Bobsprit wrote:
I must say that I am
also surprised that any charter company would consider putting a 22 y/o boat
on their books.

There are about a zillion small charter outfits that employ older boats, as
long as they're clean and reliable. There's one that operates out of my club.
They are always looking to make charter agreements with folks. There's a mid
80's catalina 34 that I know of that is in the program and it was run badly
aground last season by two couples who decided to do a lot of drinking. When
they asked me if we'd consider the charter deal we said no-way!

RB

The charter company would be happy to have the boat if it were surveyed
and found to be in good, safe, fully operable condition. - My thought
regarding leaving it with the chareter company was that it would relieve
me of some of the problems involved in keeping up with maintenance,
oversight, paying marina fees, etc. (The boat was offered at around
$18,000 and reported as being in good working order with a good 11Hp
Yanmar diesel, but I didn't get into checking out what other upgrades
might be necessary.

In view of the advice against such a steering system convesion and the
accusation that I had already made my mind up in favor of the Cal before
posting the intial questions, I'm now considering another approach. -
That is, continue to charter boats in the 30-40 ft range when I can get
time off to do some serious cruising, but also purchasing one of the new
MacGregor 26M (their new model with deeper V-hull, dagger board, and a
partial lead/partial water ballast), for use in the Galveston bay area
and near shore coastal sailing. - In the Houston-Galveston area, we
have many square miles of bay waters that aren't deep enough for keel
sailboats, and I'm also interested in taking the grandchildren on
outings, swimming, fishing, etc.) - Since this is somewhat out of the
scope of the "Cal 30" question, I'll post another discussion topic.

Jim