1964 Tartan 27 rehab

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daydreamer92
Bottom Sanding Grunt
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 2:01 am
Boat Name: Tigress
Boat Type: Tartan 27

1964 Tartan 27 rehab

Post by daydreamer92 »

I'll try to be succinct, but a warning: I can get wordy! Also, picture intensive.

The short version: bought old boat very cheap, now we fix before we sail.

The longer:

This past March or so, I got the sudden urge to go look at sailboats. Been wanting one since, like, forever and I dunno, just happened across some ads for inexpensive boats. After viewing a Pearson 26 that wasn't in half-bad condition for sitting around for 10 years (deceased owner, etc.), we got word of a yard that had several yard-owned boats sitting around for cheap. We visited and the two that I liked best were a Tanzer 22 (I still like it and if somehow I can get a trailer for it and somewhere very inexpensive to put it...) and an old Tartan 27.

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Both, like the Pearson, had been sitting around for some time, uncovered and were, well, weathered. Between the two, we were a bit partial to the T27 -- it wasn't in any better overall shape (worse in some ways) but the larger space and standing headroom appealed.

Outside:
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Inside looking down at the port quarter berth. That's ice in the bilge. As I joked in another forum where I've been posting my saga, no, the engine is not really in that box. ;)

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Starboard quarter berth with one of the Very Smelly Cushions.

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And a more general view. It looks better in the picture that it did in person. Lots of peeling paint and very, very smelly (oil).

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The grime on the walls wash out in the flash -- envision the level of grime found on around the bottom of the head, turn it into old mold and put it all over the inside of the cabin along with peeling paint and you'll get a better idea of the interior.

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At some point, the boat had filled with water that sat for "who knows how long". The waterline looked to be about at the height of the quarter berths.

The engine, an Atomic 4, was no longer a happy camper.

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I have never owned a boat, and while I have taken some sailing lessons, that is the extent of my hands on boat skills. Have never worked with fiberglass, fixed an engine, etc. Husband is also not a boat fixer.

Needless to say, it was love at first sight and, as you can guess from the subject line, we bought her for $500. That essentially paid for storage for the next few months so one could even say we got her free for the price of storage.

Now, before we bought her, I did educate myself in "what to look for when looking at old fiberglass boats that need fixing" and about T27s in particular and it did take three visits before we made an offer. I took tons of photos to study and what not, and used a very helpful guide from another site as a sort of amateur survey. I decided to forgo a professional survey since we were only talking $500 here, down from the $2K they were asking.

We knew, or I knew and had conveyed to husband (I was driving the purchase - I know! Isn't the wife supposed to be the one who doesn't want a sailboat? - so I was doing all the research) that the decks were likely to be wet and I also knew, from having read other T27 stories that the chainplate knees, which are encapsulated in fiberglass in really annoying, hard to reach places, would certainly need replacing.

And so on. It wasn't going to just be a case of "wash her out and she'll be ready to go". An additional issue was she was located in Mattapoisett, MA and we are way up in Southern NH -- a 2 hr drive one way minimum. Would be a pain to work on her, but the cost to haul was prohibitive at that time and frankly, I wasn't sure where to store her. We're sufficiently far inland from the wee NH coast that there is no yard "close" by (within an hour's drive) and we live in a condo type community so there's no yard. We'd tackle that problem later and just endure the 4 hour round trip thing for a while (and we did).

The yard insisted on insurance so it turned out I had to have her surveyed after all. I found a great surveyor who didn't mind me/us following him around asking questions. I admit being a bit proud of myself that many of the things he looked and and went over were things I had also done myself and come to the same conclusion. It's great to have validation.

Anyway, turned out that Tigress was in very sound shape -- mostly just suffering from neglect and having been flooded at some time. The PO had done several improvements/replacements before he had passed away (it seemed like he had bought her and was getting her ready to launch before he became too ill - I'm not sure when she was last in the water). For example, the bottom paint had, well, ablated in of rain, but the hull is smooth and fairly fair underneath -- clearly someone had already tended to all that. Clean as a whistle too, nary a barnacle. New Lewmar hatches and a few opening ports, traveler, shiny new huge compass, new head (despite the grime, hoses, head and plumbing had never been used), watercooling (not brand new, but there), very tidy wiring job and so on. The survey came out pretty flattering for a $500 boat (the compass and hatch together probably worth more than what we paid) and most of the must-fix items were things we already knew about. Other than the chainplate knees, the main fix-it is the engine and the acquisition of necessary safety equipment.

So that's my "Came into a Project Boat" story. I'll follow up with some of the things we've done in the past few months.
Hirilondë
Master of the Arcane
Posts: 1317
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 8:50 am
Boat Name: Hirilondë
Boat Type: 1967 Pearson Renegade
Location: Charlestown, RI

Re: 1964 Tartan 27 rehab

Post by Hirilondë »

Welcome to the forum.
daydreamer92 wrote: Also, picture intensive.
Hmm, something tells me this won't get you in much trouble here.
Dave Finnegan
builder of Spindrift 9N #521 'Wingë'
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Gresham’s Law of information: Bad information drives out good. No matter how long ago a correction for a particular error may have appeared in print or online, it never seems to catch up with the ever-widening distribution of the error.
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Chris Campbell
Candidate for Boat-Obsession Medal
Posts: 422
Joined: Tue Jun 06, 2006 9:18 am
Boat Name: Luna
Boat Type: Yankee 30
Location: Chester, NS
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Re: 1964 Tartan 27 rehab

Post by Chris Campbell »

Yes, welcome. The Tartan 27 is a lovely boat, and from your story it seems that you got a good one! I look forward to hearing more about what you've done and what there is left to do - and seeing pictures of Tigress under way!

Cheers,

Chris
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Rachel
Master of the Arcane
Posts: 3044
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:59 pm

Re: 1964 Tartan 27 rehab

Post by Rachel »

Welcome to the forum; and please inundate us with text and photos shortly!
Richincident
Master Varnisher
Posts: 114
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 5:01 pm
Location: Hingham, MA
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Re: 1964 Tartan 27 rehab

Post by Richincident »

WOW! I am looking forward to seeing your progress with the Tartan 27! GREAT and totally scary pictures already. You are one ambitious boat person. This forum is a marvelous resource so you should get a lot of help here!
Richard McManus

1967 Soverel 28 #82
THE INCIDENT
keelbolts
Skilled Systems Installer
Posts: 271
Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2006 12:20 pm
Location: Tidewater, VA

Re: 1964 Tartan 27 rehab

Post by keelbolts »

daydreamer92,
Welcome to our special brand of insanity.

Two books for you to read over the winter:
1) The Coast of Summer - Can't find my copy so I don't know the author. A cruising yarn about a couple sailing the New England coast in a Tartan 27. Just the thing to inspire & motivate you.
2) The Compleat Cruiser - L. Francis Herreshoff. How it used to be done. A great Winter read and some good ideas even still. One of my favorite coastal cruising books.
Celerity - 1970 Morgan 30

How much deeper would the ocean be without sponges in it?
LazyGuy
Candidate for Boat-Obsession Medal
Posts: 349
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:31 pm
Boat Name: Paper Moon
Boat Type: Luders 33 (Allied Boat Co.)
Location: Mystic CT

Re: 1964 Tartan 27 rehab

Post by LazyGuy »

keelbolts wrote:1) The Coast of Summer
Tony Bailey - Great book - after read it you feel like you just came back from vacation.
Cheers

Dennis
Luders 33 "Paper Moon" Hull No 16

Life is too short to own an ugly boat.
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Rachel
Master of the Arcane
Posts: 3044
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:59 pm

Re: 1964 Tartan 27 rehab

Post by Rachel »

I'm just reading Anthony Bailey's "The Thousand Dollar Yacht: The Saga of a St. Pierre Dory," from 1967, and it's quite enjoyable.

From time-to-time he's out sailing or racing and talks about sailing along with new and shiny Ariels, Tritons, Invictas, and a few other (now) plastic classics.

Rachel
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