Mrcharwe
Well-known member
I finally ended up grabbing a boat in Olympia. I learned in the process i know very little about sailing and less about what makes a boat good or bad. I looked at probably 20 boats from 22' -32'. I looked at Catalina's, rangers, columbias, San Juans, tanzers, and more. I almost got a free albin Vega but the guy gave it to someone else as I was driving there.
I was looking at boats up to 4k and would have gone a little higher for the right boat.
in the end I decided I didn't know enough about boats or what I want out of a boat justify spending that much money and went the other way. I started looking for the cheapest day one ready, entry level boat. I ended up with a c&c 24. I'm the 4th owner of the boat. when I bought it the previous owner handed me a stack of papers including the original owners manual in a binder and maintenance records going back to the late 80's. the rigging was done in the last 2 years. the halyards are from last year. they had it out of the water last year and re-epoxyed the keel, he said it wasn't bad but it was time. bottom paint was also done last year. the fore deck got soft a few years ago so it was re-epoxyed also and feels solid. the boat has a real toilet and not a porta potty. the main sail is in good shape but not new and it has 3 jibs(I think 100, 120, and 150). and over all it is just a solid little boat. after looking at a lot of boats I could tell this was clean and maintained. the previous owner swapped out his new Yamaha for an older evinrude but it runs.
the only thing the boat didn't come with was a radio and a dinghy. it had all the little coast guard stuff like a throwable and life jackets.
the radio was easy, for $40 I had a new 12v radio and wired it in.
it turns out dinghys are a lot more expensive. I thought or them as an inflatable raft, maybe $150. nope, quality dinghys are closer to $1000, used. So I searched craigslist. I kept missing on the Costco dinghy for $200. I kept searching for other options, especially for small boats. I heard about porta bote being a collapsible boat and search craigslist and I found one. An old 10' porta bote for $75. I called the lady and sped from Olympia to Bremerton and had my dinghy.
I bought the boat for $1600 and spent $120 on the radio and dinghy, so for $1720 I now have a boat.
what I didn't mention before was I will be on the GI Bill for the next 3 years. so I will be doing school full time, year round, no breaks . as much as I want a blue water boat and to sail the world it's not in my immediate future. and I realized if I buy a more expensive blue water boat that's in good shape right now I would have to re-rig it and clean it up anyway before crossing oceans. so this c&c is my beginner boat. this will just be cruising the sound. and maybe one day, if this boat life is for me, I'll sail across the oceans.
I was looking at boats up to 4k and would have gone a little higher for the right boat.
in the end I decided I didn't know enough about boats or what I want out of a boat justify spending that much money and went the other way. I started looking for the cheapest day one ready, entry level boat. I ended up with a c&c 24. I'm the 4th owner of the boat. when I bought it the previous owner handed me a stack of papers including the original owners manual in a binder and maintenance records going back to the late 80's. the rigging was done in the last 2 years. the halyards are from last year. they had it out of the water last year and re-epoxyed the keel, he said it wasn't bad but it was time. bottom paint was also done last year. the fore deck got soft a few years ago so it was re-epoxyed also and feels solid. the boat has a real toilet and not a porta potty. the main sail is in good shape but not new and it has 3 jibs(I think 100, 120, and 150). and over all it is just a solid little boat. after looking at a lot of boats I could tell this was clean and maintained. the previous owner swapped out his new Yamaha for an older evinrude but it runs.
the only thing the boat didn't come with was a radio and a dinghy. it had all the little coast guard stuff like a throwable and life jackets.
the radio was easy, for $40 I had a new 12v radio and wired it in.
it turns out dinghys are a lot more expensive. I thought or them as an inflatable raft, maybe $150. nope, quality dinghys are closer to $1000, used. So I searched craigslist. I kept missing on the Costco dinghy for $200. I kept searching for other options, especially for small boats. I heard about porta bote being a collapsible boat and search craigslist and I found one. An old 10' porta bote for $75. I called the lady and sped from Olympia to Bremerton and had my dinghy.
I bought the boat for $1600 and spent $120 on the radio and dinghy, so for $1720 I now have a boat.
what I didn't mention before was I will be on the GI Bill for the next 3 years. so I will be doing school full time, year round, no breaks . as much as I want a blue water boat and to sail the world it's not in my immediate future. and I realized if I buy a more expensive blue water boat that's in good shape right now I would have to re-rig it and clean it up anyway before crossing oceans. so this c&c is my beginner boat. this will just be cruising the sound. and maybe one day, if this boat life is for me, I'll sail across the oceans.
