For What It's Worth Dept.
I bought a '77 Cape Dory 25 that was sitting on a storage trailer. It had been sailed from Seattle to Alaska and then down to San Diego. It weights around 2 tons or a bit more. After $1,800 getting the trailer legal and restrenghtened, I brought it home to totally redo her. The original survey cost me around $200. We worked on her for almost two years. Did everything to her..I mean everything. It's a solid boat and could probably go just about anywhere. My wife and love to sail it. She's 5'2" and I'm 5'11" so in recent months I've decided to get a larger boat with stand up head room. She can get around pretty good inside but it's getting a bit too much for me. It's great for a for few days but that's it for us. Sometimes I just like to sit in the covered cockpit (we have a boom tent) abd just talk with some of our live aboard neighbors. It' s in a slip and about once a year I'll bring her home to upgrade a few items, etc. Can't beat it. Ericsons are pretty good boats but as in everything, a sailboat is full of compromises. I can't remember if they have keel bolts or not but I'd sure check that out and the stringers, also. Mine happemed to have the ballast encapsulated (which is what I was looking for at the time.) I bought an old '94 3/4 ton Chevy pickup, 4x4 with a 350 to haul it. Does o.k. and the 4 wheel drive really comes in handy when trying to get out of a slippery boat ramp. I made a homemade rig to raise the mast. Takes at least two people. Work on the boat can be seen at http://svGladysErzella.photosite.com The Don Casey book was used constantly in the restoration as were a few others. I, too, had to use a smaller engine as the PO had a 9.9 HP but it was a two stroke. We can't buy those in CA. So I went with a 5 Honda with alternator and long shaft. You're lucky in that you don't have to pull it up each time to flush it out. I don't know about insurance as I sent the original survey (which showed two problems) and then a lot of photos showing the completed repairs and the refit. Also, there's a dye I used with the surveyor to check the standing rigging. We found some of the fittings with almost microscopic cracks. I just redid all the rigging and went one size over standard. Hope some of this helps. Repairs, modifications, upgrades can all be done by yourself rather than paying someone else. It's the only way to really learn all the stuff on a boat. Hope this helps. Thanks
I bought a '77 Cape Dory 25 that was sitting on a storage trailer. It had been sailed from Seattle to Alaska and then down to San Diego. It weights around 2 tons or a bit more. After $1,800 getting the trailer legal and restrenghtened, I brought it home to totally redo her. The original survey cost me around $200. We worked on her for almost two years. Did everything to her..I mean everything. It's a solid boat and could probably go just about anywhere. My wife and love to sail it. She's 5'2" and I'm 5'11" so in recent months I've decided to get a larger boat with stand up head room. She can get around pretty good inside but it's getting a bit too much for me. It's great for a for few days but that's it for us. Sometimes I just like to sit in the covered cockpit (we have a boom tent) abd just talk with some of our live aboard neighbors. It' s in a slip and about once a year I'll bring her home to upgrade a few items, etc. Can't beat it. Ericsons are pretty good boats but as in everything, a sailboat is full of compromises. I can't remember if they have keel bolts or not but I'd sure check that out and the stringers, also. Mine happemed to have the ballast encapsulated (which is what I was looking for at the time.) I bought an old '94 3/4 ton Chevy pickup, 4x4 with a 350 to haul it. Does o.k. and the 4 wheel drive really comes in handy when trying to get out of a slippery boat ramp. I made a homemade rig to raise the mast. Takes at least two people. Work on the boat can be seen at http://svGladysErzella.photosite.com The Don Casey book was used constantly in the restoration as were a few others. I, too, had to use a smaller engine as the PO had a 9.9 HP but it was a two stroke. We can't buy those in CA. So I went with a 5 Honda with alternator and long shaft. You're lucky in that you don't have to pull it up each time to flush it out. I don't know about insurance as I sent the original survey (which showed two problems) and then a lot of photos showing the completed repairs and the refit. Also, there's a dye I used with the surveyor to check the standing rigging. We found some of the fittings with almost microscopic cracks. I just redid all the rigging and went one size over standard. Hope some of this helps. Repairs, modifications, upgrades can all be done by yourself rather than paying someone else. It's the only way to really learn all the stuff on a boat. Hope this helps. Thanks
The Commodore sends her compliments and asks that I convey her appreciation to you for understanding the proper pecking order when it comes to boats. But you mustn't destroy the faith of a doting wife in her husband's nautical veracity, for as I have patiently explained to her many times, when J.P. Morgan said "A boat is a hole in the water into which you pour huge sums of money" he was referring only to a 72-foot twin diesel stinkpot. I have had to explain that numerous times because the statement always brings out The Skeptical Eyebrow. But seriously, I'm happy to say that she's as interested in this project as I am. As long as I/we pay off the credit cards first, she's fully behind it. More so than the earlier plan, 30 years ago, to buy a 33-ft Cheoy Lee and sail around the world. She had this problem with putting all of our eggs in one basket with a teak roof that could sink. Never could understand that. But that's why she's the Commodore and makes the big bucks. Your comment about the 200# mushroom anchor and dropping our own mooring brought back a pet peeve of mine: I was amazed when I spent two weeks in Maine on Sebago Lake that houses were built right on the shore, and you could go weeks without seeing a law enforcement boat on the lake. I go all goggle-eyed when I read of places where watercraft are a numerous as cars as a means of transportation. Out here we think of the eastern half of the U.S. as over-regulated and over-governed, yet WE are the ones who can't sail from one end of a lake to the other without passing or being passed by a law enforcement boat pulling someone over, and the thought of even owning property on the banks of any body of water bigger than an above-ground pool is a remote fantasy. I seriously doubt there are any marinas or mooring sites west of the Mississippi that aren't leased to business people by government and heavily regulated. There are certainly no moorings in Arizona; you spend $200-300/month for a slip or you put it on a trailer and haul it out. Maybe I'm overstating the case a little, but that is certainly the impression I get out here. On the other hand, some of this regulation may be warranted; there are a lot of ignorant Adam Henries out here who will destroy any public area they can unless the cops practically sit on them. As for a tender to get out to the boat, we already have one. We have a 16' Sevylor inflatable, and while we won't need it to get to the slip, it will be useful when we anchor in some remote cove to go ashore and barbecue over a campfire and the like. It's kept under our bed, and in 15 years it still hasn't developed a single leak. I think this Ericson 26 or a sailboat very much like it does match our expectations. We definitely like the idea of cooking, fishing, sailing, and (sometimes) motoring with it, and really just kicking back and relaxing on a three-day weekend or two week vacation, and exploring places we've never been. As for the fact that the chores on a boat never end, of course not: If they did, we'd have to make some up. That's part of the boating life, isn't it? The Ericson 26 is a fixed (fin) keel boat. They come in shoal-draft models with a 3'11" draft or standard models with a 4'11" draft. This one has the deeper draft, and we knew there was a good reason to keep that inflatable! I don't know right off if the mast is deck- or keel-stepped. I will doubtless find out when we get close enough to purchasing that I can justify climbing around someone's boat. Thanks for the good wishes and we'll keep you all informed, but don't wear out the baited breath. Unless we win the lottery it will probably be a year before we are ready to seriously start looking. Meanwhile we keep our interest level high with as much research and involvement as we can.