Fixer upper or leave’r in the scrapyard?
 

Greetings, I’m new here and would greatly appreciate some advise. I
do not know very much about boats or sailing but the only way I can
afford to get started, is to spend as little money and as much time
as I can. That being said, I have discovered an old fiberglass
sailboat and trailer in a scrapyard down the lane from me. Its about
22’ long and what one notices immediately is that the keel is badly
damaged. The fiberglass has major cracks on both sides, indeed a
section (5" x 7") of bare metal is exposed, showing the hard foam
cross section. Consider also that there is a crack almost all the way
around where it joins the hull and the bottom of the keel is broken
from resting on the trailer. I have not been able to inspect the
inside of the hull yet, but knowing about the keel alone, is it even
worth moving the boat down the road to my house? I have more time than
money, I just want to know if this is worth the time.

Thanks for reading,

dEdEyE (Colin)

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Fixer upper or leave’r in the scrapyard?
 

On Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:22:38 -0600, dEdEyE wrote:

Consider also that there is a crack almost all the way
around where it joins the hull and the bottom of the keel is broken
from resting on the trailer. I have not been able to inspect the
inside of the hull yet, but knowing about the keel alone, is it even
worth moving the boat down the road to my house? I have more time than
money, I just want to know if this is worth the time.

Almost certainly not worth fixing, very high probability of serious
internal damage that you can not see, and even the visible damage that
you report will take a lot of skill, effort and expensive materials to
repair. There are *many* used, undamaged boats in that size range
available for very little money.

Fixer upper or leave’r in the scrapyard?
 

dEdEyE wrote:
Greetings, I’m new here and would greatly appreciate some advise. I
do not know very much about boats or sailing but the only way I can
afford to get started, is to spend as little money and as much time
as I can. That being said, I have discovered an old fiberglass
sailboat and trailer in a scrapyard down the lane from me. Its about
22’ long and what one notices immediately is that the keel is badly
damaged. The fiberglass has major cracks on both sides, indeed a
section (5" x 7") of bare metal is exposed, showing the hard foam
cross section. Consider also that there is a crack almost all the way
around where it joins the hull and the bottom of the keel is broken
from resting on the trailer. I have not been able to inspect the
inside of the hull yet, but knowing about the keel alone, is it even
worth moving the boat down the road to my house? I have more time than
money, I just want to know if this is worth the time.

Thanks for reading,

dEdEyE (Colin)


Post links to some photos and you will get a response before Harry turns
it into a political thread.

Fixer upper or leave'r in the scrapyard?
 

"dEdEyE" wrote in message
news:388209_3095c551a00fbb5be62fbfd4e1358af6@boati ngforumz.com...
Greetings, I'm new here and would greatly appreciate some advise. I
do not know very much about boats or sailing but the only way I can
afford to get started, is to spend as little money and as much time
as I can. That being said, I have discovered an old fiberglass
sailboat and trailer in a scrapyard down the lane from me. Its about
22' long and what one notices immediately is that the keel is badly
damaged. The fiberglass has major cracks on both sides, indeed a
section (5" x 7") of bare metal is exposed, showing the hard foam
cross section. Consider also that there is a crack almost all the way
around where it joins the hull and the bottom of the keel is broken
from resting on the trailer. I have not been able to inspect the
inside of the hull yet, but knowing about the keel alone, is it even
worth moving the boat down the road to my house? I have more time than
money, I just want to know if this is worth the time.

Thanks for reading,

dEdEyE (Colin)

--
Posted at author's request, using moderated http://www.BoatingForumz.com
interface
Thread archive:
http://www.BoatingForumz.com/Fixer-u...ict100159.html

I wouldn't bother.
Look for somethng half decent in the 18' range that you can easily trailer
to launch ramps.
Down stateside, a Catalina Capri 18 would be interesting, although a boat
with a retractable keel would be much easier to launch/retrieve from a
trailer.
My sailboat...sold August 2007
http://sailquest.com/market/models/spipe.htm

Fixer upper or leave'r in the scrapyard?
 

On Nov 2, 8:26 pm, "Don White" wrote:
"dEdEyE" wrote in message

news:388209_3095c551a00fbb5be62fbfd4e1358af6@boati ngforumz.com...



Greetings, I'm new here and would greatly appreciate some advise. I
do not know very much about boats or sailing but the only way I can
afford to get started, is to spend as little money and as much time
as I can. That being said, I have discovered an old fiberglass
sailboat and trailer in a scrapyard down the lane from me. Its about
22' long and what one notices immediately is that the keel is badly
damaged. The fiberglass has major cracks on both sides, indeed a
section (5" x 7") of bare metal is exposed, showing the hard foam
cross section. Consider also that there is a crack almost all the way
around where it joins the hull and the bottom of the keel is broken
from resting on the trailer. I have not been able to inspect the
inside of the hull yet, but knowing about the keel alone, is it even
worth moving the boat down the road to my house? I have more time than
money, I just want to know if this is worth the time.

Thanks for reading,

dEdEyE (Colin)

--
Posted at author's request, using moderatedhttp://www.BoatingForumz.com
interface
Thread archive:
http://www.BoatingForumz.com/Fixer-u...d-ftopict10015...

I wouldn't bother.
Look for somethng half decent in the 18' range that you can easily trailer
to launch ramps.
Down stateside, a Catalina Capri 18 would be interesting, although a boat
with a retractable keel would be much easier to launch/retrieve from a
trailer.
My sailboat...sold August 2007http://sailquest.com/market/models/spipe.htm

There are many older Catalina 22 and Hunters of nearly the same size
to be had for very little right now. I suspect that this boat has
serious structural damage and even if you do 'fix' her, you will
always suspect her integrity.
Fixing such a boat will take more time than building a boat of similar
size. As you say you have plenty of time, I highly reccomend you look
over boats you can build such as the "Vacationer" from Stevenson
Projects. Anothr good option are the various Sharpie boats from
Michalak. These home built boats are solid often feature water
ballast for easy trailering.

Fixer upper or leave'r in the scrapyard?
 

On Nov 2, 9:10 pm, wrote:
On Nov 2, 8:26 pm, "Don White" wrote:



"dEdEyE" wrote in message

news:388209_3095c551a00fbb5be62fbfd4e1358af6@boat ingforumz.com...

Greetings, I'm new here and would greatly appreciate some advise. I
do not know very much about boats or sailing but the only way I can
afford to get started, is to spend as little money and as much time
as I can. That being said, I have discovered an old fiberglass
sailboat and trailer in a scrapyard down the lane from me. Its about
22' long and what one notices immediately is that the keel is badly
damaged. The fiberglass has major cracks on both sides, indeed a
section (5" x 7") of bare metal is exposed, showing the hard foam
cross section. Consider also that there is a crack almost all the way
around where it joins the hull and the bottom of the keel is broken
from resting on the trailer. I have not been able to inspect the
inside of the hull yet, but knowing about the keel alone, is it even
worth moving the boat down the road to my house? I have more time than
money, I just want to know if this is worth the time.

Thanks for reading,

dEdEyE (Colin)

--
Posted at author's request, using moderatedhttp://www.BoatingForumz.com
interface
Thread archive:
http://www.BoatingForumz.com/Fixer-u...d-ftopict10015...

I wouldn't bother.
Look for somethng half decent in the 18' range that you can easily trailer
to launch ramps.
Down stateside, a Catalina Capri 18 would be interesting, although a boat
with a retractable keel would be much easier to launch/retrieve from a
trailer.
My sailboat...sold August 2007http://sailquest.com/market/models/spipe.htm

There are many older Catalina 22 and Hunters of nearly the same size
to be had for very little right now. I suspect that this boat has
serious structural damage and even if you do 'fix' her, you will
always suspect her integrity.
Fixing such a boat will take more time than building a boat of similar
size. As you say you have plenty of time, I highly reccomend you look
over boats you can build such as the "Vacationer" from Stevenson
Projects. Anothr good option are the various Sharpie boats from
Michalak. These home built boats are solid often feature water
ballast for easy trailering.

Just looking again at the Duckworks website that indexes Michalak
designs. The "Caprice" homebuilt (24') is right in your size range
and is meant to be low tech and low cost yet be a good boat for
serious sailing. She looks easy to build too. He has an enlarged
version too called "Cormorant" that is 33' but this looks like a
serious project although "Cormorant" is also trailerable. The great
thing about these boats is the use of the gaff rig yawl design where
you get a lot of sail area without complicated and expensive standing
rigging. You can easily make your own sails from inexpensive polytarp
and they will perform very well.

Fixer upper or leave’r in the scrapyard?
 

On Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:22:38 -0600, dEdEyE wrote:

Greetings, IÂ’m new here and would greatly appreciate some advise. I do
not know very much about boats or sailing but the only way I can afford
to get started, is to spend as little money and as much time as I can.
That being said, I have discovered an old fiberglass sailboat and
trailer in a scrapyard down the lane from me. Its about 22Â’ long and
what one notices immediately is that the keel is badly damaged. The
fiberglass has major cracks on both sides, indeed a section (5" x 7") of
bare metal is exposed, showing the hard foam cross section. Consider
also that there is a crack almost all the way around where it joins the
hull and the bottom of the keel is broken from resting on the trailer. I
have not been able to inspect the inside of the hull yet, but knowing
about the keel alone, is it even worth moving the boat down the road to
my house? I have more time than money, I just want to know if this is
worth the time.

Thanks for reading,

dEdEyE (Colin)

Leave it. If you take on a project such as this, before your done, you
will hope never to hear the sound of a single wave washing ashore.

You will never be happy with the results. It is cheaper to look for
something in the paper that is seaworthy but beyond someone else's current
budget. Especially now.

Take a sailing course at a local yacht club if you have never sailed
before shopping. Sailing is not a turn key style of boating. You may find
motoring more fun and less work.

Take along a person that sails to shop. Sails and tackle are expensive to
replace and inflation isn't helping the price of labour or materials.