Fear and Getting Started

[Target9000]

Originally Posted by boasun

My fear is letting go of the funds to purchase the boat... Yes I have enough but!? Am tight fisted and procrastinating about bringing the funds to one central bank so I can pay for the vessel.
Do have my eye on about four different used sail boats, all big enough for live-aboard without having to step outside to change my pants or my mind. Have two remittances to live on... Just need to open my hand to let go of the funds.

A good boat's name: Son's Inheritance.

I hear that. I'm a tightwad too and I swear it literally pains me to buy some of the stuff that we're buying. But in "the real world" Dani is a budget manager. And I've got degrees in math and statistics. We sat down and worked out the numbers.

Putting it all down on paper really makes you open your eyes and see where it is okay to spend money and where it isn't. I find that most of what I fear is the unknown and once I start I'm much more "ok" with it all. I suggest doing what we did and putting it all down on paper with your rational justifications for letting go of those funds. Once you have it on paper, in front of you, and well laid out it isn't really an unknown anymore. And so it is less scary.

[wkd928]

Our boat came with a Perkins 4:156, at the time when we pulled it out I thought it was a 4:108 and rebuild kits were cheap for those - not so for the 156 as it turns out. I didn't think I had the budget to buy a new engine and so I found a good used 156 to replace ours that was only really running on two cylinders.

The guys in the diesel shop tried to tell me to buy a new diesel, in retrospect I think they were right. You get brand new ancillaries with a new engine and that counts for quite a lot. Our "new" used engine seems ok, but it would be nice if everything that was hanging off it was new, and they are the parts which most often fail.

[Target9000]

Originally Posted by wkd928

Our boat came with a Perkins 4:156, at the time when we pulled it out I thought it was a 4:108 and rebuild kits were cheap for those - not so for the 156 as it turns out. I didn't think I had the budget to buy a new engine and so I found a good used 156 to replace ours that was only really running on two cylinders.

The guys in the diesel shop tried to tell me to buy a new diesel, in retrospect I think they were right. You get brand new ancillaries with a new engine and that counts for quite a lot. Our "new" used engine seems ok, but it would be nice if everything that was hanging off it was new, and they are the parts which most often fail.

So what did you end up doing to the one that runs on 2 cylinders? Fixed it up?

[wkd928]

It's still sitting on a shelf in the shop. Plan is to strip it down and take what we can as spares. Might send the heavier stuff on ahead ie block, crank and cylinder head - we are aiming for NZ as our destination.

I paid $1000 for the used engine and a compression check and oil pressure were both good. Even so, after shipping, testing and replacing various hoses etc the cost of the used engine did climb significantly so that it was only a shorter step up to the cost of a completely new unit. The engine installation and removal costs are the same in both cases.

As far as the idea goes that replacing like for like will make installation easier.. I'm not so sure it's not the other way around! Especially if you have a mess of electrical wires, plumbing etc etc. Now is the time to weed all that stuff out and replace the accumulated bodges of several owners, might as well start with fresh materials I'd say.

[JRM]

I had that, and also the pressure of the budget. There seems like so much to do. Casey makes a great point: make a list, prioritize it, and follow it.

However, that being said, a single project will begin to suck you down the rabbit hole. The head needs rebuilding, but the kit costs almost as much as a new head, which when purchased will require replumbing because the outlet is in a different place, during which you will find that the PO used exhaust hose which turns out to be porous (instead of the correct nipple on the tank), which means additional plumbing, which while doing you find the macerator is sketchy, and the Y-valve is beyond frozen so you remove it, then get the bright idea to move the galley sink through-hull to the old overboard discharge cause it's larger and the sinks don't drain well (and you happen to have enough hose left over from the head replumbing), during that replumbing you inadvertently knock loose the connection to the pressure water pump which begins to leak at which point you realize that your new sink hose routing makes it nigh impossible to put a screwdriver on the freaking hose clamps that are leaking... We don't even want to start talking about the electric repower, and what that all led too...

It's an older boat. I get as much satisfaction from toying with it as I do from sailing it, which is good because if I didn't I couldn't afford to sail it anyway. I consider it my learning boat, in so many ways... Besides, it's pretty easy to fix when you accidentally hammer a chisel through the hull (luckily it was in the yard for that one). The real damage is to my pride when I do something really stupid... (and then come here and read about what I should have done from eight different threads on the topic that I somehow missed because the bloody search system here is somehow linked to my boat and will only display those threads *after* I've pooched up a particular job)

Keep the faith. My wife has lived through three full house fixers without sticking a shank in me while I sleep. We'll see if I live through the boat owning experience...

JRM

-- my thesis supervisor used to call those "pants wetter" problems. as in you see it, and it seems so big you wet your pants 'cause you can't figure out where to start. his solution was just to start working one small area, and when you've got locked down then move on to the next, and eventually the big picture will resolve itself. although, on further review i don't think he ever owned a boat. i knew he was way smarter than me...