Donny Bahama
Veteran Member
Let me start by explaining my circumstances...
My wife and I have owned one boat in the past. She was a 24’ Bristol Corsair that had been lovingly restored and was perfect in every way - except that she was a sailboat (and we are lousy sailors). We spent many a wonderful evening/night/weekend and ate many a wonderful meal aboard her — but almost all that time was spend in the slip.
Circumstances (that I won’t get into here) have led us to the conclusion that our best path forward is to to liquidate all our assets and buy a trawler to liveaboard. Our total budget is going to be around $20K (a loan is not an option). That will need to include the purchase, taxes/registration/fees, any repairs that are immediately necessary, and hopefully a few thousand dollars leftover for an emergency fund. Yes, I realize that’s not a lot of money and clearly, any boat we find in our price range that’s big enough to liveaboard comfortably with 3 dogs is going to need some work. That’s OK. We are both very handy, quite comfortable with all manner of tools, and unafraid of sweat, elbow grease, and learning/tackling new things. We are no strangers to carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work (though we have less experience with the latter and no experience at all with Diesel engines - but we know a few really excellent mechanics). We are resigned (actually looking forward) to doing repairs and fixing up our new home. The main thing we’re looking for is a boat “with good bones”. Something that is funadamentally sound/solid.
I should add that we’re really sold on CopperCoat; we like the idea of painting the bottom and not having to worry about it for 10+ years. Whatever boat we buy, the plan is (at the first haul out) to strip off all the old paint and put CopperCoat on. While she’s on the hard, we’ll of course look at any other issues that need to be addressed. Because of this, we’re not particularly afraid of wood boats.
Now, the boat...
We have the opportunity to buy a 36’ Grand Banks (we love GB trawlers; our dream boat is a 42’ Europa model) at a very attractive price. The boat was surveyed in November of 2018 and as you can see in the survey, the surveyor (whose credentials seem, to me, impeccable) was impressed by the boat’s build quality and stated “The framing is intact and has been well ventilated with very little wood decay found. Every floor panel including beneath all the seating and bunks were raised for inspection and found no evidence of a problem” After the survey, the most significant issues were dealt with at that time by the current owner. Since then, the boat has been docked and no maintenance has been performed - no scraping, no zinc replacement.
To me, the boat does indeed seem to have “good bones”. Further, I’ve come to know the owner pretty well and believe him to be a really honest and good person. With 19 months having passed (and another 2 or 3 likely to pass) since the last haul out/bottom painting (and at that time, the new paint was applied over the old), it’s clearly going to be time for a haul out and bottom painting at the time we take ownership, so this fits in Well with our plan to strip her down to the timber and apply CopperCoat. In fact, once we have all the old paint stripped off, our plan would be to have a thorough inspection of the hull done (inside and out, fasteners removed at the inspector’s discretion) by a surveyor who specializes in wood boats. We would then make all necessary hull repairs before applying the CopperCoat.
My biggest concern, here, as I see it, is the 19 months of zero maintenance and the fact that the most recent bottom paint was applied over the old paint. Do barnacles/mussels/algae cause more damage/“dig deeper” if they’re allowed to just live there for over a year and a half? Could they have compromised all layers of paint such that the wood is exposed (i.e. at a microscopic level) by their roots? In other words, does the lack of scraping and zinc make it much more likely that the hull will now have significant problems?
My wife and I have owned one boat in the past. She was a 24’ Bristol Corsair that had been lovingly restored and was perfect in every way - except that she was a sailboat (and we are lousy sailors). We spent many a wonderful evening/night/weekend and ate many a wonderful meal aboard her — but almost all that time was spend in the slip.
Circumstances (that I won’t get into here) have led us to the conclusion that our best path forward is to to liquidate all our assets and buy a trawler to liveaboard. Our total budget is going to be around $20K (a loan is not an option). That will need to include the purchase, taxes/registration/fees, any repairs that are immediately necessary, and hopefully a few thousand dollars leftover for an emergency fund. Yes, I realize that’s not a lot of money and clearly, any boat we find in our price range that’s big enough to liveaboard comfortably with 3 dogs is going to need some work. That’s OK. We are both very handy, quite comfortable with all manner of tools, and unafraid of sweat, elbow grease, and learning/tackling new things. We are no strangers to carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work (though we have less experience with the latter and no experience at all with Diesel engines - but we know a few really excellent mechanics). We are resigned (actually looking forward) to doing repairs and fixing up our new home. The main thing we’re looking for is a boat “with good bones”. Something that is funadamentally sound/solid.
I should add that we’re really sold on CopperCoat; we like the idea of painting the bottom and not having to worry about it for 10+ years. Whatever boat we buy, the plan is (at the first haul out) to strip off all the old paint and put CopperCoat on. While she’s on the hard, we’ll of course look at any other issues that need to be addressed. Because of this, we’re not particularly afraid of wood boats.
Now, the boat...
We have the opportunity to buy a 36’ Grand Banks (we love GB trawlers; our dream boat is a 42’ Europa model) at a very attractive price. The boat was surveyed in November of 2018 and as you can see in the survey, the surveyor (whose credentials seem, to me, impeccable) was impressed by the boat’s build quality and stated “The framing is intact and has been well ventilated with very little wood decay found. Every floor panel including beneath all the seating and bunks were raised for inspection and found no evidence of a problem” After the survey, the most significant issues were dealt with at that time by the current owner. Since then, the boat has been docked and no maintenance has been performed - no scraping, no zinc replacement.
To me, the boat does indeed seem to have “good bones”. Further, I’ve come to know the owner pretty well and believe him to be a really honest and good person. With 19 months having passed (and another 2 or 3 likely to pass) since the last haul out/bottom painting (and at that time, the new paint was applied over the old), it’s clearly going to be time for a haul out and bottom painting at the time we take ownership, so this fits in Well with our plan to strip her down to the timber and apply CopperCoat. In fact, once we have all the old paint stripped off, our plan would be to have a thorough inspection of the hull done (inside and out, fasteners removed at the inspector’s discretion) by a surveyor who specializes in wood boats. We would then make all necessary hull repairs before applying the CopperCoat.
My biggest concern, here, as I see it, is the 19 months of zero maintenance and the fact that the most recent bottom paint was applied over the old paint. Do barnacles/mussels/algae cause more damage/“dig deeper” if they’re allowed to just live there for over a year and a half? Could they have compromised all layers of paint such that the wood is exposed (i.e. at a microscopic level) by their roots? In other words, does the lack of scraping and zinc make it much more likely that the hull will now have significant problems?
