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Newbe with no experience buys big boat

63K views 343 replies 85 participants last post by  glenndamato 
#1 ·
I just finished this book.
Breaking Seas: An overweight, middle-aged computer nerd buys his first boat, quits his job, and sails off to adventure: Glenn Damato: 9780985816209: Amazon.com: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VUNGcnmUL.@@AMEPARAM@@51VUNGcnmUL

What a fun read. Every couple of months someone asks if they can buy a boat with no experience and do some serious cruising. Not something I would do but everyone is different.

This guy did it and really barred his soul about what worked and what didn't work. I'm going to try to get him to join this forum so you animals can tear him up as is your custom.:)

For a short fat guy he is tough as nails and I'm sure can take it.
He found himself on a lee shore with a busted impeller and a full keel boat that would not point.
He saved the boat, with a clever hack, how did he do it.
 
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#46 ·
#47 · (Edited)
David: I got the base model, but with a hydraulic cylinder sized for the Serenity. I'm afraid I don't remember much more. I didn't get spares. The good news is that the unit performed amazingly well. There is a scene in the book where Joyce assured me the AP could not steer in such heavy seas. But it did - better than any of us. The controls are heavy duty, like what you'd expect to find on a commercial fishing vessel or a military vessel - not cheap, lightweight plastic. Note: installing the unit requires much mechanical skill and planning. There are NO "step by step" instructions. The owner, Will I think his name is, is helpful, but there's no way he's going to describe every nuance of installation. Whoever is doing it must understand Newton's third law of motion! NO hydraulic lines or fittings are provided. The book describes how we fabricated about eleven or so lines with the required fittings - this is a specific skill, not something you can buy at West Marine or Home Depot. Most people will need to hire a professional installer, and factor in that cost. All in all, I recommend W-H autopilots.
 
#49 ·
Thanks Jon. About a year earlier I replaced the Farymann with a new Yanmar 3YM, 29 HP, and a new three-blade prop sized for the engine and the hull. You're right, the original was probably too small for the size and weight of a DE 38, and I think the extra 5 HP makes a huge difference (and probably the really old Farymann's with worn cylinders couldn't put out the whole 24 anyhow).
 
#50 ·
Glenn,

Look for a small uptick in sales of your book. It is a great stimulus to many of us to know that the author is a contributing member here. I suspect that the same would be true if you joined sailboatowners.com, the cruisers forum and perhaps even sailing anarchy (although they are a slightly rougher crowd). There is nothing wrong with a little self promotion. I will be ordering the kindle version very soon.

For bedding deck hardware many of us prefer to use butyl tape which never hardens. See this thread at sailboatowners: Bedding Deck Hardware With Bed-It Butyl Tape - SailboatOwners.com

Thanks to DavidPM for contacting you.
 
#51 ·
#53 · (Edited)
Glenn,

I really enjoyed the book. In fact, I started reading yesterday before work, read about 100 pages before I left for work, another 100 during lunch, and the rest later that night. I don't read books like yours often, but I really enjoyed it.

I'm also a self taught computer nerd, former pilot, and (attempting to be, anyway) sailor. I do have to admit, going from a world where fuel burn is measured in 10's of gallons per hour to reading a diesel burns ~1gph was a bit of a shock, I didn't know what to do with myself.

We're also restoring an old full keel, heavily displacement boat (although smaller than yours was, by a fair bit). I was surprised to hear about the water issue after everything was sealed, any idea how your boat's hull to deck joint was bonded at the factory?

Thanks for the book, it was great. I'd love to hear more about what you are doing now and in the future.
 
#58 ·
Thanks everyone for all the input on what could have been done to keep the interior dry. All good to know for the future. This morning I recieved a direct email from one of the founders of a major, well-known US yacht manufacturer! He wanted to let me know how much he enjoyed the book and he expressed his strong opinion that I (and the character Richard in the book) are correct: the hull-deck joint was the culprit, and the only solution was to have a crane lift the deck from the hull and re-bed properly. He agreed this was a huge undertaking and having it done to a 30+ year old boat in a Mexican boatyard was a highly dubious proposition.
 
#59 ·
Shinook,

I changed the names of all major characters, and also changed at least one thing about them so they would not be possible to track down - I don't want any hassels. The ages, personalities, genders and appearances - all the things central to the story - are as they were in real life. Jon, Tweety and Duffy exist with those names (Duffy of course passed away about a year after I met him).

The only people I kept in touch with (via internet) are "Joyce" and "Doug." Both are still working and as of a year ago both sail, although Doug is now 71.

I made both aware of the book and Joyce is cool with the fact that she took the original photograph that was used to create the cover image. However, neither has commented to me on the book. Sorry!

The relatively minor characters, like Megan and Loukia, and probably unaware of the book - I don't have a means of reaching them. It is possible Joyce told them.

I had a vision a while ago of Joyce, Doug, Megan, Loukia and I all appearing on . . . Oprah! Wouldn't that be fun? Of course, the book will have to be a lot more popular than it is now! If sales really take off a big publisher may decide to contract for distribution and that would get it into brick-and-mortar stores. Just dreamin'!
 
#60 ·
Doug would you mind scrolling back a bit and find my question about the auto-helm.
Must have gotten lost.
I think it is an important point because the standard auto-helms don't handle weather very well, I have experienced that myself on several boats.
Wind-vanes are the traditional solutions but look like a lot of gear to me.
Your solution is using a commercial quality unit may be a good solution for a lot of people.
How much was it?
 
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#65 ·
There was a scene in the book where the anchor had to be raised. Joyce refused to do that job and insisted on helming.
She almost crashed the boat.
I usually do the anchor duty as my wife really can't, knee problems.
This is a tough one.
In Glenn's case Joyce had a really bad attitude about everything.
But even so It is a risk I always think about.
Is it safer to do both bow and stern myself or safer to put someone who may not be that competent or confident on the helm.
It is a tough call?
 
#68 ·
Glen you mentioned on the book that you built a plywood box for the refrigerator evaporator and that it has a fan on it. Was that in the engine room?
Would you elaborate on that install.
How did it work out.
 
#69 ·
Right - I tried to make a "cool box" around the compressor-evaporator.

The boat was made in 1977 with two thinly insulated ice boxes. Someone had once put a cold plate and the associated mechanics into the aft icebox. When I bought the boat that unit was just a solid block of rust - would not turn on.

I pulled it all out and replaced it with a new system from the West Marine catalog ($$$$). The ONLY place I could possibly locate it was on a nice flat area on the port side of the engine room. Of course, the engine room is the worst place to locate a compressor-evaporator.

The manufacturer sold a "ventilation kit" consisting of a fan and tubular air ducts, designed to blow cool bilge air on the compressor. But my unit was actually in the ER and inches from the engine itself, so I went one further and build a little "dog house" around the unit, with cool air sucking in from the bilge and blowing out to a mushroom vent located directly overhead. The vent had to be on the afterdeck.

As usual, all this was great in theory, and worked great at the dock, but at sea was another story. The mushroom vent was in a bad spot where people tended to hit it and step on it. Of course, it HAD to be open whenever the reefer was cycling!

In heavy weather seawater would rush past the vent! Unless it was closed tight, water would enter the duct! I had anticipated this and put a U-bend in the duct tube with a small drain hole at the bottom of the U.

The other issue with the reefer was poor insulation. This is the bane with some production boats. I left this part out from the book because the "boatwork" sections were getting too long, but Doug had some experience in doing kitchen counters and he wanted to replace our whole galley countertop, and get rid of the TACKY 1970's fake wood grain plastic crap (imagine how that looked after 30 years).

I went to this on-line company (I forget the name) and purchased all the raw materials to make the reefer box from scratch: fiberglass sheet, VACUUM plate insulation, and a VACUUM insulated door. For your money (and they want a lot of it) you supply them with the exact shape and dimensions of your insulation plates. The plates are something like 1/2 inch thick but because of the vacuum chambers they are equal to 6-8 inches of the best foam insulation.

This was a lot of work but when it was done the whole kit-and-kaboodle (reefer and countertop, glistening white formica) looked and worked great.

Except for the damn vent, the whole system worked great. If anything, it worked too well, freezing stuff we did not want frozen until we learned to dial it way down. Used very little electricity, gave us plenty of real ice, cooled a lot of stuff extremely well. Thanks to the vacuum plates, we could close the vent and open the reefer breaker for 12-24 hours and it would still be cold! Like a thermos bottle, basically. It probably set me back around $4000 total, plus maybe 60 hours of labor, but it worked exceptionally well.
 
#92 ·
Except for the damn vent, the whole system worked great. If anything, it worked too well, freezing stuff we did not want frozen until we learned to dial it way down. Used very little electricity, gave us plenty of real ice, cooled a lot of stuff extremely well. Thanks to the vacuum plates, we could close the vent and open the reefer breaker for 12-24 hours and it would still be cold! Like a thermos bottle, basically. It probably set me back around $4000 total, plus maybe 60 hours of labor, but it worked exceptionally well.
Wow that is amazing.
If you can come up with the website for the parts that would be helpful.
 
#70 ·
Everyone has to start somewhere, some people have never spent more than a few days on any boat, look down the doc's and 90% of the boats only go out for a few hours at a time and fewer go more than 30 miles off shore.

I loved on a boat traveling all over for two years and pure fact is no matter how bad the weather gets, 75% of all abandoned boats at sea are later found still floating.

He is not a failure for selling his boat he is a hero for doing what most have not done.
 
#74 ·
Well Glenn, I just ordered your book from amazon. I hope it helps the new boat fund, I'm looking forward to checking it out after reading thru this thread!
 
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#76 · (Edited)
That's a good question, Manhattan. I've been checking out some boats, and there are some great deals. But . . . I know how a boat takes over your life (if you give it the care and attention it needs) and swallows vast amounts of cash. I want to complete a novel this year and I have other ideas for fiction too - ideally, I'd quit my job again, live on the boat, and write full time. Sounds great in theory, but in reality I'm not sure if living aboard is right for me - assuming I could find an open liveaboard slip in California.

My job takes up a lot of time too, with travel, but the pay and benefits are just too good to casually walk away from. It took me fifteen years to get where I am in IT - if I walk away now, at age 53 (in May), with the economy likely to be in the dumps for the forseeable future, it probably means it will be the last good paying, good benefits job I will ever have. I know that may sound cowardly, but there it is. I like the comforts and not having to fret about money.

Is it possible to write, take care of an old boat, and have a significant full time IT job (that requires travel - avg 20-22 trips a year, 4-6 days each) all at the same time??? I don't know. I've got to look at these options carefully and realistically. I would love to split my time between boatwork and writing in some nice spot like a liveaboard slip in Ventura or somewhere else in California - but is that doable?
 
#89 ·
My job takes up a lot of time too, with travel, but the pay and benefits are just too good to casually walk away from.
I really feel that trap a lot myself. In about 30 mins I'm interviewing my own replacement for a cushy, well paying IT job, and I don't have anything lined up for myself afterwards except some savings, a long list of boat projects, some destinations I want to sail to and a few ideas of alternate ways to earn income(writing, freelance IT, etc).

But I guess my fear of losing my good health and not being able to travel is greater than my fear of ending up not being able to make ends meet or find employment a year from now.

Still I always have that small voice saying "just stick it out in the corporate world and earn a little more money first..." I don't know if that voice would ever go away though.
 
#77 ·
THANK YOU fellow sailors for your support on this book project. I can also use advice on finding a cruising boat in So. Cal and maybe a liveaboard slip. Exploring options!

For everyone who has read Breaking Seas and enjoyed it, please feel free to do a review on Amazon if reviews are your cup of tea. With a first book, these reviews are really important toward getting people to take a chance on an unknown writer and buy it!

Thanks in advance -
 
#81 ·
Hi Glen,

I will purchase the kindle version to read as soon as I'm done with the 17 other various books about boats, sailing, maintenance, etc...I'm reading right now...

I will be turning 52 in May. Also in May I will be enjoying my first ever sailing season aboard our new (to us) Endeavour 32.... So, you may see how your book may have a special appeal...

I'm looking forward to all three things.

Cheers!

Sent from my KFJWI using Tapatalk 2
 
#82 · (Edited)
I hope to start reading it this weekend.

FYI, it can be borrowed for free by Amazon Prime members. Hopefully Glenn gets a piece of my annual Prime membership fee for this. (I think I remember my son mentioning that publishers get around $1 for every loan.)

Glenn - I'm interested in hearing how this works out for you. My son works for Amazon doing behind-the-scenes development for Kindle publishing and has been touting the virtues of self-publishing Kindle content through Amazon. I'm not sure whether you're following that model, or if you are using a publisher/agent as an intermediary.
 
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