafe gear, close thru hulls and head to the airport. We were definitely hoping the flight was overbooked so we could go back to our boat, but no such luck.
I won't get to sail it back as I had hoped, but now that I am here and it is there all I want is to get it here asap. Working on shipping it.
I'm planning to put roller furlers on headstay and staysail, and probably remove the teak decks. Batteries need replacing (4 8D's), some wiring that the PO did needs re-doing, needs bottom paint, a couple of thru hulls need attention. The PO was a jouneyman plumber, so guess what needs the most work, yep, you guessed it. A couple of days re-routing hoses etc. There will be a lot more as we go through it and want to upgrade things but the surveyor was extremely thorough (email me if you want his name) so I don't think there will be many surprises. I just wish it was here so I could dive into it!
Here are some pics that I'm looking at WAY too much. Didn't really get much time to take many good ones (poor me). We are really excited about it and it's going to be a great boat when I get done with it . Oh, we had dolphins swimming with us on the sea trial, a rainbow waiting for us at the new marina, and the biggest full moon I've ever seen the night we spent on the boat. Good signs all. John