wrote:
On Jan 31, 9:07 pm, druid wrote:
Hi,

As I said a while ago, I'm downsizing and looking for a boat under $20K
CDN - hopefully under $10K purchase price so I'll have some bux to fix it
up. I was looking at the Catalina 27, mainly because it's by far the the
most common 27-footer around here, but...

A poster on BCBoatnet (http://www.bcboatnet.org) suggested an Ericson, and
I did a little looking. All of them are in the US, most East-coast (or at
least not West Coast ), but some can be had for around $10K, and they
look pretty good.

I know the Ericson is better-built than the Catalina, and the poster says
they're faster too (not sure about that...). So: opinions? stories?
experiences? Noted a coincidence: I just looked at the thread here about
the boat in the surf, and it sure looks like an Ericson 27/28! And I was
impressed by it staying afloat and returning upright after the rollover.
Tough boat!

Oh: also, any idea how much it would cost to truck a 27ft sailboat from
California to BC?

druid


I have been looking at lots of 20+ year old Catalina and Newport 27s
before I bought mine, here my gut feeling for prices (around LA):
For 10K, you should get a really nice, well equipped one thaat doesn't
demand to spend another 10k on fixing things. A good one without major
problems for 5k to 7k. 2 to 5k: Doable fixer's, if you like to do the
work, below that: Beyond economical repair, but maybe still good for a
few seasons.
There will always be overpriced ones, but these are what I think the
numbers for reasonable deals are.

As for quality of craftsmanship, I haven't seen the Ericson, and find
the Newports and Catalinas equally poorly / shoddy built (there is a
reasaon why Halberg Rassys of the same vintage go for three times the
price), but they are an unbeatable deal for the price. I wouldn't
expect huge differences in quality within the cheap boat range, the
condition of the individual boat you are looking at is much more
important than the brand.

(Btw., I would expect any plastic keel boat to return upright and stay
afloat after a rollover, if the hatches are closed. And I would expect
even a really good one in our price range to be ready for the land
fill afterwards.)

Chris,
I concur with your view on prices for boats in this class in So. Calif.
There will be always listings of boats like these for more but they
don't sell. I bought a Newport 27 (1984) in pretty good shape back in
1997 for $7K. It had a FWC diesel and the fancier teak interior. I
sailed the heck out of it and did some improvements to it, particularly
improving the sail inventory. I sold it in 2003 for $9K. I'd say that
was close to top dollar for a boat like that, and it was in fine shape.

--Alan Gomes