SELLING JOY AND REFITTING LEVON

The sale of my Ranger 29 JOY is pending. I have purchased a Cape Dory 28 named LEVON (Armenian name meaning Lion, pronounced Lee-von). The decision to sell such a fine boat that I had refitted was difficult because JOY and I had formed a mutual admiration society and worked very well together. But my experience cruising to Mexico on LEGACY, my C&C 34 that I sold in La Paz, had convinced me that for extended ocean cruising I needed a boat with a better Motion Comfort ratio. That is because unlike many sailors, I stay queasy on a fin keel for most of the voyage. Motion Comfort is a ratio measuring the quickness that a boat moves in a seaway. Both LEGACY and JOY have about the same ratio as other modern fin keeled cruisers (23-24). I needed something above 30 to be comfortable single handing on the ocean. Realizing that I wanted to continue ocean cruising, I started looking in summer of 2012 for a small, sturdy full-keeled sailboat that I could afford. I looked at many seaworthy and available 28-30 foot boats in the $15K range such as Pearson Triton, Columbia, Southern Cross, and Farallon, and even a Ranger 33, but most were under powered and needed a lot of work. 

Then I found the Cape Dory 28 of my dreams! Motion Comfort ratio of 31, almost a good as a Westsail 32, but a much better sailing boat. The owner had bought it new in 1978 and sailed all over the Pacific many times. He had installed a new Yanmar 2GM20F with about 50 hours and kept the boat beautifully maintained. Five sails in excellent condition, new bottom paint, the original dodger framework, a good working gimballed propane stove and oven, and the original job boom. I had the boat surveyed and it was considered to have a market value of $25,000. 

BUT the original chain plates had to be replaced. In spite of all the excellent work the Cape Dory factory did with this wonderful Carl Alberg design, single-hull mold, water-tight deck-hull, and it's brass fittings throughout, they used mild steel butt plates welded to J-shaped rebar for the chain plate anchors. After 35 years they were extremely corroded. So the boat was advertised for $15,000 and I raided our home line of credit to snap it up.

My surveyor, Francoise Ramsay of Wedlock in Sausalito, recommended an experienced boat builder named Michael Lael for the chain plate work. He spends summers in the Bay Area, winters overseas, and works privately out of his fully equipped shop boat at Brisbane Marina. His estimate for the job was $2500/side, which included design and installation of extra partial bulkheads for the main shrouds, plus extra for designing and fabricating an anchor bowsprit fitting and running proper wire for the Lewmar700V electric windlass I would later have installed. This was less than half the estimate the owner had gotten from Svendsen's for the same work. 

Meanwhile I had made a web page for JOY and put her up for sale. Here is the web page: https://sites.google.com/site/ranger29joy/ Over two months I showed her to about 25 people, from neophytes to experienced sailors. I turned down an offer for $11,000 and another for $13,000 because it would have to be paid in many installments. I wanted to sell JOY to someone who would cruise and properly maintain her. Finally the right person came along.

Here is what Levon looks like now with her new jib boom cover, Lewmar windlass, and stainless bowsprit fitting.

 

It took two men two full days to cut out the old chain plates.

Here is what the corroded butt plate looked like. It practically crumbled in my hands.

Here are the new G-10 partial bulkheads in Michael's shop, and views of the new chain plate butt plate and anchors, each bolted securely to a bulkhead.

I have cleaned and replaced hoses on the two 30-gallon water tanks, installed electric windlass with both deck and cockpit controls, added proper chain and rode for the Lewmar to my Manson Supreme anchor on the bowsprit, and installed a galvanic isolator. I also replaced the ancient three-pin cockpit connector for the tiller pilot with a modern six-pin for my new Raymarine Autohelm that enables it to receive NMEA string navigation commands from chart plotter, and I repaired the water leak through the tiller head from the original owner's newly-pitched propeller. This week I tore out the old Whale Gusher Titan manual bilge pump and will replace it with a new one. I also had fittings made for the stainless dodger frame so I can fold it down as needed and installed it in the cockpit. After that, when I can afford them, canvas for the dodger, refits for propane stove, new SH Matrix VHF with AIS, and new Raymarine chart plotter and RADAR. Then a whisker pole, maybe an ATN snuffer for the gennaker, and finally a serious cruising dinghy of some type yet to be decided. 

Hope to be putting up new blogs on cruising SF and Monterey Bays and coast. Then finally South for commuter cruising, hopefully by Fall, 2013.