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Old 02-05-2010, 02:39 PM   #1
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Hi everyone my first post here. I live in Thailand and decided to purchase a cat for coastal and island sailingand was hoping some of the more experianced may offer some advice on the boat below the asking price is $89,000 aus neg. I need to be able to singlehand and the owner has assured me it could be easily set up .I have not seen her yet as she is in Bali but its only a short hop from here. I have a few years mono sailing under my belt but never on cat. Any comments on wether this is a good buy considering the equipment levels would be very much appreciated

Crowther Eureka
Cruise South East Asia, reimport to Australia or retire in beautiful Bali with a day charter business. This Crowther Cat is Indonesian registered and currently in Bali after 2 years cruising Malasia, Thailand and Indonesia. It is a very comfortable, well set up boat for extended island cruising or could be used as a day charter business again. (8 guests) It is offered for sale at near half the price of similar boats in Australia. The boat has currently undergone a major refit plus full motor overhaul

Details Price AU $89,000

make an offer Convert to Please Select Australian Dollars British Pounds Canadian Dollars Euro Hong Kong Dollars New Zealand Dollars Singapore Dollars US Dollars Other

Vessel Name Merpati Putih (White Dove) Year 1986 Length 35' 1" - 10.70m Beam 4.6 mts Draft . 80m Displacement 5 tonne Keel / Ballast Mini keels for beaching Vessel Location Bali Country Indonesia Designer Lock Crowther Builder Built in Perth WA extended to 35' in 2005 Hull Material Fibre Glass Decks Material F G over foam Engine Two x Yanmar GM 20's with SD 20 sail drives full out of boat overhauled august 09 Fuel 150lt tank plus 200lt in jerrycans Water 200lt twin tanks Dinghy New in March 09 3.90m Outboard New in March 09 Suzuki 6 (petrol four stroke) Covers Main cabin/cockpit sun shade Shower Pressure shower in head and on deck Toilet Manual pump Accommodation Two double cabins with queen size beds plus saloon sofa converts to bed for 2 more Galley In port aft cabin.

2 burner gas stove and sink with pressure water Refrigeration Esky but room to install fridge Ground Tackle 3 anchors Plus stainless chain and rope Safety Gear Flares, life vests Electrics Ray Marine auto pilot

Hydraulic assisted wheel steering

new VHF radio

2 x 200 a/h house batteries plus 2 x 75 a/h starting batteries charged with 2 LARGE SOLAR PANELS(50x100cm)

inverter

Dual system for shore power Electronics

Navigation Garmin chart sounder with world maps and detailed charts of Indo area.

Depth sounder needs service

Many paper charts of S E Asia Sail Inventory BRAND NEW MAIN full battened used only 6 DAYS Jakarta Bali trip.

large Genoa on furler

Rolly tasker no 2 working jib + no 3 heavy weather

Cruising chute in sock Mast / Rigging Aluminium mast (with steps) and boom

8mm + 10 mm stainless rigging Deck Gear 2 large Sheet winches plus 3 smaller winches

4 spinlock jammers etc Remarks Recently (Nov 08) replaced large forward hatches over berths as well as all new acrylic wrap around windows in main saloon/cockpit area. The cockpit has been redesigned to seat 8-10 making it an ideal tropical cruiser or potential charter boat

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Old 02-05-2010, 03:31 PM   #2
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Now that was a Great commercial.
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Old 02-05-2010, 09:09 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by Nusailor View Post
Now that was a Great commercial.
I want to buy it not sell it. I made sure there were no contact details on the cut n paste so no one else buys it lol. I have no idea about purchasing a multi especially a 26 year old one and welcome any advice here
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Old 02-05-2010, 11:29 PM   #4
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Zorro,

I am a multihull fanatic and a great admirer of Lock Crowther's designs.

However, one major caveat - who built this boat - very few Crowther's were built by professional boat yards - statistics not available - but a guestimate would be 95% were/are home built.

The boat's measurements do reveal an issue :- " 1986 Length 35' 1" - 10.70m Beam 4.6 mts Draft . 80m Displacement 5 tonne Keel / Ballast Mini keels for beaching Vessel Location Bali Country Indonesia Designer Lock Crowther Builder Built in Perth WA extended to 35' in 2005 Hull Material Fibre Glass Decks Material F G over foam"

The 24 year old boat in 1986 had a beam of 15 ft (so it's LOA was probably +/- 30ft) then we see that in 2005 it was extended to 35' - (photo shows sugar scoops, which were probably added because she was down on her lines or "hobby horsing") and of course the beam remains at 15ft.

Another item needs clarification is 'Keel / Ballast Mini Keels' ? cats do not need ballasting.

Charter guests and no fridge in the tropics ?

No ways would I buy that boat without a condition and value survey performed by a surveyor with multihull experience. However, the boats specification does not encourage the idea of flying down to Bali (even with a promotion ticket from Air Asia)
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Old 02-06-2010, 12:01 AM   #5
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IThanks MMNETSEA

very good points you mention. It must be ex charter as the article says ""could be used as a day charter business again " who would want to admit it if it wasnt so. but no fridge is rather odd. The add also mentions that its half the price of boats in oz, doesnt sound right to me , what do you think? Thailand has zero import duty and only 7% tax so importing is not an issue here pretty much zero requirements no holding tanks etc. I will put the ballast question to him in an email today.
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Old 02-06-2010, 12:42 AM   #6
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Actually have forwarded all your concerns via email. Extending the length and not the beam surely can not be a good thing. Thanks again for your input
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Old 02-06-2010, 01:10 AM   #7
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Hi Zorrro,

There are Eurekas for sale in Australia at around the same sort of price and less. If you google you will find that the design was a Crowther compromise at the time. You will also find some that have also been extended.

No mention is made of the age of the rigging - but at the boat's age of 24 years I bet that it needs replacing. Photo shows a Shakespeare HF radio antenna - no mention of the HF radio ? Why were the engines overhauled last year - what condition the Sail Drives?

2 x 200 a/h house batteries plus 2 x 75 a/h starting batteries charged with 2 LARGE SOLAR PANELS(50x100cm) How old the batteries ? How many amps the Solar Panels?

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Old 02-06-2010, 01:30 AM   #8
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shows you how much I know about buying a used boat. learning more everyday. Have saved all your questions to put to any future prospects, also there may be an advantage in buying oz registered just in case I move back again and re register. I will post the vendors response re my original post when his reply arrives

cheers
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Old 02-06-2010, 01:57 AM   #9
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There is one other factor to take on board, that is :- when a catamaran is extended by adding water line length only at the transoms - then the mast will be to far forward relative to its designed position. The dynamics of balance may be distorted to the extent that the boat will not hold track easily. Where will the centre of effort be located? When the Jib is furled with Main still working, it might feel like a boat sailing only with a head sail.
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Old 02-06-2010, 02:59 AM   #10
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think Im getting out of my depth on this one. Im 25 years ex motor industry and modifications can if not correctly done effect the resale price dramatically, Im assuming now its the same for yachts and problem is Im not experienced enough to know if she is sailing right or not. Also will be difficult to find someone to survey in Bali i imagine. and the saloon fit out looks 26 years old. lets see how it pans out but Im leaning more to an unmodified design now, problem is not many yachts in asia oddly. Will keep searching when back in oz in a few weeks ,thanks a bundle I never would have known the implications other wise.
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Old 02-06-2010, 04:54 PM   #11
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Sorry about the poke yesterday Zorro; I'm looking for a cat myself. The ad WAS good . You will find some VERY knowledgable sailors on this forum. All my experience was with destroyers.
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Old 02-07-2010, 02:12 AM   #12
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No probs the add seemed to good to be true, here is the response from the vendor re who buit it ( he doesnt know) and how many engine hours ( he doesnt know) and some interesting modifications.

I don't know who actually built it. I tried to find out by writing to crowther designd but got no reply. It is a crowther 32. and there are a few around and some advertised on Yachthub. (at considerably higher prices I might add) The only info I have is that it was called Mr Kuta before I bought it and the paperwork says it was called Jethro jevon before that . How long before I don't know I googled this name and didn't find anything. I spoke to a catamaran specialist who was passing through bali a few years back an he said they were professionally made in wa and he believed mine was also.. I think mainly because the glass work looked like it was out of moulds rather than home built. The original design was 32' and I think was designed for an outboard as there were signs of an outboard well that had been glassed over in the cockpit. The diesels were in it when I bought it and the engine hours meters have never worked so I have no idea how many hours are on the motors. The original configuration when I bought it was a disaster from a sailing point of view. The indonesia guy who had it used it as a floating caravan, it had a large permanent genset in the bow, Air conditioning and water maker as well 220volt tv and fans run from the genset or inverter. The things that were really "wrong" for me were that the large roller furling headsail sheeted to some trascks outboard on the hulls making it impossible to sail to windward. To remedy this I Moved the roller furling head stay forward on a small bowsprit and added a new inner forestay (from australia) which flies working jibs on hanks. The track for the jib blocks have been moved inboard to the side of the cabin allowing both the roller furled jib and the smaller jibs to be sheeted in properly. The next problem to overcome was that although the cockpit area had plenty of headroom under the cabin roof, to go into the saloon you had to slide open a large horizontal hatch which only gave about 1m50 headroom. I removed the hatch and extended the saloon roof forward creating a comfortable full headroom saloon area. Above the helming seat there was a small hatch big enough to stick your head out. I used the old saloon sliding hatch to replace the small hatch in the cockpit roof. This works great. The next issue to get the boat sailing properly was that the the mast is relatively short by the standards of todays cats and the back stay was split halfway down leading to the transoms. This meant that you could have virtually no roach in the mainsail and it was quite small and underpowered. I removed the back stay and replkaced it with 2 stays that lead about 60degrees aft to the outside of the hulls in the way that nearly if not all modern cats do. This allowed me to have made a new fully battened main with a lot of extra area in the roach, same as most modern cats. Because the cat was fitted at some stage with diesels it meant more weight aft and the stern would always drag under way. A few years back when the darwin kupang, singapore sailing rally passed through I had the chance to speak with many of the cat sailors in the fleet. They were unanimous in that i shouild put sugar scoops on. A couple of the older boats had already been extended and they convinced me it was a very doable modification which has worked out very well giving at least 1.5 knots extra. The original fibreglass oponing hatches at the front of the cabins have been replaced with aluminium hatches and the saloon cabin windows which had rubber seals like car windows have been replaced with wrap around acrylic windows. The mini keels are great for beaching and there is no balast that is just the words from the yachthub website. It does not have an electric fridge but the ice boxes work ok . A proper built in fridge would be better. Where do you stop, everybody is looking for a modern cat with all extras but of course you know that you get what you pay for. I would love a tasman cat or new seawind but my budget, probably like yours only runs to an older boat and these require maintenance. Most boats require an average of 10% per year upkeep and I have spent more than that upgrading this one. Anyway thats enough for you to digest must go more later Cheers John
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Old 02-07-2010, 03:05 AM   #13
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Hello Zorro,

Interesting answers from the vendor, unfortunately they don't really assist a buyer. The "don't knows" include information regarding the most expensive part of the boat - the hulls and the engines. The other modifications may have been necessary. However, unless the modifications were made by a professional boat builder with multihull experience, they won't add value to a 24 year old boat.

Another factor to be borne in mind is the present country of registration, if this is Indonesia - then if the boat is taken to Australia, what will the Australian authorities require for the boat to be imported into Australia?

Hypothetically, if the vendor accepted an offer of say #40,000 Aud - that boat still might be expensive in terms of having to replace gear that is worn out or obsolete:- New engines and rigging, hull repairs, batteries, solar panels, paint, safety equipment, labour costs etc..

Richard
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Old 02-07-2010, 03:33 AM   #14
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Richard I agree, and thats only half of it, still waiting for age of rigging etc. He has already knocked back an offer of 70k early in discussions, actually told me to take a hike , which I will now do. On to the next one. have noticed many cheaper multis in europe and the states again importing back to Thailand is not an issue. no import duty just 7% VAT and no modifications required , this would be the best option but dont fancy the long voyage . Must be all of 20 cats availavle through out all of s/e asia so not much choice here. Thinking cap back on now

cheers and thanks again

zoran
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Old 02-07-2010, 04:41 AM   #15
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Zoran,

I suppose all of us yachties believe that our boats are more valuable than what the market dictates. For example if a Crowther 32 cat was built in 1986 and valued at $300,000 including tax,

I guess the owner's accountant would apply an annual depreciation, if 10% was the figure, 17 years later the boat's book value might read $50,000.

All that said, multihulls in this era, do hold their value compared to monos. BUT they must come from a good stable and have been well looked after and maintained.

Richard
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Old 02-07-2010, 05:04 AM   #16
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Richard to digress slightly what i really should do is wait another 12 months. Making a living in the stock markets Im hesitant to splurg more on a used boat. wont go into it but things may change rapidly again, nothing will be spared including yachts. But Im impatient :-) Usa and europe hit much harder by deppression hence much cheaper boats, Aus and asia have fared the best so no panic there.
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Old 08-03-2010, 10:45 AM   #17
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for me I need to be able to single hand and the owner has assured me it could be easily set up .I have not seen her yet as she is in Bali but its only a short hop.

sandra,

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Old 08-03-2010, 06:07 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sandrah' date='03 August 2010 - 06:39 AM View Post

for me I need to be able to single hand and the owner has assured me it could be easily set up .I have not seen her yet as she is in Bali but its only a short hop.

sandra,
What boat are you talking about? The Crowther 34?
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Old 08-22-2010, 03:22 AM   #19
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Zorrro. Did you finally get anywhere in your search for 'the' right yacht. Keep in touch with all of us. If I can be of any assistance - get in touch, by all means - feel free. Wishing you all the luck you will need. Don't ever - loose this site as it's the best in the 'yachting' world. Let's hear from you & how you are going !! Ciao from 'down-under' james (Silverraven)
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