Just Bought My First Boat - About to Give it to a Scrapyard

[sailme88]

Me, I'd get a contractor to come in and do it right. Let the boat yard scream...their inability or lack of desire to do the work will abrogate any contract or yard rules. They'y need to get a TRO to stop the work and those take time... time that will consumed by the work being done.

 

[Leeward Rail]

If you repair it will you have more into the boat than you will ever get out? Seems to me it is time to get out the spread sheet and do the math.

Every boat I know of has more invested in it then it's worth. They are money pits of varying $£ value/loss.
New boats depreciate like crazy, and old ones need work. They all need maintenance. Some marinas and brokers are scum. There is no solution other than to accept the reality and expect to lose money and gain some enjoyment.

I have spreadsheets of all the boats, cars, and motorcycles I have had. Only one car was break even. The rest were all a loss, but fun just the same.

The biggest financial issue is improving them more than you need to. Personal example: It's not smart to start a 2 week project, that due to my 95% perfectionism, turns into a 20 year frame off restoration with everything restored.

 

[Leeward Rail]

Me, I'd get a contractor to come in and do it right. Let the boat yard scream...

At $2000/month on the hard ? Seems exorbitant. Have the BC prices become that bad ?

 

[Leeward Rail]

I'm with @dlochner Get the bare fibreglass/blisters sealed with something waterproof, and get it out of that rip off yard. it won't need anti fouling for a short trip.
Once it's someplace else, you can move forward.

If you plan on fixing them "correctly" when it's at a new yard..
I wouldnt even bother sanding the blisters smooth. That way the next yard can find the spots you sealed, later and deal with them. I would suspect you could just temporarily paint the blisters to seal them.

I would contact the yard in Naniamo and they can advise,.since you will likely be hiring them or some contractor to do the work later and you don't want to make them too much extra work.

It's not going to be in the water long if you are just going from Sidney to Naniamo. It would be a fun little fall trip to make up for the BS so far.

As to insurance, you should be able to at get liability insurance. They will likely be willing to insure the boat with exclusions.
I would talk to a different insurance broker about insurance issues before you contact your insurer. Don't give your insurer a reason to cause you problems, now and in the future.

 

[Leeward Rail]

If there is raw fiberglass, the bottom really needs to be barrier coated before paining because without gel coat water can intrude into the glass. You don't want that.

Would leaving it bare for a couple days to Naniamo be an issue ? Feels like it wouldn't matter for such a short time. Blisters are already wet by definition and need to be dried out later anyhow.

Launch boat as is.. (assuming it is otherwise safe) Sail to better yard...fix blisters and paint without a time and money crunch ?

 

[Hello Below]

At $2000/month on the hard ? Seems exorbitant. Have the BC prices become that bad ?

Yup and that’s for a 30’ boat. Boatyards around these parts make their money from haulouts (lifts) especially if the work is not being carried out by their yard staff. So in a month for example they could lift 10 boats (maybe for bottom paint) except the OP is blocking the pad working on his project. In the off season Nov - Feb the rates are deeply discounted to 50%. Waterfront property out here is not cheap.

 

[Hello Below]

Would leaving it bare for a couple days to Naniamo be an issue ? Feels like it wouldn't matter for such a short time. Blisters are already wet by definition and need to be dried out later anyhow.

Launch boat as is.. (assuming it is otherwise safe) Sail to better yard...fix blisters and paint without a time and money crunch ?

FWIW Stones Boatyard is $1,350/mth from Mar - Oct. Then the price drops during the other 4 months.

 

[Foswick]

Geez! I have my old 27' laid up for under $300/mo.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

This is like an autoshop taking a bunch of nuts and pins off of your suspension, refuse to fix it, not allowing you to fix it and charging you an exorbitant storage fee. The truth is, you might be able to drive it for a short distance before something falls off

If this yard allows you to be there after hours, schedule the launch, paint it the night before and get outa there!

 

[BigEasy]

Get estimates for haul out & block, blister repair job & bottom paint, + applicable storage fees from surrounding yards & decide your best option. Splash boat & immediately, without painting, take it your yard of choice. Keep it insured while in the yard for repairs. You should be up & running for sailing season 2025.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Part of the problem with all the responses you read is that nobody really knows how large and deep your blisters are. You haven't fully described them. It sounds to me like they sandblasted to expose the gelcoat but maybe they haven't gone thru the gel coat. Let us know if there is any exposed fiberglass cloth. Let us know if you see any active drainage from the exposed blisters. Your repair is relatively simple but it is time and labor intensive.

It also sounds like they sandblasted and then just dropped the boat in the water. If they did this after exposing fiberglass cloth, I would consider this to be gross malpractice and you should have a case. If they looked at the exposed gelcoat and decided it just looked ugly but functionally it isn't going to suffer from temporary submersion, just get it the hell out of there and find the most convenient working marina where you can hire a contractor. I don't think anybody really believes that you can't find the contractors - this is routine work. My impression of Sidney is that it is a hoity-toity tourist town and I think you have found a relatively small island of service vendors who aren't really interested in providing service without a small fortune in extortionary fees. That can't possibly represent the remainder of Vancouver Island. First step is to get your boat out of the viper's den and get it to a reasonable location. If it's in the water right now, what's stopping you?

 

[jmarty32]

Hi, I am also a new boat owner and work for the world's largest marine paint manufacturer. Whoever told you that you could not do this is a fool. This can certainly be done by someone with limited experience. Just make sure to read all the recommendations especially the TDS sheets and follow them exactly. This is also my dream, and my boat is not perfect. I am sure i can tackle most any job on the boat with patience and lots of determination. This forum is great and the first place to ask questions and get advice.

Keep your dream alive !!!!!! You can do this. Good luck and hope you find a boat yard that you can do the work in.

 

[sailme88]

Scott-T-Bird refers to sandblasting.... DON"T do that.. either soda or glass bead...there is an option that uses a pressure washer that uses a pick up tube to introduce very fine sand box sand into the water stream....

 

[marcham]

To the OP:

Sorry for your troubles, but welcome to boating. Surprises are part of the game.

1. Do you have a survey, did it reflect the blisters? If yes, did you let the painters know?
2. Can you post some photos?
3. If only gelcoat is exposed, you could float the boat, sail it somewhere and haul out again. If bare glass is exposed, it would be best to barrier coat it at least.
4. What is the mechanical conditio of the rest of the boat?
5. When can the yard or another contractor get to the blisters and paint?
6. Most yards only do lifts (non emergency) on weekdays and some are limited by tides, it's normal for us non retired folks to have to take time off work to get these jobs done, usually every 2 years.

Don't let this hickup break your dream.... there WILL be other issues on your journey. Work through the problems and carry on!

 

[aftica_1]

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for the kind words! I had to take a few days to collect myself.

The bottom was soda-blasted, not sand-blasted, and the only reason I did it was because no one wanted to paint my boat's bottom otherwise, but they seemed receptive if I either scraped the bottom myself, or got it soda-blasted. The gelcoat is still intact on the hull, minus a few areas where the blisters came off during the process.

Here is a photo showing the hull after soda-blasting (and the worst part with the blisters that did get removed). They are not deep, surface level, according to the soda blaster. He said 1-2 coats of fairing after letting it dry for a few days would be fine, then just paint over it. The rest of the blisters were not popped and he said there shouldn't be any issue with me just applying an epoxy barrier coat, antifoul, and just repairing the blisters over time, as they become a problem over the years.

Now that its soda-blasted, I am being told by the same people that the cost to fix the blisters and paint the bottom will be more than the value of my boat.

I honestly think I'm being taken for a ride. Please someone tell me if fairing the bottom and painting over my boat would 1) sink it due to the blisters underneath and 2) would actually cost over $20,000 to make it float in the water with paint.

 

[Davidasailor26]

He said 1-2 coats of fairing after letting it dry for a few days would be fine, then just paint over it. The rest of the blisters were not popped and he said there shouldn't be any issue with me just applying an epoxy barrier coat, antifoul, and just repairing the blisters over time, as they become a problem over the years.

That’s probably the approach I’d take. It’s a compromise between the ideal solution of grinding and filling everything, and the slapdash approach of just painting over it all. If the existing blisters worsen and the barrier coat fails you won’t have so much invested that fixing it properly is too much of a waste, and it gets you sailing relatively quickly and safely. A yard’s labor is expensive so I’d expect that to cost several boat bucks ($1000 each), but the $20,000+ estimate sounds more like the gold standard of grinding everything down, a long dry time, and rebuilding it all. The better option for a job like this could be DIY to save on the labor cost. My very rough guess (a dangerous thing with boat projects) is that it’d be possible to get the popped blisters faired and the whole hull barrier coated and painted in maybe 3 weekends, weather permitting.

 

[FastOlson]

I honestly think I'm being taken for a ride. Please someone tell me if fairing the bottom and painting over my boat would 1) sink it due to the blisters underneath and 2) would actually cost over $20,000 to make it float in the water with paint.

IMHO, Yes you are being grossly overcharged. But I do not live or recreate where you are, so my experiences are of very little help. That quote sure does seem like three times too much, to me.

Do understand that "fairing" can mean a half day or a week of labor @ $130/hour. My experience has been that yards estimate "fairing" dependent on the customer's wishes. Often there are some areas to smooth with thickened resin, but not much over 2 or 3 square feet. And then it's a part of a day. Or, the whole boat bottom starts out looking like "the surface of the moon"... Yikes. I have seen that in the yard sometimes.

Usually, when getting a new bottom paint job bid, it's kind of a comparison between more raw time in the paint removal part vs time to fair and sand individual divots and areas where the previous paint was poorly adhered with too many layers.
Personal preference is to take it down to gel coat (or previous epoxy layer) with a vacuum sander and start over. That assumes that the previous paint was reasonably well adhered. Our current bottom paint is expected to last 8 to 10 years, so that does kind of amortize out the cost of the next boatyard bottom paint visit.

Oh, and you certainly did not ask, but try to remember that work done professionally costs the same per hour or per job whether the boat is an inexpensive (20K) older production boat or a newer (200K) vessel. That is why most us became DIY repairers so that we could afford to sail a larger boat. We had to find a solid fixer-upper, and its high end construction has served us well, over the years.

(We have owned the same boat since 1994, and have probably put several times the purchase price into it for maintenance and upgrades. Note that I use the word "put" and not the word "invested" ....! )

 

[kappykaplan]

have probably put several times the purchase price into it for maintenance and upgrades. Note that I use the word "put" and not the word "invested" ....!

 

[marcham]

Cleaning up the worst of the blisters should be 6-15 hrs max (unless you have thousands of them, which we can't judge from our screen....). You'll then need to sand, then barrier coat (interprotect 2000), witness coat and final bottom paint coat. So about 10-12 hrs of painting and prep.

So let's say 25 hours to be safe x $135 per hr is $3375. You then have another $1000 of paint and fairing compounds, plus another $200-$400 ish of supplies (rollers, tivek, goggles, tarps, etc...).

Now at most yards, sanding and painting is unskilled labour, should be around $75 ish per hour.

So $4800 ish at the top end, for labour and supplies (not including yard fees). For reference, in a cheaper yard (Texada), I was quoted $2500-$3500 for a similar job on a 28' sailboat.

I'm sure that for $20 000 it would look like new .... but that is probably not what you are going for? Talk to your contractor and explain that you just want it sealed, but you aren't looking for the perfect racing hull. Did you ask them to fair the bottom? That would be a really big job. I would just fix the worst / larger blisters and move on...

If you were to float it, sail across the straight and haul out 2 days later in Vancouver, your boat would be none the worst for wear.

Unfortunately, there is no relationship between the cost of repairs and the cost of the boat. In truthness (is that a word??), a really cheap boat can be a really expensive boat if it needs mechanical, hull and rigging repair.... Hopefully all these repairs were reflected in your survey and the price reflected the condition oof the boat. Now here's where it gets funny..... Let's say you bought it for $35 000, then spend $20 000. You probably still have a $35 000 to $40 000 boat.... replacing the mast on a 3 yeaar old 35 footer and a 20 year old 35 footer costs the same!

Keeping things in running order doesn't add that much to the value of the boat, but it allows us to keep enjoying and using our pride and joy. We just look at our annual maintenance bills as the cost of our vacations!

 

[aftica_1]

Thank you to everyone for your help.

I think its time for me to throw in the towel.

I bought the boat for $20,000, have spent nearly $10,000 trying to get this thing painted and with no help available I just can't continue. Its going to cost me another $10,000 to $15,000 to do it myself all costs factored in (just for bottom paint, I can't image what it will cost to replace my rigging if needed - $75,000-$150,000?). I was continuously told a bottom paint would only be about $3,000, and the continuous advice I've followed from sailors in real life has just brought me closer to bankruptcy without any progress.

If someone needs parts from a broken dream, the Catalina 30 will be in the scrapyard in Sidney soon.