Can anyone identify this boat please?

[JPA Cate]

Hi, Damoedge,

If the owner doesn't have a paper of ownership, pick another boat. Boats without the title to them may turn out to have been stolen, and your boat could be easily taken away if you do not have CLEAR title.

Otherwise, she's a pretty thing.

Yes, will tend to be rolly without the mast and boom on: they actually have a lot of resistance to roll. You can still use an outboard, if you put a outboard bracket on the transom. If it is a bilge keeler, they will resist rolling, but a fin keel doesn't do much in a seaway to resist it. [We once were dismasted. Our 36 ft. sloop had an awful roll, much less once we got into a bay where there was protection from the swell.]

Canals, though, have little in the way of waves, usually. DO NOT accept the boat without mast, boom and rigging. And get someone nearby to help you with rigging it. If the rigging wires are rusty or have broken strands (with or without "meat hooks" that jam in your fingers), then the wires will have to be replaced. Used sails are available, you buy them according to the dimensions of the boat herself (another question for the forum on rigging a new-to-you vessel).

Ultimately, you will be able to motor out and sail around and see if you like it or not. It will cost at least 10 times what you expect, most likely. But maybe you can source 2nd hand mast and boom for it, as well as 2nd hand sails, and that will help a lot with costs.

Good luck with it.

Ann

[Damoedge]

I'll have to ask the owner about the mast and paper work, I know there will be a lot of work to get it ready but for me it will be a nice little project and I might as well make use of our canal's here seeing there outside our back door.

I really appreciate all the replies I'm getting here thanks a million to all, this is new to me and I'm looking forward to getting into boat life!

My main concern now is the keel, I'll have to find out more about it.

I did step onto it the other evening and it didn't seem to tumble that much in fact I thought it would rock a lot more as I'm a big fella lol.

Anyways I'll keep ye updated here when I find out more about it, information is always good.

[SY Harmony]

Originally Posted by Damoedge

I'll have to ask the owner about the mast and paper work, I know there will be a lot of work to get it ready but for me it will be a nice little project and I might as well make use of our canal's here seeing there outside our back door.

I really appreciate all the replies I'm getting here thanks a million to all, this is new to me and I'm looking forward to getting into boat life!

My main concern now is the keel, I'll have to find out more about it.

I did step onto it the other evening and it didn't seem to tumble that much in fact I thought it would rock a lot more as I'm a big fella lol.

Anyways I'll keep ye updated here when I find out more about it, information is always good.

It still floats. Saving it is just a matter of time and money.

[newhaul]

Not sure of make but a hose and scrub brush will make a big difference with a days scrubbing.
Now it has the general lines of some westerly and most likely has twin bilge keels.

[boatman61]

Can't think of a single Westerly with those lines..

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Can't think of a single Westerly with those lines..

The hull lines are similar to a centar but the cabin is definitely different
And his saying it seemed stable when he tried to rock it leads me to think bilge keels

[TrentePieds]

Hello Damoedge and welcome to our forum :-)!

I've read through the posts from the beginning, and I would like to put some thoughts before you that by some here will be considered absolutely heretical. But there are many in this forum whose names might be McNulty or Corrigan or some such, and yet they have no knowledge of Ireland :-)! So let's nail down a coupla facts:

The boat is filthy. It's about 24 feet LOA and doesn't have all its gear. IOW it's a wonderful project for a totally green novice who wants to learn about “yotting” from the “ground up” (Ahem!), and who doesn't take himself or the boat too seriously. And five hundred quid is neither here nor there. It's the equivalent of two nights in a hotel in Dublin with a good dinner in between, isn't it :-)?

So don't worry about what make the boat is. That's a totally trivial consideration. Unlike a Galway hooker, she is NOT built from wood but from “frozen snot” - Glass Reinforced Plastic. Wooden boats are on life support from the moment they leave the builder's yard, whereas GRP boats never die – you have to ASSASSINATE them. Whereof this boat is apparent proof :-)!

Your pictures show that you are inland. Dunno why, but your pics bring Ballinasloe to mind. If that surmise is correct, then your nearest briny would be Galway Bay — where the hookers live — and to get there you have a longish paddle down the Rivers Suck and Shannon. Now I haven't been in those parts since the Ford Defect (as we used to call it) was le dernier cri in automotive luxury, so I don't know this for sure: There is bound to be a motorway twixt Dublin and Galway these days, and that means a bridge, probably on the Suck before its confluence with the Shannon, and that would explain why the boat has no mast!

So if I were in your boots, I'd grab the boat, buy a pressure washer just like someone said up above, clean her up and spend the coming summer on getting 'er tiddly. Don't worry about mast and rigging. You can do that next year, and it needn't cost you an arm and a leg. Don't worry too much about paper, but DO get a proper bill of sale. I doubt that anyone would challenge you for the boat. I don't know what the licencing/registration requirements are for boats in Ireland these days, but your local garda can point you in the right direction. If there is a licence/registration number anywhere on the boat, the authorities in Dublin should be able to verify it's current ownership. If you find nothing there, just go with the bill of sale.

That “bridgedeck” that sticks out into the cockpit suggests that the boat has/had an inboard motor. Let me know if so, and if so what. If there is not a serviceable inboard motor, get a little outboard motor. A little 9.9 horsepower Honda will do nicely. Stay in touch, and people in this forum will take you by the hand and lead you through how to mount it. :-)

I'm going to let the cat outta the bag. My forebears were among the men from the long boats with the stripey sails that were welcomed with such open arms by the colleens around what is now Dublin. So I claim a seafaring heritage of twelve hundred years, and although I'm now settled on the western shore of Canada, I'm a tad short of patience with the propensity for conspicuous consumption that rules in these parts.

I see that Ann Cate posted. Ann is our resident expert on needlework, and she's been cruising in a serious way for thirty odd years. We have another lady who is a dab hand at marlinspike seamanship. For what it's worth: Three score years ago I made a new mainsail for my boat. From scratch. With some success. So if you want to get stuck into a wonderful hobby/learning experience, have at it! It'll cost an arm and a leg if you accept too much “new world” advice, but it can also be done for a relatively modest cost. As long as you keep you wits about you :-)!

Ádh mór ort!

TrentePieds

[boatman61]

As for the type of keel.. lift a couple of the boards in the floor and if you see a row of nuts on the bottom of the Hull it's a fin keel.. if there's a row of nuts under the seats either side its bilge keel.
As TP says above, KISS is the way to go, don't worry about the mast for now and don't be afraid to ask questions

[garyfdl]

Originally Posted by boatman61

if you see a row of nuts on the bottom of the Hull it's a fin keel.. if there's a row of nuts under the seats either side its bilge keel.

The nuts you see in other parts of the boat, drinking? Those are sailors.

Minor note: not all keels are bolted on. Some boats (like my Watkins) have a molded keel. But I would think you would still be able to tell lifting floor boards or looking under the seats in the cabin.

[TrentePieds]

For those of you who may not know what a hooker is:

https://m.facebook.com/MVNaomhEanna/...9826942103230/

As you can see, you don't have to have all the latest gear, nor a hull and rig observing the holy writ of modern yacht designers to go fast and to have a rip-snorting time :-)!

TP

[Don C L]

Nah, that design, I am betting fin keel. Let us know who wins!

[garyfdl]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

For those of you who may not know what a hooker is:

https://m.facebook.com/MVNaomhEanna/...9826942103230/

As you can see, you don't have to have all the latest gear, nor a hull and rig observing the holy writ of modern yacht designers to go fast and to have a rip-snorting time :-)!

TP

But will you respect her in the morning?

[TrentePieds]

Ah, Gary... On some other thread you've let it slip that you are ex-USN.

If this weren't a family site, I'd tell you what befell a Warrant Hossifer, USN is Halifax NS way back when I was young.

But if I did, in these days of having to be "politically correct", I'd be made to walk the plank :-)!

TP

[garyfdl]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Ah, Gary... On some other thread you've let it slip that you are ex-USN.

If this weren't a family site, I'd tell you what befell a Warrant Hossifer, USN is Halifax NS way back when I was young.

But if I did, in these days of having to be "politically correct", I'd be made to walk the plank :-)!

TP

LOL I'm sure it's quite the story.

Halifax btw is one of my favorite cities. Was there several times for business in the 80's.

[Damoedge]

@TrentePieds

My life seems to be full of coincidence, it reminds me of the time I got on a bus in port authority New York city heading for Ocean City Maryland and I sat down beside a passenger who happened to be related to me! a distant cousin.

So you can imagine my surprise when I read your paragraph about Ballinasloe, I'm actually from there! Born and bread there lol, but now I'm living in Kildare and that's where the pictures were taken. It's a small world hey, so how does a person living in Canada know Ballinasloe?? I'll have to fill you in on all tht gossip lol.

Back to the boat, well I won't be near the boat for the next week as I'm off to Gran Canaria for a few days but I can't wait to find out more about this boat myself and I'm getting excited about it.

I'm starting to learn about boats already and seeing that all sail boats have some form of keel I'm hoping that this boat has the double small keels or raise and lift keel, fingers crossed it has.