Centaur Well Saga

aquaplane said:
If you look at Roger's blog www.agentlemansyacht.com 11th August post, I think you are going to be cutting through about where that flat bit is, the old fuel tank support.
The opening in the cockpit sole is below the forward bit of grating. http://www.wamarchitects.co.uk/aengine.html
The back bit of grating is over the fuel tank, where your well will end up.

I'm interested in the cockpit drains through the transom, any pix Roger?
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that is very useful

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cu-6Vontb-4/UgfMrly2qgI/AAAAAAAAKcc/wbEJVw5mxm0/s1600/WP_001519.jpg

and here is one with the engine in

P2251506.jpg


not much room between the back of the tunnel and the support for the rudder I assume

D
 
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The perfect boat.

I started in a Leisure 17, went all over the place, trailed it, sailed it in light and strong winds. Major problem, wife disabled, cant use her legs so due to heeling spent most of her time on the cockpit floor.

Solution, Catamaran. We bought a Cracksman 20' catamaran. V fast Good in light winds, bit scary in strong, trailable, But bugger all accommodation.

Solution, We get a 26' catamaran. loads of accommodation, but it won't sail unless it is a force 4, so that means we have to go out in the lumpy stuffand have to motor in light winds. Also now not trailable, so we are worried to go anywhere in case we get stuck and are lumbered with some big storage bills that we can't afford.

Solution, Now in a Woods Strider Club. Enough accommodation for me in the hulls, nice big cockpit tent with a full sized double bed if I have company, sails in v light winds, ( nice smooth seas )and I can pull it to pieces and trail it back home if I get stuck.

So, Bigger might give you more accommodation and a bit more security in the rough stuff, But it will just move the window for sailing up a few knots of wind, and loose the light wind sailing. So you will having to be using that noisy motor in the best sailing conditions IMHO.

You also loose trailability So instead of bringing it home for winter, you will either be leaving it for long periods or putting in a lot of road miles.

I have nothing against the well thing.
 
all boats are a compromise

Croak said:
I started in a Leisure 17, went all over the place, trailed it, sailed it in light and strong winds. Major problem, wife disabled, cant use her legs so due to heeling spent most of her time on the cockpit floor.

Solution, Catamaran. We bought a Cracksman 20' catamaran. V fast Good in light winds, bit scary in strong, trailable, But bugger all accommodation.

Solution, We get a 26' catamaran. loads of accommodation, but it won't sail unless it is a force 4, so that means we have to go out in the lumpy stuffand have to motor in light winds. Also now not trailable, so we are worried to go anywhere in case we get stuck and are lumbered with some big storage bills that we can't afford.

Solution, Now in a Woods Strider Club. Enough accommodation for me in the hulls, nice big cockpit tent with a full sized double bed if I have company, sails in v light winds, ( nice smooth seas )and I can pull it to pieces and trail it back home if I get stuck.

So, Bigger might give you more accommodation and a bit more security in the rough stuff, But it will just move the window for sailing up a few knots of wind, and loose the light wind sailing. So you will having to be using that noisy motor in the best sailing conditions IMHO.

You also loose trailability So instead of bringing it home for winter, you will either be leaving it for long periods or putting in a lot of road miles.

I have nothing against the well thing.
Click to expand...


you are quite correct

and all boats are a compromise

If I can get the money together to make this happen then a bigger boat for this leg will better

as I said , it will make the waiting more productive

however, if it does not come together then I shall just carry on with Katie L

and have to live with those narrower windows and the tougher conditions down below

I am not big on motoring and in most places the tide gets met two knots

so that is at least 16 miles without using the engine

some of my harbour hops were less than five miles so speed is seldom of the essence

what I need is the 2K Centaur
D
 
chrisbitz said:
The same happened with the sunken trawler, there were posters that very strongly said it will NEVER even float again... And then the went all quiet when it floated and was taken away...
Click to expand...

+1 to this - the only time I have blocked someone on here is because of their continued insensitive responses to that thread.

Naysayers be damned - good luck with your experiment Dylan - hope it comes good! :)
 
Croak said:
So, Bigger might give you more accommodation and a bit more security in the rough stuff, But it will just move the window for sailing up a few knots of wind, and loose the light wind sailing. So you will having to be using that noisy motor in the best sailing conditions IMHO.
Click to expand...

Centaurs are capable of moving in light conditions as long as the sails aren't knackered, which brings us to...
dylanwinter said:
what I need is the 2K Centaur
D
Click to expand...
I think you're in for a long wait; most Centaurs that arrive in this price bracket will have knackered everything, negating the low price. If you actually want a Centaur in a predictable timeframe find another 4k and buy one with a functioning inboard. What you are doing at the moment is daydreaming about an involved and irreversible modification of what will be a knackered old boat which will need money and renovation of other systems before you faff with cutting holes in it; what do you want to do with your spare time, experimental boatbuilding or sailing? I'm quite sure LG's design will work with a well cut in it, but where do your priorities lie?

Can people including photos have a care about the width of images as it renders the forum unreadable; this is getting silly.

Edit to add: Where's this sunken trawler thread then? It's passed me by. I hope my comments are not interpreted as 'don't do this', as they are only meant as 'don't do this unless you've really given it a lot of objective thought'.
 
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penfold said:
Centaurs are capable of moving in light conditions as long as the sails aren't knackered, which brings us to...
I think you're in for a long wait; most Centaurs that arrive in this price bracket will have knackered everything, negating the low price. If you actually want a Centaur in a predictable timeframe find another 4k and buy one with a functioning inboard. What you are doing at the moment is daydreaming about an involved and irreversible modification of what will be a knackered old boat which will need money and renovation of other systems before you faff with cutting holes in it; what do you want to do with your spare time, experimental boatbuilding or sailing? I'm quite sure LG's design will work with a well cut in it, but where do your priorities lie?

Can people including photos have a care about the width of images as it renders the forum unreadable; this is getting silly.

Edit to add: Where's this sunken trawler thread then? It's passed me by. I hope my comments are not interpreted as 'don't do this', as they are only meant as 'don't do this unless you've really given it a lot of objective thought'.
Click to expand...

the image is now a link

so I hope that improves things

I reckon three blokes - one weekend

as for finding the right boat

as I understand it there are a number of centaurs in the back of yards that are in stasis

I can't sail sail that much in the winter because the boat is so far away and I have duck punted every inch of water close to home

either this happens this winter or it goes on the back boiler for an indefinite period

my philosophy has always been sail now.... mither later

so don't worry, if this does not fall into place then I will be carrying on with plan A - which is to sail Katie L which has a reliable engine

unlike the 4k Centaur which almost certainly will not have a reliable engine

as for fixing up a boat.. at the moment I sail with no fixed cooker, no sink, no plumbed water, no wired in electronics of any sort - just a battery and lights, even my nav lights are clip ons. I often sail without any mattress or upholstery, I have sailed for long periods without a bog - as long as it has a reliable engine, a mast that will stay up, somesails and some running rigging then I am in business

don't worry, I will not get distracted

but I have an offer of an engine that should fit, engine, I have a plan, I have blagged some materials and I am looking for the right boat in the right place

three days in.... would have said that was pretty good progress so far

better progress than many would have made

of course I could always join the "it will never work" camp

but where would be the fun in that

D
 
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Penfold is right in my experience. Dylan your 2k Centaur is going to be that price because there is more wrong with it than a duff engine. Take this from one who knows! When I bought my Centaur, for a bit more than 2k, I knew that it needed work, just not how much! It had a reasonable survey and was basically sound but I have counted up the jobs I have done on it and have now got to 60 plus. I have still not got it up to the standard I would like for sailing in Essex never mind Scotland!
I haven't dare work out how much I have spent on it but it is several thousand pounds.
If you want to go sailing then buy a sorted boat with a replacement engine. It will be cheaper. If you want to do the outboard project then fine but expect that getting the boat up to scratch will take much longer than just building the engine well.
In the meantime your KTL project will be on hold so you need to decide which is more important.
Good Luck!
 
Dylan, typing on my iPhone is so slow that several posts were made while I was writing it! You may not need home comforts in your boat and can save time and money that way but you still need to make sure the boat is safe.
As I said before, good luck, whatever you decide to do!
 
Three men, one weekend? So a maximum of 72 man hours if all three worked solidly for 12 hours a day, to lift the boat, strip out the old engine, tank, associated plumbing, wiring, exhaust, controls, hack the hull open, hack the deck open, build the carcass of the well, build a strong attachment interface between well and deck, build a strong attachment interface between hull and deck, fit the well in place, glass the well in place, wait for the whole lot to cure, fair the well hull and deck, wait for the fairing to dry, sand back, repeat, make an outboard mount, fit the motor, mount the fuel tank, run the fuel lines, block up the various now redundant holes in the boat, maybe slap some paint on the finished article, splash it.

Best keep the fag and tea breaks short.
 
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It's funny how the Centaur is deified by many on here but all of a sudden there's going to be a lot of really serious things wrong with a cheap one.

Dylan sails in a no-frills fashion so if the boat's cosmetically rough, that's not going to bother him.

Apart from standing / running rigging and sails, and excluding the otherwise huge concern of an inboard diesel, what else is likely to be wrong with these "brick s***house" boats? Is the keel going to fall off? Are the spars prone to failure?
 
Sorry, I've not read the other I thread in much detail, been too busy replying to the thread about not reading threads.

In a nutshell, I know. Ken Endean's outboard powered Sabre was mentioned...why has a simple transom mounted bracket been ditched in favour of a hole in the bottom instead?
 
dylanwinter said:
no headlining on the E boat, Sonata, Seafarer, slug or duck punt

no worries
Click to expand...

Ah, but there is headlining on a Centaur, and after precisely 25 years the foam backing disintegrates and down it comes like a Bedouin tent. Replacing it is a hell of a job, and you can't simply pull it down and live in the bare hull because the worst and most necessary bit of the job is removing the powdery remains of foam stuck to the hull. You can't stick the old stuff up again either, because the remains of the foam can't be glued.

Replacing a smaller Westerly headlining was without doubt the nastiest job I have ever done, and I write as a man who spent two days recently doing stonework repairs to a 200 year old septic tank in current use.
 
"

Sorry, I've not read the other I thread in much detail, been too busy replying to the thread about not reading threads.

In a nutshell, I know. Ken Endean's outboard powered Sabre was mentioned...why has a simple transom mounted bracket been ditched in favour of a hole in the bottom instead?

good point... but

because it comes out of the water at the moment when you really need it

it is a long way to the transom for starting, fiddling

no prop wash on the rudder

I have tried outboards on brackets

they are fine in the right place

www.keepturningleft.co.uk
 
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Have you actually seen it? It's not one of those usual swing down bracket arrangements...the whole kaboodle is on runners and slides really deep. Ken has also cut the top out of his transom so you can easily get to the controls. It works very, very well and is of course very well proven over thousands of miles...I really think you could do a lot worse than copy his set up as there's really very little difference really between the Centaur and the Sabre. If you are serious about it, I could probably scan you a copy of an article he wrote in the Sabre Association handbook?
 
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