2 boats - hard choices

[Black Jack]

I posted and then edited a question about coming down the coast from Bodega to Alameda. it wasnt quite direct as maybe a few of you will understand. This post really was a question of making choices between two boats, how we invest ones life into them and how to move on. In a way - I made a commitment not unlike a marriage or long term romantic relationship.

I have spent the last 10 years restoring, keeping and sailing my old girl. man did i learn how to do things, fix things, sail her all all the while of stretching of my meager budgets. She has been a been stalwart boat and tough as they come for being over 60. If a boat has a soul, this one surely has a great, warm one that took care of me when I needed it for my own safety and mental health. Physically, she is a hard chine, cold molded 28' sloop that rates around 228. She has been run strickly as a bay boat with her small outboard and tight but comfortable quarters. I stripped the galley down to a burner and has a bucket for a head. She was the boat i taught my son from toddler to highshooler to sail and club race out of the Aeolain. I weekend her three times a year. Try to do a few SSS races, some YRA stuff and the Master Mariners regatta all with tremendous enthusiasm. I have surprised those moores and Olsons going to weather or planning along side them when it blows over 20s. Yet - I believe she is limited too for many real and imagined circumstances.

which is why I purchasing and bringing down a fixer Mull 30 in the water at Bodega Bay. I am not afraid of this well boned sloop with a blown main, no head sails and no outboard. the interior is nearly bare. I did a pretty thorough survey withh frames, ribs, hull all fine and bilges very dry. I can't wait to start this project to return this fine boat to a great SSS boat. Once she has newly squared away sails, lines running aft with new blocks & clutches, electrical work and an a new outboard - she should be able to sail her rate of 150.

It is hard choices to leave one great old boat with personal history and sweat for a new boat with such promise. She will be let go as a huge bargin to someone who will hopeful like her half as much as I do. it will a sad day but a relief. will be thanks for letting me vent and work it out, either way I win but it is kinda bitter sweet to let an old love go.

 

[BobJ]

Ted, if you haven't already, stop by Vallejo YC and look at PRETTY PENNY. Bruce keeps her in good nick - seeing her should provide all the motivation you need. Mull's 30's have such pleasing proportions and sheer spring. Moreover she's fast - PP has done well in VYC's fleet which includes some good racers. I think you have a worthy project there. That said, when you first came around I mentioned my bit of history with Buccaneer #8 - I still have fond memories of her when she was on our dock at Alameda Marina. She was JOLLY ROGER then and had scads of perfectly-kept brightwork setting off her shiny black hull. Someone else will make more memories with her - I hope you can find a worthy buyer.

Where are you going to undertake the work on the Mull?

 

[Black Jack]

Bob, you are always so encouraging. Pretty Penny has a fine dedicated skipper who really loves his boat. Maybe Bruce will let me lift PP's skirt for a peak - that would help me figure how to get my new old girl together. I am doing a sea trial on this sunday to see how much this mull needs. I am planning on hauling over at Svensons once i sail down because they are closer to home. Berkeley would be good but time saved on the commute works better for me. I am lucky to belong to the Aeolian Yacht club with a it decent close workshop - although the water is thin (dredging begins in a few weeks) it will be perfect to move the boat back and forth to fit many of the improvements i can do in the water.

As for Black Jack, i will begin to ready her for sale. She will make a fine beginning boat or a fast heavy wind boat for the bay. her bottom was done in spring and a new coast of black paint on her hull. All she just needs some new caulking under the tracks and outside the portlights to make her watertight.

 

[BobJ]

Good call - I just launched at Berkeley Marine Center and my trailer is (temporarily) filling what appeared to be the last spot in their yard! I had a great experience there and highly recommend Cree and his team, but close to home is better for a big project and Svend's is a good yard that would welcome having you.

I was a junior member at Aeolian YC and was their representative to St. Francis YC's Olympic Sailing Seminar, held at Tinsley Island in 1974 (it might have been 1975). I think the Knight family were on-site managers at Aeolian YC back then? My Dad bought an old fishing boat and had a lot of fun keeping it there, while our hard-chined mahogany sloop was berthed at Alameda Marina.

Anyway, post when the boat arrives and I'll come and take a look.

 

[Wylieguy]

In the early 1980s I did some sailing on "CHICO" a Mull 30 owned by Jim Hobart that he sailed out of Clipper Yacht Harbor in Sausalito. He kept his boat a few berths down from my Newport 30 II, which was a mass produced fiberglass variation on the Mull 30, with lots of compromise changes to fit the market, very few of them positive. Jim told me his boat was the prototype for the Mull "Chico" Class produced in Australia. While "CHICO's" Mull hull was tight, the windows leaked like crazy, especially when they were halfway underwater beating up the City Front in 30 knot of wind. Not as much pumping an an older wooden Knarr, but close.

As part of the Newport 30 Association it was my privilege to visit Gary Mull's office in Alameda once in a while to discuss modifications to the Newport 30s as a class and other Newport 30 business. Most of the time the meetings became tall tale sessions around cups of cappuccino laced with a little something. Too bad I don't drink coffee or anything stronger! Later on when my second "Mull-hull" was a Santana 22 after Mull passed away, I competed for the "Cappuccino" Cup" which was an old Gary Mull cappuccino machine transformed into a trophy. I came close, but never took the old coffee pot home. -- Pat

 

[Black Jack]

Once i get this mull together - I am going to have the Aeolian challenge the Vallejo yacht club's Pretty Penny for the Larry Knight cup. They forgot it belongs back in Alameda at the Aeolian. If we loose we will get them an expresso maker and something to mix in with it. There still is a designated place on the trophy shelf at the AYC for it...

 

[Gamayun]

I don't know anything about the Mull 30, but I have Gary Mull's Freedom 38, so it must be a great boat, right?! Since I have never given up a well-loved boat for another, I can't imagine the philosophical quandary you face, but I'd like to think you'll find an owner who is going to show the old girl some grand new adventures and a wonderful new life.

 

[Black Jack]

Did a sea trial on last Sunday. What a boat! I shouldn't have trouble to bringing her home. I have 2 decent headsails which I picked up from Pineapple plus a old 3/4oz spinnaker which luckily fits the boat. It going to be a fun ride!

Moreover, I think I found a good guy to take my Nichols. I will keep track of him and her giving them the help to learn, keep and sail that sweet boat.

 

[Black Jack]

Got an email from the guy I sold BlackJack to. Black Jack's owner wants to give me back the boat as it is an unfortunate liability of time and distance. He is currently in Italy under covid restrictions for 4 or 5 months more. He had hired a guy to do some substantial work but the rascal absconded to Mexico with the entire bundle for the job but just after he used a reciprocating saw removing cockpit to the hull and leaving open the hull. The super old boat is now open and winter coming and her status is critical - she either needs to be sealed up and taken to the yard or be called to scrap.

Black Jack (formerly named Corsair) a 1957 Barney Nichols 28' Buccaneer was a boat that i had taken from a MJ hydroponic station status to fine day sailor, spending many hundreds of hours doing all the work myself, poured love, meager slush fund boat dollars all while trying to raise my young son, keeping my wife happy and trials of self employed work. I purchased her nearly 2 decades ago in my own return to sailing after taking a significant time away from boating. For me she is now is three boats ago. I still regard her very fondly and remember her for her ease of sail, turn speed for her age and the quality of her advanced marine plywood build and pioneering cold molding techniques that later became commonplace. Barney Nichols a local legend in his own right, her designer and builder of what was one of the best one design classes in the bay area in the later 50s and early 60 help shepherd the golden age of sailing for our area. Many of our heroes and friends who so influential and facilitated our own sailing histories are tied to this little 28 footer. The young Sven Svenson and Barney Nichols worked side by side building her - long before Sven brought his legendary folk boats over from the old country and way before he moved into his own yard. Even Gary Mull a teenager at the time outfitted her in sails, brought booze packages to sway the owners hesitations on the iron keel and costly additions and was along sailing her first trials. It was these boats that help shape Mull and endear himself to the most influential yacht clubs that help launch his shingle and shaped his young reputation.

Tomorrow I am going to sail over from Alameda to presidio yacht club to plastic shrink wrap her hole and cover her in tarps. As I do, I will ensure she has time left and maybe help save her once again. She is one of those boats that is notable not only to me but to all of us and deserves her worth and consideration. I am not doing this for the current owner but for an old friend who gave me so much joy and and some of the greatest sailing moments on the bay.

 

[AntsUiga]

Tough situation to find someone willing to take it on. Maybe direct some effort to the Spaulding Center or some place where there is more enthusiasm than money.

Wish you well. It sounds like the boat deserves it?

Ants

 

[AlanH]

There was a Nichols. Buccaneer at Petes Harbor, when I was just getting back into sailing.Back when Pete had a yard there, I remember seeing her out of the water..hard chine, black hull, full keel, old skool rig. She's worth saving, but wow, it will take the right person.