Teak Restoration

When I considered the state of the decks after the acquisition, I made up my mind that in order to fix the leaks, and repaint the deck, that all the deck hardware would need to be removed.  I already posted on the toe rails, and reconditioning the decks.  You'll have to excuse the seemingly out of order posting, but some of these tasks are ongoing, or have taken a back seat to other tasks due to resource or timeline constraints.

The teak exterior trim had all but lost its varnish coating.  I really don't know how long it had been since anyone had done some maintenance, but I guess it was a while.  There were just random patches of finish left on areas of the handrails, and other trim pieces.
Here is an example of the state of things, and its pretty representative of all the teak on board. 

The pieces that are teak:

1.) Bow toe rails, extending back about 2.5 feet.

2.) Transom toe rail, across the entire transom, and extending up about 1 foot.

3.) 2 sets of handrails, 2 foot and 8 feet long.

4.) 2 cabin top trim rails, 10 feet long

5.) 2 companionway slides, 5 feet long

6.) Companionway drop board frame (pictured above)

7.) Fore and aft cleat bases

8.) other minor pieces and parts

In order to remove most pieces, it was necessary to first remove the plugs that covered the fastener heads.  I did this mainly with a 1/4" chisel.  By forcing the chisel into the center of the plug, I was able to carefully remove bits of the plug, until the plug came out.  Whoever had placed them, they did not glue them in, which was my good fortune.

With the plugs removed, the piece was just unbolted like any other hardware, with the only difference being that care had to be taken in removing the bolt or screw from the wood.  The bolt heads can catch at the edge of the wood, and tear off a splinter.  Ask me how I know.

Getting the pieces, as with all other deck hardware, off the deck and pried free of the bedding material was easy.  There was no bedding material left.

With all the wood off, the cleanup process began.  Getting the pieces clean of old dried bedding material was the first step.  This was accomplished mostly with a $1.99 tool from Ace that was for re-glazing windows.  It has a pretty sharp scraping edge that worked well for raising the crusty dried on bedding.  It worked equally well for getting of the odd patch of varnish.  Actually, I think it was Cetol, with its anemic orange tinge.

Next, I sanded each piece, 60, 100 and 120 grit. This was a bit of a balancing act as one has to be care to make sure that not too much material is removed, yet trying to get at some good wood.  Here is a before and after up to this point:

With the pieces sanded, it became easy to find the defects, such as cracks and splitting parts.  I repaired these by carefully prying the crack open, forcing in some wood glue, and then clamping.

After all the pieces are sanded, and repaired as best I could, it was time for finish.  This was another decision that was made after much research.  I considered long and hard not applying any finish, but rather letting the teak weather.  However, due to some of the pieces already poor condition, I decided that it would probably last longer and look better to finish it with something.

That something is Honey Teak, by Signature Finishes.  Its an interesting product.  Its labeled as a "urethane polyester enamel".  Well that about covers the gamut of possible products.  Whatever it is, it appears to be toluene based, and is a 2 part product.  The system is applied in 2 parts, the Honey Teak, and the Clear Topcoat.  One applies 3 coats of the Honey Teak, which has some tint and UV inhibitors, first.  Then, multiple coats of the Clear Topcoat.  These are applied one coat after another, as soon as the previous coat tacks up.  In this way, all the coats can be applied in one day.

I was a bit concerned about this methodology.  Having finished some woodwork before, I know that it is usually thin coats, sanded in between that produce the best results.  However, I had to remember that we weren't building a watch here, and these pieces were not fine furniture.

In the end, it turned out very well.  The finish is very tough, and should be somewhat easily repaired and touched up when the time comes.

I now have these pieces mounted back on deck, and I will update this post with some pictures once I have them.  I still need to plug the mounting holes, and touch up the plugs.  I update you with how that goes as well.

Non-Skid Prep and Painting

I did quite a bit of research before deciding on the Durabak product.  I was really thinking Treadmaster for a period of time, but he cost of that stuff was going to be prohibitive.  I made my decision based mostly on various forum entries comparing the products.

There are two general schools of thought on non-skid.  One is that the non-skid areas need to be non-skid, but not at the expense of appearance or comfort.  As such, there are a lot of product that incorporate sand in a hard two part or one part deck paint.  Think Interlux or Awlgrip.  The benefits here are easy to clean surface, that you could walk on all day without your feet getting sore.  However, a hard easy to clean surface does not sound to me like something that will be very aggressive in holding power.

The other school of thought is that the non-skid areas are to be as non-skid as possible, and is approached as more of a safety issue.  This is how I think of it. If I have to go on deck while the boat is thrashing about, and the nonskid keeps me from possibly slipping overboard, then that is what I want. This is where you would see your Treadmaster or other applied products.  The downside to these products is they tend to collect dirt easier than some others, I hear.  Also, they can be uncomfortable underfoot.

The Durabak is a rubberized, single part paint.  It has rubber granules mixed in the product and is used mainly in industrial applications.  I read how some users had punished the Durabak by dragging huge buoys, anchors and the like across the deck, without damaging the surface.  It sounded like what I wanted, and was about 1/4 the price of Treadmaster, which made it economical for my use.

Prep

My existing non-skid was a molded gelcoat pattern that looked like burlap cloth.  There were lots of pits where dirt, water and mold could collect, and was impossible to get clean.  Since the Durabak prep called for a 40 grit sanded surface for fiberglass or gelcoat, I decided to just grind it off.  I was aided in this by the design of the deck mold, where each nonskid area is built up about 3/16" over the regular smooth surfaces.  This allowed me to use my 6" Bosch ROS with a 40 grit pad to easily sand off the nonskid right up to the edges with little fear of touching the freshly polished smooth areas below.

It took about 2-3 days of sanding to get all surfaces down to an equal grade.  I think if I had it to do over again, I may have sought out a more aggressive grit or machine to get the bulk of the old crap off, as it took longer than I anticipated.

I used my shop vac to clean up the dust.  As you can imagine, it is a very messy job, but the good news was since the material was mostly gel coat, there was no fiberglass itching.  I did manage to get dust everywhere though, and it took about 4 hours to vacuum everything up.

Taping off

The next step was to tape off each non skid area.  I used a combination of automotive detail tape, fine line tape, and regular blue painters tape.
First, I used a blue 3M 1/4" wide flexible automotive tape to tape off each curved corner.

Next, I taped off all the straight runs with tan 3M 5/8" automotive Fine Line tape.  This tape does not bend tight corners at all.

 

Then, I filled in the areas in between with regular blue 3M painter tape from Home Depot.  This is a detail of the final product

Painting

With everything taped off, it was time to go.  We did a final wipedown with Toulene, and started painting.  The best thing would have been to paint each area, do the subsequent coats just as the prior coat was tacking up, and then pull the tape while the paint was a little soft.  I did not have the time to do each area separately, so we just did it all, and came back after the paint had dried enough to walk on.

Here is a pretty good example of what the surface looks like:

Here, things are pretty much all done.  Ready to pull tape.

Tape coming off:

All done!

I can tell you that this surface is very aggressive, and really does grip well.  If I'm working on deck, I need to have socks on or my feet start to hurt after an hour or so.  I've since done some work and do not worry a bit about damaging this surface.  Stuff just bounces off, and I cannot imagine anything short of an anchor being purposely thrown against it gouging it.  I hope I never have to get it off.

Memorial Day Working Weekend - Gel Coat Compounding

I'm a little behind in posts as there just is not enough time to do the work, and post about it.

I took a few days off and managed to string 6 consecutive days together around Memorial Day.  This was an excellent opportunity to get some good work done.

The focus on the 6 days was to get the deck prepped for painting the non-skid surfaces with Durabak, a rubberized non-skid used primarily in industrial applications, but not unheard of in marine applications.  It has good non-skid properties, and is relatively easy to apply. (sand, wipe down, apply)

In order to get the non-skid areas ready, I first needed to sand, compound, and polish the non-non-skid areas.  This allows for a good surface to apply tape for taping off the individual nonskid sections.  Also, in order to paint, I first was going to be grinding off the original non-skid texture.  Therefore, I did not have to spend anytime cleaning up from the compounding and polishing.

Wet-Sanding

To get things kicked off, I purchased 3M Wetordry sandpaper in 600, 800 and 1000 grit.  After looking around town, I bought from Amazon for about half of what I could get it for locally.  I bought it in 9x11 sheets, 5 sheets to a pack, and 2 packs of each grit.

The 600 grit took the longest as we were not only removing all the oxidized gelcoat, but also sanding down imperfections, and removing grime and other stuff that would not come off during the cleaning.

I backed the sandpaper with the 3M yellow sponges with some green scrubby scotchbrite material on the back.  This way, if I found some gunk I could try to get it up on the fly.

Once the 600 was done, the 800 and 1000 went fairly quickly, as I was just looking for consistent scratch patterns after each grit.  The 1000 grit leaves the surface slightly shiny all by itself.  I've read that a person could just wetsand all the way up to 2000 grit, bypass the compounding process, and move directly to polishing phase.  That won't be an option here.

The Memorial Day weekend was very hot, and I was forced off the boat by 3PM most days as it was just too hot.  However, I did get all the sanding done in 1 day.

Compounding Phase

For compounding, I went with Presta products based on some online forum suggestions.  They are supposed to have abrasive media that will break down into finer and finer particles during compounding.  This helps to eliminate swirl marks, and makes it easier to get a good shine.

Presta Get Coat Compound is what I started with.

I bought a Makita buffing machine 9227CX3, with variable speed and a locking trigger.  It seems to be the industry standard for buffing machines.

For those of you lucky folks who have not had the absolute pleasure of wielding this kind of machine, I can tell you it builds muscle, as well as character. 

As soon as i tried it, I was immediately reminded of the time I rented a floor buffing machine during a flooring project at my house.  The guy at the rental place told be to be careful at first until I got the hang of it.  "Maybe try starting in the middle of the biggest room so you don't hit the wall with it."  "Ok, chief!" I think to myself. After all, the thing had a panic switch on it, and would stop right away if you let go.  So I hauled it home, and took it to a bedroom, which was not the biggest room, and fired it up. SLAM! In about 2 seconds, the machine had slammed itself into the nearest wall, and crushed in a nice sized piece of drywall.  "Huh..." I thought. "Good thing no one was here to witness that!"  This time, lets try again, but with a bit more care. SLAM!  Another hole in the wall.  "Bastard!" Lots of inertia here. Third time was the charm.

So I did not put any holes in the boat, and it was certainly not as difficult to control as the floor buffer, but occasionally, it would try to take me for ride.  Also, it is real easy to get the power cord wrapped up in the spinning wheel.  Especially when your body is contorted into strange positions to start with, sweat is running in your eye, which is already full of compound spray from the buffing wheel, and the machine bucks uncontrollably, catching the cord and stopping the machine.  If your lucky, the machine is still humming and you swear and move on.  If not, you head down and replace the power cord.

So the process is 1.) Load Compound, 2.) At 600RPM, spread compound over a 2'x2' area, and work it in for about 1 minute, 3.) Kick the speed to about 1200 RPM and work it for 30-45 seconds, 4.) Kick it up to about 4000RPM, and carefully buff dry.

Some key points
1.) Keep the pad moist, but not too moist.  Keep the working area wet, as to keep the media working, yet try to limit the amount of compound spraying off the wheel, or "sling" as it is known by the pros.  I must need more practice at this, as I could not strike the right balance.  I think my main problem was the hull surface was just too hot once the sun moved overhead.  I tried to keep working in the shade, in the mornings.
2.) Keep the buffer moving at all times.
3.) Let the buffer do the work.  Don't bear down on the pad.
4.) Know when to replace the pad.  If you start losing thickness of the wool, it gets much harder to control, and the pad tends to "suction" to the surface.

Compounding took a day.

Polishing phase

Same as compounding phase, but with Presta Ultra-Cutting Cream instead, and a polishing grade wool pad.

Polishing took another day.

Next Step

I will eventually wax with Colonite Fleet Wax.  Another industry standard product.

Before and After

I don't have very good photos to illustrate this.  Its difficult to get a good one with a cameraphone that shows the difference in gloss.

Before:

After:

This photo probably best illustrates the level of gloss.  There was absolutely no reflection prior to this.

I did not get to the paint prep phase this weekend, but I did get to it in subsequent weeks.  That will be the next post.

Toe Rails Re-Bedded

I relied heavily on a post on the Islander 36 Organization website to get started on this particular project.

Now posting with photos!

The deck/hull joint on the I36 is an inverted L shape, with the deck capping the base of the L.  There is not much designed-in resistance to leaks, so the bedding and mechanical fasteners are pretty much all that is keeping the water out.  Another issue with the design is the toerail can be leaking toward the bow, and water has a path to run the length of the boat to any opening it can find along the way as there is a channel created between the rail and the edge of the deck.  I know I am leaking around the toerails, but am not sure exactly where.  No matter, as rebedding will take care of it all. (I hope!)

The toerails on the I36 are roughly 32 feet long, with about 100 bolts per rail, 1/4-20 oval heads with a flat and lock washer under the nuts.  As I am finding with most jobs on a sailboat, no job is too big, but access to faster hardware will make or break you.  The port side is not too bad, as all bolts are relatively accessible.  By relatively, I mean there is no contortionist act needed to get a wrench on the nuts.  However, the starboard side is another matter entirely.  About half of the bolts are in places that I can barely even see, let alone somehow reaching in while grasping a pile of washers and get a nut started.  Cabinetry and lazerettes abound.  So with me being me, I started with the most difficult side first.

I started by removing all the nuts from the starboard side, starting from the bow and moving aft.  The anchor locker in the bow provides some fairly good access to everything up there.  I used my handy Makita 18 volt lithium ion cordless impact driver, fitted with a 3/4" socket drive adapter and a 7/16" deepset 6 point socket. (insert Tim Allen grunting noises)

Moving into the v-berth, and the main cabin, there were few problems.  Most nuts came off without needing someone to hold the screw from the top.  On the ones that the bolt did turn, I had Anne hold with big flathead screwdriver and a cresent wrench.  Those that siezed up, I cut off with a Dremel tool.

Let me stop right here, and thank whatever helpful soul who painted the interior of the hull, and proceeded to paint the exposed bolt threads as well.  That was super helpful in trying to get some of the nuts off.  Especially in the real tight areas.

Once we got back toward the galley, the fun really started.  Here, the cabinetry starts to get fairly tight against the deck.  Also, there is some trim that cannot be removed, which required about 12 nuts to be removed by feel alone. 

Moving beyond the galley gets us into cockpit lazerette territory.  Here you can see someone crouching among the water heater, reaching back, and upward to get a wrench on.

The picture here does not really do it justice.

Here is me getting access to the last few bolts.  The rail is about at my knees in this picture.

Lastly, here is what you would see from topside during the evolution.  Me standing with a rather dull, shell shocked expression, trying to maintain my resolve.  You can see a good portion of the bolts being removed here as well.  The bolts, for the most part, were going absolutely nowhere.  They were very well sealed in place with old bedding material.  Hammering them up from below was completely ineffective, as you need to have some room to swing a hammer.  I tried the impact driver, but could not keep the flathead in the groove, plus no one makes a large enough flathead hex tip for drivers.  I finally settled on using my regular cordless drill, chucked the bit I did have, and used the slowest speed setting to back out each bolt.  I broke a few bits, but managed to get them all.

Let me stop again, and make additional thanks to whoever tried to stop the leaks by smearing silicone on each bolt head.  Also super helpful.  The screwdriver tips really grip like iron sliding around in a bed of silicone residue!

With the last bolt removed, the rail was lifted onto the nearby scaffolding.  The rail weighs about 60 pounds and is curved, so it needs at least 3 supports so that it does not just sag between supports.

The deck joint was full of old bedding material.  For the most part, it was all dried up and just crumbled away.  Some areas still were intact, and the bedding resembled a very thick peanut butter and fibrous material.  I used scrapers to get off the majority.  We followed up with a spritz of water and brush to get the remaining material off.  What remained at this point was removed my carefully scraping with razor blades.  I was trying to get down to bare, clean fiberglass.

I followed up with a 600 grit wet sand of the area that the rail rests.  This helped remove any remaining residue.

Here is the finished area after cleaning.  I know it does not look too clean, but much of the brown coloration is actually stained into the gelcoat.

The bottom of the rails also were cleaned using a combination of scraping the big chunks off, water and brush to get most of the rest, and further detail scraping with razorblades to get as clean a surface as possible.

As I mentioned before, we had some silicone on the rail around each bolt hole.  We used razor blades to take off the majority, and xylene to help lift what remained.

I then used a carbon steel cup brush for the Dremel and cleaned out each bolt hold and countersink.  This was followed by a final wipedown of the rail with xylene.

I prepped the deck by running a 1/4" drill into each hole to clean them up.  I taped off the deck and hull where the toerail edges are with some blue painters tape.  This should contain the squeeze out.

To put the rail back on requires speed and lots of helpers.  I reattached the forwardmost bolt loosely, and proceeded to apply a generous quantity of caulk.  For caulk, I decided on 3M 4000.  This is a polyether based caulk, and seems to be the replacement for the 3M 101 polysulfide.  I did not want a polyurethane based adhesive like 5200 or 4200 that would never be able to be removed again.  I was even a little leery of the 4000, as its has a holding power of 300psi which is still a bit much for most bedding jobs.  However, it does have good flexibility and exposure tolerance.

After getting a good bed of caulk established, I had helpers pivot the rail into position, and I started dropping bolts into place.  There was enough caulk to squirt up through the holes in the rail, and down through the deck.  Other helpers started adding washers and nuts.  We moved along the rail as fast as we could.

My initial intention was to draw the bolts only tight enough to start squeeze out, and then come back later and tighten the nuts to apply holding force after the bedding material had cured.  This is fairly standard practice, I gather, when bedding deck hardware.  However, the rail does not tend to lay flat on deck, rather it tends to lean in.  So in order to maintain the correct orientation, I needed to draw down quite a few bolts fairly tightly.  I tried to tighten just one or two, but broke the bolts when attempting to get the rail seated, so it required more.  Ultimately, the design of the rail includes a very thin bead along the bottom extrusion.  This should keep a consistent layer of bedding material regardless of how tight the rail is bolted.

We eventually got all the nuts on and tightened, and I repaid our workforce in Mojito's and dinner.

The next day, I returned to slice away the excess bedding that squeezed out onto the tape.  It was not a perfect tape job, but it took care of the majority.  There is still a little clean up to take care of around some of the heads of the bolts, but for the most part, the rails cleaned up pretty well.

A week later we did the port rail, and it went much better than the first due to better access to the bolts, as well as having some experience in the task.

With both rails replaced, I think we will keep rebedding deck hardware with the goal of getting the boat watertight.  Before that, it will be necessary to repaint the non-skid areas of the deck that much of the hardware will bolt to.  The next post will either deal with re-painting nonskid areas, or refinishing teak.  I'm in the middle of both at the moment, so we will see what gets completed first.

The Tasks at Hand

In this post, I will lay out the major repair items that need to happen this year.  I'll elaborate on each of these in due course, but for now, I'll just hit the highlights.  I had thought about providing an overall description, but that would have forced me to drone on and on about every little hose and fitting, and I'd rather just stick to what is relevant for now.

For reference, here is a link to data on the Islander 36:
I36 data from SailboatData.com

I used this site while researching different boats last year, and it is a good reference for basic boat data.

And here is the link to the organization that is active out on the west coast, of which I am a recent addition:
http://www.islander36.org/

I have to say that the Islander 36 organization website was, and continues to be, a great reference for my research, and for ideas on how to handle certain jobs.  The maintenance section of the website is a great Islander specific resource for just about anything.

Of course, I also have a fresh copy of Don Casey's "This Old Boat".  For novices who know little about how things work on a boat, this is an excellent tool to get started.  There are some detractors of his methods, but I don't know of a more relevant book for what I am doing.


1.) Deck

The overall condition of the deck is moderate to poor, in my opinion.

The gelcoat is heavily oxidized, and while there is not an epidemic of crazing, there is some light crazing here and there.  There is a patch that is heavily crazed, but it is under the companionway hatch, and I won't have to look at that too often.  I hear that boat builders, back when they were first figuring out how to build fiberglass boats, figured that more gelcoat was better.  The problem is that gelcoat is not very flexible, and will crack if the underlying substrate moves.  If it is too thick, then even a small amount of flex can cause crazing.  I'm going with that theory, as the deck under the most heavy crazing is very solid, and I can hardly feel it move when someone is up there jumping around.

I do have some stress induced crazing around the safety rail stanchions.  There are stainless steel backing plates on these.  I can see that no matter how big the backing plate is, a lot of force can be generated by flexing the stanchion back and forth.  I may have to fabricate some kind of base for the stanchion to rest on, and help disperse the load away from the edge of the stanchion base.

2.) Deck hardware
All deck fittings will be removed and re-bedded.  There is nothing left under it now, and I can see water spray underneath some hardware when washing the deck.

3.) Teak
The teak on the Islander is used for handrails, companionway slides, cabin rub rails and for the toerails at the bow and stern.  The teak used to be varnished, but there is not much left.  The plan, as of today, is to sand and refinish with more varnish.  I have been looking into just leaving it unfinished and letting it go silver/grey, as there is a contingent of folks out there that recommend it.

4.) Delamination
The only delamination that has occurred seems to be limited to the area around the aft shroud chainplates.  This is another design issue in my opinion.  The area of the deck where the chainplates are mounted was reinforced with an additional layer of plywood under the deck.  The chainplate itself is shaped like an inverted T, with the long base penetrating through the hull.  I think part of the issue is the portion of chainplate that resides in the boat, acts much like a coldplate during the daily cycling of cool nights and warm days.  I noticed condensation seemed to wick down toward the colder plate from above.  Another problem is exposed core material to the metal of the chainplate.
I plan to cut a series of holes in the bottom portion of the deck, dig out all the wet plywood, seal the holes and pour epoxy back in from above to fill the void.

5.) Toe Rails
Toe rails are almost devoid of bedding, and so I will be removing and re-bedding these as well.  This is a big enough job that it deserves its own task.

6.) Non Skid
Non-skid is a type that looks like some kind of cheese cloth was used in molding the deck.  The texture is very rough, and repaintings have left voids that water can stand in, and mold can grow.  Long term, I'd like to grind this away, and perhaps go with treadmaster.  For now, I will clean as best I can, and repaint with a rubberized coating, like Durabak.  My research leads me to believe that Durabak will be a good non skid product all by itself, and that painting it on the non-skid will fill in the holes that trap water.

7.) Keel Joint
The keel is cast iron, and the keel/hull joint looks to need some repair.  There was some standing water in the bilge, so I don't think there is a leak, but it looks like there have been regular patches to the joint.  I was going to let this slide another year, but I was taking a closer look the other day, and I think I will have to get on it this year instead.

8.) Compound and Polish
Based on the recommendation of a friend, I spot checked a few areas, and it looks like some rubbing compound and polish will bring back much of the shine on the deck and topsides.  I had thought about painting, and there are some valid reasons to do so.  But it will wait until I'm more sure about whether or not I'm ready for that.

That wraps up the exterior, now onto the interior...

The condition of the interior varies.  The most woodwork is in pretty good shape.  There are some storage cabinets mounted on either side of the salon that have taken some water damage, and will eventually need to be replaced.  The headliner is missing, and while this provides excellent access to the deck hardware above, it lacks certain aesthetics.  This will need to be addressed at some point, but will most likely have to wait till next winter.  I plan to install wood ceilings and headliner then.

9.) Plumbing
The freshwater plumbing is routed through the bilge, which makes sense to a certain degree.  However, after working in the bilge while cleaning, I believe that there it makes better sense to route it around the perimeter of the cabin, where it will be more hidden, and out of the way.  This will leave the bilge to the bilge water, and nothing else.

10.) Electrical
The electrical system has had 36 years of add-ons, repairs, abandoned wires and poorly routed cables.  I believe that it will be faster for me to just strip it out, salvaging only enough for pull cords for the new cables.  The plan will be to identify all engine wiring and label it.  Once the engine is isolated, I will then gut most of the electrical wiring throughout the boat.  Most appears to be the wrong type or size anyway.  I'll add a new breaker panel and battery switches, and run new wire and fixtures.  This should be fairly straightforward, as the missing headliner provides excellent access to the nooks and cranny's where the wire runs will go.

So that pretty much wraps up the major repair tasks at hand.  As of today, I'm actually partially done with some of the above items, but I'm still trying to get the blog current.  Next time, we will start in on some of the individual tasks.

Go Big, Or Stay Home

The purpose of this blog is to document the refurbishment of an Islander 36, from acquisition onward.

So the short story is this: I never sailed before 2-1/2 years ago. I tried it once, and was immediately hooked.

I started this blog at the suggestion of my good friend, Tim, who got me started sailing. I intend to use this medium as a way to record some of the ins-and-outs of the refurbishment, as well as keeping friends and family apprised of what I'm up to.

As an aside…these initial posts have been more time consuming than I anticipated due to the length of time that has transpired since last summer. I have tried to recall as much as possible about how I went about the research and purchase process. If this record seems a bit disjointed, that is why.

I will also mention here that this refurbishment project is dedicated to my good friend, Grant, who showed me how to tackle projects that most mortal(or sane) men would hire done. His wit was sharp, his demeanor always pleasant, even under the most trying of times. His escapades are legend among his many friends. His memory is with me every time I start my work, and helps guide me through to the end. Thank you, my friend.

"Go big, or stay home."

The Disclaimer

I have a background in engineering and IT/Networking. I also am fairly handy in home improvement projects and woodworking. I've milled and laid my own flooring and trim, built my outdoor sauna and deck, made my own furniture, and I am in the middle of milling and building interior doors for my house. I only mention it because it pertains to my decision making while researching boats to buy.

It may appear after reading some of these posts that I have no real experience in sailing, seamanship, boat refurbishment (or blogging for that matter). Guilty on all counts! So what? 80% of success is just showing up. I can figure out the rest.

I'm sure that there may be better ways to go about doing some of the things that I will be doing, and by no means is my approach the "Right Way", or the way you should do it. You will have your own way.

The Initial Research

Once I came to be in the market for a boat, it became obvious that some stars would have to align in order for us to pull it off financially. I say us, because my spouse, Anne, and I were not looking for a 6 figure vessel. Far from it.

I feel we were ahead of the game, because we knew what kind of sailing we wanted to do. We were not going to be racing, or circumnavigating the globe. We wanted something that could get us around the Grand Traverse bay for 2 and 3 day weekends, as well as support a week or longer if we wanted to cruise to a more remote destination. What we were looking for was a cruiser in the 30 to 40 foot range. This is the range we had been chartering. We had spent some time on some friends 26 foot Catalina. We just did not see us doing the things we wanted on that size of boat, comfortably.

The searching started online, looking at boats everywhere of this size, and then continued to some local marinas. The results of my search for 30-40 foot boats can categorized thusly:

1.) Fairly new boats that were in the 6 figure range. All in seeming great shape, would be fantastic to own, but way out of my ballpark.

2.) Mid aged boats that started at about 40K and went up from there. These mostly seem to be in fairly good shape, are seaworthy, and could be sailed from the moment of purchase. Still out of my range

3.) Old boats that start dirt cheap, and end up in the 40K-60K range. Wildly variable condition.

So I started analyzing what you typically get out of a boat in my size range for less than, say, 20K (asking). Answer: Typically not much. I looked at a lot of pictures, and then looked at a lot of boats. The pictures always look much better than what you see in person. Pictures hide all manner of cosmetic issues, to say nothing of mechanical or structural issues.

At the dirt cheap end of things, meaning under 10K, we see a lot of what are called “project boats”. This term is an understatement of epic proportions. Burned out hulls, boats that sank, boats that seem to have been involved in some sort of naval action, you name it.

However, every once in a while I discovered a potential “Diamond in the Rough” amid the flotsam. The boat that was tantalizingly close to the high end of my price range, with what looks like a sound hull, functioning motor, and set of sails. Not in perfect shape, but not outside the realm of possibility.

At which point, I usually see the boat is in Miami, or San Diego, or somewhere equally inconvenient. So it turns out that moving a boat across country is no small cheddar. About $3-7K near as I could tell, depending on whether it was coming from the east or west coast. I did not bother to get an exact quote.

Somewhere in the middle of this searching, I determined some criteria that a boat would most likely have in order to fit into my budget.

1.) It had to be local(Great Lakes)

2.) It had to be a boat that was built 25+ years ago.

3.) It had to have a sound hull and deck.

4.) It had to have a serviceable engine.

5.) It had to have a set of serviceable sails.

6.) It had to need some work done to it.

The last item was seemingly the biggest factor in determining price in my end of the boat buying market. It’s much easier to negotiate a lower price if there are major expensive repairs that obviously need to happen. I think that most boat buyers will walk away on seeing any major work, as they will not want to pay to have it done. That was my equalizer, as I could not afford a boat that didn’t need work.

The Islander 36 that I found had an asking price that was nowhere near what I could pay. However, I could not stop visiting the website. By now, after having looked at hundreds of boat descriptions, I know how to interpret all sales jargon into plain English. This description was more or less an honest one. It spelled out some of the things that were clearly going to be a problem right up front, without sugar coating it too much. It supplied pictures that illustrated some of the problems. I had an idea that perhaps this one could work. This was the most likely candidate that I had seen, and it was practically in the neighborhood, geographically(Bay City). Even better, I did some further research of the Islander 36 sailing qualities and reputation, and found that it was a well-regarded vessel.

I arranged a visit to the area, and by sheer luck, Anne has an old friend who happens to have his Ericson 37 tied up in the very marina that had my Islander. We went down for a weekend to visit our friends, go for a sail on his boat, and check out the Islander.  Larry's insights into the boat buying process were indispensable, as he just bought the Ericson not too long ago.

Seeing the boat the first time was when the wheels really started turning. We did not see any obvious deal breakers, and we both liked the design of the boat. I did some checking around, and found that this boat had been for sale for about 2 years. A couple of deals to purchase had fallen through, and it had recently been relegated to the marina’s “back lot” (where I assume boats go to die). Anne and I decided that we would pursue this one.

I determined that two things would need to be in place, prior to making an offer. Transport logistics, and a home for the vessel, in and out of the water. I researched the logistics of moving the boat, and eventually found a company out of Grand Rapids that could transport across the state, reasonably. Note: there are not very many transport haulers out there that can move a large vessel over distance, at least in Michigan. In talking with some friends, we discovered a mooring location in west bay that would be available to us when the time came. That took care of a home in the water. As for off season storage, I rent a small commercial space in town, and after checking with the landlord, and surrounding businesses, I verified that I could keep it there.

I did a substantial amount of research on the rough costs of the major items that I could anticipate. We came up with a shoestring budget that was wholly contingent on the seller taking our initial offer, which was an embarrassingly low amount. I downloaded some stock verbiage for an offer to purchase that included the terms that the seller would cover the cost of a sea trial, and I would handle surveying, and transport. The sale would be contingent on both.

We held our breath, and made the offer.

The buyer accepted our initial offer, no questions asked. Time will tell who got the better end of the deal.

The Survey

I spent a lot of time researching surveyors, and things that would be surveyed. I almost decided to forgo the survey, but in the end, we went with someone that was recommended to us. I don’t regret purchasing the survey. The surveyor confirmed a lot of what I suspected, and he also was a wealth of information about things I knew nothing about. He was very through, and very frank about what would be required.

During the survey, we did not disclose what the purchase price would be, nor did I let on that I was remotely handy. We wanted a completely unbiased opinion on the state of the vessel, and what would be need to be fixed.

Interestingly, the surveyor’s initial recommendation was to walk away. That was based on his assumption that I would have to pay to have the work done, and on the buyers asking price. We then told him that we would be doing much, if not all of the work, and what the agreed purchase price was. By the end of the survey, I think the surveyor, for good or ill, was just as excited about the possibilities as we were.

Sea Trial

With the survey completed, the next step was the sea trial. For this, I brought my good friend Tim, who has much experience sailing. I relied heavily on his advice when researching vessels, and he got right to work doing his own survey of the vessel. This would be the first time that I had seen her in the water. We met the current owner, and got started rigging the sails, and getting her ready to sail. If for no other reason, it was an excellent opportunity to see how everything was rigged, and discover some of the nuances of the boat. We motored out of the marina, and headed for open water. The engine is a Palmer gasoline 4 cylinder, and although rough starting due to not being run much, was smooth and quiet. Much more quiet than a diesel. We got under sail, and killed the engine. We had light winds, but the Islander performed quite well by Tim’s estimation despite that. After a couple of quick tacks, we turned her around, and headed back. I could have stayed out all day.

Transport

For those of you who have never transported a large boat, I can assure you that it is a nerve wracking experience.

13’-6”. This is the maximum posted load height on Michigan roads. The Islander, while in its cradle, measured 12’-6”. The transport company told me that the trailer would add 12” to the load height. It was going to be close, but close to what exactly? Is there some “danger threshold" in loads that are close to that? What if my load is really close, but an inch or two lower? If the trailer hits a bump under a bridge, will my cabin top get clipped or what? I learned that there are no good answers to these questions when it is your boat that is being moved. I had to trust the sage advice of the truck driver.

I pressed the transport company for more specifics on the trailer, and eventually talked with the driver. He said that he would most likely be able to shave a few inches off that, but that we would have to wait and see. Great. Very comforting.

On the day of transport, we got her on the trailer and we measured the height at 13’-4”. If we had been over height, I was prepared to unbolt the safety rail, and the wheel pedestal, which were the highest parts. (I have since removed them for re-bedding, and am glad I did not need to do it in the marina parking lot.)

The rest of the morning was spent getting her strapped down, and prepping the mast. The truck was on the road by noon. I elected not to follow the truck home, so I took an alternate route.

I had already marked the pavement where we would drop the boat off. With much difficulty, the driver got the trailer backed into position, and lowered the boat onto some 6x6 blocks that I had also prepared.

I thanked the driver profusely for not shearing off the cabin on some bridge or other, and took possession of my boat.

Storage

I knew from my inspections and from the survey that there were some leaks in the deck. Shortly after arriving, I fabricated a skeleton roof-like framework out of EMT that would keep a tarp shedding water, and hopefully snow as well. I found a tarp that would be large enough, and strapped everything in place.

Final Thoughts

The research and purchase of the Islander took place over the timeframe of last summer (2009), ending with the transport in mid-September. Much of the fall and winter was spent researching, pricing and planning. 

Next time, I’ll plan to talk in more detail about the boat and its condition. I’ll go into more detail about some of the obvious things that need to happen, and the overall plan to get her ready to sail.