Will Someone Please Talk Me Out Of This Expensive Refit Lunacy?

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Aigle d'Or

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I've owned my Contessa 32 for 16 years and absolutely love her. She's taken us safely on many long cruises and my daughters grew up with her. To me, she is the perfect small yacht - fast, seaworthy, safe and beautiful. She's going to be 40 next year and I have found myself planning a major £40k birthday refit. I'm 54 and plan to keep her for as long as I am able to sail her. Re-wire, new rudder, new cabin sole, water tank, teak cockpit, re-spray decks and coachroof, solar power, shore power, partial new galley etc. Surely it's bonkers to spend this amount on a little yacht that's probably only worth £20k? Isn't it? So why am I even considering it? Help!
 
Sailing is never about investment, economics and justification, its about having fun and creating memories which you and your family will treasure. To hell with the money, get on with it!
 
If you sold her and added your refit money you'd have £60k. You'd probably have to spend at least £10k to get your new purchase to a suitable standard, so you'd actually have to buy at £50k - could you buy something you'd love as much for that? ( If you're going to sail for the next 30 years or more and the Contessa is osmosis free, give her her birthday present and sail on.
 
"Will Someone Please Talk Me Out Of This Expensive Refit Lunacy? "

Not I! It's the sort of thing I'd be tempted to do, if I had the wonga. :encouragement:
 
"He who would keep himself busy let him equip these two: a ship and a woman. For no two things involve more business once you start to fit them out, nor are these two ever sufficiently adorned, nor is any excess of adornment enough for them." - Titus Maccius Platus 254-184 BC
 
Sandy said:
It's better than spending it on the horses.
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I met a nice couple in Trebeurden a few years ago who had a beautiful wooden yawl called "Gimcrack " which they inherited from his father, who had backed a horse of that name and won enough to be able to have the yacht built.
 
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Aigle d'Or said:
If you have nothing to contribute, why post?
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For someone who is so new here, you've sussed out DD pretty quickly :D

My own tuppenceworth: it sounds like you've sold yourself on the plan. But as an alternative, the putative £60k that's up for grabs could conceivably get you two boats- one here (your Co32, with a wee bit of tarting up) and one somewhere sunny (e.g. an AWB in Greece). You probably don't want to do that, but a lot of people would see the appeal.
 
Aigle d'Or said:
I've owned my Contessa 32 for 16 years and absolutely love her. She's taken us safely on many long cruises and my daughters grew up with her. To me, she is the perfect small yacht - fast, seaworthy, safe and beautiful. She's going to be 40 next year and I have found myself planning a major £40k birthday refit. I'm 54 and plan to keep her for as long as I am able to sail her. Re-wire, new rudder, new cabin sole, water tank, teak cockpit, re-spray decks and coachroof, solar power, shore power, partial new galley etc. Surely it's bonkers to spend this amount on a little yacht that's probably only worth £20k? Isn't it? So why am I even considering it? Help!
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At your age you probably have 20 years active sailing time to go, so £2k a year. Refurbs on this scale only make sense if you take the long view. Assume you have a decent engine and rigging.

Remember a new boat of similar size is well over £100k, so your total investment is still relatively modest for what you can do with the boat.
 
Aigle d'Or said:
If you have nothing to contribute, why post?
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To be honest, what answer did you want? You have said you are going to spend the money. You are really just wasting time asking. If you cannot make your own mind up surely you are not going to get some Tom , Dick or Harry (apologies to forumites)who is not going to open his wallet to say "go for it" & use that as an excuse?
If you really want my advice; I think you are wasting your money, there are loads of far better modern boats on the market for the same expenditure- but I do not believe you want that do you? If you have any sense you already know that. So no point in saying so is there really?
 
Aigle d'Or said:
I've owned my Contessa 32 for 16 years and absolutely love her. She's taken us safely on many long cruises and my daughters grew up with her. To me, she is the perfect small yacht - fast, seaworthy, safe and beautiful. She's going to be 40 next year and I have found myself planning a major £40k birthday refit. I'm 54 and plan to keep her for as long as I am able to sail her. Re-wire, new rudder, new cabin sole, water tank, teak cockpit, re-spray decks and coachroof, solar power, shore power, partial new galley etc. Surely it's bonkers to spend this amount on a little yacht that's probably only worth £20k? Isn't it? So why am I even considering it? Help!
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If you have the money, go for it. There is no financial sense to sailing.

If it's any consolation, or comparison, I treated myself to some restoration work on my Citroën DS last year for an amount for money which would have bought me quite a nice BMW. You'll notice that I did not use the term, "second-hand" in that sentence. Money down the drain? Not a bit of it. Lots of fun, and on Sunday I set off for Switzerland in the car.
 
Although not on the scale you are proposing, and not on a boat we had already owned for some time, we lavished £9k in upgrades on a new to us Konsort that was purchased for £22k. It's value now is considerably less than the purchase price. But we don't regret that expenditure one bit because we have sailed her a lot over the last six years, spending all our holidays and most weekends aboard during the season. We, or more accurately I, keep toying with changing her, but she really is perfect for our needs and where we keep her. We know our boat well, we like how she sails and how she behaves if caught out in the rough stuff. All the upgrades have given us pleasure and improved the boat.

We all know owning a boat makes no financial sense.

It sounds like you absolutely love your boat, and if you feel you are going to be using her at least as much in the future as you have already in the past... then why not go for it.
 
Aigle d'Or said:
I've owned my Contessa 32 for 16 years and absolutely love her. She's taken us safely on many long cruises and my daughters grew up with her. To me, she is the perfect small yacht - fast, seaworthy, safe and beautiful. She's going to be 40 next year and I have found myself planning a major £40k birthday refit. I'm 54 and plan to keep her for as long as I am able to sail her. Re-wire, new rudder, new cabin sole, water tank, teak cockpit, re-spray decks and coachroof, solar power, shore power, partial new galley etc. Surely it's bonkers to spend this amount on a little yacht that's probably only worth £20k? Isn't it? So why am I even considering it? Help!
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If you love the boat and you have no plans to change her then spend the money and enjoy it - you can't take it with you and she's worth every penny.

(From another Co32 owner that has done similar with our friend in Lymington).
 
Given your vessel maybe you just need to have a look at what you might be able to acquire at say the £60k level less any sale costs and work you might be required to do. I have no idea of price comparables out there to your vessel but assuming you are happy with length and steering arrangements then I would have thought choices are quite limited unless you would like a change to a wide newer vessel but I would suggest you try some out before making any change. Book a few test sails with dealers before the weather changes and see if you prefer any more modern vessels however as has been said you wont be in new boat market at this length so any £50k vessel might just be reaching stage where it also needs new sails/rigging . For that money you could easily acquire a 34ft 2001 vessel so would you prefer to spend say £10k on new sails and rigging for a lightly used Bavaria or suchlike as you just want a change ? Its all down really to where you see your sailing going over next 20 years or so maybe?
 
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