Project Costs

In an effort to keep track of what this project is costing, I will keep a running tally of the costs in this post as I proceed:

Boat Purchase $500
Transport (Paid a buddy with a truck) $200
Hoists & Strap rental for transport $ 69

Total to Date $769

Remaining from my original $1500 budget $731

I will not be adding the amount of money spent on beer during this project as it will definitely skew the budget significantly

Projects that I am planning

Well, too cold to do any more work on the boat this fall, but I have a number of things I will get done over the winter and will be posting pictures as I go. If anyone has any ideas or input, please go to the bottom of the page and post a comment. This is the first rebuild I have tackled on my own, so I am open to all suggestions.
-I have removed most of the teak off of the outside and inside of the boat and will clean it up and apply cetol over the winter
-The pop top is somewhat concave, so I have taken it off the boat and will be epoxying in a strut to square it back up and then paint it. I also have to replace the canvas covering the hinge.
-Forward hatch - plexiglass is cracked, so I have removed the hatch and will replace this and then repaint the frame
-Sails - they are the original sails from 1972, so there are a few areas where I need to repair small tears before they become serious issues

There are a few things that I have to do next spring before I put the boat in the water.
-Replace the right bulkhead - current one is rotten and the fiberglass tabs have let go as can be seen in the fourth picture of this post
-Reseat the right chain plate
-put backing plates on both chainplates
-Prime and paint the deck
-Grind the rust off of the keel and then repaint the bottom of the boat
-Replace the sheaves at the top of the mast as the current ones are very rusty
-Find & buy a used long shaft motor
-clean and cetol the teak rubrail

Other projects that must get done, but can be accomplished once the boat is floating:
-Reglass right forward seat - third picture in this post shows where it should be
-Instrument work - not sure if the knotmeter and depth finder work. Nice units, so I do not want to toss them
-put some type of covering on interior walls. There was old, mildewy linoleum on there when I bought the boat. I am actually leaning towards replacing this with tongue and groove in a golden oak finish
-repaint the deck non-skid with Kiwi Grip

Oh yeah, go sailing!

As can be seen, there are a number of things that need doing, and the cost will add up fast, and I am trying to do this on a shoestring budget. I will keep track of all of my costs on a separate post as I move along. I am aiming to get this whole thing in the water for $1500, including cost of the boat, transport costs, buying motor, and all supplies required to refurbish it. Seems really low, but believe it or not I should be able to get there as long as I do all of the work myself.

The deck - More than just a cleaning required

Looks like a pretty dirty sailboat! I had hoped to just power wash the deck and cockpit, but that was a pipe dream. Once I got it home and started to clean the deck up, 75% of it was okay, but there were two areas which need to be addressed; the cockpit was really crazed on the right half, and paint was flaking off all along the right side toerail. Once I sanded off the toerail, it became apparent that I would need to do more than just dab a little paint on it. Looks like I am going to use quite a bit of filler and maybe some epoxy to repair/rebuild the toerail and then paint it. Since I am also going to repaint half of the cockpit, I may as well paint the whole deck! Hmm, before I paint it, I have to sand the whole thing down a bit. So, what I had hoped would be a straightforward 2 hour cleaning job has turned into a 20 hour sanding project. Sanding is done, but this is now going to have to wait for the spring, as it is too cold to use filler, primer, or paint.

The project does not totally go on hold for the winter as I have removed quite a bit of the interior and brought it home to work on over the winter.

First Order Of Business - Getting it out of the trees

My first problem was getting 3500 lbs of fiberglass out of the woods! I had a few professional boat movers take a look, and the prices I got to transport this thing 85 Kms (50 miles) was more than I paid for the boat. So, I got a buddy with a truck, rented some chain hoists and we moved it ourselves. Since we did not have boat jacks, and the boat was located in a very difficult spot to access, it was a bit nerve racking when we first started to lift it up in the air. Granted, we did not have adequate equipment, and were not sure if the trees we were attached to would take the weight, but it went fairly smoothly. The picture shows the boat when we first hoisted it up in the air (If you click on the picture you get a full sized image which shows the situation clearly). We then pulled out the old cradle, slid a sailboat trailer underneath, and drove away! Sounds simple now, but let me tell you it was nerve racking having that much weight swinging from one chain on each side. I would really not advise anyone to try and do this, as in retrospect it was probably fairly dangerous.

It wasn't supposed to be a full Rebuild!

I had been looking around for an older sailboat for a few months when I came across a 35 year old Grampian 23. It had been sitting in the woods behind a guy's house for a few years, so needless to say it was very grimy, but it looked solid and at first appearances I did not expect to have too much work to do on it. Actually, I could have just put the boat straight into the water and sailed it, but I did want to clean it up a little. Well, a little clean up has turned into a pretty extensive project. None of the changes I am making are really diificult, but every time I remove a piece of the boat or repair something, I discover another problem/opportunity for enhancement.

I had not intended to document this process on a blog, so some of the initial pictures are a bit blurry since I used the camera on my phone. During the refit process, I will be using a camera, so quality should be enhanced.