You want to talk project boats

Great post. I have only ever seen one of these, alongside in Vannes about 10 years ago, our local correspondents may be able to confirm if it is still there.
 
The stuff of nightmares, to me at least. They said, will be following with interest. If I wanted an S & S boat from that era I’d go for a She 36 but obviously you might be reluctant to convert one of those to a stripped out racer.
 
The comments section is worth reading alone! People who specifically raced that boat and know it well.
I think the guy doing it has a track record and a brave heart.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
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The YouTube algorithm fed me that this-morning .... it's the stuff of nightmares. Could not imagine willingly being, or becoming, the owner of something like that. Doesn't mean I think it should be sent to landfill though, if someone is willing to burn the necessary money to get it sailing again then good luck to them - but for me, life is too short.
 
Great stuff! Years ago i worked on one of the later Contessa 38's that had had a bounce on a reef, we mended a 9ft hole in the side & new skeg. I remember falling of a tall step ladder while grinding on the skeg area, grinder went one way i went the other, I landed in a pile of tarps & got away without a scratch!
 
That boat is a very long way from landfill. The guy is just making work. He could put the rig back on and go sailing next week. Filling in the bow thruster on a boat with that much wetted surface? Changing to a saildrive? What's the point, just put a folding prop on and be done. I'll follow it for a bit but really.
 
ridgy said:
That boat is a very long way from landfill. The guy is just making work. He could put the rig back on and go sailing next week. Filling in the bow thruster on a boat with that much wetted surface? Changing to a saildrive? What's the point, just put a folding prop on and be done. I'll follow it for a bit but really.
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The boat is personal to him....he raced on it when he was young so wants to restore to original. Which I understand. But I agree with you about the underwater changes. But everyone is different, some people will walk on a boat and think, I would get rid of that tv.....I would think, I’d get a bigger screen.
In his mountain of crap, I didn’t see the toilet....so is he getting rid of it and going back to original ?
 
ridgy said:
That boat is a very long way from landfill. The guy is just making work. He could put the rig back on and go sailing next week. Filling in the bow thruster on a boat with that much wetted surface? Changing to a saildrive? What's the point, just put a folding prop on and be done. I'll follow it for a bit but really.
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I tend to agree…..and have a bottomless pocket
 
ridgy said:
... The guy is just making work. He could put the rig back on and go sailing next week. Filling in the bow thruster on a boat with that much wetted surface? Changing to a saildrive? What's the point…
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Agreed, but bear in mind he is a very well regarded designer and builder of race boats - as in the modern high performance sort of stuff where gaining a tenth of a knot by whatever means is the name of the game. He’s just applying that M.O. to a classic racer.
 
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Certainly seems to have been let go .There was a Canadian couple up in BC who after a trip in their Albin Vega completely gutted it .Staying in friends houses it’s interior was removed carefully bit by bit and remade ,heroic but now basically a new boat.
 
Bouba said:
The boat is personal to him....he raced on it when he was young so wants to restore to original. Which I understand. But I agree with you about the underwater changes. But everyone is different, some people will walk on a boat and think, I would get rid of that tv.....I would think, I’d get a bigger screen.
In his mountain of crap, I didn’t see the toilet....so is he getting rid of it and going back to original ?
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I guess that is the key thing. Somebody with an emotional attachment to a specific boat plus plenty of money so doesn’t need to worry about justifying the spend.
A unique situation, but hope he enjoys his transformed boat. Lots of worse ways to spend large chunks of money, if you can spare it.
 
Comparing this to the more usual run of "project boat" youtube videos is rather missing the point. John does this for a living, restoring boats for others. If you ventured onto the Corby Yachts facebook page you'd see that compared to some of the project boats that he's done for others, this one is in decent nick and the work is more cosmetic and personal preference than bringing a wreck back from the grave.

What I mostly took from this video is that I'm probably going to spend the next decade chasing the bloody thing, as it's likely to be in the same class as us for a lot of events, and he's a very good sailor with an extensive list of very good sailors to crew for him....
 
ridgy said:
That boat is a very long way from landfill. The guy is just making work. He could put the rig back on and go sailing next week. Filling in the bow thruster on a boat with that much wetted surface? Changing to a saildrive? What's the point, just put a folding prop on and be done. I'll follow it for a bit but really.
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The saildrive seems to be more about wanting to move the engine forward to allow him to get a better aft cabin, like the Swan 38 that he mentions uses the same hull. The bow thruster is absolutely what someone doing this to race, which he is, would do.

I think that's another thing that seperates this from most of the "we found this wreck and are restoring it" videos. He's doing this to race it, not use it as a liveaboard, so his decisions will be very different. He's clearly restoring the interior to closer to the original, which was minimal, instead of the cruising interior that has been installed later.
 
flaming said:
Comparing this to the more usual run of "project boat" youtube videos is rather missing the point. John does this for a living, restoring boats for others. If you ventured onto the Corby Yachts facebook page you'd see that compared to some of the project boats that he's done for others, this one is in decent nick and the work is more cosmetic and personal preference than bringing a wreck back from the grave.

What I mostly took from this video is that I'm probably going to spend the next decade chasing the bloody thing, as it's likely to be in the same class as us for a lot of events, and he's a very good sailor with an extensive list of very good sailors to crew for him....
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All the more reason to “follow” this series ……but as a professional whyno tent over the boat to facilitate working
 
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