Hello All

[RogerFox]

Hello, and greetings from sunny France!

New to the forum but not to boats, I gave up sailing 4 years ago and moved my 1972 Challenger 32, which I restored in 1990, into the French canals.

The Canal du Midi is now badly silted up, so to make sure we could navigate, I cut 10" off the lead keel and stored it ashore together with the mast.

I now have difficulty walking, and neither I nor my wife can jump on and off the boat at the locks any more, so I'm trying to find someone who wants her for a bargain price (the boat, not the wife)

I have shown her to a string of people who came in response to my adverts, but none of them had much idea about boats at all, so if anyone is interested, send me a PM

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by RogerFox

Hello, and greetings from sunny France!

New to the forum but not to boats, I gave up sailing 4 years ago and moved my 1972 Challenger 32, which I restored in 1990, into the French canals.

The Canal du Midi is now badly silted up, so to make sure we could navigate, I cut 10" off the lead keel and stored it ashore together with the mast.

I now have difficulty walking, and neither I nor my wife can jump on and off the boat at the locks any more, so I'm trying to find someone who wants her for a bargain price (the boat, not the wife)

I have shown her to a string of people who came in response to my adverts, but none of them had much idea about boats at all, so if anyone is interested, send me a PM

Hiya... Welcome to CF...
So basically she's now a motorboat..?
10" of lead is a lot of ballast to take away.. what do you call a bargain?
I can just about afford 'Free' these days....
But on a serious note... Good luck and hope she finds a good owner

[RogerFox]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Hiya... Welcome to CF...
So basically she's now a motorboat..?
10" of lead is a lot of ballast to take away.. what do you call a bargain?
I can just about afford 'Free' these days....
But on a serious note... Good luck and hope she finds a good owner

Yes, now a motorboat, but there's more than enough space in the void above the keel to put in the removed ballast, cut or cast into small pieces. This would only raise the CG of the ballast about 5" above original.

Alternatively, I have found a foundry in Barcelona who will recast the whole amount of lead into a bulbous, shallower keel. Then, with the mast stepped in the new tabernacle, she could sail the canals or the sea

There is still 10" of ballast left, more than half the original 3,600 lbs. She rolled interestingly in a 3 foot or so beam sea with the mast laid on deck when I brought her down the coast from the yard, but she is quite stable, especially now the mast is ashore.

She was valued at €31,100 (~£27,000) at her last survey, I would sell her for £10,000.

Any less than that and I might as well sell off her equipment first - the Alpes Inox cooker cost over £2000, just for starters. I owned a marine engineering business in Spain - air conditioning, refrigeration, domestic and generators mainly, so bought everything through the business from the companies we represented.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Roger.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by RogerFox

Yes, now a motorboat, but there's more than enough space in the void above the keel to put in the removed ballast, cut or cast into small pieces. This would only raise the CG of the ballast about 5" above original.

Alternatively, I have found a foundry in Barcelona who will recast the whole amount of lead into a bulbous, shallower keel. Then, with the mast stepped in the new tabernacle, she could sail the canals or the sea

There is still 10" of ballast left, more than half the original 3,600 lbs. She rolled interestingly in a 3 foot or so beam sea with the mast laid on deck when I brought her down the coast from the yard, but she is quite stable, especially now the mast is ashore.
They do that anyway...

She was valued at €31,100 (~£27,000) at her last survey, I would sell her for £10,000.

Any less than that and I might as well sell off her equipment first - the Alpes Inox cooker cost over £2000, just for starters. I owned a marine engineering business in Spain - air conditioning, refrigeration, domestic and generators mainly, so bought everything through the business from the companies we represented.

Sounds like a sweet deal for someone... especially with room to pack the ballast internally... they are pretty rare and not a bad boat at all... great prospective live aboard

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!