Boat People...I Need Help

[dkhoward]

She is a 1975 Venture of Newport, 23' swing keel. All the wood you see on her is my addition. The sails are actually dacron that are stained to look like tanbark. She takes about 22" to float off the trailer and about 6ft of draft when the keel is swung down. She is set up to sleep 4 but more comfortably just me and loml. Right now she is on the trailer in my back yard ready for a bottom job and to add some new equipment.

[cabinetman]

Dennis - A great craft. Is she wood or glass, and what do you have for aux power? What is your tow vehicle? While I was searching ads, I ran across a lot of sailboats from the late 60's to late 70's really inexpensive. Many were under 5K. My thinking is that if it is cheap enough to put money into, and will pass a sea trial, I might give up on the water skiing and go with the wind.

[Rslaugh]

Blowboats over stinkboats

Having lived on our 44' CSY sailboat for a year it's not surprising i'm in Dennis's camp on this one. it's not for everyone though and is a bunch more work than a stinkboat. Merits of gas vs diesel have been discussed above. One thing not mentioned though is that diesel fuel is much much safer than gas. Gas vapors are highly explosive.

[HarmsWay]

Sigh... We just got back last night after four days on a friend's chartered boat (49' Meridian). The weather at Desolation Sound sucked for half the time but it was still amazing. We used to do a lot of boating with this couple then we sold our boat and then last year they sold theirs and moved to Toronto. Ours was a 20' cuddy. We were fair weather boaters so we paid for moorage for it May 1 thru to Sept 30 and it lived on a trailer the other 7 months. Having it in the water meant that we used it a lot more than people typically use a trailered boat (3x a week). I'd recommend that, although it increases the cost.

UncleCracker's summary was spot on. The diesel/gas trade-offs should be available on-line if you search, but gas motors are cheaper to buy AND REPAR but will typically not last as long. For a cruiser, gas generally made more sense below about 32 feet and diesel above 35 feet. Gas motors used to be lighter as well but diesels are getting lighter every year. Unfortunately that will likely translate into shorter life. On the Canadian west coast anyway, there is not a big difference in the cost of fuels like there used to be.

My advice would be to charter something instead of buying unless you know exactly what you want. They will seem very expensive but as many have mentioned - boats are expensive. BTW, the rule of thumb for cost of maintenance for cruisers used to be 10% of the current boat value per year. Fuel is a big factor for cruisers as well. The Meridian we were on holds over 1700 litres of fuel. That's C$2,200 to fill it up, which I believe they did twice over the 2 weeks of the charter. Even our 20' cuddy could burn through $250 in gas in an afternoon of skiing.

Having said that, I can't wait to get another boat! It will wait until we're retired though so we can get lots of time on it.

Bob

[dkhoward]

My aux power is a 7.5 horse evinrude but I very rarely run it. She weights about 3000 lbs fully loaded on a tandem axle trailer. I pull it with an F150 pickup equiped with a V6 and a 5 speed manual transmission. The trailer does have trailer brakes. THe boat is basically fiberglass. I gutted her and completely built the interior, all electrical, the hatch covers and all trim. As I remember, I paid about $750 for the hull, trailer, mast and most of the standing rigging. I probably put another $1500 into sails, rigging and refit. Oh.. . that also took almost 3 years to accomplish to my satisfaction.