i just paid the deposit for my first yacht :) advice appreciated

[blue boy tomas]

hello all,
even though i've been reading you excellent forums for many years i've registered just now. the reason for that is i am looking for advices, feedback about the yacht/ price/ location. i am flying to langkawi in 10 days and i need to prepare for voyage back to europe. but the first question would be- does anyone know surveyor with ultrasound tester in malaysia/thailand. the second one would be- how you would prepare her for voyage back to europe and when and which passage you would choose. I have sailed atlantic and the seas but not asia. all views are more than welcome. here she is http://www.apolloduck.com/image.phtml?id=155075&image=1
i've never been happier
your tomas

 

[blue boy tomas]

anyone?

 

[Ubergeekian]

how you would prepare her for voyage back to europe ...

Good luck. Looks like a cracking boat.

 

[Tranona]

This is a massive undertaking - and guess if you have to ask the questions you should not be doing it! You are, presumably aware of pirate activity that makes going up the Red Sea a very risky enterprise. You may find a post on the liveaboard forum gets a bit more response, although few people cruising that area post on there.

As to getting your steel hull checked, doubt you will find a yacht surveyor there with the necessary expertise, but more likely you will find somebody in commercial shipping or the oil industry with the necessary equipment.

Presumably if you are bringing the boat back to the UK/EU you have determined that you can actually import it.

Good luck with your project.

 

[E39mad]

Ensure the surveyor knows what you plan to attempt should you proceed. At £10,000 it is cheap and it is an old boat - I would strongly suggest that should you purchase post survey that you sail it locally for while to see if everything is "up to task" before deciding whether to sail it back or put it on top of a container ship!

 

[Lady Campanula]

"If you can keep the ocean on the outside, move the thing and steer it, all other problems are manageable."

Enjoi!

 

[Searush]

Store plenty of food & water aboard, make sure the hull, rigging & spars are all in good condition or replaced. Get new sails made, make sure you have a working wind vane for steering on long passages. Get an SSB radio & licence, learn how to use it - or a satphone. You will also need a VHF for short range comms. Make sure you have a new or recently seviced liferaft (check, don't just accept what the vendor tells you). Sail locally for at least a month building up distance to get to know your boat & test stuff out.

Have good pumps & batteries plus solar panel & wind genny, change all bulbs for LEDs. Find a nice young malaysian lady to help you crew - but be prepared to pay her flight home when you get to Europe in cas she is not allowed to enter. You will need a couple of GPS sets if you can't get & use a decent sextant. You will need small scale charts of the entire journey & some large scale ones of any ports you may need to enter.

Consider going via the Pacific & Panama to avoid Somali pirate areas.

Probably loads more, but that's the best I can do off the top of my head.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

She looks a beaut!
Seek out top advice on piracy.
Do a lot of local sailing for a few months to get to know her and her pros and cons.

 

[Colvic Watson]

Didn't RKJ learn to sail offshore by sailing back from India? Go for it!

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Good luck and congratulations. I would try the Liveaboard forum on this site and also (if IPC will forgive me referring you to another site) the multihulls4us forum that has active posters based in that part of the world. They may be able to help re: surveyors.

 

[laika]

Didn't RKJ learn to sail offshore by sailing back from India? Go for it!

OTOH, didn't Moitessier also learn a few things sailing from Indochina? Be Careful!

 

[sighmoon]

Some parts of hull plates need inspection and possible replacement

Don't cut corners.

 

[Tranona]

hello all,
even though i've been reading you excellent forums for many years i've registered just now. the reason for that is i am looking for advices, feedback about the yacht/ price/ location. i am flying to langkawi in 10 days and i need to prepare for voyage back to europe. but the first question would be- does anyone know surveyor with ultrasound tester in malaysia/thailand. the second one would be- how you would prepare her for voyage back to europe and when and which passage you would choose. I have sailed atlantic and the seas but not asia. all views are more than welcome. here she is http://www.apolloduck.com/image.phtml?id=155075&image=1
i've never been happier
your tomas

Hi Tomas

Don't want to dampen your enthusiasm too much, but having looked at the boat's details suspect you have unrealistic expectations if you think that a worn out 40 year old boat costing £10k is capable of undertaking the voyage you have in mind. Such boats are cheap for one simple reason - they are not worth anything and the normal advice is to run away from them as fast as you possibly can.

I may of course be wrong, but I doubt it. By all means splash out the money to have a look. Enjoy your time in the sunshine, look at the boat withouit rose tinted spectacles, keep your £10k firmly in your pocket. Suspect you will come home without a boat and grateful for your lucky escape.

Just to put things in perspective, a 38 footer in reasonable condition suitable for equipping for offshore voyaging is likely to cost £40k+ and then one might expect to spend another £10k bringing it up to a good standard. So you see the gulf between what you are looking at and what is realistic.

 

[stav]

Hi Tomas,

Just feel the need to second what Tranona has to say. Though I have never sailed on ocean and perhaps my hesitation is what has stopped me. But if that is really what you want to do there are plenty of smaller perfectly sea worthy boats or if you just want a bargain there are some be had closer to home.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[doctormilner]

crazy boy

I know a lot about old BARGAIN boats!!

this boat is likely to have so many problems that ultra sound may be the least of your problems
was it your boat and were you skipper on the trans atlantic? I ask as you may know how to prepare yachts for long voyages

what about crew;insurance; etc etc.

as a commercial skipper I would not even think of touching it !!

but at £50,000 , I may rethink

Jack Sparrow

Black Pearl

 

[Chrissie]

Look at the IIMS website for a surveyor over there, if you phone the office they can give even more help.
Congratulations on your boat, I hope all goes well for you.

 

[Rigger Mortice]

I have to agree with what Tranona has said. The only correction I'd make is that she is nearly 50 years old.

Good luck with it though. Take care.

 

[V1701]

Follow the boat Piracy Updates might be useful to you if you are going to do it, it's done by a forum member, though there are few people now willing to risk it. Good luck if you do go ahead with it...

 

[armchairsailor]

Hmm. Be prepared to ship it to the UK? Whilst getting the work done would inevitably be cheaper to do over there, I'd personally want to be assured of the quality control - your suggestion of needing a surveyor is a good starting point.

You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din. (And you'll probably have a much bigger smile when you've proved us all wrong! ) Good luck.

 

[Wansworth]

As internet had not been invented we shall never knoe if the likes of Motisser wouild have asked for help on a forum....buying a n old steel boat in Asia and sailing back to the uk will be a life changing ;epic story unless the man is very rich.First stop would be learning about weilding and elctricity and anodes always a worry with asteel boat.Any way an adventure: as a guide I would sail the long way home either by Cape Horn or the Panama......!