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New Boat 4 Fauxboat

fauxboat

Race Chair 0.5
Hello SSS Racers.

Just a quick note that in an effort to imitate the cool kids, I paid for a boat I thought, at the time, I could afford. My cunning plan was to secretly buy it, have a yard paint it and fix it up a bit for me, then show up as a surprise entry at a race with a good boat name, in hope it would give people a smile. Then I'd take out RC volunteers for crewed beercans or low key events. (Many volunteers are boatless and unwanted as crew, so they volunteer as a way to be adjacent to the water they cannot be on.) And I could loan it to RC volunteers for Red Bra and the like.

Of course the "surprise" part meant not asking for nearly enough advice, the foreseeable consequence of which is getting into a hole.

Immediately on purchase I took the boat to a yard to have work done, since I spend weekdays at the day job and mostly fill my weekends volunteering, plus I am confident in my inabilities. Out of ignorance I asked for things without realizing what all I was asking for, and the risk of overruns in cost or completion date. It's been there every since, and to my extremely naive eye it was getting further from sail-able, as hardware was coming off faster than other easily-visible work was getting done. (I've since been re-assured that hardware removal, rather than taping like you'd tape a room in a house, is the good / normal way to paint.) Progress has felt slow, other things that should be fixed have been found, and the cost concerns are sleep depriving.

So, surprise over. I will try to keep the boat name a surprise, but that'll be a grin at best.

Since there is no surprise, I may reach out to some of you for advice. I am in a yard, all the old hardware is off, and I am almost becoming resigned to sitting out Sort of Singlehanded, so I recognize that doing as many fixes and improvements as possible now is attractive. But also insane, see above.

Advice on what to do at the yard vs defer would be helpful.

I have also been advised I can do some of the work myself, and someone's volunteered to be my foremam, for up to the next two weeks, if I want to give it a shot. I've even been told I could accept help. I would have to work on accepting help, since I can't see myself as able to repay it. And on overcoming my own persnicketiness. On the other hand the yard is not charging me lay-days right now because they're currently responsible for all the work, and the moment I touch a sander, every yard delay brings money to the yard --- and my major concern is losing control of cost and completion date.

Yard work, pictures, and DIY proposals attached if anyone wants to pontificate. (I'm uploading a file with a link to discourage the bots a little, so please don't cut & paste here.)

To imitate the cool kids I thought I should also post here. Done!

Thank you for reading.
 

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Richard, I have to hand it to you. Buying a boat!? That is a real leap of faith and I have the utmost respect for your decision. Of course we will help you. You have run our races for years now. Personally? You have driven me crazy with your god damned rules. But buying a boat? That is something else again. And this boat? Total lunacy. From the way you write and rewrite sailing instructions for the SSS races I have gotten the impression that you like a certain degree of control. Well forget all that! Buying a fix-er upper? Taking it to a boat yard? You have entered the land of no control, Richard. Welcome to our world.
 
Congratulations !? :eek: on your purchase.

Boats are a labor of love, needing more time, money and attention than one would expect.

One good day on the water and it all seems worthwhile!

Maybe have the yard do what cannot be done with the boat in the water, then , once back in the water do what you can with some help.
 
Sounds like you are digging yourself out of a hole. Cost - Time - Quality/Safety/Performance … pick two, but you can't have all three. The experience of readers on this website should be a great resource and everyone respects and admires your tireless efforts. There must be 1000+ boat-years of experience in SSS and I only have about three of them; but I have been in your position and I certainly appreciate the heroic amount of time you and your team spend to organize the races I have enjoyed.
1. I made a spreadsheet for your SoW. Might be useful to use something like this and score each line item: Cost - Time - Quality/Safety/Performance. Enter hours and dollars for everything, add them up for different options and then double all costs and time estimates.
2. If it were me, I'd make one big decision now before committing: paint topside and deck or not. Consider the option to defer but take advantage of what you have already done as it looks like you have already removed absolutely everything. Take photos and crawl everywhere to see how easy it is to get to every bolt above and below deck. Then consider the following: drill out, epoxy backfill and re-drill every hole. Make backing plates for everything. Replace every flat head with a hex head bolt that will make it possible to do future work by yourself. Then just put everything back together for now. You might want to think about using butyl instead of sealant for now so you can get things apart more easily if and when you decide to to that. Why would you defer painting above the waterline? You are not going to be happy with the way paint looks relative to even faded and thinned gelcoat, especially if you rush it, do it outside, and its your first paint job.
3. What are you trying to get to? A boat that wins at any cost, a day boat that can do the in-Bay races, go offshore, create a dock queen? How safe does the boat have to be? I'd be more worried about the "keel smile" you mention than the topside paint, for example. Have you looked hard at the important stuff: the keel, the deck, the hull.
4. Looks like you are by the fence at BMC. I tried to figure out what you have from the one photo looking up at the hull. It doesn't look like a small Cal or Catalina because of the keel, windows and rudder. My knowledge of sub-34 boats is weak but it looks like a late 70's or early 80's? I had to make decisions like yours on my 1975 Cal 34 and I decided I didn't want pretty or fast, but I wanted safe and that really helped guide everything I did. I decided I wanted a boat that was more old Toyota than Land Rover (Westsail) or Ferrari (J Boats). If you dont have to be pretty then maybe you will never paint the topside. Maybe you spend that money on sails and safety equipment. This is what car restoration has found: they have turned away from eye-watering costs of perfection to accept the patina of an old car.
5. Before your trip to Blue Pelican, take pictures of everything on the boat with a ruler. For example, you might want to cover your instrument holes on the bulkhead with a piece of teak from the back corner at Blue Pelican before you decide what gear you want to put on the bulkhead. Blue Pelican has changed, the best stuff is now not displayed, but you can see it on the website. To get your hardware consider buying second hand, the 316 stainless from wrecked or refit boats has usually been superior to anything I can get today.
6. I could go on, but you should make that big decision about paint first.

Good luck! Mike
 

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