1981 John Spencer Advise.

[Cmechilln]

Hello Cruiers,

Im Chris from Mesa AZ. Thank you for helping.

I just put an offer in on a 81 John Spenser Custom 52 for $35,000

It is a project and I will be doing the work myself and ill have a buddy who is a carpenter fly in from another state to help. We are hoping this project is worthy and will take less then a month.

It it possible to finish in a month and worth it? We will put in solid work days since im on a budget and want it out of the boat yard asap. What would the process be of repairing the area? What wood do i use to fix around rudder area? Which fiber glass?

Im hoping someone can point me in the right direction maybe a video for this kind of repair.


I have included pictures.

[GILow]

Others will chime in with technical advice, but my gut feeling is "no way".

I suppose you could MAYBE get it to a state where it could be safely put back in the water, but getting to a point where it is structurally sound for sailing or even motoring is going to take a lot more time than that.

I've found with these sorts of jobs that there are delays, delays, delays, no matter how organised I thought I was. Things need to cure, stuff needs to be dried out, materials need to be sourced and stuff needs to be fabricated.

I would be surprised if a professional yard with all the skills and workshop systems on hand could get that sorted out in a month. Surprised, and impressed.

Any chance of moving it to somewhere cheaper to work on it? That would be my approach if I had bought the boat.

Matt

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Chris.

WEST SYSTEM Epoxy Instruction Manuals
➥ https://www.westsystem.com/instruction-manuals/

I expect that Matt is right, about your proposed schedule.

[LittleWing77]

Run away! There are lots more problems with that boat than the keel-hull joint.

Sorry,
LittleWing

[Fore and Aft]

I remember being passed by a Spencer 40 in Wellington that was doing 17 knots under a big kite.
What’s exactly wrong with her? Is that black timber rotten or wet? If it’s wet not rotten get a heater on a trestle drying it ASAP. No epoxy is going to stick to wet wood.
What you need is 20 litres of epoxy resin, glue powder to mix in, filler powder to mix in maybe microballons, 450gm double bias fibreglass cloth, DO NOT USE CHOPSTRAND MATT or POLYESTER RESIN, hardwood or Oregon?, 2” brushes for the epoxy resin (I buy mine of eBay cheap same with the disposable gloves and grinding discs), peel ply, grinding discs, plastic mixing containers (I use 2 litre ice cream containers), sand paper etc.
Remember your glue joins do not need to be furniture perfect as epoxy can handle a gap. The peel ply you can put over the wet fibreglass then remove once the fibreglass is dry. It gives a smooth surface and if you get real lucky you may only need to spot fill the fibreglass cloth and paint with a heavy coat of epoxy high build.
Good luck getting it done in a month, without actually being there I think it could be done?
Cheers

[Fore and Aft]

I just checked the ad and I see she has what I assume is the original Diesel engine. Those 3QMs are very old and it might be getting close to being replaced. I hope you are offering half or less for this yacht? How old is the standing rigging? Usually the rigging is replaced every ten years? Did you get a good survey? This yachts almost 40 years old and is bound to have a few hidden issues.
Cheers

[Cmechilln]

Did you look into purchasing this yacht? Wondering how you know there's Lots more wrong with it than this? PM me please if you'd rather not say here.

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

Run away! There are lots more problems with that boat than the keel-hull joint.

Sorry,
LittleWing

[Glassdog]

RUN!!!!

[TrentePieds]

cmechilln:

Oh dear! You are way, way low on you time estimate. And it will cost you far more than you expect.

There is an old joke that when you have a time estimate, for example 5 weeks, you treble the number and you go to the next time unit up. Thus a more realistic "time to complete" a "five-week project" is 15 months.


There is another old saying, that is NOT a joke, but a time tested truism: The cost to refurbish a sailboat is the purchase price + (purchase price x 3). So I fear you may be looking at a total cost to complete of something like $140K

A further problem you will encounter is that building houses is NOT the same as building boats. In boats there are very few right angles, and there are very few straight lines. It therefore has to be a most adaptable house-builder (carpenter) who can make any kind of way on a boat building/repairing project.

Those are generalities, of course. If this boat is fit to be sailed at all, then sail her while you place her on the market and get rid of her. If you have to take, say, a twenty grand loss on that transaction, then consider that "tuition fees". Next time, BEFORE you sign on the dotted line, talk to us about your intended purchase.

All the best

TrentePieds

[wingssail]

I don't know all the items on the work list.

If it is just the area around the rudder then I think this could be doable. The supplies listed above would be a good starting point.

I am not so worried about the hull keel joint. This looks like a bolted on keel with cracked filler where the two meet. This is probably not a show stopper.

But old engine and probably old rig and this amount of repair, Humm.. $35 k seems high. Sails, electronics, what things make this boat valuable?

[Calif.Ted]

It it possible to finish in a month and worth it?

No, that boat has already broken more than 2 dreamers I'd bet.

[wingssail]

I have just run through the adv and all the photos https://moreboats.com/boats/custom-b...ncer-52/293774, not much in the way of specs, but from the photos we can see that this is a rough boat. Lots of crude home built stuff visible inside and out. The out side is quite rough, most concerning are the hull cracks on the topsides, port side, midships. We know little of the details of the equipment other than what can be seen. The windvane attachement is going to break during the first blow.

In summary: a 38 year old wooden high performance (fractional rig) boat which shows very little care and a lot of problems. The only thing I like is the basic hull shape (other than the bizarre bow) and the original wood work inside.

It needs a thorough survey of the wood hull.

You can relaunch this boat within a month if you ignore everything but the hull area aft of the propeller but without a much better idea of the total list of problems you are taking a big chance on this project not being a lot bigger than you think.

[Cheechako]

I'm thinking 3 years should be enough if you keep at it. But you don't say what it needs....

[chowdan]

I think if you had a few extra hands, the skillsets with the extra hands, you could do it in a month and a half if it's just the rudder post area. With the skillsets, you wont be taking time to research it all. If it were me, I'd remove the rotted/damaged area, make a nice 7:1 bevel and rebuild that area with biaxial and woven roving with west systems. Equal layer build up on the exterior and interior of the hole from bevel to surface. Will take a while but will be structurally sounds when your done.

Without the skillsets or time AND money, dont do it. Financially, logically, it's an poor decision for you. Find a smaller boat that needs less structural work and go from there

[Cmechilln]

thanks everyone im going to back out of the deal. i appreciate you. Ill check out some of the Good finds topics.