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An important note about Pre-purchase Surveys of Boats

Since the purchase of our boat we have upgraded, replaced, rebuilt or refurbished most of the onboard systems in one way or another. During these upgrades we have noticed a few things that our marine survey did not uncover. As a result of this, I’d like to take the time to recommend that any potential Liveaboard boat buyer bite the bullet and have some separate inspections performed by a qualified expert in the individual field to save you a lot of headaches down the road.

Now, I realize that there are a great many highly qualified marine surveyors out there and that all of them intend to be the best at what they do. The cold truth is very few of them can be experts in every single aspect of every system that make up a cruising, Liveaboard sailboat, unless they are Master Certified Tech’s in each field. Even then, you might find that they are more versed in some than others. If you are going to spend what might be the bulk, or a very large portion of your life savings on your dream boat, it pays in the long run to find every bruise, wart or under rated system that lurks on board, especially when you are negotiating the final purchase price. It can also save you a lot of hassle when you insure your boat.

Our surveyor, for instance, missed a localized termite infestation, some very bad DC wiring in the binnacle, missed a couple overburdened DC grounding system points, severely underestimated the age of our rigging Sta-Loks and missed some very under rated AC four position switches (one of which later partially melted and could have caused a fire). The resistance in that circuit, which is the primary source for our battery charging, may have lead to the premature demise of our last set of ten Trojan T-105 house batteries….about $1500 to replace…..ouch….since it took some time and looking to find that switch it may have had some negative impact on our new batteries but only time will tell. It also caused issues with our refrigeration and freezer compressors. Those units don’t like low or unsteady voltage and ours are equipped with diagnostic LED lights that flash a code every four seconds when there is an issue detected by the control module. Low voltage can display as the same code for a locked up compressor rotor (which is about a $1000 just for parts) so beware when someone tells you your compressor is shot….it probably isn’t. There is a simple test for the compressor, cut the power and by placing an Ohm meter on the three connections for the control module (which must be removed first to access these but it’s only one screw) if you don’t get an “infinity” reading between any two of the three pin connections, meaning the coils are intact, your compressor is fine. The readings should all be between 1.5 and 3.0….. (Thank you John Nihiser for the tutorial on compressor coils !!!!)

Here are a few shots of that melted switch……

Note the exposed wire at the terminal connection….also bad

This same switch was partially melted from the heat build up….

My recommendation is this….once you have a general survey (about $400) of the boat you are interested in, which will hopefully point you in the direction of the most serious issues, find some experts in these specific fields, preferably ABYC Master Certified Technicians.

Electrical Inspection….(AC and DC)….this can take as long as two hours and will run about $160

Rigging Inspection…..this will take about an hour or an hour and a half and cost about $100-$150while I’ve never seen an ABYC certification for this listed on their website….a few inquiries will find a locally recognized quality rigger.

Engine Inspection……you can find a manufacturer certified technician for almost every brand of diesel in most regions… Most charge travel time unless you are close to their offices so this will run about $400-$500

Heat/AC/Refrigeration……If you have one or all of these systems it would pay to have these inspected separately as they can run into the thousands to replace…..an inspection will run about $300 for all three….

At every stage of these inspections you will obviously have the opportunity to walk away from the purchase negotiations or negotiate further based on what is found. You might save yourself a ton of headaches and expense in the long run or get a better deal on your boat and free up the money for the upgrades or repairs.

Always Learning….But don’t let that stop you

I often think we should have named this blog “Learning to Liveaboard”. After all, despite our lengthy research process, extensive reading, our numerous inspections of sailboats and our experiences on sailboats there is always something more to learn.

On top of that, conditions are almost never as calm and easy as you would like them to be. Swirling currents, wind, vessel traffic, equipment failures, weather and tides contribute to the challenges we have and will experience on a daily basis.

I recently read a quote that said something like “if you aren’t nervous about going out there, then you haven’t done enough research”. I don’t think that means that you have to be petrified of taking a vessel out to sea, it just means that you should be aware and concerned about your boat, gear, the constantly changing conditions, how to react to them and developing the skills to do so. I once met a fellow in Florida who had bought a Hunter Cherubini 27. Shortly after we met, he was recounting the details of his first offshore trip….that occurred three days prior and two weeks after he had bought the boat in North Carolina !!! His engine had failed about 20 miles offshore between Georgia and Florida and he didn’t have the ability or parts to fix it…..while recounting this story he basically shrugged his shoulders and said …”we just put up the sails and got as close to shore as we could until we could get someone to tow us in”….I was floored by his nonchalant attitude about the failure of his engine and his lack of preparedness, yet he and his boat survived, unscathed. At least a thru hull didn’t fail……that might have been a different result.

I suppose the the moral to this entry is….learn as much as you can, don’t stop learning or think you’ve learned it all. Most of all, don’t let it stop you from doing what you love and enjoying the process……

Kitty Hawk on the hard….getting some much needed upgrades…..and TLC ….isn’t she shiny now ?

Our Most Recent Trip North…. Day #3

Day #3 started early-ish as we pushed off from Hammock Beach Marina around 8:00am and continued our passage Northward. It was a pretty quick day since we only had about 20 miles to cover to reach St. Augustine. We had planned to be there early to avoid any Friday evening increase in boat traffic for the Memorial Day Weekend holiday. It was a good thing too, because the powerboat traffic slowly increased all day.

11357252_1408313802827149_3955414011535187940_o — St. Augustine Mooring Field

We made it to St. Augustine around noon and got tied off in the mooring field in time for happy hour !! Here’s little advice if you ever go into this mooring field….don’t listen to the harried staff at the office…there are two red markers 10 and 10a…the poor guy on the phone was so frazzled with all the Memorial Day Weekend calls he said to go on the north side of 10A……unfortunately, there was a shoal…we didn’t get stuck at all and probably could have slipped through since it was 5′ but we backed off and went north of 10 and it was all clear….he clearly must have meant “go on the north side of “10”….we did think that advice was a little odd since there were two red markers so close together but we deferred to what we thought was the “local knowledge” at a the time. No harm, no foul though.

I feel like I’m not going out on a limb here by saying that St. Augustine is a great town to hang out in for a few days and maybe more. We spent the entire holiday weekend on the mooring ball. We walked the rustic downtown areas, saw some great architecture (and some great bars and restaurants). See our Facebook page for a more detailed accounting of where we visited….

Our Most Recent Trip North…Day #2

Early on during day #2 we encountered this fellow…Victor Mooney…he recently rowed ACROSS THE ATLANTIC..in an effort to promote AIDS awareness….. Unfortunately, we didn’t know who he was when we saw him and I later saw a story about him online…Apparently, he had spent the night before near where we were anchored and endured the same storm line we had encountered in this small boat!

Some cool bridge piling paintings in New Smyrna Beach….

We later passed through Daytona Beach. I had a read a lot of bad reviews about the anchorage in Daytona Beach across from Loggerhead Marina. While I do love Loggerhead marina, it has a great pool, hot tub and restaurant/bar, I also enjoy the chance to anchor, dinghy in and save our money for things other than dockage. Many reviews made it sound as if the anchorage was filled with “liveaboards” of the criminal variety, living on derelict hulls, that would board your boat in your absence and steal anything that wasn’t nailed down. As we passed by, I looked for any suspiciously run down vessels. I only saw one boat that wasn’t in good, serviceable condition so I can only hope that the bad elements have been removed or gone elsewhere.

Day #2 was pretty uneventful aside from our encounter with Mr. Mooney and we wish him all the best in his trek Northward……..we arrived in Hammock Beach around 5PM where Neil Kaczmarek, the Harbormaster for the Marina at Hammock Beach (386-597-5030 or VHF 16/10 ) welcomed us and took great care of us, getting us a nice quiet slip near the entrance to the basin for an easy getaway in the morning.. our stay included use of the pool, hot tub, TV area, ice machine, showers and restrooms. The facilities were all very nice. They also supplied pool and bath towels, shampoo and liquid soap….cutting down on the items to be carried back and forth…always a nice touch.

We got a great deep dish pizza delivered from Mezzaluna Pizzeria (based on Neil’s recommendation) at 101 Palm Harbor Parkway, Palm Coat, FL (386)445-1004…I highly recommend it….I’ve never had a deep dish that lived up to the name as completely as the pizza from this restaurant….This will be a nice place to rent a condo for a few days and get to enjoy the other half of the resort and the surrounding area next time!!!

Pre-trip maintenance….

Prior to any departure, we have an informal checklist, (that I would like to convert into an official checklist) of systems that we inspect before departing the dock. We check the bilge pumps, batteries, engine room, shower sump box, refrigeration/compressors, the dinghy, the outboard, the oil and T-fluid levels, engine belts, the air filter, the raw water intake, all the seacocks, the prop shaft, bearing and the prop among other things.

When we left North Carolina in December of 2014, I dove our prop and hull to clean and inspect everything. Aside from a minor wipe down and some minor cleaning of the intakes, everything looked great, the zinc, bottom and prop were clean and ready to go. I have become a big fan of the Petit Ultimate SR-60 bottom paint I applied in December of 2013.

After spending six months in the Indian and Banana Rivers in Florida we were preparing to depart Florida when I began our pre-departure checklist of items. Our hull and bottom paint still looked good. Our prop, however, looked like a marine archaeological artifact. I had planned to “bag” the prop with a heavy duty plastic lawn bag but life got in the way and I forgot to do it before we left to return home to help with our ill relative. This was not a condition that we could travel under. We don’t currently own a prop puller (high on the list of items to acquire) but I was fortunate enough to get a referral to Randall, the owner of Bottoms Up Hull Cleaning in Cocoa Beach (321-458-7323). Randall is a great guy and showed up the next day to pull the prop. I spent that evening cleaning, sanding and painting the prop. Randall reinstalled the prop, a new cotter pin and a new zinc the following day. He also wiped down the hull and cleaned all the intakes.

We had a trouble free passage north and it seemed like our fuel consumption was even lower than normal…..although I haven’t had time to do an official calculation of that yet…..

A logo for our blog…what do you think?

I had hoped to get some voting buttons attached but the plugins are more finicky than I expected…..

Marine version of “Too Cute”

While recently performing some interior teak refinishing (which not as bad as everyone says it is) a friend of mine was on deck doing a little fishing for our dinner when he saw a large dolphin chasing fish all the way into the shallows (About 18″ of water) near the mangroves and directly under the boat. This is not a behavior we normally see in this area. The fish are very plentiful and the dolphin normally hunt in groups of three or four. Once the dolphin finished and was moving away, we saw the reason for the unusual behavior….

We guessed that the baby was being taught how to pursue fish, thus the more obvious behavior in shallower water……All together now “AWWWWW”

How your way of thinking will probably change …..or things that make you go “hmmmm”

Recently, while standing on deck, I realized how spending more and more time on our boat has created a new way of looking at situations for me. I saw this boat on that particular day and I immediately began to think about the conditions that were present. In this instance, the pictured boat is anchored, the rode for the anchor (which appears to be rope) has a very steep angle, which seems to indicate that there isn’t much scope deployed. The boat is facing South as both the wind and the current are running North at about 5kph. The boat is anchored <100′ from the swing bridge located to the North, off the stern. Sunset was about 60 minutes away so I assumed the skipper planned to spend the night. There wasn’t a dinghy visible, so either the boat didn’t have one or the maybe some, or all, of the crew was ashore….this image made me think….what would I have done differently if anything?……What do you think?

Our First Boat and Our Current Boat….

Our first sailboat....a Hunter 23...I'm not sure why I look so angry in this picture...maybe it was my "pirate face" — Our first sailboat….a Hunter 23…I’m not sure why I look so angry in this picture…maybe it was my “pirate face”

Our current “new to us” boat is a 1979 Caribbean Sailing Yacht…more commonly known as a CSY. Our particular boat is a “walkover” or mid-cockpit design. This means that the aft cabin is completely separate from the forward area and you walk up and through the cockpit to access the opposite area. We like it because it makes the cockpit more like the “living room area” although it does necessitate a willingness to travel seasonally to maintain the optimal usefulness of the cockpit area. Here’s a few images….and a few specs….

CSY 44 Mid-Cockpit drawing on sailboatdata.com

She’s 44′ LOA weighs in at a total of 44,000 pounds, is 36.33′ at the water line, drafts 4.8′, has a 13.33′ beam, is a cutter rig, has a fully encapsulated 14,000 pound lead ballast, has been re-powered with a 65hp Cummins 4B 3.3 Diesel, She has 100 gallons of fuel tankage, 400 gallons for water and has just over 900’sq of sail area.There have been a lot of modifications and improvements to Kitty Hawk since she was first launched in February of 1979.

Notice the hard Bimini top, solar panels, wind generator, radar, the full enclosure and the arch at the stern…This was just after a fresh coat of bottom paint that I applied and was thrilled to save $1500 by doing it myself….

This is us, on the day we made our offer to purchase Kitty Hawk,…a very exciting day

I was pleased to discover that the 44′ CSY was chosen as the #11 design in Cruising World Magazine’s reader selected 40 Best Sailboats …….the photo is from the original CSY brochure…text courtesy of CW

Don’t forget to check out our front page for a list of items with which we can assist you during your search for your new floating home……

Category: photos