Sailing My New (to me) Boat Home

Long-time readers of this blog have probably been disappointed in my lack of regular posting, but those of you who still check in from time to time will likely see a lot of new material here in the near future.  I have been on an intensive boat search for the past year, since selling my Wharram Tiki 26 catamaran project, and though I could have posted about the various ups and downs of the search, I decided to wait until I actually found a boat first.

That search has led me to a 1980 Cape Dory 27, a Carl Alberg design I have long admired that is just the right size and displacement to meet my current needs in a cruising boat.  I will be posting extensively here as I upgrade and refit this vessel, at the same time as I use her for local daysailing and cruising.  Taking my time to find the right boat paid off, as she was mostly ready to go and only required four days of preparation and outfitting to get ready for the 450-mile passage home from Tarpon Springs, Florida to Biloxi, Mississippi. Here she is at the dock in Florida:

For the trip home, I had the competent help of my friend, Scott Finazzo, who I am co-authoring a book with at the present time.  Scott is also the author of the excellent adventure and travel blog: Lure of the Horizon, and along the way he spent far more time than I shooting stills and video, mostly with his phone.  Here is a short compilation of the video clips that he put together:

Buy, Outfit & Sail: A Book for the Frugal Sea Gypsy

I've recently read through Cap'n Fatty Goodlander's recent book: Buy, Outfit & Sail,  not just once, but twice.  If you've ever even remotely entertained the idea of living the cruising life, this book is as good a place to start as any I've found.  Cap'n Fatty dispels the notion that you have to have a lot of money to acquire and outfit a seaworthy boat and sail it around the world.  While many other sailing authors have put forth essentially the same idea, few have done it in such an entertaining way as Cap'n Fatty.

The first time through, I read this book because it was full of new ideas and information that I had not seen all in one place before, and some not anywhere.  For example, unlike most other "how to get started cruising" books, Cap'n Fatty doesn't just talk about what kinds of boats to consider, he explains at length how to find them.  And not only how to find a boat - but how to find one for pennies on the dollar - especially those boats he says have a "ticking time clock" due to the current owner's need to get rid of them now due to various reasons.  And after you find the deal of a lifetime on the right boat, the outfit and the sail portions of this book will put you on course to get your vessel shipshape and keep her that way as you chase the horizon.

I read this book a second time not only to pick up tidbits of advice I might have missed the first time around, but mainly for the sheer entertainment value.  Cap'n Fatty is a natural-born storyteller, and this book is packed with fascinating glimpses of the amazing life he's lived at sea in a variety of boats.  Some of these tales will have you cracking up with laughter and some are so far out there you'll find them hard to believe, but no matter how outrageous the stories, somehow you know that Cap'n Fatty probably actually lived them.

The book is available on Amazon in Paperback or for Kindle.  For more information on this and Cap'n Fatty's other books, visit his website at:  http://fattygoodlander.com/home

Beachcruising

I've been spending way too much time thinking about boat design lately, but I suppose it's justified, since I'm trying to decide what my next boat will be.  I've been looking at a wide variety of sailing vessels, from heavy, offshore-capable monohulls to small multihull beachcruisers.  Sometimes it helps to get just get out on the water to think, so I spent some time a few days ago paddling my kayak around Deer Island, just south of Biloxi.  Kayaks are just so simple and quick to launch, and easy to pull ashore most anywhere you care to stop.  This is my Arctic Tern 17, one of my favorites that I built about 14 years ago:

While there are some large, shoal-draft cruising sailboats that can go right up the shore and safely dry out at low tide, this Endeavor 37 Ketch that was also beached on the island is definitely not one of them:

This sailing yacht was obviously left hard aground by the storm surge of recent Hurricane Isaac.  She's a good 40 or 50 yards from the water's edge now, and at 20,000 lbs. displacement, will not be easy to refloat.  I don't know where she was before the storm and how she came to break loose and end up on the beach at Deer Island, but seeing this is a good reminder of just one of the things that the owners of small, beachcruising sailboats and sea kayaks don't have to worry about.

Alberg 29 - A Great Deal in Texas

Below: The Alberg 29 Jubilee, offered for sale in Rockport, Texas.

I can't believe this boat has been on the market so long, especially at the price it's been reduced to since October - just $21,500. I guess it goes to show how much of a buyer's market it is right now for things like cruising sailboats. The Alberg 29 is a bit of a rare item, and not very well known among fans of Carl Alberg's designs compared to the much more common boats in this size range such as the Alberg 30, the Pearson Triton and the Cape Dories.

This example was built in 1982, and while it is classic Alberg, (see the out of water photo below) the 29 was intended to be an updated, modernized version of the famed Alberg 30. There are not many of these around, and information about the design is scarce online. One resource is Twentynine, an owner website devoted to the design.

Below is a photo of Jubilee's nicely-finished interior, which is still in good shape, as all of the boat appears to be.

I've been wondering when this boat would sell, and I am quite surprised it's stayed on the market for this long. For someone wanting to go cruising in a moderate-sized bluewater vessel in the tradition of the boats described in John Vigor's Twenty Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere, this could be your vessel. Someone should buy it and send me a postcard from the Caribbean this winter.

Get all the specs and details on the owner's ad here:

http://www.sailingtexas.com/salberg29100.html

Grampian 26 Review (Part One)

Below: My Grampian 26 the day I bought her:

Readers of Good Old Boat are already aware that the current issue of the magazine features a boat review of the Grampian 26, written by Gregg Nestor. I picked up this issue with interest, as reviews of this popular Canadian design have been few and far between - and, of course - because I owned and sailed a fine example of this vessel for six years. I've been planning to write about my experiences with this particular good old boat for quite some time. So I have now decided to begin a multi-part series on how I came to own, refit, cruise and ultimately lose the boat I named Intensity.

I found my Grampian 26 in the late summer of 1999, when I drove to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area with cash in hand and intentions to buy a different boat, a Bristol 24. The Bristol seemed like a good deal from the seller's ad in the Florida Sailboat Trader, and from what he told me in our conversations on the telephone. As it turned out, this particular example of that fine design had seen better days, and was far from being ready to make the trip back to Mississippi on her own hull. I had to pass on it but I was in Florida to buy a boat; with all my gear in the truck , money still in my pocket, and a block of free time available to sail home. I was determined to find a cruising sailboat that I could purchase and make ready in a reasonable time frame. I called about several boats in my price range (about eight thousand dollars max) and went to look at more than half a dozen.

Most of these boats were either too run-down for the asking price if they were big enough to meet my needs, or too small or lacking in sea going quality if they were in great condition. I looked at a Kenner Privateer 26, a Colombia 24, a Pearson 26, an Albin Vega 27, and a couple of custom built boats. None were up to the 450 nautical mile trip from Tampa Bay to the Mississippi Sound without a lot of work and expensive upgrades. Since the Gulf coast north of Tampa is an area of extensive shallows many miles out from shore, following the coastline in series of day trips was not an option in a boat of this type drawing 3 feet or more of draft. The first leg of the trip would include a 160-mile offshore passage from Anclote Keys to Appalachicola Sound, so needless to say, I had to be picky about choosing a boat that could do this with reasonable safety.

I was staying at my brother's house near Tampa during all this searching, and was beginning to get frustrated after several days of running around all over the bay area looking at boats that consistently disappointed. I was about to give up when I made a last drive to Clearwater to look at yet another one and while walking down the dock noticed a "for sale" sign on a very clean and almost new-looking boat that seemed just the right size. From the new paint, crisp green Sunbrella bimini and sail covers and varnished toerails, I assumed this boat would be well out of my price range. There was also a new-looking Honda 9.9 outboard mounted in a cut-away on the transom. I was actually looking for the simplicity of an outboard-powered sailboat, as I did not want to mess with the complexities of an inboard diesel. The one feature of this boat I did not like was the pedestal wheel steering, but everything else just seemed right. Despite my fears that this boat was well out of reach of my limited boat-buying budget, I called the number posted on the sign.

The owner was out of state on vacation, but at last I reached him after talking to other boat owners on the dock. It turned out he was an employee of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which was why the boat was docked there alongside various donated boats in run-down condition. I learned that the boat was a Grampian 26 - a Canadian design that I knew nothing about. I called my experienced sailing friend in Winnipeg, Lawrence Pitcairn, to ask his advice regarding the design. It just so happened that he had the issue of Practical Sailor in which the Grampian 26 was reviewed. He read the entire article to me over the phone. The editors of this publication strive to be as objective and unbiased as possible. Like all boat designs the review, they find the faults, but there was a lot they liked about the Grampian 26. Excerpts from the review that caught my attention included:

"The Grampian 26 was heavily built and, happily for their owners, no chronic problems have surfaced in the nearly quarter century since the first boat was launched."

and

"In the past 24 years, this Canadian boat has been spotted in waters around the world. During one notable voyage an owner sailed from Lake Ontario to England and the Mediterranean, then returned to Canada via the Caribbean. Several of these boats have made good the trip through the Intra-Coastal Waterway to the Bahamas and the Caribbean, returning to their ports with a contented crew."

Designed by Alex McGruer, the Grampian 26 specs sounded good as well:

LOA 26'0"

LWL 21'9"

Beam 8'4"

Draft 4'3"

Ballast 2,600 lbs.

Displacement 5,600 lbs.

Sail area 325 sq. ft.

Like the other boats at the dock, the Grampian had come in as a donation, (someone's tax write-off) but the employee who was the current owner took a liking to her and decided to rescue her himself. He was in the process of a complete rebuild from the inside out, using Don Casey's excellent book: This Old Boat as a manual. Work completed thus far included most everything on the exterior: new Imron paint on the topsides and decks, a new professionally fabricated rudder, a custom stainless steel bow pulpit and anchor platform/bowsprit, recent bottom job, new bimini and sail covers, and a like new Honda 9.9 outboard. The inside had been gutted of the original cabin sole and furniture, and bulkheads stripped down to the bare plywood. All new wiring had been completed, including cabin lighting, fans, shore power charging system and top quality DC and AC switch panels. The owner had obviously poured a lot of money and time into this boat. The reason for selling? He was about to get married and his wife didn't like to sail. (I wonder if this has ever happened to anyone else?)

It was a lot more boat with a lot more stuff included than I would have ever expected to find on my budget. But best of all, I didn't even have to spend everything I brought to buy this boat. The price was $5000 firm. I couldn't believe my luck. All this for just five grand. I didn't even consider argueing price and immediately said I would take it. The only condition was that I wanted the boat hauled out so I could inspect the bottom before I handed over the cash. The owner agreed and I had to wait a couple more days until he returned to Florida, then we motored over to the Travelift at the boat yard next door to the aquarium. The haul out proved that he had done what he had said was done below the waterline. After seeing the keel and knowing for sure what was under the bottom, I felt confident I could sail this boat home.

Just when I had been about to give up, I had found everything I wanted and more in a small cruising sailboat. Money exchanged hands and I was the proud owner of my first cruising sailboat. My free time was running out, however, and there was still much work to be done before I could untie the dock lines and sail away.

(Next Installment: Moving aboard, making ready for sea, and sailing home)