Buying New vs Buying Old

When looking to buy a boat, you have three choices

Brand New
Used in wonderful condition
Used in poor condition

At face value, Brand New is the most expensive, Used in wonderful condition is pricey but great value, and Used in poor condition is the cheapest upfront. But what does it mean for you?

Buying Brand New has the advantage of knowing that everything on the boat is fresh from the factory and should work flawlessly. This also means that if there are design flaws, you will be the one to find them. Most reputable boat companies will pay to correct design flaws in your vessel, so you do have some insurance there. The downside comes in the way of drastic depreciation. A $250,000 yacht will not be worth that in a few years, and if you ever go to sell it, you will realize that depreciation took most of the boats value.

Buying in wonderful condition is where you buy a boat that was bought Brand New and meticulously maintained for years. All the while, problems have been discovered and then fixed along the way; delivering to you a like new yacht with all the kinks worked out! This can be the best way to buy a boat if you can find the exact boat you are looking for.

Buying in poor condition is a bit of a risk. You are essentially buying a deck and hull, and outfitting the rest from there. Cost wise, this tends to be the cheapest upfront, but the costs of outfitting a boat can add up considerably. The advantage is this can be done in stages allowing you to save up between stages. This way, you are able to have a place to live in (or camp in) while you work your way towards perfection.

They say boats cost! They cost money and time, if you save on money, you will pay more in time! 

From the choices above, it may seem that buying "Used in wonderful condition" is the best choice, as the price is greatly reduced over new, and it won't cost you any time to get the yacht ready to sail. This is true, but it is also very hard to find the boat that is exactly how you want it.

If you look at any sailboat, you will see "Owner Customizations". Some people want radar, chart plotter, auto pilot, and a wine cooler; while others want laminated sails and light weight synthetic rigging. What you want on a boat is not always what others want on their boat. This means that no matter what boat you buy, you are going to sink more money into it to make it "Your Boat"

This is where buying "Used in poor condition" shines. The boat doesn't cost much and is a blank canvas! When you buy a quality boat that is in need of a rebuild, you are buying a sturdy platform to build your dream boat on. You are in control of deciding what goes where and you are able to spend your money on the items that you value as necessary on board your boat. 

This method will cost you a lot of time if you do the work yourself, but I think it's worth it in the end. How much of a project you want is completely up to you. You can get a wooden boat from "Boneyard Boats" for free, or a sunken boat that has been resurfaced for nearly free. These are the cheapest initially, but the total cost of these projects will quickly overshadow the supposed deal. 

The next option is to buy an old boat that has a good interior, deck, hull, rudder, and spars; and take it from there. These tend to be boats that were loved and used for many years, and are in need of a re-fit. They tend to have a bad engine, blown out sails, aged rigging, and minimal electronics. These are where the true bargains are hiding! You don't have to pay the previous owner for "his favorite" chart plotter and then replacing it with "your favorite" chart plotter. Instead, you can pick and choose what and where you want to mount your electronic accessories. 

The other advantage with boats that are structurally sound is you get to pick and choose what sails and rigging you desire. If you prefer tri radial sails over crosscut sails, or full battens over partial battens, you don't have to live with the previous owners decision! You can choose exactly what sails you want and what size for them to be! Some people prefer to have a smaller high aspect jib while others prefer a monstrous 180% genoa, the choice is yours!

As far as rigging goes, you are free to select the color scheme that makes sense for you! If you want all the downhauls to be the same color, or if you want each line to be a different color, this is your chance to decide on color and feel in your hands. Boats like these take some time to complete, but the owners tend to be very pleased with the end result.

It can be hard to find your perfect yacht when shopping around. The eyes will love a brand new boat much more than your wallet will. The used market might seem daunting to sift through. Keep searching with an open mind, and consider looking at the ones the eyes might not fall in love with right away, but have the potential to make your dreams come true! 

Windpuff's First Daysail

I got home from choir this morning in a wonderful mood and found Herby on Windpuff having just tested out his completed sculling oar.  It was an uncharacteristically warm day with a few wispy white streaks across the sky, allowing the sun to finally melt the mountains of snow on land.  We just had to go out for a sail. 

Taking our engineless Alberg 30 out for a day sail using our sculling oar. It is not fast, but it does get us out of the marina and into the wind so we can p...

Windpuff’s original name was “Dove.”  We bought her to be a day sailor for when we wanted to go out spur of the moment.  Since Wisdom is our home, she is never ready to go at a moment’s notice.  She’s big and has our various belongings strewn about so that heeling over would create a catastrophe, not to mention the fact that we just took off all her sails for winter maintenance.  Now, Windpuff doesn’t have a working motor, so we were never able to get her out of the slip safely and confidently until today.  Thus, it was today that we became truly grateful that we had her.  Within ten minutes of making the decision to go out, we were sculling away from the slip and hoisting the sails. 

It was a much needed break from any obligations that we left on land.  We were only out for about two hours, but as we glided through the water with just enough wind to fill the sails, the sun warmed our faces and everything felt right.  Even Morty enjoyed himself thoroughly. 

The sculling oar has finally made it possible to enjoy our second boat, and I’m so excited to finally be able to benefit from having it.  I love Wisdom, but I feel a special connection to Windpuff because I was involved in the process of choosing her.  We looked at her together on the hard and I even got to choose the new name.  Windpuff also taught me to sail.  It made more sense for me to learn on her because she only has two sails, she’s 30 feet long, and she’s very responsive to movements of the tiller.  I helped sail her to her new home almost a year ago and we haven’t been able to sail her since until today!  I’m excited for our future adventures with our little day sailor.         

Hanging Artwork in a Sailboat

Homes need pictures hanging from the walls, but sailboats lean over frequently! How do you keep pictures and paintings from falling off the walls or always looking crooked? The answer is simple, poster putty.

I use a nail and hook to hang the picture or painting like any regular piece of art, but then I place a 1cm (1/2 inch) sized piece of poster putty on each lower corner. I hang the picture by the nail and center it so it looks straight, then firmly press it to the bulkhead. The poster putty will glue the picture to the wall, but allow intentional removal from the wall without leaving any marks. 

All of the artwork we hang on board Wisdom is done this way and we have sailed many miles heeled over without a single piece of art swinging free or falling off a wall.

Mildew

Condensation is a serious problem for liveaboards. It will form in places you would never think of and in a short period of time, puddles will form causing water damage to everything it touches. One of the common places this issue develops is under a mattress. 

When you lay in bed, your warmth comes through the mattress until it reaches the cold sides of the bed sole. At this junction of warm and cold, condensation will form; soaking the mattress and growing mildew everywhere!

To prevent mildew, you need to prevent moisture. To prevent moisture, you need to prevent condensation. To prevent condensation, you need airflow. How can you get airflow under a mattress? You need something to form an air space where it can freely ventilate the space under the mattress.

There are very expensive systems for sale that look like wafer tiles. These hollow tiles will lift the mattress up allowing airflow and provide enough strength to support the weight of people sleeping in the bed. This seems like a wonderful option until you calculate the cost. Dri-dek tiles from West Marine cost $6.29 per square foot. If your berth is 4 feet wide and 7 feet long, you have 28 square feet to cover, costing $176.12. This seems feasible, but it is still a significant cost compared to the alternative. 

They are staggered to not block the access holes to my water tanks under the V Berth.

I went to Home Depot and purchased a few wooden battens for $0.50 a batten. These battens lift the whole mattress up to provide airflow while also providing support for two adults to sleep on this berth all night, every night, without any problems. For the forward V berth, we used 9 battens arranged in rows promote the flow of air through and under the mattress, keeping it dry and mildew free for only $4.50

Our mattress is very thick, so we don't feel the battens through the mattress, but if you find it uncomfortable to sleep on the battens under the mattress, you can always lay some wooden or PVC trellis on top of the battens to further support the mattress while keeping the airspace open.

The results were dramatic and instant. We went from a full puddle under the mattress that would drip off the foam when the mattress was lifted to bone dry in one day! If you want to spend a lot of money on this project, Dri-dek tiles will work wonderfully, but for a minimal amount of funds, the same results can be achieved using the wooden battens.

Painting Aboard

Though I have a few odd jobs like substitute teaching and instructing Paint Nite, I earn most of my income through selling my paintings.  I do have a studio where I complete most of my larger commissioned work on my parents’ third floor.  It’s the classic artists’ studio where you enter and it looks like somebody grabbed paints, brushes, and canvases and danced around while tossing them everywhere.  Painting on the boat has to be a tad more organized since it’s our living space. 

I have a few fun tricks that I discovered for myself that help create less mess and accumulation of various items that would take up all the trash space.  I paint at the table in the salon.  To begin, I unload all of my brushes and paints onto the right side of the table, place my canvas in the center, and leave the left side for my pallet, rag/paper towel, and water cup.  I have one little glass Mason jar that I keep on the boat for brush cleaning.  

Instead of taking up room with a big wooden pallet or using wax paper that adds significantly to the trash, I cover a white plate with plastic wrap!  It works beautifully.  When I’m done, I peel it up and the plate’s still as pristine as before! 

If I’m working on a commission of someone’s boat or pet, I put the image up on my computer screen in front of me.  Printing out the image just wastes space and paper.  Sometimes I even use my phone. 

It all works out quite nicely since I have the boat to myself during the day.  Herby goes off to be a dentist while Morty and I hang out in the boat.  I either go to my parents’ house to work where I can dance around and play with my cat while paint dries, or I settle into my little station in the boat.  The boat is nice because when I finish a piece, I can walk it right over to one of the galleries up the street where I show my work!

If you’re interested in seeing some more of my paintings, visit my website: SocolarArts.com

For boat or pet commissions, email me at:
ArtisticEyeStudio@gmail.com