The hulk is still floating

So news of the hulk. It still floats, amazingly enough. It's been doing that for 21 years now, but we had to be sure. So we drove down to see the thing yesterday, 278 miles, 28 bucks in gas. It was predictably a mess. we poked and prodded, lifted the access hatches, unscrewed ports and fills, grabbed wires and got a splinter of SS in my left thumb. Annoying to say the least, particularly as I can't seem to localize it and get the darn thing out. Anyway yesterday was a rainy winter day, very warm for the season, low 60's. The boat is of course in the Carrotoman river, western branch, so is living in a high humidity environment, like everywhere else in Virginia. And the rain didn't help any. This is a boat that will need particular attention to ventilation, all the ventilation you could possibly get in a boat. So to make a long story slightly shorter, it was raining in the boat. Well sort of, kind of a slow condensation drip from here and there. Like I said we moved everything and opened all the interior hatches, all dry in there, I was amazed. Just the main salon was having issues, well all the open living areas, but I didn't find any water under stuff. So to Google I fled, yes condensation is a serious issue in all sailboats and there are ways to resolve it, the main being to keep it flooded with DRY WARM MOVING air. Who would have thunk that? New problem located, helm won't turn, because it's out of fluid and locked up? It is a hydraulic system BTW. Locked with some pin I can't find? Cause the rudder is mashed into the ground? The rudder post is friction welded to the sleeve? Who knows. Anyway the current owners are having major issues, in that they either don't want to sell the boat, or they just want to have it magically go away. I am leaning on the side of magically wanting it to go away. So to assist with that I called my insurance company, Liberty Mutual, and extended my liability insurance to cover the thing, after we sign the magic papers, called what might be the boats new home, checked prices of this and that and tendered a new offer. 3K for the boat and all they have to do is sign the stupid papers. Then I can be the proud owner of a new derelict hull. Liberty Mutual is an awesome company BTW, I always enjoy working with them. You may have already seen the issue with this rash proposal. Yes I might be saddled with a useless chunk of steel sitting in a boat yard some hundred and five odd miles from my home. A useless chunk of steel that I own outright.

Crawled into the engine room, loads of room in there to get stuff done. But I am thinking that in order to get the engine out of the hull I may need to cut the floor of the cockpit out, winch the engine out, then re-weld the floor back in place. There is room in there to hold a decent set of batteries, water maker, generator as well as the hot water heater. I should even have room to put the control head for the auto pilot in there. I was concerned about that as it is a rather noisy little guy. Auto pilots constantly make small movements to the rudder, and the rudder actuator is a rather large hydraulic piston directly under our heads in the master stateroom. Having a small hydraulic pump whizzing away under your head 24x7 is not what I call sweet sailing.  But I am pretty confident that I can put it in the engine room, seeing as that is where all the lines originate from anyway.

The boat is fairly majestic looking sitting welded to the dock. I'm pretty sure it is due to the bowsprit sticking 12 feet off the bow. The boat over all is 60' give or take a smidgen. The hull is 47.5, so it looks quite a bit larger than it is in actuality. Both masts are keel stepped, and both masts penetrate the living spaces in the heads.

>>>>>>-----Breaking News-----<<<<<<

Just heard from the broker, the owners counter offered, $8500.00, same deal, as is, where is. Nope not going to happen. To much risk for to much money. If the hull had a higher intrinsic value I would have assumed other people would have snapped it up. It is not like we stumbled into a secret hidden boat selling place. It has been advertised all up and down the East Coast since September of 2013. We were slow to move on this thing. So to me the only value the hull has is the value I am willing to put into it, wow, a free market thought. So now we wait while the broker, who really seems like a nice guy, tries to get the owners to understand that this is probably the best offer they are going to get. Seeing as they aren't willing to do even the minimum to sell the thing. Really it took two hours on the phone to get the insurance figured out, less with the marina guy, who also knows the boat and lived with the previous owner. So if the current owners aren't willing to do even that little amount of work to get the thing sold, they are indeed naive.

Anyway, playoffs are on, and I am not going to bore you with the rest of my thoughts on what might be a non-starter. But we did pick out a new name, "Steel Breeze".

Go Broncos!

----------- Further Updates -----------

The hulk eventually sold, not to us and the Bronco's lost the Super Bowl. Bummer on both counts.

We might be getting a hulk!

We put a bid on the hulk last week. While it is of course a compromise in most places, the price is right, the hull is steel, and I feel confident in my ability to fix the beast up and make it all mine.

I think the best part is that we will own it out right and not have to make payments on the thing. We were really thrilled that the bed is fore and aft, so no crawling over our partner in the middle of the night.

Yup that is where the bed thing goes. Of course all this will be de-trashed, cleaned, cleaned some more, then a bit of wood work is called for I am sure.

The bones of this boat appear to be in good condition, but not much else. The engine is a lump of useless metal, the gen-set is a joke, if it even runs. The batteries are of course junk, so all we are buying is a hull with some really nice wood work inside.

I like the color of the wood work. Not so thrilled with the sole, it was never finished and is just the sub flooring of marine plywood. But you can't always get what you want. 

This is the salon area with the battery bank in the middle. All the cushions are stacked to port, out of sight. The galley area is rather oddly laid out and has an electric stove in it.

  

But we did think it was nice they had that giant microwave in there, means we will have room for our espresso maker! But really, an ELECTRIC stove in a blue water sail boat? Obviously not the primary use the previous owner, who had this boat custom built, had in mind. Storage appears to be adequate.  

This boat has at times been left to sit open to the environment, so it has some wood issues here and there. But at the price point, it looks grand.

So issues holding up the sale? Insurance. It's been sitting for a couple years with no insurance, and it has to be towed, so that is going to cause some issues. 

So the most interesting part of this boat? The navigation station.

Yes that is a pretty dolphin etched on glass, but more importantly there is a blank bulkhead right aft of the chart table to allow for mounting of monitors and what not.

So the exterior:

While I love the bowsprit, I am sure I will end up cursing it for costing extra at the marina when we pull in for over nights. But what better place to sit while the dolphins are playing in your bow wave?

Cockpit area looking forward

We did get the Ketch rigging I wanted. The sails are unlikely to be useful any more, but we might get a season out of them. The mast and booms are set up for lazy jacks, so at least the sails won't be flopping all over the place.

So now we are looking at names for our beastie.

In the running:

1. Steel Breeze
2. Dark Side
3. Betty's Boop (Not really)
4. Comfortably Numb

Anyway we are still in the offer stages, lots more to be done before we are confirmed to be the second owners of this lovely blue water passage making sail boat.