Sailing on the Lean

Ok so now that I have decided on the boat it was a matter of finding the boat I wanted. At the time I was looking there were several Passpor 40’s on the market. As always, I was looking for a boat that was the best value for money and was within my realm of things I could prepare or upgrade.

My criteria in the boat was:

Pullman berth. I am not a fan of sleeping in the forepeak

Diesel heater

not a deal breaker; no teak decks

And a solid boat for 40 years old.

I looked at several boats. Their price ranges were from $125,000 to $99,000. There was approximately a dozen boats on the market scattered all over the world. I stuck to the ones close to home in Connecticut.

I had narrowed it down to two possibilities. One had been on the hard for more than five years with the bunk in the forepeak and the second had mostly been in the water for the same amount of time but had a recent survey. The second was the pullman berth. In the end I bought the latter. She was built in 1982.

Although this boat was not polished she had good bones and the rest of it I was able to work on.

The things I knew needed to be replaced were the electronics, though she did a an SSB that would not be changed, The epirb, the radio and the sails. I had worked out a plan to do one project a year.

I am going to give you a realistic idea of the work that may be necessary on a boat of that age.

I am one of the few people that enjoys doing brightwork. So that was also planned on a schedule of one project a year. I started in the bow and evaluated the projects that needed to be done and laid them out.

In the end I refinished the head (including the door), dinning table, drop boards, hatch cover, main cabin window frames, toe rail and the grate for the battery box.

Work wise we blasted the bottom and brought it back to a nice finish, re-plumbed the boat with pex, commissioned the water maker, new batteries, rewired the engine, replaced the cabin lights, and nav lights with LED’s, new epirb, new nav kit, new VHF with AIS, new radar, new dinghy and engine, the port lights were redone with new lenses and made the casing leakproof with new instillation, New sails with lazy bag and new grill. I am sure there are things missing from this list that that we have done over the years.

As with any boat there are projects that we will never get to. The projects to make the outside pretty were saved until the end until the end as we prioritized safety and systems. Unfortunately the topsides paint did not get accomplished.

I was lucky that my husband is a marine engineer and so my labor costs were generally a beer, a good dinner and a lovely sail.