Rescuing Classic Yachts

keeldragger

keeldragger

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From time to time, I run across a posting where someone asks advice regarding the purchase of a wooden or older fiberglass boat. Most of the respondees to the posts warn the prospective boatowners to run away from old wooden boats... suggesting that they require too much work and money to restore. Personally, it saddens me to see so many classic yachts turned into scrap or firewood. To a large part, I think this is just a symptom of a society which values instant gratification above all else.

What can the boating community do to encourage more people to restore these classic yachts?
 
I don't think that there is anything that one can actively do to convince sceptics that owning a classic yacht is anything other than lunacy. They just lack the aesthetic sense which is required to see the beauty of the boat [or any other fine object] and initiates the desire to possess such a thing. Even if they were to buy a restored classic to be 'in the group', they wouldn't be able to buy the depth of character required to persevere with the maintenance, much less a restoration. This hobby is not for the flaky or social climbers.
Peter.
 
Because most of the people who have soulless plastic fantastics are not up to their arms in tar and sikoflex getting on with the renovation / maintenance of their beloved rot box - but hang about in places like this - giving advice to wood be (geddit) wooden boat owners.

The boating community could recommend that the potential buyer go visit a few old boat yards such as Gweek to get a feel of what's involved - talk to the renovators themselves, see how knackered and skint they all are first hand. If they haven't got Advanced Carpel Tunnel Syndrome, then they're only weekenders tickling at it. Move on.
 
It is sad, but no less sad than an enthusiastic amateur buying a hulk and then finding they cannot nearly afford the time or money required to restore her even to a sailing standard. Boat owning is pricey enough - this year, I cannot afford so keep Crystal in the water and will be taking her out shortly - let alone restoration costs on top.

I still maintain that owning a Classic is no more expensive than owning an AWB (unless, like me, you don't have a running bowsprit) but restoring... now there a healthy dose of realism is necessary. I have learned that even basic things, and basic jobs, require careful planning and common sense - I struggle to keep up sometimes, and Crystal is about as sound as I could wish (looking a bit tatty now, though, her soul to the Devil).

I think it's very important that owners support potential owners from the beginning, and that support should start with a clear indication of what the responsibilities are. Otherwise, there will just be plenty of holey old hulls cluttering up boatyards up and down the coast, which is easily as sad as watching them rot naturally on a muddy foreshore.

/<
 
Very difficult. Some good answers posted here.

You do need to be an enthusiast - but those of us who are get so much more out of our sport. The quality of the experience of sailing is different with older boats.

I dislike seeing old boats dragging round in poor condition and struggle to keep ours up to the mark. We launch next Thursday - I am coming to the end of minor refit. My hands are covered in varnish, there are scratches and bruises all over the place on me - but none (I hope!) on the boat, which is looking better than ever before, I think!

I have had the boat so long that I can no longer blame the previous owners for anything! All defects are entirely my own fault!

Would I rather have spent the past two months sailing? Well, looking at the experience of a friend who did just that, I have not missed much in the weather department!
 
I must say, Mirelle's freshly-painted topsides are a lovely colour - is it the same as she had last year (Old English White or something?) or a new acquisition. I am sorely tempted to plagerise it for Crystal, as I'm starting to think Brilliant White enamel isn't really her...

I bought Crystal when I bought her because I felt she was exactly the right boat for me, even though I knew I wouldn't really have the time to sail her in anger for a while. I decided that it was more important to have the right boat, rather than it being the right time. It helped that she was already in excellent condition, and hopefully will be better once the minor refit (I plan one of these too) is done. I have to do it over the summer for financial reasons, but then again, it's going to be a difficult summer at work so I won't be missing much.

I will just have to be crew when I can get away, which should be interesting - I'm a shockingly awful crewmember!!

/<
 
I think that it is important to remember that there are many reasons for owning, maintaining, playing with or even neglecting an old boat and I am not sure that leaving them to rot on the foreshore (apart from a sort of picturesque nostalgia) is any better or worse than in a boatyard. At least there, it is probable that deterioration will be slower, with the possibility of another savior in due course!

Those of us with a barn to hide in are able to indulge ourselves in the pleasure of restoring our boats at a pace that suits, without further damage occuring, until there is either sufficient time, money or perhaps most importantly, motivation to complete the work. For a lot of people there is as much pleasure to be gained from leisurely maintainance as sailing.

I really believe that people should be heartily encouraged to undertake the care of old boats, even if ultimately it is taken on by another enthuiastic (if not slightly naive) optomist.

Andrew
 
Very true - I was sort of thinking of old barges etc. which can form picturesque additions to a shore.

If I had a barn, I suspect the boat would never enter the water, as leisurely maintenance is something I love, but rarely have time for. To tell you the truth, I haven't done enough sailing yet to get over the ever-present nerves of being in command, and probably with experience will come more enjoyment.

I think I just realise how optimistic I was when I bought Crystal, and didn't take some very real possibilities into account. I could never part with her, so instead I have had to make some hefty concessions to the rest of my life in order to afford to keep her. Sometimes I can't, and have to figure out how I can. Very often, time and tide conspire and unpredictabilities creep into the equation. Sometimes, these are costly ones.

I wouldn't swap with anyone, but it can be traumatic, and I think potential owners need to know this.

/<
 
This year I have switched to Epifanes (the pale cream colour is no. 26, I think - they have a wide range of shades). I am impressed and will use it again.

Blakes have lost me as a customer, after 35 years. The rot set in when they started advertising, and the relative uselessness (on our river, at any rate) of their antifouling and the awfulness of their "primer-undercoat" finished me off last year.
 
"Most of the respondees to the posts warn the prospective boatowners to run away from old wooden boats... suggesting that they require too much work and money to restore."
If still in need of encouragement, look out for a very persuasive letter from Jon Wainwright in the next CB. His main argument is that really old wooden workboats didn't get, cos their owners couldn't afford, much maintenance (maybe a week a year) and qed didn't need it
 
I certainly agree, Peter, that the old workboats didn't get the maintenance that a yacht might have got because their owners couldn't afford to have them out of commission. My Swallow has very little brightwork on deck; the spars, the cockpit coaming, blocks that are within reach and the cabin-top grabrails, that's it. The rest is painted. Being an old fishing boat has its advantages.
Peter.
 
Agreed, I ditched blakes and have moved to Epiphanes for paint as well as varnish last year, except for antifoul, I got International Trilux cos it was going cheap in a dented tin!
 
I’m currently rebuilding 30yr old a 37ft fiberglass ketch, she is on the hard stand on a friends property, I have a given my self 12 months working full time on the project. It has been a mammoth project, the entire original cabin sole ply was badly delaminating which I have now replaced with 12mm marine ply, so now the entire ply is in and totally glassed and gel coated solid. I can feel pleased that the 30 yr old solid glass hull just needs a lick of antifouling and cut and polish, if it was a timber hull IM sure this project would have lasted way longer, as my father rebuilt our 1926 (75yr) timber yacht which took him over 5 yrs, I really think its up to the person to decide would they love the hard work or do they want a yacht that u can sail with very little maintenance.
 
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