Yankee 30 MK III w/ gas engine? Go or no go?

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by morven55

As far as boat value, remember the "boat buyers rule of halves": offer 1/2 the asking price and you will get it for twice what it is really worth!!! :]

I like that rule...can I use that too?

[tuffr2]

Offer 1/2 the asking price. Is that a rule that works? If so I may try it and report back.

Sent from my SM-G360V using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by tuffr2

Offer 1/2 the asking price. Is that a rule that works? If so I may try it and report back.

Tried and True!

The last time I was searching for a boat, I finally had a short list of three good boats I liked. I was totally honest with each of the three owners...I was offering half their asking prices, and I would buy the first who accepted my offer (sent my email). The phone started ringing within an hour...two of the three were eager to take my offer. And they were not sour about it, but glad to have a buyer so that they could stop paying for dockage, insurance, and maintenance of a boat they did not want to own anymore. (Note: closing date would be Canada Day, July 1st...the date summer dockage fees...non-refundable... are due in my area...if they didn't sell to me, they could realistically expect to pay another year of ownership)

And when I sold my boat recently, I put it up for sale in July. And although I later removed the dinghy and some other gear, the final sale price was 40% less than my original ask. As soon as the sale was final, I was able to cancel my winter haulout and storage (close to $2k), got my winter storage deposit back (cash into my pocket), and got a refund on my insurance. But what I noticed most was that I could stop going to the local boat shops/hardware stores, where I would spend $20/$50/$200 every time I needed some oil/antifreeze/hardware, which seemed to be about once a week. It was like I quit smoking or something...for once my money stayed in my pocket for while rather than tossing it into the boat, like usual.

By way of full disclosure, here are some actual offers I made:

Tanzer 22...asking $6,000...offered $1800...accepted!
Cal 25...asking $12,000...offered $1000...accepted!
Paceship 29...asking $6,000...offered $100 (a hundred)...accepted!

All these boats needed major cleanup, but were well built production boats that I sailed withing days of purchase.

More than once I inspected a boat that I chose not to buy because of a major defect (like engine won't run), only to have the owner offer me the boat FREE. There are some boats I would not accept even for free. I want to sail.

However, I have also paid FULL ASKING PRICE when I saw a C&C27mk4 in excellent condition at a reasonable price. Two years later I sold that boat for 10% more than I paid. Same goes with a beautiful Hunter Legend 35.5 I bought in Annapolis and trucked/imported into Canada.

One important fact...I never bought a boat because it was cheap...I bought boats I wanted to sail, and checked over things like through hulls, fuel lines, rigging, structure, and anything safety related myself. More than once this saved my life for sure.

I have owned 8 sailboats, and just starting to look for number 9. Why so many boats you may ask. To be honest...I'm not rich. And I love to sail. These boats have given me the adventures of my life, more stories to tell my children than I can tell, and more fun than you can imagine. Sure, it helps to have deep pockets if you want to sail. But as I have said over and over again, you don't need money to go sailing. Trying is the hardest part.

[um saudade]

Lots of advice here and most of it generic.

Yankee 30:An Olin Stephen’s design, low and fast and stable.Don’t compare the mass produced boats of comparable age to a Yankee, the Yankee is a different class of boat.

Will it have issues?Certainly! It is a forty year old boat!

The glass work on the Yankees is good to excellent unless it has been in a crash.The glass is a little heavy and the design good.The rigging is not conventional as the boat hassingle lower shrouds and a baby stay to control mast bend.This does give you some advantages of both the fractional and the masthead rig.Chainplate design is a little unconventional but has no issues.

The main is bigger than the boat needs.Shorten the boom a little.

The engine:The A-4 was the stock engine and I am not going to go over the pros and cons of gas vs diesel but I can tell you that if this is the original A-4 and it has been a raw water engine for all this time, it is coming to the end of the service life of the engine.Most of the A-4s rust out before 40 years so best get any info you can on the engine and engine life.An overhaul or two is ok but still does nothing for the cylinder walls getting too thin due to rusting.

The A-4 is a flathead and has a very low profile, so there are only a few alternative engines that will fit in the engine box due to it being so low and a part of the settee..Other than that issue, repowering is easier than on a lot of boats and the engine is very easy to get to, the ways are glassed into the hull and very solid.The bilge is small and pan clearance can be an issue too.

The Universal Diesel is a good replacement if you wish to upgrade.

The keel bolts don’t loosen and are massive.Never heard of a Y-30 with keel issues.The skeg hung rudder is big, solid and responds well.The cockpit drains are a little small but there are two of them.

It is hard to add much below decks on the Y-30.Everything is pretty tight.Putting in a holding tank is tricky and it will be small for there simply is no room.Same thing for adding a heat exchanger system, can be done but must be planned carefully.

The weak link on the Y-30 is integrity of the hull to deck joint.As it has been written here, the edge of the balsa cored deck is not glassed over and is supposed to be protected by the teak toe rail. The deck issecured to the hull with screws and this joint is not sturdy enough so over time it all loosens and wiggles sufficiently to get some water into the balsa and leak behind the vinyl.

Once the deck is epoxied down to the hull the boat becomes stiffer and handles much better.Cover the glassed joint with an aluminum toe rail and it works even better yet.It can be fixed and is worth doing but is a big job, not easily done in the water and probably not possible in a marina setting.

Hope this helps.

[Alan j]

The Yankee 30 is an outstanding boat. Designed by Sparkman and Stevens and built to a high standard by Yankee Yachts. I know of one that cruised the South Pacific in the seventies and weathered a hurricane. I read about another one that did a 360 roll off the Golden Gate and came up with rig intact. Gas engines are safe as long as you take precauations with ventilation when taking on fuel. Also if you decide to upgrade to a diesel, I believe Yanmar or someone makes one that can be bolted right in.
Good Luck.