Where to find a Fixer-Upper Sailing Vessel

[SpicyShrimp]

Hello, sailors!

First off, sorry if this is the wrong place.

Now on to the interesting bit. I am really keen to get cruising and having my own adventures, so naturally, I am looking for a vessel! My budget is (embarrassingly) small, but I have a lot of time and am prepared to put in the work on a boat that needs some TLC. My issue being I don't know where to look for such a project. Boats online all tend to be in pretty good knick in the size range I'm looking for (~30ft), and thus well out of my budget, and living inland means getting to a marina and looking about isn't as easy as I'd like. I'd love to give an old boat a new lease of life, and at the same time, learn. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for all help!

 

[V1701]

Hi and welcome to the forums,

Ebay has loads of projects, local boatyards have abandoned boats, some boats are even given away BUT you should bear in mind that the amount of work and the cost to, as you say, give an old boat a new lease of life, noble though that might be, are high. If your main objective is to get sailing I'd earn some money to increase your budget in order to be able to buy a boat that's good to go because this will usually be less expensive than the cost of doing one up. The other big factor is where you'd be storing the boat whilst you work on it and where you're going to keep it when it's ready. As long as you do your research and know what you're getting into though definitely go for it...

 

[NickRobinson]

Do you want a boat to live on or sailing experience? If the latter, consider hitching rides as crew on other's boats.
Experience worth rubies and minimal expense.

 

[webcraft]

.
What is your skill set?

You are looking for a boat that has been abandoned for some time. You may need to do fibreglass repairs, rebuild a rudder, remove and replace rotten plywood bulkheads, replace corroded chainplates and other fittings, remove and install through-hulls, carry out a thorough service of the engine which may end up going deeper than the usual filters/anodes/impeller, replace morse controls, fit new instrumentation. You will also almost certainly have to carry out a whole or partial rewire. Budget also for re-rigging and probably new sails.

Where will you do the refit? Yard fees are expensive, and soon mount up if it runs into years rather than months.

I bought a Morgan Giles 30 for a song but it has so far taken me two years and three times what I paid for the boat to get her nearly ready, and that does not include the yard bills. There is still a lot I would like to do, but I have run out of time and money. There is no doubt that I would have been wiser putting equivalent amounts of money aside for a couple of years, working extra hours if necessary, and buying a boat that was ready to go. There are a lot of ready-to-sail bargains that are 95% finished projects that have over-run their owner's timeframe, budget or patience.

Look for boats for sale that are on the hard in boatyards. Google searches will often reveal how long the boat has been for sale. Many 'yard queens' have been there for several years, and their owners will be desperate to sell as the yard fees mount up. Do not hesitate to offer half or less of the asking price - in fact, for a 30-footer or thereabouts that you know has been on the market for a couple of years or more I would start by offering a third of the asking price and go up cautiously from there. Eventually desperate owners will give a boat away rather than face another 6 or 12 months yard bill.

- W

 

[fredrussell]

Just go to any boatyard (not marinas though) and explain what you’re after. They ALL have dying, forgotten boats getting in the way. They’ll love you!

 

[wombat88]

Just go to any boatyard (not marinas though) and explain what you’re after. They ALL have dying, forgotten boats getting in the way. They’ll love you!

As do the harbours/harbourmasters. Things left on moorings to die slowly. Depends where you are. They sometimes put together a list of discarded boats of all sizes around this time of year. There is a process whereby they can sell them off legally.

 

[Biggles Wader]

A 30ft fixer upper is likely to be about 40 years old and do bear in mind that it is also likely to be worth nothing and you should "pay" accordingly. There will be plenty of time to spend your money after you have taken ownership.

 

[Channel Sailor]

I heard locally there could be from the Chichester Harbour authority a few abandoned but afloat yachts for sale by auction sometime in the next few months. Occasionally a possibly fair condition yacht comes up for sale. I have seen on a mooring afloat a 22 GRP footer that could be one of the yachts that might be one of them. Last year I vaguely recall there was about 5 yachts in the auction, mostly wooden and I would guess worth next to nothing.

https://www.conservancy.co.uk/

Bear in mind if you bought a yacht down on the south coast then factor into you finances that storage costs while you fix it up will be very expensive compared to other parts of the country. Just because an old boat is sold afloat does not mean that it does not need to immediately come out the water for repairs. So you first bill could be haul out, storage ashore and maybe transport.

As others have said fixing up an old boat can be surprisingly, if not extraordinarily, expensive. As others I think have indicated, besides money for parts and materials, for DIY you will need a fair selection of practical skills, tools and knowledge to fix up a 25 to 30ft sailing yacht that is going to a) safe and b) offers a modicum of pleasure/reward when going to out of the water.

+1 for the comment above. I you want to "cruise" on a low budget then cruise on someone else's yacht as crew for almost free. If you want to have sailing adventures then I suggest a very small (probably trailable) basic/simple sailing boat that you can camp on, choose your base sailing area carefully and have your adventures locally inshore and within harbours. If you want to "sail" a boat you just need water, you do not have to go offshore in all weather with vast amounts of safety gear and sails that are needed for offshore. However if you want the pleasure of fixing up a yacht as a hobby then suggest start small and keep it simple. You could even buy a knackered GRP 10ft tender first and fix that up, then decide if you want to so something bigger. If you change your mind then I reckon a tidied up old tender will sell easier than a half fixed up old yacht.

 

[V1701]

.
What is your skill set?

You are looking for a boat that has been abandoned for some time. You may need to do fibreglass repairs, rebuild a rudder, remove and replace rotten plywood bulkheads, replace corroded chainplates and other fittings, remove and install through-hulls, carry out a thorough service of the engine which may end up going deeper than the usual filters/anodes/impeller, replace morse controls, fit new instrumentation. You will also almost certainly have to carry out a whole or partial rewire. Budget also for re-rigging and probably new sails.

Where will you do the refit? Yard fees are expensive, and soon mount up if it runs into years rather than months.

I bought a Morgan Giles 30 for a song but it has so far taken me two years and three times what I paid for the boat to get her nearly ready, and that does not include the yard bills. There is still a lot I would like to do, but I have run out of time and money. There is no doubt that I would have been wiser putting equivalent amounts of money aside for a couple of years, working extra hours if necessary, and buying a boat that was ready to go. There are a lot of ready-to-sail bargains that are 95% finished projects that have over-run their owner's timeframe, budget or patience.

Look for boats for sale that are on the hard in boatyards. Google searches will often reveal how long the boat has been for sale. Many 'yard queens' have been there for several years, and their owners will be desperate to sell as the yard fees mount up. Do not hesitate to offer half or less of the asking price - in fact, for a 30-footer or thereabouts that you know has been on the market for a couple of years or more I would start by offering a third of the asking price and go up cautiously from there. Eventually desperate owners will give a boat away rather than face another 6 or 12 months yard bill.

- W

No doubt you'll (rightly) be very proud of her though when she's launched as well as knowing her inside out and having learned new skills on the way...

 

[doug748]

Do you want a boat to live on or sailing experience? If the latter, consider hitching rides as crew on other's boats.
Experience worth rubies and minimal expense.

Yes, do this. Or buy an old dinghy, do it up, learn to sail maybe paint the trailer and make a few bob on it. You would learn a lot. That way if you hate sailing or get seasick, you have lost nothing.

A "project yacht" often means "wreck", the very worst thing to have as a first boat.

 

[lw395]

Or ask around clubs, maybe postcard on a notice board?

IF you want to go sailing and don't have lots of cash, 'Other People's Boats' are worth considering.

There are lots of people about who might value some help with their boats and some company when sailing them.

I don't know what the OP means by an embarrassingly small budget, because I started out wanting to go sailing with no cash at all.
But the cost of buying a 30ft-ish boat is often not very great.
The annual costs of owning one are considerable, and doing one up in a meaningful way can eat a lot of cash.

There are viable-looking boats on
yachts.apolloduck.co.uk
for under ten grand, but I wouldn't want to own any of them if I couldn't find two grand a year to run it, and that's doing it on the cheap.

Some potentially OK boats change hands for much less than the annual cost of running the boat.

 

[scruff]

An often used glib comment is "A free boat is the most expensive boat" however it is quite true - I've been there, done that, got the paint stained jumper - What I say is not meant to piss on your chips

Where do you want to sail? if just out for an hour or two on a sunny summer's afternoon then a wayfarer / wanderer / squib / flying 15 could be a nice place to start - the first two would live in a dinghy park to be launched each time, the latter two kept afloat.

If you want to go a bit further afield / weekends away then Centaurs look to be staggering value for money. Often seen going on ebay for around £2k - 6k depending on engine / sails.

If you are on a tight budget, I'd strongly suggest something which is sail able in the condition you buy it in. To be perfectly blunt try to find a small boat which was recently loved, but the owner has died or had to give up sailing.

If you do want a boat to bring back to life, and there is a rewarding merit in doing so, go into it with your eyes open. Price up the cost of new halyards, Sheets, Standing rigging, sails etc online (Jimmy green marine is a good place to start to price up standing rigging as you can do it online and get costs immediately.)

Also look into how much storage in a boat yard costs - can quite easily be in excess of £200 a month. A years worth of boat yard fee's and no sailing could easily be the difference between a boat which will take endless amounts of money to never sail and an OK centaur you could take on a UK circumnavigation - google Dylan winter / keep turning left for his videos.

Again, the cheapest boat is often the most expensive...

 

[MikeCC]

Some come up on Facebook - Yachts and Yachty Bits For Sale

As others have said, scope out your options for mooring, storage and transport. If it's a doer-upper it might not be safely sailable.

 

[cherod]

I don’t know what you work at or what your earning potential is but undoubtedly your best bet is ( as others have said ) to buckle down , put in the hours , tighten the belt for a couple of years ( probably less time than a decent sized fixer up would take ) save save save and then buy a ready to go . I expect you are much better at your own chosen profession than you are at fibre glassing , joinery , sparks even bit of welding etc etc ! Spend your time constructively at what you are good at .

 

[SpicyShrimp]

Thanks for all the replies, they've been really helpful.

In terms of my skillset, I consider myself a good sailor, Ive done a lot of dinghy sailing (I realise its probably not the same) and the occasional charter holiday abroad (certified RYA day skipper here). I was looking for something that I could potentially stay on for longer periods, do the occasional longer passage from the uk to scandinavia/med kind of thing.

I think I also have enough experience with fibreglass, wood, metal and electrickery to be able to do the required work. In an ideal world, I wouldn't want to be in charge of important structures like watertight bulkheads, keel bolt holes, and other crucial structures. So a mostly intact boat would be preferred, including mast and some basic electricals to reduce the costs over time.

I was planning to dodge the storage fees as I have the space myself for such a project, being about as inland as is possible, the transport would be the issue. I haven't looked into transporting yet as as this stage I'm not sure if the whole thing is just a pipe dream. And the general advice has been to just buckle down and buy something that floats and go. I will have to give more consideration to my options.

 

[C08]

Just go to any boatyard (not marinas though) and explain what you’re after. They ALL have dying, forgotten boats getting in the way. They’ll love you!

Yes, all the boatyards I have ever been to have had boats which have been there for years and owners often open to offers to get rid. These are often not advertised for sale but yard owners may put you in touch with owners, not always as they may have a vested interest in a boat continuing to accrue yard storage fees.

 

[doug748]

Thanks for all the replies, they've been really helpful.

In terms of my skillset, I consider myself a good sailor, Ive done a lot of dinghy sailing (I realise its probably not the same) and the occasional charter holiday abroad (certified RYA day skipper here). ....

Your experience makes a difference indeed.

I would still say, unless you are more interested in building than sailing, for Gawds sake don't actively look for a project. For a thousand or two you could pick up a boat that is a going concern, needing only a relatively modest amount of cash to have you sailing next season.
It would probably cost a minimum of 500 quid to get a large project back home, so that's a grand before you start your spending.

 

[Seajet]

Your planned area to sail is crucial to what sort of boat to aim for - especially re mooring type so if a drying ' half tide ' mooring you'll need a twin, triple or lift keel boat ( nb a lot of people confuse ' twin keel ' with triple keel - the latter technically means a probably older boat with stabiliser plates or keels to the sides but it's just a case of knowing and checking up the boat type ).

Like others I very strongly recommend checking out sailing clubs you may want to keep your boat at eventually, have a word with anyone around and ask about people with cruisers in need of crew - there almost always are a few, and they usually just want a hand getting sails and maybe anchors up and down, and company.

You're not normally expected to join if doing this, unless you did it a lot - and it's an excellent way of getting experience both in general and re types of boats you like or note to avoid !

Good luck :encouragement:

 

[jwilson]

I was planning to dodge the storage fees as I have the space myself for such a project, being about as inland as is possible, the transport would be the issue.

Normally I fully concur with those who say buy a good boat not a fixer-upper. In fact I normally tell people that once you have decided what you want pay the money and buy not just a good example but the best example around.

However your storage availability makes a big difference, particularly if you choose a bilge-keeler that can be transported by HIAB which can be much cheaper than normal low-loader boat transporters that need a crane or Travelift at either end of the journey. A Centaur thus looks like a possible for you: lots around, a lot of boat for the money and perfectly capable of going quite a long way once sorted.

Before you buy a boat with a duff big-ticket item like engine, sails, rigging, mast etc. however, cost out replacement item prices.

 

[Lightwave395]

There's a Facebook group you should join entitled "Sitting there rotting in a boatyard". All sorts of freebies, someone please take it aways and various abandoned boats come up on there