Is a boat Renovation basically building a boat from scratch?

Mike,

A fair and true point. The only issue is if I want to restore her! She is Brooke Marines finest, and the finances are close to stacking up if she is bought for very little. I would not restore her for 2/3 years use then another major restoration to be had. I would want a full scale restoration from the start and if I over spec that for my own piece of mind (within reason) then that is fair enough. The only area not to be touched is the engines which should be good for a few years. If I have to change those the prject falls apart. However, I may choose to do this at a later date. I am still in negotiations with the owner so no done deal yet, I want to be fair to him but it is a wreck of a boat in it's current state. He could get more for her if she was tidied up but I think he has not got the spare cash.

A restoration at any cost....No, a restoration to my standards at my cost that can recoup the majority of spend...Yes.

Cheers

Paul /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
So am I barking mad,.....

Certainly not. There are as many different kinds of boat owners as there are boats:

1 The racer: Only really happy if he is first one back to the bar. main aim in life - to get round the cans and back ashore faster than anyone else.
2. The cruiser... long calm evening with a pipe and a pint in some remote anchorage (for which read: weeks tied up in expensive marina away from home waiting for the current F10 to drop so he can get home before entire annual leave allowance and bosses patience is used up)
3. The potterer. Decides against setting out from Bosham to Itchenor as the wind is gusting F2, and settles down to another day happily afloat going nowhere.
4. The builder - has spent the last 20 years building a 48 footer in the back garden of his semi-d, and reckons on another fifteen years to completion. Hasn't actually been to sea since 1973.
5. The restorer - when not actually working on his 1872 winkle drudger, spends many hours crawling round boat jumbles, traditional boatyards and other marine junk-piles searching exactly the right shape of corroded iron to use as a pattern for his current project. Will finally launch the finished project, sail her twice, then lose interest as another heap of gribble infested firewood catches his interest.
6. The tax dodger. Boat liable to sink at moorings in the Marina due to disuse. Outgoings appear as 'entertainment expenses' on tax return.
7 The Moboa member: "Mucky Old Boat Owners Association" member, owns a semi derelict plywood-patched-with-GRP 60s design - "bought for a song off Ebay old boy, absolute bargain - funny nobody else bid for her" - and spends much time singing her praises, even more time covering up defects with even more Polyester/ glass mat, and very little time actually at sea as the engine rarely starts without flattening at least three batteries before it fires, which if it does, does so with an explosion that brings the Anti Terrorist squad to the harbour at the double.
8. The 'Flying Dutchman' type - worries about running aground unless there is at least 3000 fathoms beneath the keel, and nearest land at least 100 miles distant. Only enters port to pick up spare fuel, food, girls - er crew, etc.
9. The Tristan Jones type, who makes a decent voyage then writes a book about it of such Brobdignian largesse that no one actually believes he ever did it in the first place. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
10 The Wharram type who has discovered the safest way to have (biblical sense) 2 women aboard is to have 2 hulls.... /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

In between these (and many other) categories lies a legion of boat owners quietly enjoying boats that have not and are unlikely to see the water for many years. And of course the rest of us - ranging from those for whom a trip from Chi To Bembridge is an epic voyage equalling anything Tracy, Robin, Tony, or Josh ever did, to those for whom the Southern Ocean is really the "only place to get a decent sail nowadays"

Welcome to the Club!
 
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