Buying a Trailer Sailer

Before Covid struck I was the Commodore of our sailing club (2017 – 2021) and a very hands on one too. I’d spent hundreds of hours running RYA dinghy courses for our members and if I wasn’t doing that I was fixing club boats or doing building work at the club as well as doing Commodore duties. This was great as it kept me busy and I really enjoyed doing it. It’s really amazing to be part of a community of like minded people and extremely satisfying when you step out of a dinghy leaving the occupant sailing off on their own for the first time. It’s the start of their sailing journey and hopefully, if all goes well, not the end of their journey too!

I was getting to the point that I felt I needed to invest my time and energy into a project that I would benefit from. After expressing this with my partner Libby, we decided that we should get a small yacht together. It seemed a good plan.

As I spend most of my time thinking and talking about boats, I also spend a fair bit of time on the internet window shopping. So I’d seen a few boats already that suited the criteria. The main criteria, however, was that it had to be cheap. Being a practical person I would make up in time what was short on cost.

The criteria

• Cheap – under £1500
• Lifting keel
• Trailer
• Nothing major needs doing
• Not being tied to boat yards
• Not a bath tub but be of decent performance
• Well built
• Spacious enough for a family of four (2 small children) to overnight on.

First viewing – Jeaneau Eolia

A couple of years previous I’d seen a Jeaneau Eolia 25 for sale and when I enquired I was told it was under offer. A couple of years later it was back up for sale. I had to take a look as it was fairly local to me. These boats have a great layout with separate aft cabins for heads and one for a berth. Decent for a small boat. Off we went.

We arrived and quite quickly I could see it was a swing keel so already it’s draught was more than I would like with a bulb that the keel pivoted in. Any we we had a look around and it was clear the decks had gone as it felt like we were walking on crisp packets. We then realised that even if you bought enough skips we probably wouldn’t make our money back by selling the good bits.

The skip principle

So this became our main principle for buying a boat. If the boat we bought turned out to be a wreck, could we sell all the good bits, chop it up and put it in a skip and break even. This could have bit us in the back side which I will explain later.

Second viewing – Hunter Medina 20

I’d seen a few Hunter Medinas online and actually I really liked the lines and the style. Designed and built in the 80’s they fitted most of our criteria although they seemed to be priced over £3000 at best. Turns out a friend of mine had one in a barn near me. So off I went.

Still looking at her now, she is quite a gorgeous boat. We talked about price and there was clearly sentiment involved as his Father had owned her for a long time. Additionally, the spreader had been run over and the sails may have been original, Hank on Genoa…… we are up into the thousands now already and I didn’t want to beat him down on price. It ticked a lot of boxes again but instead of time it needed money. Well, and time. Nice boat though! But it wasn’t going to break even in a skip.

Third viewing – Copland Harrier 20

Pics from original add

Now I had my eye in, I was easily spotting potential boats just by the lines. If it looked like a Hunter Medina then we were getting somewhere. I then came across an add for a boat within 40 miles for what looked like a Hunter Medina but was in fact a Copland Harrier. And guess what? £1450! At this point it had ticked the initial boxes and off we went!

So we drove to the other side of Ipswich and met the guy, very nice genuine guy, I started looking at the spars beside the boat on the drive and I’m seeing some quite nice stuff. Spars look decent, and has a really nice furlex furler. Trailer looks half decent too.

Applying the skip principle

Let’s have a quick tally up

• Furlex £500
• Trailer £800
• Spars £300
• Keel £50
• Hardware £200
• Outboard £100
• Sails: main, genoa, reacher £300
• Winches x4 £200

Total=£2550 I think we can afford a skip.

Research

Having the ability to focus on things for hours on end completely immersed, I had done a bit of research on these boats by this point. I know where they were built – Ventnor IOW, designed by Tony Dixon. And I know what they are supposed to look like. I also know that they came in different stages of build and could be finished by the customer. I also know where this guy bought her from which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Some call it “The land of broken dreams”. If you know, you know.

One thing that was obvious was that she had incurred a bit of water damage inside, although the new owner had done quite a bit of work to her to bring her up to some kind of acceptable standard as a ‘good basis’. However, I’m thinking that we might break even on this one should we need to chop her up.

Spot the difference

Left is original – right is not

The bad bits

• 2hp outboard (old)
• Extended transom that’s water logged
• No rudder stock
• Leaky deck fittings
• Leaky Houdini hatch

I’m thinking she’s probably top end on price but let’s think on it. We leave it there and go for a beer.

The verdict

Later that evening, after a beer or two, we decided we would buy her. I hate the awkwardness of beating someone down on price, so we just paid a deposit and said we’d collect it later.

We were excited but news was spreading fast about a deadly virus and that we may end up in some kind of Lockdown. Who would have thought that. But we’ve just bought a boat!

Arranging collection

This was the first week in March 2020. Which also happened to be a time of gales. Winds over 60 knots forecasted and it’s been 2 weeks since we made the deal. And now we might all have to stay in. We needed to pick the boat up. So…. off we drove back to the other side of Ipswich, we took the back roads through country lanes with sharp bends and blind corners. We thought best we don’t come back that way.

So we arrived, checked the boat out again, shook hands, paid the guy, talked a bit more about boats and Libby’s eyes start rolling at me. At this point there were 60 plus knots of wind and Libby just wanted to get back. So final checks and we pulled away as we drove off towards the A14 to cross over the Orwell bridge where we could sit on the dual carriageway at 40 knots. Turns out the Orwell bridge was closed due to high winds. Well we couldn’t go back the way we came so our only option was to go through the middle of Ipswich with the rest of the diverted traffic at night in horizontal rain in a gale. That was a bit traumatic to say the least, but like any rough journey, it’s always a relief to reach your destination.

Lockdown

Lockdown swiftly followed, I had a nice little project sitting on my drive for the coming days, or weeks, or months. Which was great because I really wanted to channel my time and energy into something I would appreciate directly. And so it started.

How easy would it be to chop up this boat and skip it?

Well I have the answer to that very question but luckily it wasn’t us!

The Fox Terrier is the big sister of the Harrier measuring 22 feet and is essentially the same boat. I came across a post on Facebook where there were 4 of them, free to a good home. The post was up for months and it kept being renewed. I couldn’t believe it. Next thing I know, the guy has posted pictures of them all cut up! It was like a boat massacre, bits of boats all over the place. I was zooming in trying to see how thick the layup was and what a cross section looked like. But then I thought I’d message him and ask him how it went. At this stage I was thinking that we might need to go through that. Anyway here is his response to me when I asked him how they were built.

His costs were:

• £500 skips
• £736 tools, blades, tool hire
• £600 labour

He actually made a profit:

• £958 for the scrap
• 2 engines to sell at £1500 each

The big question

Did we make the right decision? Was it worth it?

Thanks for reading my post, if you’d like to follow me please do, and if you have any questions about any thing in my post chuck me a message.

I can’t wait to get boated out!

Checkout when we launched her and took her for sea trials here.

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