emilikins
Maniac
Okay, so saga is a little dramatic. Hubby and I took up sailing in August and have convinced ourselves that we need our own Sunfish so we're not vying for the two club boats and can sail at lakes closer to our house. Craigslist had not been very promising: one fish that came with the trailer and everything looked in rougher shape than we wanted to mess with, and the other fish did not come with trailers.
So, we have a fellow SF member building us a trailer customized for the Sunfish, "future proofed" to stack a second boat down the road - and fold up for our limited storage needs. He has also offered one of his boats to buy. We are just waiting for our calendar to open up for travel to pick it up.
Well, last weekend we had one of those strange weekends. My mother-in-law's coworker's husband was selling his toys he no longer can use due to a spinal cord injury. He was selling his fully rigged boat + trailer for $400. We took a look, and it seemed in pretty good shape, though it was an AMFlite 14 (ha, we like the molded coaming more than the bolted one, sorry Sunfish). We noted the soft spots in the common area of the bow on older boats (it's the pre-72 rudder system), and a small chip on the stern (above the waterline), but it otherwise seemed in good shape. The sail ... well, it's there. Looks like we have our Christmas present all picked out there!
We get it home (we will sell the trailer) and clean it up & notice uh-ohs that we missed before. The soft spots, now that we are away from the highway noise, have a quiet crackle. You can't see any bubbling or deformation, but I'm pretty sure it's delaminated (the difference for percussion is more evident once you're in the quiet). The boat was easy to pick off the trailer and flip over, so it didn't seem to be leaking, so we were hopeful. I felt sick, since delamination was what I had hoped to avoid. But I have Don Casey's book and these forums.
My mind went into overdrive with these scenarios:
Hubby was more bummed that I was bummed rather than being excited we got our first boat!
So, we had to go sailing.
Well, we tried to go sailing. It was a low wind day, but there is a small, concrete plant lake a mile from our house. It's rocky shore has one spot for launching on a boat ramp, which happened to be in a cove that was also disgustingly algae infested. Remember Slimer?
A series of unfortunate events (our fault, not the boat's) wound up with me and the boat covered in green goo. On the bright side, the boat definitely floats! Downside? She felt heavier when we put her back on the trailer as well as when we unloaded her for a good scrubbing down. So, she's probably leaking somewhere.
I think I drove my husband insane with my anxiety after that. Now we've been waiting for good wind (and inspection ports to come in) to test her on the club lake, but I worry about water sloshing around in there. I can't hear any, but I'm sure if water came in at sloshing rates I'd definitely know where it was coming from. I'm hoping I was just tired and exhausted and that's why the boat felt heavier. I really want to try and open the drain plug by the coaming and flip her, but since we're trying to sail tomorrow (omg, there's wind!!!!), I'd hate to break it and then have to wait for a replacement.
I think the hubby is pretty set on making do with this boat, though open to scenario 1 up above. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Though if we do decide to sell it, we are definitely drying it out and fixing any leaks if it's wet inside. Anything we get will be an older boat and not in perfect shape. We just want it to sail well, doesn't need to race. But I'd hate to have a problem boat sully our sailing just as we start out (though that would be good repair experience!).
How crazy is it to get both boats? Or do scenario #1? I know I've complicated what would've been a simple scenario: Buy Boat & Trailer #2 as planned, not get mixed up in two boats and trailers when we already have a storage issue and tight budget. But while we sail well together in one boat (we're jockey size), I think we would also get a kick of "racing" each other in separate boats. Of course, we can always do that with a club boat and our own boat, but we are limited to just that lake.
Btw, owning your own boat, we found with one trip under our belt, is a heck of a lot harder than just going to the club and rolling one down to the beach on a dolly. But I do think it will be more rewarding. And we can't keep a horse, so I guess this will be my water pony.
So, we have a fellow SF member building us a trailer customized for the Sunfish, "future proofed" to stack a second boat down the road - and fold up for our limited storage needs. He has also offered one of his boats to buy. We are just waiting for our calendar to open up for travel to pick it up.
Well, last weekend we had one of those strange weekends. My mother-in-law's coworker's husband was selling his toys he no longer can use due to a spinal cord injury. He was selling his fully rigged boat + trailer for $400. We took a look, and it seemed in pretty good shape, though it was an AMFlite 14 (ha, we like the molded coaming more than the bolted one, sorry Sunfish). We noted the soft spots in the common area of the bow on older boats (it's the pre-72 rudder system), and a small chip on the stern (above the waterline), but it otherwise seemed in good shape. The sail ... well, it's there. Looks like we have our Christmas present all picked out there!
We get it home (we will sell the trailer) and clean it up & notice uh-ohs that we missed before. The soft spots, now that we are away from the highway noise, have a quiet crackle. You can't see any bubbling or deformation, but I'm pretty sure it's delaminated (the difference for percussion is more evident once you're in the quiet). The boat was easy to pick off the trailer and flip over, so it didn't seem to be leaking, so we were hopeful. I felt sick, since delamination was what I had hoped to avoid. But I have Don Casey's book and these forums.
My mind went into overdrive with these scenarios:
- Since the gear is in good shape and we got an extra set of spars with the boat, we hold onto "Woody" (yeah, it's a working name) until we pick up the custom trailer (trailer #2). If we like the other Sunfish more, we buy it, keep the best parts of both, and sell the rest as a complete package with the Trailer #1. We could break even, plus have spare spars.
- We keep Woody and just sell Trailer #1 once we have Trailer #2, and give it some TLC this winter & get a couple of years out of it.
- We wind up with two boats, sell Trailer #1 (I think we could get $200 for it).
Hubby was more bummed that I was bummed rather than being excited we got our first boat!
So, we had to go sailing.
Well, we tried to go sailing. It was a low wind day, but there is a small, concrete plant lake a mile from our house. It's rocky shore has one spot for launching on a boat ramp, which happened to be in a cove that was also disgustingly algae infested. Remember Slimer?
A series of unfortunate events (our fault, not the boat's) wound up with me and the boat covered in green goo. On the bright side, the boat definitely floats! Downside? She felt heavier when we put her back on the trailer as well as when we unloaded her for a good scrubbing down. So, she's probably leaking somewhere.
I think I drove my husband insane with my anxiety after that. Now we've been waiting for good wind (and inspection ports to come in) to test her on the club lake, but I worry about water sloshing around in there. I can't hear any, but I'm sure if water came in at sloshing rates I'd definitely know where it was coming from. I'm hoping I was just tired and exhausted and that's why the boat felt heavier. I really want to try and open the drain plug by the coaming and flip her, but since we're trying to sail tomorrow (omg, there's wind!!!!), I'd hate to break it and then have to wait for a replacement.
I think the hubby is pretty set on making do with this boat, though open to scenario 1 up above. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Though if we do decide to sell it, we are definitely drying it out and fixing any leaks if it's wet inside. Anything we get will be an older boat and not in perfect shape. We just want it to sail well, doesn't need to race. But I'd hate to have a problem boat sully our sailing just as we start out (though that would be good repair experience!).
How crazy is it to get both boats? Or do scenario #1? I know I've complicated what would've been a simple scenario: Buy Boat & Trailer #2 as planned, not get mixed up in two boats and trailers when we already have a storage issue and tight budget. But while we sail well together in one boat (we're jockey size), I think we would also get a kick of "racing" each other in separate boats. Of course, we can always do that with a club boat and our own boat, but we are limited to just that lake.
Btw, owning your own boat, we found with one trip under our belt, is a heck of a lot harder than just going to the club and rolling one down to the beach on a dolly. But I do think it will be more rewarding. And we can't keep a horse, so I guess this will be my water pony.