What had your boats previous owners done?

well i bought a new boat so no probs really,BUT a friend had some light problems on his 1955 austin healey and an electrician friend to help him out , re-wired the whole car !
couldnt buy a new loom at the time so not being much of a defeatist , he made a complete new loom by tying wires to a gate to get the lengths right , sound clever so far ? he made the whole loom in ........BLACK wire ! said friend still has the car but if ever it gets a new owner .....?????
 
painted the interior with exterior masonry paint which was flaking off everywhere.... removed the fuel filler... put drains in the cockpit floor to allow water to drain in the bilge.... neglected the boat completey beyond excuses. It did mean i got her dirt cheap and after a year nearly have the boat i want and hopefully she'll last another 40 years.
 
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he made the whole loom in ........BLACK wire !

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I laughed at that, but then thought that all the wiring on my boat is red and black, but it it was steel (like a car) it wouldn't need the black....

I escaped quite lightly, but I did find that in addition to running the pump, the bilge pump switch provided power to an unused cable that ran up the mast!
 
bought a Prout cat with a Silette drive leg - and these legs can be vectored like an outboard by moving a gearlever type thingy under the wheel. trouble is, the leg has stainless pins running in ally for bearings so they get stiff within a year and need greasing or dissembly. The (multi millionaire) previous owner wouldnt even cough up for the yard to do anything and had a "little man" who worked on his boat. They solved the problem of the stiff drive leg by removing the gear lever thingy and increasing its length from 1 foot to 3 foot.
 
Funny how the previous owners of our boats/cars/houses usually seem to have been incompetent botchers.

Of course it will be different when we sell them - the new owners will say what a brilliant job we did maintaining them. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
<<< Funny how the previous owners of our boats/cars/houses usually seem to have been incompetent botchers Of course it will be different when we sell them - the new owners will say what a brilliant job we did maintaining them. >>>


How true
 
The rudder was full of osmosis. As things stood, you had to remove the engine and the fuel tank in order to then be able to remove the rudder.
 
The throttle linkage had been reversed. So when we followed the previous owners written instructions on starting the engine we were in fact shutting the fuel off. Wasted a day swearing before I phoned him in desperation. Started first time when we put the lever the other way. Bless him!
 
Another steaming light on the pushpit.
General neglect " a relative services the engine..he works on a farm and does tractors..."
The field relay had been re-routed to energise the pre-heat device - but that meant the alternator field was always energised...
Fekkin water everywhere - down from the deck - up from the hull fittings - sideways from the pump.
Sump oil like tar,
Gas geyser a rusting UXB,
Pressure hosed teak decks....which displaced the green keech all over the canvaswork...
I am getting there - slowly, but it will take years and more cash than I am normally allowed.
 
Wow !!! what a thread.
What utter scoundrels people selling boats are.
I also had a list as long as your arm once I got really into it. The surveyors report was rubbish and didnt reveal that none of the bilge pumps worked,the electrics were nonsense, the fridge didn't work etc etc.. Caviat emptor as they say!!!!
 
Fitted a mild steel handle to the Bronze sea cock!! It was painted green and no one noticed until it snapped the bronze cone of the seacock(night before launching)
 
Freestyle is fortunate in having had two very fastidious previous owners. But they weren't always aware of the short cuts being taken by "professional" fitters and boat repairers.

Some, if not most of the more important failures have been the result of unsatisfactory fitting or previous repairs:

Starboard upper spreader detached itself off Arnamurchan last year - just one of those things, I thought at the time - but it turns out that the fracture in the cast alloy spreader base was old, the fractured portion having been reattached by drilling and tapping.

Locker side rotten at outlet of bilge pump - badly drilled holes through the ply locker hidden behind and piece of nicely machined teak - no attempt made to seal the raw cut.

Engine sump drain pipe fractures, allowing two thirds of the oil into the bilge - the previous repair of which was actually written up in Yachting World, December 1993. It was at Tennant's Cove, Maine; having driven ten miles in a borrowed pick-up to find Dick, the welder, "he appeared at a snail's pace from behind his pet goats with the voice and stoop of Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond. His wavering hand eventually completed a marvellous weld, but he did not want to take a penny." He eventually accepted two dollars. The weld (in a bronze pipe subjected to the force of a spanner on the stop nut closing it) remained a weak point.

The solar panels were a nice idea - shame about the lack of sun and the holes drilled in the coachroof for the cables.

The boatfitting world seems to have achieved a very high standard of cosmetic finish, but appears to be weak on the bits you can't see. This is presumably market-driven, which reflects badly on us as commissioners of this work.
 
Well, the previous owner of our boat was a well known charter company.
So what went wrong and what nasties did I find?...

To tell the truth not a lot at all, it was as advertised, step aboard and sail away.

Only problems were the Jabsco loo, which needed a service kit, but we had already decided to install an new loo ourselves, we were going to do that anyway.

The TacTic windy thing was missing, removed by error at end of season, they couriered it back to me at their cost. Boat had overstayed its welcome in Turkey at time of sale, they had forgotten to renew the import documents (valid for 5 years), they paid the fine and issued new docs in my name with a new 5 years to run prior to delivery.

Only real problem to fix is the fuel guage sender unit.
 
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