Finish a partly completed steel cruising boat?

[MCathcart]

I continued to look and do research on other Bruce Roberts, I found two boats that were in the water or almost completed in the $40,000 range. I've repaired boats for years so I was (am) looking for a deal. When buying unfinished or damaged boats (or cars) you need Cash as the bank is not going to finance it! From my understanding of what CJ said, he was off the boat which in my opinion was the best decision.

We're almost down to three years before we go cruising, my time line on buying a larger boat is ticking away. If we don't locate something we're going to sail the 34' Hunter. There's a couple of New boats that I really like but they're going to knock the Crap out of the Kitty! I don't know if any of you looked at the Tayana 37, she's a well kept boat but she has 6.5' of keel! Even with a shoal draft boat we still ground out.

Mike

[mickmul]

Great to see this thread re-igniting! Hey CJ, you still out there? Any progress? I think the Crealock is missing from Yachtworld - you or Amgine buy it? Keep in touch!! Very interested Irishman.....

[cjbeals]

Heya, still lurking about, still watching boats

[Amgine]

Only in my world cruising fantasies! Most likely I'll be selling my Cape Dory at the rate things are going here, with only half of the upgrades completed... <sigh> It's either that or leave my family.

[Seeratlas]

Well, let me toss in my 2cents as I've just done the dance you've all been talking about and bought a refurb boat. First off, I've been working out my own *perfect* boat design for years now, and finally when I got to the point where I was ready to put the steel on the ground (yeah steel-I've owned fibreglass and steel and sailed aluminum..as a certain nw designer frequently opines.."take wood, fibreglass, and aluminum nails and pound it into a steel hull, then take your steel nail and pound it into wood/fibreglass or aluminum.hulls..any questions? " ). Then out of the blue, into my lap drops a boat VERY similar to what I was getting ready to build. Brewer boat, professionally built, in process of refurb then subject of an unfriendly divorce...
Five hours of ultrasound, and inch by inch inspection and I bought the boat. We'll see how long it takes to get it back into the water, but when i compare where I am now to where I would've been looking at flat plate on the ground...well...its really no contest.
As for price, steel boats in the US in places where Fibreglass is king can be incredible deals. Paint, well, everyone paints. on steel you do it right once, and touch up rarely, or do it wrong and repaint a lot; take your pick. It's not rocket science. The dutch are sailing and motoring around in steel boats almost 100 years old. On steel you epoxy to avoid rust, on fibreglass you epoxy to try and stop the damned blisters...six of one..
In any event, with current new prices being essentially insane..getting an older boat that has been cared for but needs some work makes a lot of sense, especially if you know how or can learn, to do that work yourself. Think of it as paying yourself $70.00 an hour to bolt on a latch, or spray some paint...Plus if you're going to go cruising, knowing how to work on your own boat is not a bad thing.

Now, simply said, the Perry Tayanas are great boats, and I can't remember a bad Crealock design..What I like about the Pacifics is that not only do they look great, they are better boats than they look.

seer