Saturday, March 12, 2011

Survey recommendations

There is oil and water in the bilge. The bilge must be cleaned of any oil before operating the bilge pump, and the pump tested before the vessel is placed in operation.

110V receptacles must be upgraded to GFCI

Propane tanks must be stowed in a dedicated locker, with the tank rigidly secured against movement, and/or where any vapors escaping the tank will drain overboard and not into any enclosed spaces on the vessel.

Safety signs must be installed at gas appliance and/or at propane tank.

The stern and anchor light (clear) lenses are faded and frosted. Replace.

The following through-hull valves are frozen (immobile) and must be repaired: (3) cockpit drain/bilge discharges in port lazarette and (1) in aft lazarette.

Some identified switches should be labeled at the electrical panel and throughout vessel.

Replace wire nuts with marine grade butt connectors.

Batteries must be secured and/or contained in a liquid-tight, acid-proof container. Batteries and battery installation is in poor condition and system needs to be inspected, repaired &/or renewed by a certified marine electrician. Batteries appear to be overcharging and venting out excessive amounts of battery acid. Bus bars have excessive wires & cables connected to terminal posts and most all of the connections are corroded.

The liferaft was last serviced in 6 / 04. 3-year service is required.

A yellow 12V wire behind the navigation equipment electrical panel is connected to bus bar, but loose on other end. Remove wire.

110V wiring of this vessel consists of yellow, white and green wires. Extreme caution must be exercised to ensure yellow “hot” wire of 110V system is not confused with the yellow 12V “negative” wires. Where possible, it is strongly recommended to replace original 110V wiring with approved marine grade wiring with proper color schedule as per ABYC E-11 specifications.

The back of the AC panel is not covered. Install plastic cover to protect against possible electrocution as per ABYC E-11.14.6 recommendations.

Lanyard attaching the water light to the horseshoe buoy is wasted and requires replacement.

Vinyl tubing used on fuel tank vent system is not to code. Replace existing hose with USCG approved type A-1 fuel hose.

Engine blower ducting is crushed and severed under port quarter berth. Repair.

Handle for engine seacock valve is missing securing nut and handle tends to fall off into bilge. Replace securing nut.

High-level bilge pump discharge hose is badly kinked and restricts water flow.
Intake hose for manual bilge pump lies unsecured in bilge and lack’s the required strainer or screen. Repair.

Man overboard pole is resin deficient. Coating of resin is needed to strengthen fiberglass pole and protect against skin irritation if/when touched.

Boat survey notes


Inspection Notes: 

Sails were opened during survey. 

Vessel's rigging was not examined aloft.  This report does not include a rigging survey. From examination on deck, the rigging appears to be in satisfactory condition.

The engine was operated during survey, and from external examination it appears to be in good condition. This report is not an engine survey.  

Tanks are not fully accessible for inspection and surveyor cannot speak as to their condition, but they do not appear to leak at this time.

Bottom inspection:  Shaft, strut, rudder, prop, thru hull fittings, keel and underbody wetted surfaces inspected and found in apparent satisfactory condition.

The bottom paint is in fair condition.    

The hull bottom is noted to have scattered medium to large blisters, but are not structural in nature.  Monitor.
 When percussion sounded, the rudder sounded mushy and 2-3 areas of delamination were heard.  Rudder should be repaired at next haulout.

Fuel filter is very dirty.  Fuel tanks and fuel system should be cleaned of any dirt, debris and sediment, which most likely is present.

The starboard headsail sheet is worn in one area and should be replaced. 

The upper 3-way valve in head is frozen.  Recommend replacing the rusted through-hull valve under the head sink, and valve under the forward bilge area (aft of the sump pump) at first haulout, as both are moderate to heavily corroded.

The shower sump tank has no cover and the pump is not working. 
Alternator belt is loose and requires tightening.

Stainless steel exhaust pipe elbow and riser (as seen from starboard lazarette) is badly rusted and requires close inspection and repair or replacement as required.

Slight exhaust leak of engine was seen during sea trial.  Exhaust manifold gasket is possibly source of leak.  Investigate and repair as required.

Slight water leak seen coming from inlet hose connection to water pump.  Repair.

Shaft log leaks excessively while running and drips when idle.  Adjust nut.

Teak plugs are needed where teak decks have been re-screwed.  Repair.

Not working at time of survey:  refrigeration system, spreader lights, (1) lite in fwd. stateroom, and water maker.

With recommendations complied with, this vessel is a suitable insurance risk for its’ intended purpose of local coastal pleasure.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Tearing into Traveler

The next day Bob Smith (the surveyor) and Connie and I tore that boat apart from stem to stern.  Bob did an exhaustive survey with me in tow.  I followed him throughout, sometimes going ahead of him and clearing out lockers so he could see.  As Bob found problems he explained solutions to me.  Overall we were satisfied with what we found.

The boat is fairly spacious with beautiful woodwork down below.  The cockpit is of moderate size with dinghy davits and a radar post on the stern. The bimini is tall enough so that I do not have to stoop.  I can stand at the wheel and see out over the dodger.  Just aft of the gallows boom and above the dodger is a stainless steel mounting platform for the solar panels.

The side decks are fairly wide leading to a good sized bow with an anchor windlass.  The coach roof is fairly square with multiple opening hatches, a life raft, and mast pulpit bars with actual belaying pins.  The sail plan is a standard sloop/cutter rig with a furling headsail and hank on staysail.
Below deck is a master stateroom to port and a quarter berth to starboard.  There is plenty of locker and drawer space down below. The Nav station with a comfortable seat and chart size table is just forward of a hanging locker forward of the quarter berth.  The U shaped galley with double centerline sinks and gimbaled three burner propane stove has lots of storage and ventilation. As both Connie and I love to cook this galley really made a good impression on us.  We experimented with how we could both cook at once and found that it was a tight fit.  But hey! Whatever brings us closer is good.

Centered down below is the dinette across from two leather swivel chairs. Forward of the port side dinette is the head with a separate shower stall. Across from the head are two good sized hanging lockers. Forward is the Vee berth set off to one side in pullman fashion. The anchor locker is forward of the Vee with a nice sized access door down below.

The boat had lots of gear, too much gear.  Some of it was old, some unused, some ready for re-use and some ready for the dumpster.  All this stuff was crammed into the one thousand lockers and drawers and removable panels throughout the boat.

At the end of the day Connie and I flew back to Seattle to think about the purchase.  All in all it it was a pretty overwhelming day.

Rudder delamination

The surveyor tapped all around the hull and rudder and found a soft spot on the top of the port side of the rudder.  He marked it with chalk.

Offshore purchase

Here I am on Traveler with my broker Tom O'Neill.

We felt that the owner had dropped his price quite a bit to make the sale and he dropped it even further to account for the rotten rudder. But then again, we knew that there would be quite a few repairs to do on such an old boat with tired systems.

"They" say to be prepared to spend half again what you paid for a boat on outfitting it for sea duty. I hope it does not cost that much. I know the engine and exhaust will need a little work. The rudder and bottom will need some repair as will the through hull valves.

I scraped up all the cash I could find in my home equity account and sent the check off to San Diego. My broker Tom arranged for the owner and a pilot to meet him at the dock and they cast off for an offshore delivery. They took the boat out 3.5 miles beyond Point Loma and did the transaction there, completing the bill of sale and handing over the check. They recorded the GPS reading and took a picture of Point Loma in the background with a copy of the daily newspaper to prove the time and date. Thus I avoided paying California sales or us tax. Now I just have to be out of California waters in six months.

Thus begins the retrofit.  Oh man, what have I got myself in for?

Haul out

So we hauled her out of the water.. all 35,000 pounds of her. (According to the Travelift scale)  We saw her blisters, we saw her thru hulls, we tapped the hull and rudder.  There was some softness on the top portion of the rudder but otherwise the bottom seemed OK.  There were blisters, sure, but that's to be expected on a boat this age.

The offer

Our broker Tom had given me a list of comparable boats and what their asking prices were. Passport 42's had asking prices from 110k to 149k and this one was near the bottom of the asking price list. So we stewed on it for a while and let the broker stew for a while then we came in with a low ball bid.

The owner countered, coming down quite a nice bit. We countered back and got an acceptance. With a 10% deposit in place we made our plans to go show Connie the boat, do a survey, and complete a test sail.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Sea Trial

"Let's go now!" says Connie. We let the broker know we would be putting together an offer and arranged flights to San Diego from Seattle.  When Connie saw the boat she loved it so we took it on a shakedown cruise.  We brought along a surveyor, the owner, the owner's broker, and my broker.  A whole passel of people and a sunny day. We found wind just off of Point Loma and the boat picked up her heels and sailed beautifully.  Solid on deck, she seemed like she just wanted to keep on going.

We had a quick conference on the foredeck and decided to haul her out that very afternoon to do a hull survey.  Dennis, the owner, piloted her to the ways and we got the travelift in place.  He was great in that he loved that boat and was a fountain of information.  I tried to take it all in while maintaining some objectivity.