New Project: Telstar 28

[agprice22]

After 3 seasons of bringing our O'day 272 into great shape, my wife and I decided to embark on a new project. She asked for a boat with "training wheels," as she does not love heeling as much as she likes sailing and boating. I went to work with our criteria: trailerable, storable in our shed, big enough for two to overnight on, and... now, super stable. I had to reject catamarans because I cannot trailer a cat big enough to weekend on like we do our 272. This led me to trimarans.
We found this 2005 Telstar 28 in rough shape, and we got it cheap. It is a foldable trimaran that folds easily on the water to fit either in a normal, 10 ft slip or on a trailer. Overall, the boat is in good shape. The rigging is very good, and the sails are excellent. It came with a 9.9 Mercury Prokicker 4 stroke. It also came with an 8 ft inflatable with a new Lehr propane outboard. It has a diesel stove / heater installed which my wife will really like on the cool nights up here. The boat is designed to step / unstep the mast with two people. This saves us $500 a year in lift and crane fees, as we will launch this ourselves.
The boat is light and speedy. Top speed is somewhere around 15-18 kts. I loved the smile on my wife's face when we sailed it with no heel! I enjoyed the immediate speed!
We rented heated warehouse space for the Winter. We will try to finish the boat by April for a May launch.

We plan to:
Strip it
Sand it
Fill and fair all cracks and chips
Prime and Paint the decks
Prime and Paint the topsides
Interprotect and paint the bottom
Install shore power
Install power inverter / charger
Move the batteries
Install ipad / phone chargers
Install refrigeration / utensil storage
... and lots more I am sure!

Here is a picture to start:

I will post more photos as we go.

 

[Ken Cross]

Congrats. It sounds like a perfect fit for you two. I've always been thankful that my wife goes sailing with me. I doubt I'd be a Sailor without her.

Keep us in photos of your progress.

Ken

 

[Ron20324]

That reminds me... what ever became of Sailing Dog? Didn't he have one of those tri's?

 

[sdstef]

That is cool! I am lucky that my wife thinks heeling adds to the fun, except when making cocktails then I just ease off for a few minutes. Good luck with the new boat!

 

[agprice22]

Finished removing most of the hardware.

 

[captrus]

That reminds me... what ever became of Sailing Dog? Didn't he have one of those tri's?

His boat caught fire on the hard a year or so ago. Total lost. I see him posting on facebook fairly often on one of the sailing pages.

 

[agprice22]

His boat caught fire on the hard a year or so ago. Total lost. I see him posting on facebook fairly often on one of the sailing pages.

I would like to make his acquaintance. There are not many owners. I have applied to the forum, but there is little activity there.
If you could send him a link to this thread, he could decide whether to engage.

Thanks,
Andrew

I will keep posting progress...

 

[Ken Cross]

Finished removing most of the hardware.
View attachment 130584

Looking good. I don't know where you live, but for most of us winter is an ideal time for such projects providing we can work out of the weather.

Ken

 

[agprice22]

Looking good. I don't know where you live, but for most of us winter is an ideal time for such projects providing we can work out of the weather.

Ken

So true. We got 14" of snow the day after I moved her into the warehouse. The space is heated too. I am so glad we found it! It is only 5 minutes from my house. I have an open shed to house my boats in Winter, but I cannot do much work on them til the weather warms in April.
I am grinding out the stress cracks now. I will prepare them for fill and fairing this weekend.

 

[agprice22]

Routing out the spider cracks...
I am using a dremel and small cutting bit to remove the gelcoat. I will then fill and fair surface before priming.
This boat, whole only 11 years old, has probably 3 dozen large spider cracks on the decks. Some are quite extensive. It is going to take quite a while, but I am determined!
I think this boat was lightly built, and the previous owners were big, as in "Big Dave." He was apparently 6' 4" ish and pretty bulky. It looks like he stomped all over this thing!