Re: WoodenYacht restore and maintenance cost questions & advice please.

Dennis, Derek, thanks for the technical input, I appreciate the time.

The practical skills needed are definitely different than those I have
encountered in conventional joinery yet as mentioned I have several
friends who are experienced carpenters for a living. I'm still aware
only some skills are transferable and day to day joinery is not the
same as the detailed skills needed by a shipwright.
http://boatbuilding.wordpress.com

Let me make my example a bit clearer (though this is still a mile high
view to getting guestimates) :

Suppose I were to center on a 35 foot carvel built boat from the
1920's, 30's, 40's, Mahogany on Oak with Teak decking, wooden mast
etc, a fairly tight hull with not much leakage. I'm not looking at
lapstrake or ply unless someone believes that would massivley ease
repairs, which I doubt.
A secondary assumption being that a respected surveyor could be
sourced and said vessel has passed an initial bill of health, outcome
OK with minor repairs.
Picture a Hillyard 9 tonner, Nicholson 35 footer etc, English, Swedish
etc. I am not looking at any singular vessel here, just the concept.

I'm looking for peoples real life experiences with expense so to
highlight a subset of the original questions:

o Can anyone provide a real life example of guestimate of man hours &
expense involved in totally stripping exterior paint, recaulking and
painting again. Of course I'm assuming no serious rot discovered in
this statement and that all fasteners are secure. (derek, thanks again
for suggestion of a large blowtorch and some careful application of
strong heat)

o Can anyone provide a cost example of having had any cracked ribs
replaced with new steamed ones?

o Can anyone provide a cost example or guestimate of having new floors
fitted for securing ribs to keel wood, whether they be laminated or
sawn? Has anyone attempted this themselves as these are fundamental to
boat strength?

o Can anyone provide a real life example or guestimate of costs
involved in replacing a 20hp engine in such a case?

o Can anyone state roughly the expected costs incurred in replacing
rigging, were the cables to be considered suspect. 35 foot vessel,
assume a cutter, sloop, I imagine gaff gets high in cost.

o Anyone recently purchased a set of sails for a 35 foot sloop, cutter
or gaff rig? (let be clear here, I'm not heading to a luxury sail
maker here, this is a cruising boat for channel hopping from say
Ramsgate to France or interport hopping the UK, I'm not looking to win
races)

The reason for writing the worst case scenario questions is incase the
surveyor gets it totally wrong and serious rot or damage is discovered
once the paint is off. Exampling costs incurred by vessels like Gypsy
Moth and so forth may not be valid examples as I am not looking to
perform concours level restores for showing off to the world.

If lady luck decided to avoid me and worst case has occured I've seen
mention of alternate places to have restorative work carried out as
well.
There is a yard in Romania which performs this work (though bloody
hard to get to) & I'm sure Poland has some good shipwrights if some
investigation was carried out and unfortunately for their economy the
UK pound buys a lot of manhours in Poland. Consider Lithuania, Latvia,
Estonia etc. These coastal northern countries must have decent yards
as well though I'm not really looking to start a seperate debate on
skills differences unless one is genuinley proven to exist?


Pete, thanks, I think I misled you, I'm not looking to turn a profit.
It was meant to ask if it may be a false economy to buy low & then
repair when it may be cheaper to buy higher, having let someone else
perform/pay for the restore work. I love getting involved with
something challenging and would like to trust the boat I end up with.
Everyone is aware of the "hole in the water into which you pour money"
analogy.


Peter, your snap judgement was probably ill thought through. I am
anonymous so I'm happy to say I am a well paid professional and have
cash to one side, did you enquire around my finances before
commenting? I'm not looking for a Rolls Royce of the wooden world, I'm
looking for a fixer-upper which needs some elbow grease and minor
repairs which lets face it, would get used every second weekend if I'm
lucky and some extended holidays. If money were no object then perhaps
this conversation wouldn't occur but I still would investigate so I do
not pay through the nose.
Shall I join in the supposing game? I suspect you'd not do very well
in sales and are the kind of man who would willingly buy an overpriced
house for the postcode as long as the driveway is in public view for
the Roller to be displayed from. There, we're as silly as each other.


My carpenter friends & Father make & made a handsome profit from
people who don't stop to consider the cost compared to the end goal.
Thats exactly what I'm doing here.

Any and all help is appreciated.
.

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