This Old Boat

Let's say you're a typical low-paid working stiff. You've sailed small boats all your life, you've saved a little money--you're finally ready for a "real cruising boat. You drop in on Tadd, your friendly neighborhood yacht broker, who is more than happy to sell you that brand-new Trickledown 32 for only $90,000, plus a few optional extras like anchors, sails, cushions, a compass, instruments--stuff like that; say, $115,000 ready to sail.<P>"One hundred and fifteen thousand . . . "dollars?"<P>"Not to worry," says Tadd. "Only 20% down and 10 years of easy payments and you're off into the sunset. Let's see, that's $23,000 down and, at 10% interest, only $1,215.79 per month--plus insurance of course. Send me a postcard from Tahiti."<P>""How much per month? That's half my salary! Don't you have anything in "my price range?"<P>Tadd glances conspicuously at his Rolex, sighing, and points to a characterless Clorox jog with a spindly mast--a hyperthyroid daysailer with bunks for the seven dwarfs; NOT what you had in mind!<P>And then you see it, in the back of the yard, varnish hanging in strips off weather-beaten trim, rigging frayed, sails ripped and stained, dank interior with dangling wires and scurrying anonymous inhabitants. But underneath all the squalor you see the lines of a real cruising boat--a sturdy hull with a sprightly sheer from the pen of a Philip Rhodes or a Tom Gillmer--a fiberglass boat built back when craftsmanship still "meant something.<P>You remember when you bought your house--it looked a lot like this boat, and you and your all-thumbs husband managed to breathe life into "it over time, painting, papering, spackling--"lots of spackling. This boat has"possibilities.<P>"How much?" you ask.<P>"You're kidding, right?" says Tadd, flicking a bit of cobweb from his spotless Breton Reds. "Take it for, say, $8,000?"<P>Sold.<P>Well, now you've got it home, but Bob and Norm aren't there every weekend to help guide you through "this restoration. Where

Turn a run-down fiberglass boat into a first-class yacht

Since it first appeared in 1991, Don Caseys This Old Boat has helped tens of thousands of sailors refurbish older fiberglass boats and has become a revered classic among boat rehabbers.This second edition is revised from first page to last with new information on electrical systems, diesel engines, refrigeration, resins, plumbing and more. Plus, more than 600 newly created illustrations enhance the books beauty as well as its utility.

Don Casey combines three decades of sailing, a keen eye for detail, irrepressible good humor, and an elegant writing style to deliver transparently simple and always reliable how-to advice for boaters. He is a regular contributor to SAIL and Good Old Boat magazines.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Choice

2. The Dream

3. The Plan

4. Dollars and Sense

5. Starting Small

6. Scratch and Itch

7. Windows and Walls

8. Forks, Eyes, and Studs

9. Nuts and Bolts

10. Chips and Shavings

11. Amps and Volts

12. Going with the Flow

13. A Cold Day in August

14. Brush and Roller

15. Material Things

16. A Lofty Project

17. Epilogue

Index