a bit of reinvention...

Truth be told, there's not a lot of difference between most of the classic plastic designs and when you look at a CAL 34, Columbia 34, or a Whatever 34 it's easy to see that all of the designs tend to cover the same bases. Since they all use the same rig, the same accommodation plan, the same general construction, and the same level of quality, it makes it hard to tell them apart.

Of course, the main reason we find ourselves in this same old same territory is that in the late sixties/early seventies, the general consensus was that this is what worked and worked well. The simple fact that there are thousands of classic plastics still floating right side up and sailing backs that up.

Still, I wonder what Lapworth, Tripp, Irwin, and Morgan would have changed if they had a chance to change the mold they'd confined themselves to.

Being that we're now in 2023 with a world balancing on the edge of several cataclysms of our own creation, it's way past time to rethink boats in general and classic plastics in particular.

One of my favorite films is  Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s "Amélie" which I'm sure you've all seen. A classic for sure but Jean-Pierre Jeunet felt that he could have a bit of fun through reinvention...

And if you can reinvent a classic film, what's keeping you from doing the same to a classic sailboat design?

Within a reasonable budget of course.

Some thoughts on the CAL 34...

It's come to my attention that there are several CAL 34s going cheap (as in less than $3K). This got me thinking about how I'd go about VolkCruiserizing them today knowing what I know now after living aboard and sailing "So It Goes" for ages.

For starters, there's a CAL 34 going for $1k which is floating right side up, has a mast, and an engine that does not work. I expect there are a bunch of other issues but at less than the cost of the lead in the keel $1,000 would still be a lot of boat for the money.

My first thought would be to get rid of the mast and rig since I'm sure that the rig is way past its sell-by date. The mast could be salvaged and I could sell it for $500 or so which is close to what I could build a new mast in terms of materials. Since I'm sure I'd also have to replace the dreaded I-beam, it would also be a great time to beef up the compression post to support a serious tabernacle arrangement if keeping the boat as a sloop or change the location of the step in aid of a junk or lug rig.

Then there's the non-functioning motor which I'd replace with an Atom Voyager inspired outboard installation with either a 6HP gas or electric outboard which is really all one requires to move the boat when needful. While I'm at it, I'd seriously consider moving the rudder back to the transom which would improve the balance and make incorporating a simple self-steering trim tab both cheap and easy.

As far as the interior goes, the Lapworth design works just fine and while I'm sure it would need some work and sprucing up, it wouldn't be difficult or expensive.

The rest just comes down to cosmetics.

Do the work yourself, use affordably sourced materials, avoid mission creep, and you'll have a pretty awesome boat for $7.5K or less.

I'll go into a bit more detail in the next post...

how size is an interesting thing...

My recent post on the Beachcomer 25 produced some emails of the "A 25-foot boat is too small to cruise or live on" variety and a fair bit of outrage.

I get that. A 25-foot sailboat is, after all a small boat. That said, in my own defense, I'll point out that not all 25-foot boats are created equal.

 

Take the Harlé designed Sangria for instance. It's a 25-foot boat with many transatlantic voyages and Atlantic circles to its credit. It's seaworthy, comfortable, and a reasonable solution for their needs. I'll be the first to admit it's not a boat for everyone nor should it be.

Compared to the Sangria the Beachcomer 25 has a much more comfortable interior design and compared to the Sangria's 3,968 pound displacement its 5,300 displacement translates to a kiss more comfort and better weight carrying. The other 25-foot boat mentioned in the post, the Irwin10/4, with its beam of 10'4" and displacement of 7,000 pounds makes for a very big 25-foot boat.

The bottom line is I'd happily set off across the Atlantic in the Sangria, Beachcomer, or the Irwin 10/4 as they'd all get me where I wanted to go in a manner I was comfortable with.

Which boat would I choose if I had a choice? They're all good designs but, as much as I like the Sangria, I'd choose either the Beachcomer or the 10/4 simply based on their shallower draft. For me the length does not mean as much as the rig, draft, and overall fitness to do whatever I want it to.

an almost cunning plan...

There's a J-29 up in the frozen north that I've been thinking about quite a bit. For those unacquainted with the design it looks something like this...

It, like most of it's J-Boat brethren, is a boat designed and built to be competitive so you may be wondering why the hell am I looking at it?

Well, you might say, I have a sorta/kinda cunning plan for a boat of this ilk.

For starters there's not much of an interior so it would be very easy to do a new performance cruising interior and as long as we're installing a neat little galley we might take the opportunity to do a new mast step while we're at it.

A new VolksCruiserish rig spelled junk or lug would make for a neat testbed and as there are quite a few J-29s about it owned by folks who'd enjoy sailing against a J-29 with a different (some might call it freakish) rig it would be an awesome educational endeavor and I'd enjoy it.

As the boat in question is selling for not very much I'd expect to be able to the needful mods and suchlike to keep the finished boat a kiss less than $10.5K.

The only issue that keeps me from jumping on a plane cash in hand to get is the fact that the J-29 has almost six feet of draft and that's not going to work for my cruising plans.

So it does go.

That said if draft is not a deal breaker for you the J-29 is a pretty great candidate for a performance VolksCruiser and you might want to keep an eye out for a good deal on one.

 

sweat equity...

There's an interesting forum thread on the current asking price of a Pearson 367 on the Junk Rig association forum you might want to check out.

Sure fixing up an older cheap boat might seem like a lot of work but, done with some care and a prudent budget, will greatly increase the value of the boat in question.

Better yet, it recycles materials that would not be recycled and just windup as landfill.

A little sensible sweat equity makes a whole lot of sense/cents.

a quick thought or two...

Apparently, there are so many old boats out there that it's affecting new boat sales. Think about that for a moment.

What does the longevity of classic plastic say about how well these boats were made so that in spite of abuse and neglect they're still floating and right side up?

Just sayin'...

How low can you go?

Sure, I know that there's a helluva lot of peer pressure to adhere to consumerist dogma but, just for a moment think about what you can afford rather than what you think others will opine on what you need to spend to be accepted.

I see a lot of folks selling the idea that "price is no object" but buying boats that are a fraction of the cost and pretending they're following the party line.

Know something?

They get away with it because most everyone is doing the same thing and no one's going to bust them because most everyone is part of the con.

The sordid truth is that most boat folk, by their very nature, have their asses firmly planted in the cheap seats. The problem only arises when they're not honest about it.

Worse is when they use the cost of stuff as a means of letting you know how much every-damn-fucking-thing-on-their-boat cost in a misguided ruse to impress you. As someone who has sold a lot of marine gear to these wankers I'll let you know that, more often than not, they lie about what they paid for those winches or top-of-the-line electronics.

Maybe it's just me but there's something pretty off when it reaches that point.

Know what impresses me? When someone comes up with a way of doing things that involves common sense and thought to make the whole sailing off into the sunset more comfortable, affordable and sustainable. On the other hand some guy bragging that he spent lots of money to impress me or as a put down just hits the pity note.

The other day when I mentioned that I was building yet another Tortoise someone pointed out that He'd spent $12K on his dinghy but if I can only afford a two sheet dinghy maybe I shouldn't bother until I could afford something better.

Yeah, it sorta/kinda pissed me off. Still, the Tortoise makes more sense for me than a 12-foot RIB with a 25HP outboard and it would be real dumb in a world where gas costs $5.50 to have such a beast.

Over on Boat Bits today I mentioned a Newport 28MK2 that's selling for $2.5K and appears to be in pretty good shape. Researching the design a bit more the Newport appears to be one of those designs that seems to have a pretty good price and is firmly in the "good bang for the buck" price niche. Plus it would make a very good cruising boat. What's not to like?

The important thing to keep in mind is that hardly anyone cares what sort of boat you cruise in. No one who isn't an asshole is going to ask you what it costs and, as long as the boat is shipshape, you'll still be invited to potlucks and suchlike (if that's your thing).

So, how low can you go?

an uplifting story of sorts...

As far as the R2AK was concerned there were only four boats I was rooting for. One of which, Loustic SuperSonic, was my favorite. Seriously, how you could not be engaged to the story of a couple buying an old Santana 20 sight unseen, arriving days before the races start, and having to get the boat race ready seems like an impossible accomplishment. Throw in the whole cobbling together a human powered pedal propulsion system as well and, all of a sudden, we're in heroic territory.

More on Loustic SuperSonic at the R2AK website.

about displacement...

The big issue with a lot of possible VolksCruisers is that there a bit challenged where displacement is concerned. Here's an example...

One of my favorite small cruising boats is the Balboa 26 designed by Lyle Hess. It's small, shoal draft, seaworthy and has a considerable amount of room/livability for its size. The problem is that while you can shoehorn all the needful stuff into a boat with a displacement of 3,600 pounds it's just not designed to carry the needful stuff's weight. A fact which will adversely affect the boats performance. It's a displacement issue.

Now, here's another Hess design that might look familiar...

 

Hess's 26-foot Falmouth Cutter is a whole different story. While it's the same size in terms of length it's on a whole different playing field with a displacement of 12,000 pounds. Fact is, the amount of ballast in the Falmouth Cutter (3,708 pounds) is greater than the entire displacement of the Balboa 26 (3,600 pounds).  Suffice to say that the Falmouth Cutter will happily carry all your needful stuff.

The downside, and yes there's always a downside, is that the cost of a boat is mostly based on its weight/displacement which is why the boat cost differential is so great between the two boats.

Since I'm on a roll, here's another Hess design, the Balboa 27/8.2, that you might want to check out. As it's a foot longer than the Balboa 26, a few inches beamier with 1300 pounds more displacement which makes it a much better VolksCruiser choice than the Balboa 26 when all things are added up. 

 

When looking for and comparing boats it's important to factor in the displacement to the mix especially with boats in the 30-foot and under variety. My experience tells me that the Goldielocks zone for displacement on a cruising sailboat for a couple is going to be somewhere between 7,000 and 12,000 pounds. For a quick reference our CAL 34 has a displacement of 9,500 pounds and works just fine.

Next up we'll finish my check list and what I may have left out...

So what condition is it in...

I’m obsessive in monitoring the used boat market, especially where inexpensive VolksCruiserish candidates are concerned. I find the used market insane and trying to make sense of it is an ongoing conundrum that is entertaining.

One thing I’ve learned so far is there is zero rhyme or reason where the cost of boats is concerned. The best description I can come up with is that it’s bat-shit crazy.

However, armed with a bit of knowledge, we can use the current situation to our advantage.

Face it, it’s really all about the condition of the boat.

A lot of cheap boats are in terrible condition. If one look tells you to look elsewhere, look for another boat.

There are many cheap boats which are ready to go, that you can take out for a sail, and mostly everything works. I say mostly because I’ve yet to find a boat anywhere where everything works.

Most cheap boats will fall somewhere between these examples. It’s up up to you to make sense of what condition they’re in.

Things I look for in a boat are cleanliness, lack of clutter, workable systems, and upkeep. Since most sailboats are built well, you’re mostly looking for problems from previous owners rather than faults in the construction.

To be honest, I’d much prefer a boat stripped of owner improvements or a gutted interior, providing it was clean, and I don’t have to pull stuff out of the boat to fix stuff.

So, here are my thoughts on grading condition…

I’ll give the boat a 10 if it’s floating, has a dry bilge, is clean, and most everything appears to work. This includes being able to take the boat for a sail and if there’s a motor, it works.

A boat gets a 9 or lower for everything on my list that where it falls short. So a boat that is not clean, has a wet bilge, and the electricity does not work, would get a 7. The trick is to be ruthless and have a firm low number (in my case “5”) which is when you go look at another boat.

Obviously, a project boat is a whole different kettle of fish. I’ll be doing a series on how to cope with a project, but as there are so many boats that are close to turnkey for small money, I’d advise an affordable boat that is in a working condition.

size matters...

A very long time ago we were rafted up in Honfleur and got invited to have tea and cookies on a Westerly Tiger. It's a nice memory of a half-dozen people chatting about boats inside a very nice, small boat.

As it happens, I saw a Westerly Tiger for sale up in Seattle for $1K and a lot of my positive reaction to the boat is related to that one evening of drinking tea, eating biscuits, and pleasant conversation.

I mention this because most people feel a 25-foot boat is far too small for any sort of cruising and should be just for day-sailing and the occasional weekend at anchor. I'll even go along with them and suggest that if carrying around a lot of  'stuff' is an important part of your cruising style, then a 25-foot boat is not going to work for you.

On the other hand, if you're on a budget, a 25-footer is going to cost you a whole lot less to buy, cruise, and maintain than a bigger boat.

Size matters.

One of the reasons you see so many nice boats selling for not a lot of money is the simple fact that marina and associated costs are nuts in most places. So they go on the market because the outgoing costs are greater than the value of owning a boat they only use once in a while. A situation so bad, in fact, that far too often it makes more sense to give away a boat to stop the associated hemorrhage of money.

The problem, of course, is that cruising boats of any size are not a great vehicle to sit in a marina and run up bills. They're designed to cruise.

While it's going to cost you money to cruise, you won't have the monthly slip rent taking a huge bite out of your budget. For the most part, you'll be able to anchor, and while more and more destinations are starting to charge for anchoring, the beauty of cruising is that it's surprisingly easy to sail to places that don't. 

Maintaining a smaller boat is a lot less expensive. Looking at the cost of haul-outs and bottom paint it does not take a math genius to figure out that a couple of weeks on the hard is going to be a lot less painful than a bigger boat. Our CAL34 reminds me of that fact every time I even think about the current costs involved.

There are a lot of 25-30-foot boats that will fulfill the sleeps two, feeds four, and drinks six checklist of what you need in a small cruising boat, just like the Westerly Tiger, providing you are not addicted to carrying around copious amounts of stuff you seldom use.

Worth thinking about...

and in the "no good cheap boats out there" department...

I get a lot of email pointing out that, as far as some are concerned, a good cheap boat is nearly impossible to find. So, let's look at a good cheap boat...

The boat in question is the first boat that caught my interest in the PNW Tempest search of Craig's List for sailboats. Three things stood out.

It's a San Juan 7.7 designed by Don Clark and a boat I'm familiar with. It also happens to be located close to a relative which could have a lot of advantages. The price at $750 is cheap and it appears to be in decent shape.

One of the nice things about a sailboat that is only 25-feet is that there is very little to be wonky that needs fixing and whatever does is not going to cost silly money to sort out.

The boat is engineless but all it needs is a 5-HP outboard and a used two-stroke shouldn't cost more than $250 which brings the cost to an even $1000.

A couple of weeks of full-time labor would be all that's really needed to upgrade the interior and sort out any needful issues it might have. Say another $250-$350 in materials.

Of course, that's doing the work yourself and being able to devote 100% of your work to doing the needful jobs at hand. An important factor as fixing up a boat in a part time situation increase the time it takes by a factor of 10.

Obviously there are quite a few things I'd add to the mix (such as a pair of beaching legs) but they can all be done later as they are luxuries rather than priorities and can be done at leisure as time allows.

I'll underline that that was just the first boat that came to my attention in an area that always seems to have several good cheap boats listed.

Just sayin'

 

A refit I'm watching...

 

a VolksCruiser design brief...

 
For me the whole budget thing is colored by something the great motion picture camera designer, Raoul Coutard, who designed the pivotal Eclair NPR said when someone asked him how to design a hand holdable self-blimped camera...

"First, you start with a quiet camera."

Over the years I've found this bit of logic adaptable to most things in my life because it simply tells you to look at the core of the problem first. Sadly, a very unpopular method these days...

But, I suppose, we're talking about budgets so to adapt Coutard's thought process to cruising and boats...

"First, you start with an inexpensive boat with simple systems"

Sounds simple does it not? 

Most of the advice I'm given related to budget boats and VolksCruisers in particular tend to go against that simple advice and suggests that one should try and replicate more expensive and complicated boats. This sort of advice, if followed, unsurprisingly results in expensive and complicated boats.

So if we're not going to emulate complicated and expensive boats what should a VolksCruiser be?

First off, since the coat of boats can be measured in size and weight, the a VolksCruiser should be as small and lights as possible. Obviously a 25-foot design is going to be a lot cheaper than a 35-foot design.

The problem is that smaller designs with good accommodation and internal stowage are a lot harder to design than larger boats. Another issue of smaller boats is that they are problematic for things like dinghy stowage and solar panels. On our Cal 34 I only have room for about 500-watts of solar panels and a small nesting dinghy as anything more starts to get in the way of sailing the boat.

One of the biggest issues of turning an old classic plastic boat into a VolksCruiser is that, in most cases, you reach a point where you 're at cross purposes with the designers original concept of what the boat was designed to do. Which, I can attest from personal experience, can be a serious challenge to one's sanity.

Not that it can't be done but it does have it's "coo coo for cocoa puffs" moments and challenges.

Building a VolksCruiser would actually be a lot easier on a couple of levels but as there are not a lot of folks designing VolksCruisers and adapting a stock design is just as problematic as changing a classic plastic into a VolksCruiser without the benefit of the low material costs that you get buying an older boat in a world where a lot of great boats are selling for less than the cost/value of their ballast.

I can think of a number of ways to radically bring down the cost of a new build but they all fly in the face of standard practices, scandalize the neighbors, and you'd wind up being "that guy" who built the freak show boat.

 

Been there, done that, and got the t-shirt.

Still, of late, I've been having some Raoul Coutard moments where a few concepts are morphing into something a bit like a boat...

More about that soonish.

Some changes in an old boat...

Most late 60s and early 70s classic plastic sailboats of the 34-foot variety are actually pretty good boats but exceptionally challenged in the cruising stowage department. It’s not that they are too small but that the long-term cruising stowage was just not part of the design brief.

 

So if you’re looking at buying a classic plastic racer-cruiser for VolksCruising you’re going to have to use some wasted space. On the positive side, most 34ish classic plastics have plenty of wasted space that you can easily work with.

For my 1969 CAL 34, it was fairly easy to add a significant amount of stowage with a little thought. For instance, by raising the floor of the dinette and dinette seats by a foot, which added almost ten cubic feet of storage. Better yet, the raised dinette also improved the view through the port lights so you’re able to have something to look at with your Sunday pancakes.

Since we only need one quarter berth for passages, we use the port quarter berth as a dedicated stowage area. This opened up a considerable space that would otherwise go unused.

As we no longer have an inboard engine on “So It Goes”, the engine area and space just before it became yet another dedicated space for spare materials, batteries, and suchlike.

Last, in the cockpit, we decide to lose most of the cockpit footwell in the forward part of the cockpit. This gave us a cavernous hold for all of our dive gear and other needful boat stuff. That it also decreased the floodable volume of the cockpit was a win/win and increased stowage while making the boat safer.

None of these changes alter the look of the boat radically. They were all fairly simple, cost little, and could apply to most plastic classic boats.

One of my favorite classic plastic sailboats is the Bill Tripp designed Columbia 34 MK 2 CB and I keep my eye out for one of the non-cored versions which would be a great project along these lines.

an old boat to start the year with...

I know I've talked about the Bill Lapworth designed CAL 34 more than a time or two but it is the boat I happen to be sitting on while writing this. 

Back in 1969, when “So it Goes” was new, the boat sold for $15,950. or thereabouts. Today, a turnkey CAL 34 in good shape with no actual issues will set you back somewhere around $15K. Considering it’s a fifty-three-year-old boat, that says a lot.

The CAL 34 is a great example of what makes sense in a VolksCruiser. It sails well with good accommodation and has a reasonable draft (five foot). Plus, it looks like what most folks think a boat should look like.

Truth is, the boat is, all things considered, a pretty brilliant design. Bill Lapworth's use of space is quite the optimum layout, and you’d find that coming up with something better is nigh on impossible. I know I’ve tried to no avail.

I’ll add that the whole looking like what most folks consider a boat’s supposed to look like is no bad thing. Blending in to keep a low profile makes sense for low budget nomadic VolksCruiser folk.

Like most boats of the late 60s and early 70s, the CAL was a well-built sailboat. Their longevity is testament to that fact. Sure, the interior had little in the way of bespoke carpentry, but competently done. Far too many people confuse anything less than a high end furniture finish as somehow being deficient. On a cruising boat, a durable and easily maintained finish just makes a lot more sense.

The mistake most people make when working on a boat like the CAL 34 is to forget just how good a design it is and try to morph the boat into something it’s not. Of course, if you really feel that you need a Hallberg-Rassy you should get one. Trying to make a CAL 34 into a new Hallberg-Rassy is a lost cause you'd want to avoid unless your kink is of the yacht induced masochism variety.

As far as things go, the best practice concerning classic plastic sailboats is to keep the boat as close to what it looked like back when it was new. You might find that getting a brochure is a big help.

Well, maybe best not to emulate the plaid upholstery.

Next up are some changes that would make sense…

and in the "it doesn't sink" department...

Back when I was living in France one of the designs that I seriously considered was the ETAP 23 for use as a minimal envelope blue water cruiser. 

For starters, it's a nice little sailboat. All of the ETAP sailboats had a very nice look partly because of their excellent use of graphics and just the fact that they were all just pretty nice designs.Throw in the fact that they were pretty good in the performance department it's easy to see why they quickly became somewhat hip.

The other reason they were attractive was the fact the ETAPs were unsinkable. Of course, ETAP was not the first builder of boats to come out with sailboats that would not sink but they were the first to my knowledge that was integral to the design. All of the others seemed to be more of an afterthought of the "Let's see how many foam bricks we can cram into the boat?" sort of thing.

That said, the downside of the ETAP unsinkable designs was that it seriously impacted the stowage in a big way. To the point that I really wanted the ETAP 20 there was just no way I could stow enough cruising gear, provisions, and needful tools to sail back to the US OF A with. Hence my fixating on the ETAP 23.

As it happens, Bateaux Magazine on their website has an excellent two part article (part 1 and part two) on fixing up an ETAP 23 or any other small sailboat design for a transatlantic voyage that is well worth your time. Even if you don't read French and have to resort to the hassle of google translate.

A quick link...

Charles Doane  (the Wave Train dude) has an excellent post of the VolksCruiser variety that you should really check out.

Need I say more?

a 26-foot project I'd be all over...

“One of the very best boats ever designed. I based a good part of my design work around the Haida 26. I love that boat.”... Robert Perry

Robery Perry sure knows what he's talking about.

For a variety of reasons I monitor sailboats for sale in a few places and a 26-foot Haida in Washington State popped up on my radar today.

The thing is, back when I was living on a CAL 20, I lusted  for a flush deck Haida 26 that was for sale in the marina which had seduced me with the siren song of go-anywhere possibilities. In other words it was a pretty awesome boat.

The boat was everything my Cal 20 was but bigger and tough in a way that made the idea of sailing off to Hawaii and Japan a much more sensible proposition. However, as a starving film student it was just outside my budget.

Still, It's one of those boats I've always wanted and wonder how things would have turned out if I'd been able to scrape the needful purchase money together.

So, seeing a Haida for sale on Craig's List for only $750 really caught my attention and had me (for a few moments at least) considering buying a plane ticket to Seattle. Hey, it would be nice to have a Pied à l'Eau in the San Juans...

Sure it's a fixer upper and that's not a bad thing. Back in the days I was living on a Cal 20 in Sausalito I spent hours and hours working out how I'd fix up the Haida I was so enamoured with. The fact is that the Haida 26 is a very simple boat and at 26-feet there is actually very little to replace or fix so the cost of fixing it up would be fairly minor if you were doing the work yourself. 

Even having to buy an outboard for it I can't see it taking more than $1500 to put things right.

I recently saw a nice Haida going for $8900 so the fixer-upper VolksCruiser route makes a whole lot of sense if you're able to do it right.

Sadly, it's the wrong coast and time for me and a project for someone else in Washington State who I hope knows what a wonderful boat it is.

It's almost boat show time...

This is about the time of year I perk up and pay attention to the various and sundry pre-boatshow press releases as there are usually some interesting bits of information on where boat design is going.

Take this new boat from Dufour...

It's the smallest boat in the Dufour line which in itself is interesting but the inflatable transom thingy certainly caught my attention.

Whatever it is it is most certainly a bit out of the box and most certainly bears looking into.

By the way, I'm well aware that a new Dufour, no matter how small, is not going to be a potential VolksCruiser until it's at least ten years older and on the used market. So, why the hell am I interested now?

Mostly mostly it's all about new ideas. Boat shows are full of interesting features and (dare I say it?) cunning plans. Some wind up being pretty useless or dumb but a few are real improvements and a minute number become real game changers.

Offhand, I don't think the inflatable transom thingy is a game changer but it is an out-of-the-box idea that could easily be reverse engineered, DIY'd, and retrofitted to a VolksCruiserish boat. 

Which for me makes boat shows and the press releases leading up to them a wonderful source of ready to be purloined ideas that just might make a big difference in the performance or livability of your old classic plastic design.

Need I say more?