Ebay Pirate

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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www.keepturningleft.co.uk
My neighbour, a tree surgeon, has just bought a17 foot Pirate Express unseen from ebay for £500

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/pirate17/photos.html

the actual boat is in Poole Harbour

he is going to use my trailer to tow it to Brightlingsea because it is cheaper and a better place to sail

anyone out there with any experience with them

anything to look out for with them - keels, cabin compression, deck/hull joint?

Dylan
 
Hope his keels are OK It's suggested that moving the shrouds back or installing a backstay helps with mast pre-bend and sail shape.
I would go the backstay route although they warn about fouling the roach of the main. Maybe a masthead crane to move the backstay out a bit. I looked after it's bigger sister, the Prelude, for a friend. They are well built, but it seems some Pirates are home-built.
 
Ian proctor design.

PBO's mini review says sails well.

I suspect quite a few were home built from kits. It was a popular option in "those days". It means standards can vary enormously.
 
I had one. Great boat - it's a slightly shorter (17'3") version of the Prelude (19').

Originally available as a fin or lifting keel, the Express version (marketed by Express newspapers) was a later bilge keel version. The parallel keels aren't the best solution for performance, but our boat's capability impressed me - A dry boat even in quite boisterous conditions. We sailed ours all over the place, and were always the smallest boat in the anchorage.

A basic but quite practical interior (though may vary) for weekending. Ours had a very comfortable double berth (though with the mast suppot coming down in the middle of it!).

The rig is simple and perfectly adequate, in my view.

As people have said, many home completed, so very variable fit-out. Ours was very good, but probably many are a bit rough.
 
LittleSister said:
A basic but quite practical interior (though may vary) for weekending. Ours had a very comfortable double berth (though with the mast support coming down in the middle of it!).
Click to expand...

Not sure if it was the same boat, but that feature was the subject of an "... or are you just pleased to see me" joke recently...

Mike.
 
At that price, why worry? Just sail it & see what happens. Is he borrowing one of your o/b's too? A pair of long oars may suffice in sheltered water.

Even if the interior is a mess, it only needs to provide for dry shelter, a lilo & a small camping stove to make a good daysailer/ weekender for one, maybe two.


Doncha just love e-bay bargains. GP14's & Lasers often cost more than that.
 
It looks really nice - smart interior and even has curtains!
Also looks as though the keels have had shoes fitted to either repair or prevent damage from drying-out.

We had one of these as our first boat many moons ago, kept on a drying mooring at Porthmadog. A really nice boat with good performance and a large and comfortable cockpit for its length.

Looks like a bargain.
 
I own one, that gets used for pottering about, mostly on Hickling Broad.

The keels of the Express Pirate can be a problem as they're full of steel punchings and plyester resin. If water gets in the punchings rust and they tend to erupt upwards through the resin.

The main problem I found with mine (bought for £750 via a broker, with a 2005 Mariner 4HP outboard, stainless steel A-frame for lowering the mast, valid BSS certificate and a couple of months of Broads tolls) was that the foredeck cleat was bolted through the plywood reinforcement for the foredeck with no sikaflex or other goop to waterproof it. All of the plywood had turned to mush, so I had a few weeks of working on my back with my head up the end of the V-berth chiseling it all out, putting in PU foam and a ply backing plate, then laminating over the lot with lots of epoxy. Not to difficult, but not very pleasant (particularly when I managed to epoxy my cap to my forehead with a stray drip).
 
I had one of these 20 years ago and it was a cracking little boat and sailed very well although mine had the twin keels and an iron drop keel which made it about 4 ft 3 ins draft with it down.

There were two pirate versions both made by Ridgeway Marine who also made the Prelude.. As mentioned one was the Express Pirate which was for home completion and I am not sure about the finish of those ie whether there was a headlining kit included or whether it was just bare fibreglass inside. The other was the Ridgeway Pirate and was factory finished. Mine was a Ridgeway Pirate and had an interior plastic or grp moulding for the insides of the boat and head lining and it was pretty well finished for a small cheap boat of that era.
I am not sure how many were made with the twin, twin and drop or just drop keels. The drop keel had an uphaul in the cockpit that had a 6:1 block arrangement and getting the keel up (about 300lb weight I think) was pretty easy.
 
Steve_N said:
Which one are you referring to?

I was referring to Ebay item 320967738633, sold for £500 a few days ago, afloat in Poole harbour. But it was only a guess.
Click to expand...
I was referring to the only one featured in a link on the thread.
If you have posted a link to the one you had found I may have been able to agree with you.
 
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