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I’ve just had a staysail mast hound made. Thought I’d share the triumph. It’s probably stronger than
necessary, but I can live with that. A machine shop a block away from where I’m berthed fabricated it, using a
1/4″ x 2″ piece of flat bar I brought him, shaping, drilling and machining/adding the nose piece from his own
stock, all for an amazing $70 price tag! It’s not yacht finish because I didn’t care about that. I even asked
him to not grind down the heavy welds for cosmetic purposes, preferring to retain their full strength. By
comparison, former Metal Mast fabricator, Richard Conti, will make a beautifully finished (if less beefy)
hound for a $475.A photo of each is attached. You’ll have no trouble identifying which is which.
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Tony Edwards, but I’ve only been to Block Island once and that was 20 years ago. However, if we’re talking about Rhode Island surveyors, I do happen to know the best in the region as of 5 years ago. That’s when I left, but for the previous 5 years I owned a yacht brokerage & Valiant Yachts dealership in Barrington, RI (http://www.anchoryachts.com). Needless to say, I had occasion to work with many of southern New England’s marine surveyors at one time or another. Of them all, Anthony “Tony” Knowles was far and away the best. He’s the guy I’d have hired to survey my own boat, and I’ll bet you’d find that to be the case with many if not most other brokers up there. However, not all the brokers like Tony when they have a sale pending. He has quashed more than one deal that seemed like a shoe-in up ’til survey time. He is simply more thorough, more knowledgeable and more picky than other surveyors, in addition to being smart, dedicated and brutally straightforward. Wish there were more like him.
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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The best way I know to find the best surveyor in a given locale is to personally ask AT LEAST 6 different local yacht brokers – NOT including your own or the seller’s broker! – who they would hire to survey a boat that they intended to buy for themselves. Often you’ll find one name recurs in at least several of the replies. That’s the guy you want.
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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You’re right, Thatcher, although in all fairness those guys only have maybe 6 hours to identify a boat’s “issues.” I had 5 entire days for my own survey and you may have had years of ownership to discover everything you now know. A really good surveyor is more often than not well worth his price. The trick is finding out in advance who the really good one is in a given locale.
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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I’m open to taking on crew, too, but she has to be young, pretty and single. No experience necessary. ETD some time in April.
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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Thatcher,
I thank Neptune that I’ve found such great pleasure and gratification in the refitting of this good old boat these past 2 years, and in an especially helpful, affordable and amiable location. (This owner’s group has been a great help, too!) If that had not been the case, I believe I would feel foolish for having invested so much time and money. As you say, we could’ve bought a newer, ready-to-go vessel and been dollars and years ahead. As it is, though, I’m very pleased with what I’ve done and what I’ve got. Lucky me!
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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got a tune to go with that?
Sure. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Now pass the jug this way!
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Joe,
It didn’t occur to me until later that the actor Jay Silverheels played the Lone Ranger’s sidekick, Tonto, in the old TV series. “Silver Heels” as I knew it was a sailboat name from a song written and recorded by Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot a long time ago, one that I used to sing and have always liked. When I first came across this boat, something in the back of my mind said, “That’s Silver Heels.” All I did was make it so. The song is titled “Christian Island.” The verse goes like this:
Tall and strong she dips and reels
I call her Silver Heels
And she tells me how she feels
She’s a good old boat and she’ll stay afloat
Through the toughest gale and keep smilin’
But for one more day she would like to stay
In the lee of Christian Island…
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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Bob,
I don’t much care about those dirtbag landlords or their disgusting mega-yachts. I’m only taking issue with the obnoxious way they maneuvered the legal system to evict a lot of good people with virtually no notice for no apparent reason.
Hell, you should’ve heard me last week when I was really mad.
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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John,
You’re right about the in-the-water marina being in limbo for a number or months. However, it is not the marina owners who instigated this fiasco. They’re on our side. It’s the corporate owner of the property from whom the marina owners lease. They are the culprits. Understand that no one is saying they shouldn’t repair the piers. They should. It’s just the way they booted everyone out virtually overnight that has caused such a ruckus.
It would not surprise me at all if the corporate owners are maneuvering to oust this entire laid-back boat yard so they can install another Florida mega-yacht money machine. But I am certain it is not the owner(s) of Green Cove Springs Marina who want that. If that is what’s happening, it’s the multi-millions-ain’t-enough landlord who is behind it.
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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John,
Well, stories sure do get around. I’ll tell you what really happened here, but to first answer your concern about hauling Sarah, yes, Green Cove Springs Marina’s dry-dock and storage areas are continuing to function as they have for years. This is an excellent place to store a boat – very safe and relatively inexpensive. However, as big as this place is, still they tend fill up at times. So I suggest you call them at 904-284-1811 to see if they can take you. Speak only to Crystal and tell her you’re a friend of mine. No guarantee that’ll get you a spot if they’re chock-a-block full, but it won’t hurt. After more than 2 years here, I’m an official bubba.
Last Tuesday, the corporate owners of this property that includes Green Cove Springs Marina and some slick lawyer up in Virginia declared these ex-Navy piers condemned due to the prolonged deterioration of the steel pilings that support them. Everyone has known about the pilings for a long time. What was so unnecessarily nasty of these absentee jerks was their backdoor move to bypass normal tenant eviction laws, which require a minimum 30-day notice. Instead of giving everyone here that normal amount of time to make other living arrangements, they got some sad excuse for a judge to sign an order forcing everyone to leave these docks in 48 hours – 48 hours, for heaven’s sake! – or else they’d tow away any remaining vessels at the owner’s expense. Just plain nasty, and totally unnecessary. These are just low consciousness beings with too much money & power and precious little humanity.
A hundred liveaboard boaters suddenly went from 0 to 60, scrambling like crazy to cope, to tear down their dock boxes and work benches, pack up their boats, move their cars & vans and save their floating homes. Imagine the hardship this 2-day evacuation order put on some of the people here, especially those with regular day jobs ashore. One single mom who lives aboard a houseboat is a full time teacher. She could not take off from work to deal with this, her school being in the middle of exam week. The evening of the evacuation order, she was standing out on the pier crying, saying, “I can’t cope with this. What are we going to do? Everything we own is in that houseboat. Where can we go?” Her 8-year-old daughter just stared, wide-eyed.
Well, to cut this a little bit short, the deadline came and went and most boats remained, simply because to leave so quickly was for many simply impossible. And then, in the midst of it all, the marina’s aging travel life broke some bearing and has been unable to operate just when an awful lot of people needed to be hauled out, myself included. They’re still working on getting in a repair part as I write.
The local port authority seems to have taken over the hands-on changeover here and they are much more sympathetic to the marina’s and tenants’ plight than those pricks up north. They spent the last few days putting in 20 moorings just off the piers so boats that are not leaving at least have a place to go here, albeit without water or electricity. It seems likely they’ll leave us in peace here on the pier until the travel lift is repaired later this week and can get caught up with the waiting list of boats heading for dry-dock.
A local news video about the story is online at
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1329229943?bclid=1308023108&bctid=15007856001If you pay attention, you might catch a glimpse of my 424 in a momentary shot about 25 seconds into the report. Ah, famous at last!
Here’s the rub. I got to know the divers who inspected the underwater pilings of these piers this past year. We used to chat once in a while during the months they were here working. These two men, who as far as I know are the only ones to have actually seen the pier support structure with their own eyes – the steel pilings that are supposedly about to collapse – told me then in no uncertain terms that while there is substantial deterioration way out towards the end of the 1/3-mile long pier, the much longer section where I’m docked is in pretty good shape, nowhere near the breaking point. This is in sharp contrast to the owner’s contention that they had to bypass the 30-day eviction notice law due to “imminent danger.” That is simply not true. They just want things moved along on their timetable and to hell with all the people they’re uprooting virtually overnight. Big money, bad people. But you won’t hear that from these local news reporters.
This sad turn of events is hard on some folks here. As for me, after my initial shock and anger wore off I decided it’s going to be OK – even better than OK. I’ll just start cruising a month or more sooner than I had been planning, and that’s not a bad thing. I was already scheduled to have the boat hauled out here the first of April to put on fresh bottom paint and take care of a short list of other chores prior to setting sail. This event just moves my timing forward a few weeks, and probably means I’ll spend a little more time on the hard finishing up some jobs I had intended to do dockside. When the boat is re-launched sometime in April I’ll be officially and at long last cruising aboard the good ship Silver Heels!
They say the marina will eventually get the docks back, new and improved, and that this very special little community will rise again. I hope so. For me, this marks the end of one wonderfully rewarding chapter of my life and the beginning of the next. As is so often the case, when one door closes another opens. Life is good.
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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Thanks for your advice, Joe. I’ve already spent 8 years living and sailing in the Lesser Antilles, and many more in other places. I guess that’s why I’ve felt so comfortable sitting still for a change to do this refit. Turned out it was the right choice for me. Now I’m about ready to go, with a fully refit (which is not to say “finished”) boat, so I’ll get to play a lot more in the islands and work on the boat less than would’ve otherwise been the case. No right or wrong here, just different strokes.
Best of luck selling Half Moon.
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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I was doing my best to sit this one out, but will add these notes:
Try Googling something like “boat buyer’s checklist” for even more ideas of things to do and examine on your initial inspection and beyond.
If you then decide to buy the boat and settle on a price with the seller, then comes the real investigation. I have been a yacht broker/dealer on & off for many years and I’ve seen literally dozens of professional, accredited marine surveyors do their thing. In my opinion, maybe 1 in 10 is really good at it. Many are either slipshod, hurried, lazy, or all three. Even the rare good ones often miss a lot. I mean, how much can one person check in one day? Don’t misunderstand me. They’re much better than nothing, and they usually know more about their trade than the average buyer. But I wanted more.
Most yacht purchase agreements give you until a certain date to complete a survey & sea trial, professional or otherwise. They do not say the survey can only be done by one person on one day. When I had my 424 under contract I surveyed her myself using a professional checklist and my own experience. (I did hire a professional surveyor to go over the hull and deck with a moisture meter since I don’t own one myself.) Fortunately, the boat was already in dry-dock.
I managed to spend nearly all day aboard the boat, every day for a 5-day week with no owner or broker around to get in the way. I was able to do this in part by telling the listing broker, whom I knew and knew me, that I required “some extra time” to look things over before I could make a final decision to close. This gained me permission to go aboard the boat by myself. I did not mentioning how much “extra time” I intended to take. It helped that the boat was nowhere near the owner’s home or the broker’s office, so they stayed away that whole week.
By the time I was finished I’m sure I knew this boat more intimately than anyone every had in her long life, including her current owner. Every loose screw, plumbing drip, unsecured wire, stiff winch, spongy cushion, etc, etc. I then wrote up a multi-page list of what I felt the boat needed to become what I wanted and presented that to the owner through his broker. Much of the list reflected the PO’s general neglect and laziness where boat chores were concerned, and he knew it. Suffice it to say it was ample leverage to renegotiate the purchase price down another 12% from the original accepted offer. More importantly, I knew (almost) exactly what I was getting into when I ultimately did buy the boat.
I say “(almost)” because, while I didn’t miss anything of consequence in my survey, I did kind of forget the old boat yard maxim, “double the cost and triple the time.” Now, a little over 2 years later, I’m finally about to set sail to go cruising.
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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Speaking of grates in general, has anyone come up with a non-teak shower grate, something easier to keep clean than wood?
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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Bob,
FYI, I just bought a 5-gallon can of International Paints red ablative bottom paint, 40% or 42% cuprous oxide, for $200. Got it over the phone from that other “local source” I said earlier that I’d check with. It’s the used boat gear place in St. Augustine, called Sailor’s Exchange (phone 904-808-0667). My buddy who works there, Jim, uses it on his liveaboard sailboat and says it’s good stuff. I’m even getting free delivery because my neighbor on the pier here just happened to be standing at the store counter when I called.
Life is good.
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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