What had your boats previous owners done?

TamarMike

Well-Known Member
Joined
15 Aug 2008
Messages
1,145
Location
South West
Visit site
Having bought the boat last spring I have been sorting out all the odd things I (or SWMBO) have wanted to change after last summers sailing, including a couple of oddities..

removing all the paint the previous owner had carefully applied to the anode to stop it rusting

replacing the steaming light at the stern with the correct angle stern light
 
Open boat that I bought had white gloss paint over the tired fibre glass. Looked really good, but after a couple of months it became clear that previous owner had sanded down the surface with a wire brush attachment of some sort, and not managed to clear it all off before painting. Wee specks of rust throughout. Still think I got a bargain, and boat has paid for itself already in the pleasure it has given us. I have too many wooden boats needing repainting at the moment to worry too much about the plastic one.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Having bought the boat last spring I have been sorting out all the odd things I (or SWMBO) have wanted to change after last summers sailing, including a couple of oddities..

replacing the steaming light at the stern with the correct angle stern light

[/ QUOTE ]

Snap. Had to do that one.

Also reversing the gear lever so that moving it forwards engaged forwards rather than astern!
 
When I first bought it I had silly things to do :

Redo the name on dodgers where seller had removed all the stitched on letters. can you imagine how many pinholes of sunlight through them !! Daft it sounds but true.

Put small flag halyard blocks on crosstrees where seller had removed old.

Replace genny furling line which was 1m too short - begs question how often he unfurled it fully.

Much later - end of that season - engine mounts gave out. Perkins 40HP engine on Mini Petter mounts - amazed it had lasted over 25 yrs ! Meant a complete replace beds, mounts, shaft, coupling etc. .. Oh my wallet !!

Jobs still to do 10 yrs later :

Remove tiller angle offset. Dunno why but when tiller centred, rudder is about 6 deg off ... makes tillerpilot interesting sometimes.

Replace stern light where he fitted mast light instead - giving wrong angle ! Does help illuminate back end of cockpit at night though /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Still I like my boat .. drives me nuts sometimes .. but it's mine. all paid for ... she'll do for a while.
 
How big a list do you want ? the previous owners had totally gutted the boat and rebuilt to do a trans-Atlantic circuit.

I have spent the last 6 years slowly rebuilding to suit us, and local cruising.

Brian
 
Well, there was the iron hosetail in the bronze seawater strainer, I think that was at least 2 owners previous to me, and the hull anode connected to the engine but well insulated from the prop by a flexible shaft coupling. Apart from those all pretty well maintained for the 59 years prior to my ownership.
 
The previous owner of our nauticat had taken the companionway steps out (and chucked in the skip) and "improved" the arrangement by bolting/screwing plywood steps to the bulkhead. 'twas a ghastly arrangement. I had to import a new set of steps from Nauticat in Finland (ouch ££!)

Also had to replace traveller lines which had been cut short and tied off. Ditto jib sheet cars were locked off. Ditto kicking strap was locked off. How did he sail the boat for God's sake!

Also has to remove a load of DIY shelves that he had screwed to the teak interior. The guy was a bloody idiot. We've just about exorcised the last of his "improvements" after five years of owning the boat.

rob
 
Removed every single thing they possibly could, amazed they left the mast, even unscrewed the hangers in the heads /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
Thank God - I don't think anything was done...... In 15 years the boat never went much further than a couple of trips to Holland. Paid the yard to do all winter servicing.

Generator installation - professionally done, but no syphon break in exhaust, which is well below water line - so have to remember to turn off all seacocks after use! This is an accident waiting to happen, so I should do something about it, but not that easy to do given where it is installed.

So one very underused un bodged Oceanlord.
 
Masthead tricolour, steaming light and deck light didn't work. Reasoning it unlikely that all three had blown, I examined the wiring from the switch panel to a junction box in the heads. Looked at it for two hours and couldn't make sense of it. Drew the circuit out on paper and took it home. Still couldn't make sense of it. Eventually it dawned on me that it was simply wrong, and could never work. I rewired it according to the laws of physics, and bingo! All three lights shining brightly.
I can only assume the wiring was disconnected when the mast was removed, and whoever connected it up again didn't have a clue what they were doing.
 
[ QUOTE ]


removing all the paint the previous owner had carefully applied to the anode to stop it rusting



[/ QUOTE ]

Zinc? Rust?

Donald
 
I can hardly fault the previous owner (builder) of my boat. Things I have changed:
- Locker under saloon bunk had two openings, cut them into one long opening so I can put the dingy in.
- Fridge was a front opener so you had every thing over the floor if opened on starboard tack, it broke, so I have now built in a top loader.
- Clips on cupboard doors are not up to the job when it is lumpy, not changed yet.
As I say, he did a good job, that's why I bought it!
 
How many spare joker valves do you need on a boat, you know the repair kit for the bog? Well we had 4, yes 4! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

He also had a home made gantry supporting a radar scanner and wind gen, after the second time I walked into the supporting steel wire it came off, it was coming down anyway, ugly damned thing.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I had better keep quiet as I bought my boat from someone called Mike from the sailing club by the Tamar Bridge. I am hoping it wasn't you Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe my previous ancient wooden boat is still in the yard where I sold it, its restoration appearing to have ground to a standstill.
 
Top