Unfinished Dreams For Sale?

[xenarla]

Hello all, this is my first time at this so please bear with. My wife and I (both about 30) are a few months into what we roughly see as a two year escape plan. We live in SE Queensland Aust. This year our lives have changed and we have had the oportunity think about what we want from the future. We love to travell and hate the rat race.

So we want to sail of to sunset and get busy living. We have basic sailing expirience including bareboating medium sized monohull and locally we get out in the run about for fishing day trips.

We want to buy a 38'-44' steel monohull (Roberts, Adams, Van De Statd, or similar) that is either in need of restoration, or a completed hull and decks to finish ourselves.

Anyone who had knowledge of such a project for sale on the East Coast of Australia would be greatly appreciated. Also any advice on specs would be usefull. At the moment we prefer a centre cockpit poop deck layout with a cutter rigged sloop. We also like hard dodgers. Our philosophy will be to keep it simple solid and reliable. Important luxuries will be big water tanks, head room, and bed built for a real life person. I would love to see a discussion on tenders as all the cruisers I see seem to have small low power items, which seems obvious, but what about when anchored for while in a great place with a lot local exploring and fishing to be done?

That should be enough from the newbie, so I'll go now and explore other topics. Thanks for reading.

[MMNETSEA]

Welcome Xenarla

Your post most welcome - to keep it going add more detail as responses come in.

The designs you and your wife are interested in ie.. Roberts, Adams, Van De Statd, or similar are

well represented in Australia.

Look forward to hearing more from you.

Richard

[Auzzee]

If money is in short supply, but you want to get away sooner rather than later, I suggest you look at the Adams centre cockpit Mottle 33. It is a surprisingly big boat for its length, is a proven ocean capable design, heavily built for the 70's and 80's charter industry and typically Adams styled tough, practical and speedy. A good, cruise ready Mottle should not set you back more than about AU$60,000.

Cheers

David.

[xenarla]

Thanks for the tip. We have a little more to spend and feel that 36' might be lower limit. Adams really are popular, we just missed buying a new Adams 42 unfinished for only 20k. We were gazumped 24 hours before we could get to see it and buy but the pics looked great, it would have been a bargain and after a fit out and rig maybe even a good investment.

We currently considering a Van De Stadt 36 round bilge steel brand new hull and deck with a new BMW and B/W box and Hyd-steer. Comes with a stack of goodies and already been faired, but the present owner wants a bit too much so we'll see if comes down in price.

[Auzzee]

A big 36' is the SouthCoast 36. It's a long keeled , centre cockpit adaptation of a Roberts design, which I think was originally built by the Buizen Brothers in Uralla NSW.

Cheers.

David.

[Trim50]

Or, rather than get caught-up in the refit life as I have, you may want to consider what this couple did...

http://www.bumfuzzle.com/

You'll have to go dig into the web site to see that they bought a cat and sailed around the world at your age and had lots of fun doing it. No need to become an old salt in the process.

[xenarla]

Thankyou all so much for your suggestions.

I had not considered building outside of Aus, mainly because I have a base here and yes I would do the bulk of any work myself. I have some skills, but no expirience when it comes to boat work.

I will look out for a SouthCoast 36, does anyone have a link to pictures or contacts for designs and plans?

The question of completing a build or renovating really comes down to chipping away at the project and then knowing the yacht inside out.

If the right project doesn't turn up before we have restructured our lives and are close to ready then we will be looking for somthing closer to finished. I prefer the idea of knowing my boat and the quality of work, also we could begin day trips and then week end trips etc.... that way we can make educated choices about adjustments and things that we need (or don't).

The old catch 22 is the bulk of the yacht budget comes from the restructure, so the outlay on a hull and decks can't be too big (but I'm fussy about what I want).

My current estimate is +/- 100k on the yacht which should roughly be 35k for the hull and decks. If we go something smaller like a 36 (and I find that awsome bargain) then maybe I can get that down into the 20's. Then if we can find used goodies online and do our own work then maybe theres more left for the kitty and we'll have our dream yacht!!!!! (I know, I know, but let me enjoy the dream for now )

[MMNETSEA]

From a post elsewhere by my fellow moderator Nausikaa

"Houses are but badly built boats so firmly aground that you cannot think of moving them. They are definitely inferior things, belonging to the vegetable not the animal world, rooted and stationary, incapable of gay transition. I admit, doubtfully, as exceptions, snailshells and caravans. The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place.

It is for that reason perhaps, that when it comes, the desire to build a boat is one of those that cannot be resisted. It begins as a little cloud on a serene horizon. It ends by covering the whole sky, so that you can think of nothing else. You must build to regain your freedom. And always you comfort yourself with the thought that yours will be the perfect boat, the boat that you may search the harbors of the world for and not find."

Arthur Ransome

I know of some people here in Melbourne who have an Adam 40' steel sloop for sale, though I'd hardly call it a project boat. It is a one-owner boat built from scratch by the corrent owner off the Adams plans. They have cruised in Bass Straight, plus lived abord on a 6 month trip to the Whitsundays and back. It is a very practical live aboad boat with huge fridge/freezer etc. It is on sale with a agent and moored at Brighton Yacht club in Melbourne, so you may be able to find it by googling. If you can't find it and are interested, send me an email at home on pgreetham@ra.rockwell.com and I'll give your details to the owner.

[cliftondykes]

Picking up on your query re tenders, I recall when we were cruising a couple of years ago reading an article in one of the U.S. magazines which questioned long standing (U.S.) cruisers on things they would do differently if they were starting afresh. My recollection is that one of their main themes was that next time around they would have a RIB as a tender, with a 15 hp engine.

My own experience cruising the Caribbean with a 15hp Yamaha on a 12 ft AB RIB was that it gave a lot of flexibility for exploring and gave us options to anchor in more remote areas, as well as of course generally keeping us dry once planing The downside was the weight of the engine - which made it quite difficult to manhandle - and the fuel consumption, which on anything like full throttle was fairly horrendous. Everything is a compromise.

I wonder if, next time around, I might be able to get away with a smaller engine with one of the new aluminium hulled RIB's? Anyone have any experience with these?

Obviously, stowing your tender is also a problem if space is at a premium.

Good luck with your search for a boat.

Cliff

[cartooncorpse]

why steel? stainless right? geez my forecasted budget is $800K US (boat, gear, kitty (roughly 50% here). but that's 10 years out (im 20% there now). and i don't want to rebuild (refit/update okay i guess depending), but at this stage i like beamy and high freeboard over sailing performance.

thanks for the bumfuzzle link. im having loads of fun reading about their preparations now!