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...

Something that pisses me off...

So there's this guy who wants to buy a (new to him) boat to sail off into the sunset. As it happens, he also has a YouTube channel that has quite a few followers and more often than not his videos are both entertaining, as well as educational. 

Just to be fair, I'll point out that his last boat rehab/refit was sometimes painful to watch due to his rather steep learning curve and boat building skills but in the end he got the boat launched and cruising in a reasonable amount of time and it floated right side up.

He's a guy who learns from his mistakes which is one of the most important boat building skills and surprisingly rare. Thus armed, I expect his new boat will come together successfully in a reasonable amount of time and within a sustainable budget.

Apparently, there are a lot of people who don't share my opinion that his current choice of project boat makes sense as his comments sections are rife with naysayers telling him that he can't, it will all end in tears, and if he takes on the project they'll go watch some other channel more attuned to their idea of how to choose a boat.

From my experience, naysayers have seldom, if ever, built or refit a boat. There basic mindset seems to be "If I can't do something, nobody can" so they spend their time telling people how to live their lives and take exception when you go your own way.

The sad part is that the naysayers (AKA assholes) exert a relentless pressure that can be a real obstacle to getting a project completed. Back when I was building the first Loose Moose, I was getting so much negative input about the rig that I lost confidence and found myself in a depressed death spiral that turned a two-day job into a month-long stasis where almost nothing got done.

The project in question is a Wharram cat, that for me at least, seemed like a pretty good boat to fix up. Sure it looked like a dog's breakfast that would require some money and a serious application of hard work but it looked doable. Just for the record, I've built a Wharram, know how they go together, and have finished quite a lot of boat projects, so I have some idea of what I'm talking about. If his project boat was up for sale here for twice as much as he paid, I'd have bought it in a second.

Wharram cats are designed to be both affordable and easy to build. While they may not be the flavor of the month, they are good boats. Why they seem to offend so many is a mystery to me but then you just can't fix stupid.

Anyway, check out the project because I expect it will be a fairly interesting, educational, and entertaining series. I know I'll be keeping an eye on it and rooting for a successful end because I just love to see naysayers pissed off.

a great conversion...

 As always, Atom Voyager takes an outboard conversion to what I can only term as 'High Art'.

Seriously, this is the way to do it.

Putting together a VolksCruiser on a budget...

I'm sure if you're considering getting a boat and going cruising on a budget you'll be getting a shit load of push-back from just about everybody that it just can't be done. Kind of a bummer that.

The truth is, there's a plethora of good inexpensive sailboats just waiting for someone to find them and get them back in cruising trim. Of course, they'll tell you that a cheap boat is just a hole in the water that you throw money in while you get too old to go cruising.

Sound familiar?

I'll point out that there is, sadly, plenty of fodder for those opinions. I've seen boat projects take twenty years to get to a point where they're abandoned. Way too many projects that lost control of their spending and become an economic ball and chain that insures the project will never come to fruition and let's not forget the boat projects that led to the breakup of relationships. So, yeah, there's a lot of evidence that building or refitting a boat can become a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

But, does it really have to be that way?

The thing is, while I've seen lots of failed projects swirl down the ceramic bowl of disaster, I've seen lots that didn't. Have you ever wondered why so many people fixate on things negative rather than the positive where boats and boat projects are concerned?

Most folk I've known with projects that went south made fairly obvious mistakes that, with a bit of forethought, could have been easily avoided. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.

For the next few posts we'll be delving into various positive and negative situations and how not to fall into the various traps and pitfalls that lie in wait for an intrepid soul embarking on a boat project.

 

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.

 

Not a project you should be looking at...

For about a year or so I've been rowing by this Maria vintage hurricane catamaran and wondering how I'd go about sorting out it's issues. Of course, that was before it sank...

Again.

Bringing such a boat back from the dead is a lot easier than most folks think but a lot harder and more expensive if you don't have a plan, needful skills, and the time/money to complete the boat in a timely manner. Success on such a project is all about money and time.

The thing is your plan tends to shape the cost of the project while your skill-set defines the time and together they all add up to whether a project is viable or not.

The guy who owns the boat told me he'd paid $15K for the boat which in my mind was way too much for a hurricane boat that had been holed in a few places, sunk, and without a rig. While repairing the beast was pretty straightforward the time and costs involved made it just too expensive to be flippable for a profit which pretty must killed any interest in the boat for me. However, the owner had plans to rebuild it as a houseboat/hangout zone so it sorta/kinda made sense.

Of course, time being a factor, the fact that damaged boats will continue to degrade until they're fixed, and boat left alone afloat is an evil cocktail that tends sneak up quickly and ruin your whole day/week/month/year before you have a chance to say WTF!

That said, I'm sure a lot of folks would look at such a project and think it's a VolksCruiser just waiting to happen with a little sweat, a few gallons of epoxy, and some paint.

I'll delve into the why it ain't VolksCruiser material in a couple of days.

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 project you may want to follow...

A Cape Dory 27 gets the AtomVoyager treatment.

Like all of his refits I'll be taking notes...

Brass tacks...

Refitting an old boat on a budget, while possible, is no easy task. It's also a lot of work and in our current world real work is not something a lot of people are comfortable with.

It also takes a certain amount of brain power. While I won't throw stones in that direction there are a lot of people these days who are somewhat challenged in that area.

Which, dear reader, tells me that if you're reading this you're not only have the needful work ethic, basic math skills, and intelligence to fit out an old boat and go sailing.

The good news is that inflation and a shortage of boat slips is making a lot of excellent boats available. The downside is that you need to be able to find a place to put your boat while refitting and that might actually be the most expensive part of the project.

Maybe it's good time to point out that doing an unnecessary refit on a boat is the height of silliness. Any refit is going to be expensive and time consuming.

Sure, we all want to make a boat our own and sort out things the way you want them to be. That said, sailboats are mobile and, providing the boat is seaworthy, can be sailed to a place where a refit is both feasible  as well as affordable.

Some folks are lucky enough to have a big yard or access to a usable site but the current boatyard rents/charges or extortionate marina practices make sailing off to a more hospitable location a good idea.

Which is a roundabout way of saying finding an affordable mostly turnkey boat with minimal issues should be your current mantra. Bottom line it's a whole lot easier to fix up a boat in good shape than one that's landfill fodder.

Somebody making sense...

There's a really good post over on Sailing Anarchy dealing with sorting out an Alajuela 38 for voyaging that makes all kinds of sense which you should check out.

That said, it's a forum and like all forum threads there 's some push back as well as Monday morning quarterbacking but I'm sure you can separate the good from the bad...

You're still here?

A link you need...

PBO (AKA Practical Boat Owner) has been a great resource for me since I first started reading the magazine in 1980. While, these days, I feel their subscription rates are now akin to piracy but their website still has excellent content.

For example, this simple how to rehab a sailboat article is just what most folks considering an inexpensive boat that needs work should read.

You're still here?

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.

a quick checklist...

I'm pretty sure that all of us have a quick list of things desired in a VolksCruiser and mine runs something like this...

• Somewhere between 26 to 36 foot
  
• Shoal draft
• Well built 
• Reasonable condition
• Good performance
  
• Simple or no rig
• Sensible and comfortable interior
• Outboard propulsion
• Enough displacement to live on
• Reasonably priced
  

Pretty simple really. 

Offhand, I'd be very interested in seeing what your lists looks like.

Tomorrow I'll expand on what those check points mean in greater detail...

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...

 

This might be interesting...

When I lived in Paris the Super Arlequin was a sailboat that caught my interest so this web series looks like it might be interesting.

For those wanting to know more about the Super Arlequin in the meantime...

A VolksCruiser project you might want to follow...

 An Albin Ballad project worth checking out...

What about freedom from bespoke Yacht wood butchery...

Tool Guyd had a post on a very interesting tool chest the other day...

Now, I'll admit to admiring the art involved in the design and building of an over $1500-dollar tool box but appalled at just how impractical it really is as a tool box. 

Some obviously has got their form follows function manta ass-backwards.

Which has what to do with VolksCruisers exactly?

For starters, I love working with wood and I understand that whether you're building a guitar or a boat it is best to have some standards where quality is concerned. In my opinion if you're not doing a good job you really shouldn't bother.

That includes boat interiors.

The problem sets in where all of a sudden you're being told that the sort of finish you should be doing is akin to a Stradivarius violin or other works of art. Which is not that I object to building works of art but living in a work of art is problematic especially when it's a cruising boat.

Just like the $1500-dollar tool chest it's simply not practical in the real world. Or, to be more precise, it's just silly.

A good cruising boat need to be practical and easily cared for What it should not have  the sort of Bespoke Baroque woodwork where form is more important than function. 

Here's a well built simple chart table that I really like.

It's practical and does the job. No complicated woodwork, no exotic wood species, or ten coats of varnish that needs to be maintained. In terms of design it is actually quite refined as there is nothing there that's not earning its keep.

Or as a one of my design teachers would say when he thought a design was especially praiseworthy.

"Now that's a clean design."

 

Why $5K or less?

Yesterday’s post generated quite a few questions, with the largest number being why was I limiting my search to boats selling for $5000 dollars or fewer. 

Well, for starters, I find boats in that price bracket a lot more interesting than more expensive ones. You’re more likely to find a deal at that price point since folks, selling boats at that price, have a good reason to be selling, which motivates them.

Talking to sellers, you’ll find good reasons for selling that have nothing to do with the boat being a dog. There are many reasons where the owner needs to move. They’ve bought another boat, or can’t justify spending money on marina fees for a boat that they seldom, if ever, use.

Since I expect any used boat will require some work and expense, so I’ll always add the cost of the boat to arrive at the overall budget. A $5k boat will have another $5k budgeted for any needful work and so on. Which doing the math equals a potential $10K boat.

When I look at a fixer upper, I budget what I think it will cost, then double the number just in case. Which, more often than not, is just around the purchase price. The goal is not to spend the entire budget but to have a refit fund to deal with expenses that the project generates.

Just to be clear; I’d never buy a $5K boat if I felt I was actually going to spend another $5K to sort out problems. It’s simply good practice to budget a safety factor. Keep in mind many project boats are being sold because the seller ran out of money and the project stalled.

More on the subject and an exception soonish...