SV Suasn

[Andrew Nason]

Hi, I'm a new member of the woodenboat forum. I just purchased a 1951 Peterson 36 gaff-rig cutter. A week ago I hauled her out for repairs and paint. You can see her on:

http://homepage.mac.com/nasoncpa/PhotoAlbum2.html

I'm open open to any questions or advice. Please take a look and tell me what you think.

[Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson )]

She is going to be beautiful
Congratulations, and welcome to the forum.

[WindHawk]

The traditional advice on these sorts of efforts is that is much less expensive to spread out the costs, and Never total them up!

Welcome aboard, keep posting your progress.

[Tom Hunter]

Advice? Dont buy a wooden boat...:rolleyes:

But by the time you get here its too late.

Don't stop working. What ever horrible difficult thing you find wrong with the boat will go away if you keep working.

Looks like she can be a really nice boat.

Fill in your profile, we like to know where we are.

Welcome aboard

[willmarsh3]

A diamond in the rough. I'm sure you will get plenty of help here at the WBF.

Welcome aboard.

[S/V Laura Ellen]

What a way to make your debut on the forum. The boat has lots of potential. Good luck on the repairs. A good survey would be a good starting point.

[Henning 4148]

All the best! When we bought our barky, she looked somewhat similar (but had the best hull we ever saw). We sold her four years later in much better condition than we bought.

Priority 1 is to avoid her drying out too much. Many boats spend far too much time for the refit out of the water and this can cause substantial additional problems. From mid spring to early autumn, she should be in the water. No good doing cosmetic jobs on deck while your planking shrinks, bends the fasteners and splits. Same for deadwood, stem, frames ... . Especially oak is problematic in this respect.

Priority 2 is seaworthiness, you can worry about the cosmetics later.

The boat seems to have been a live abord and not sailed too much in the last years, so seaworthyness may have been neglected.

Hull: Inspect and repair / have repaired as needed keelbolts, frames, planking, through hull fittings. When we had just bought our boat, we pulled all through hull fittings. Three of seven (home made stuff by the former owner) desintegrated in that process, that was quite an eye opener.

Rigg: Take mast down and inspect every part of the rigg. Replace eveything that is not ok.

Engine: Mounts, compression, cooling, filters. Have tank cleaned if the boat wasn't used a lot recently.

All heavy items down below: Check for secure lashing.

Electrics: Sort out the really ugly stuff.

Rudder: Also needs to be reliable.

Once the thing is seaworthy, sail her! You will find more things that you want to change / repair / that don't work for you.


Then comes Priority 3: Do some (major) project every winter while sailing her in the summer. The cockpit would be a job, the cabin, the coachroof, rewireing, perhaps the deck ... . One each winter, and in a few years you can have a really great boat (if the substance is good).

[Andrew Nason]

Thanks for all of the advice.
Right now I'm under a pretty tight budget. (I do not intend on her becoming a show boat by any means)
I'm still a senior in high school. I've been making all of my money so far working on a reefnet boat (a rare fishing method, try googleing it). I will be going to bristol bay in this summer (back 20 of July) and then living aboard when I get back. I'll be taking her out around the islands on closed fishing days and perhapse farther.
Right now I'm working on the bob-stay next will be other rigging then rot then painting, electical, ect. There's a lot of boaty types here on the island helping me out.
I'll keep you guys posted on the progress and will no doubt have a question or two.

[Gary Bergman]

Ahoy!..Give the bobstay all the attention it needs; from one who has been dismasted..Make sure it's properly fastened at BOTH ends; at the cap and the stem...Good Luck, mate

[GregH]

To quote Searover:

"Don't worry, my boat was in way worse shape than yours but after I had replaced every single plank, frame and stick in her she was better than new."


...so did you really restore a boat, or build a new one using an old one as a patern??

[Tom Hunter]

Andrew,

I bought a boat in somewhat similar condition back in 2000. Bought her in Maine sailed her down to Massachusetts.

At the time I was a pretty competent sailor, and knew very little about diesel engines. Turns out the diesel had a lot of problems related to a combination of lack of recent use, obsolete parts and some badly done repair jobs.

You will have a better time out there if you know how to fix the engine, the electrical and the rigging. If the hull needs repair I suggest doing that before you leave harbor :eek: but the other things may break, and on a boat like yours I bet at least one of those three has been neglected.

On the diesel I would take a very hard look at the fuel system. You will likely have to spend some money on filters, and you may want to replace the impeller as well.

I would also look hard at the electrical. The first question is can you figure it out, and does it make sense? If you can't figure it out either you need to learn more about electrical systems, or the previous owner needed to learn more about them (which is worse) or maybe both.

These are both important safety and peace of mind issues. There is nothing like heading in to the dock and discovering that your engine will not go out of forward gear, trust me on that one.

Watching the sun go down at sea can be wonderful, but I am guessing the fun stops if the waters are crowded and the nav lights don't turn on.

That is where I would start, once you get the bobstay done. See what the other forumites have to say, what I posted above is based on my own experience and there is plenty of other different experience here that is equally valid.

[Andrew Nason]

A friend of mine, who is also an expirienced boater, suggested that I use steel cable instead of chain for the new bob stay, that would reduce chafing problems on the mooring lines in rough weather. What do you think of this?

[Gary Bergman]

Hmmm...over time, electrolysis seems to eat a link or two on my chain, so I just move up to a new link. Cable doesn't allow for this. Contrarily, my other boat has stainless cable, but one has a tougher time 'diagnosing' stainless problems...kind of a toss up,eh?

[waters'l]

Good luck and remember to sail her like searover said. That has been crucial for me in all I do is to keep her in sailable condition.
As another who has a boat over twice their age, use others enthusiasm to your advantage. I have had lots of help because people think it's neat for a 24 year old to be into a wood gaffer.
Have fun!