What do you wish you'd known?

Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Resale is nearly always “difficult” which is probably why you see the several repairs that you mention. For me it’d be tough to begin a boat-owner partnership w/ a major repair job to do at the outset, especially since you probably have no real idea of what you're letting yourself in for. Once you open this can, out come the worms! If this was your second or third boat, and you had some practical experience fixin' stuff on boats, then maybe go ahead with it. Remember the title of this thread. Ignore or dismiss what people are telling you at your own peril.
 

JRT

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Feb 14, 2017
2,037
Catalina 310 211 Lake Guntersville, AL
Remember we are talking about a $5k 1986 Catalina 30 here. If I could grab one in the apparent condition this one is in based on a survey I'd have cash in had and be moving her the following weekend. Good sails, good motor, good deal, good survey, good to go:) I'd probably ignore the blisters until I've banged her up a bit and tested a few things for a year to determine what she really needs.
 
May 12, 2004
1,502
Hunter Cherubini 30 New Port Richey
The experience of owning a boat has been tangential to my expectations/dreams...negatively.

1.Unless you are a zealot, your boat will spend 99.9% of its time tethered to a dock. Think about this fact long and hard before investing your time and money into the fool's errand that is boating.
2. It was a nightmare finding the right boat that wasn't an utter wreck, and your surveyor has to possess god-like characteristics to truly and fully flesh-out all of your intended boat's deficiencies. For the most part, surveying is the ultimate comic scam boaters have to endure.
3. Continuous work and money, and things go wrong all of the time. I worked continuously to address all of my boat's issues, but it doesn't take very long before you encounter a ...what the hell has gone wrong NOW!!! moment.
4. The weather is rarely congenial. In my region, it's either blowing 35, or you're motoring. I don't know how many trips were cancelled due to not wanting to face massive seas and gale force winds. I've been out in these conditions on more than a few occasions; however, within an hour, you really build quite a hatred for the sea...and your mother for giving birth to you.
5. Relationship killer. If your partner isn't calibrated precisely to your wavelength, having a boat is the perfect argument incubator.
6. Boat partnership? It's more comforting to pull your insides out through your mouth with your bare hands. Never, ever, EVER, go into a partnership with anyone over anything, at anytime...and a boat partnership is the worst case scenario.
@kampuniform, as I read your post, I can't help but think this is really a metaphor for marriage and/or relationships in general. Good one! :thumbup:
 

SFS

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Aug 18, 2015
2,066
Currently Boatless Okinawa
I wish I had known I could have a C30 in this condition for $5K.

Here is the deal: If $5K is a lot of money, then boating is probably not for you, for the reasons already discussed in this thread.

On the other hand, $5K is the price of a nice vacation for a family of 4. If this boat can give you a "vacation" now, as kind of a "try-it-on-to-see-if-we like-it" approach to boating, then it is probably worth buying. If you don't like it, for any of the million reasons there are to not like boating, you can probably sell it for about $5K. The money you put into it after you buy it is the price of continued ownership. There are about a million benefits of continued ownership, if it's your thing.

You'll never know until you try it.

Edit: You are in a sailing mecca. However, you don't say where the boat is. If the boat is in W. Virginia, then getting it to Oriental is going to cost money. You may want to look around in your area.

I know the $5K looks like a big discount from $19K, but I haven't seen a C30 of this vintage go for anywhere near $19K in the past 3 years, so take the notion of a 75% "price reduction" with a grain of salt.
 
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Jan 20, 2017
78
Yamaha 33 Vancouver
@kampuniform, as I read your post, I can't help but think this is really a metaphor for marriage and/or relationships in general. Good one! :thumbup:
Most of us become intimately familiar with the Dunning-Kruger effect before reaching twenty-five. For those who don't, there's the heady days of introductory boat ownership, marriage, university, careers, child rearing, et al, to scorch the effect indelibly into one's soul in letters of fire.

As in marriage, if you get things wrong, the outcome will descend upon you as gently as winding sheets of flame.

My advice to anyone thinking of buying a boat, fueled only by their dreams, without a broad spectrum of boating related experiences to draw upon, is to think long and hard about why they think that boat ownership is an answer to their particular life's question.

My experience has taught me that idealizing outcomes leads to disillusion, frustration, and regret.

"Men go to sea, before they know the unhappiness of that way of life; and when they have come to know it, they cannot escape from it, because it is then too late to choose another profession; as indeed is generally the case with men, when they have once engaged in any particular way of life."

If you long to have one more dream/preconceived notion die a ignominious writhing death, buy a boat.
 
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Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Well, then there is this--a different opinion...

"Wave Over Wave"

Oh me name's Able Rodgers, a share man am I
On a three masted schooner from Twillingate Isle
I've been the world over north, south, east, and west
But the middle of nowhere wheres' I likes it best
[Chorus:]
Where it's wave over wave, sea over bow
I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow
There's no other life for a sailor like me
And to sail the salt sea boys, sail the sea
There's no other life but to sail the salt sea


Well I leave my wife lonely ten months of the year
For she built me a home and raised my children there
She never comes out to bid farewell to me
Or ken why a sailor must sail the salt sea
[Chorus]

The work it is hard and the hours are long
But my spirit is willing, my back it is strong
And when the work's over the whisky will pour
We'll dance with the girls upon some foreign shore
[Chorus]

I've sailed the world over for decades or more
And oft times I wonder what I do it for
I don't know the answer it's pleasure and pain
But with life to live over I'd do it again

[Chorus]
 

CDye

.
Oct 31, 2018
6
Catalina 30 Oriental, NC
Most of us become intimately familiar with the Dunning-Kruger effect before reaching twenty-five. For those who don't, there's the heady days of introductory boat ownership, marriage, university, careers, child rearing, et al, to scorch the effect indelibly into one's soul in letters of fire.

As in marriage, if you get things wrong, the outcome will descend upon you as gently as winding sheets of flame.

My advice to anyone thinking of buying a boat, fueled only by their dreams, without a broad spectrum of boating related experiences to draw upon, is to think long and hard about why they think that boat ownership is an answer to their particular life's question.

My experience has taught me that idealizing outcomes leads to disillusion, frustration, and regret.

"Men go to sea, before they know the unhappiness of that way of life; and when they have come to know it, they cannot escape from it, because it is then too late to choose another profession; as indeed is generally the case with men, when they have once engaged in any particular way of life."

If you long to have one more dream/preconceived notion die a ignominious writhing death, buy a boat.
I guess it’s worth mentioning I play golf too? Masochism is clearly my thing. Sounds like I’ll fit in perfectly.
 

ambler

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Dec 7, 2013
60
catalina 22 11619 Watauga Lake, TN
Mark the location of the blisters now. When they dry they shrink down flat and are hard to find. They're not hard to repair; grind them down to fresh material, let dry and fill with thickened epoxy.
 
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JRT

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Feb 14, 2017
2,037
Catalina 310 211 Lake Guntersville, AL
Man I don't get the negative posting, its a boat at a good price. Have fun and enjoy the adventure and stay positive!
 
Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
The OP asked his question and he got his answers from several folks. The answers are what they are. If you don’t like the peaches, don’t shake the tree.:doh:
 
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