Plastic Classic Forum

I was given a Grampian Classic 31 here in Annapolis. It's a lovely boat, but she needs some help. I've had her hauled in Arnold at Ferry Point Marina. She needs repairs to her mast, some deck repairs and a lot of cleaning. We've knocked out some of the cleaning but we're waiting for warmer weather to deal with the deck issues and some blisters in the hull.

She also has an original Atomic 4 that I'm working on resurrecting. A compression test will tell me whether or not it can be saved.

Wow, those have really nice lines! Congrats are in order. :) Look forward to seeing more of her.

Thanks! I'd never heard of the boat before I saw the ad on Craigslist. She's in startlingly good shape on the inside, just covered in mildew. The gelcoat on the exterior is all shot but that isn't an urgent problem. I'm very excited about her! I'll try to keep things updated here and hopefully we can breathe new life into this forum!

I looked those up. Was it only the older wooden hulls that had the - for lack of a better term - spoon bow/foredeck? You see that in some G-31 pics, but not in all of them. Post some interior shots, would love to see the layout/details some time!

Looks great on the water!
Good luck on the "restoration" and keep us posted, these threads always encourage me to do small little things that JetLag (my boat) needs :)
Cheers,
Tiago

CapnK: Some number of boats were built with the full width cabin trunk and some were built like mine with the more conventional arrangement. All boats were built of glass and I'm not sure how many of each were built, or even how many boats were built total.

I don't know that I've seen a Grampian Classic 31 before. Very nice lines. I could definitely be seen on one. I hope you'll put up more photos and share your progress with her as you make her yours.

Not much going on right now. Waiting for this idiotically cold weather to break. I did manage to compression test the engine and diagnose some stuck valves. After freeing them, got 60-75-90-105 on the four cylinders which went up to 120-90-90-105 with some MMO added. Hopefully the rings will loosen after the engine runs a bit. Otherwise just waiting on spring to start fixing the hull blisters and soft spots on deck.

Crazer, glad to hear you're moving ahead with her despite the less than ideal weather. If she sails as good as she looks, she is well worth your time. As I said earlier, I've not seen one before, but she really is pretty. I, currently, have a Morgan 30 with a Palmer M60 motor. It's a kind of a variation on the Atomic 4 theme. You'll, no doubt, have people telling you they'd never have a gasoline engine on a boat as they are prone to blowing up. Point out to them that not many boats blow up and, of those that do, the vast majority blow up because of propane leaking from the stove system, not gasoline from the engine. Ask them if they have a propane stove on their boat and, if they do, ask them, "Why? What with their tendency to explode and all..." What's wrong with your mast? Please keep us in the loop on your progress.

My Wanderer has an Atomic 4 and I love that motor. I've yet to encounter a problem I couldn't easily fix myself. I saw you're planning on repainting your boat. I'll follow that with interest as I have to do the same to Stardust.

The mast has a ~3" crack at the base from corrosion around the mast step. The step fitting is riveted into the bottom of the mast and as the aluminum expanded from corrosion the mast cracked. I'll cut the mast down and build a new step to make up the difference.

Re: Atomic 4's going bang - the people who like to talk about that quite often have themselves a 5 gallon can of explosives sitting in their cockpit lockers, AKA 'dinghy fuel'.

How’s your Grampian Classic project coming. I’d never heard of those before you posted yours here. I’ve seen, and even considered acquiring a Grampian 26, but a Classic? Reminds me a lot of a Hinckley Sou’wester. Verrry nice. Anyway, how goes it?

Nice lines indeed! I want to see more!

Unfortunately I have to report that this project did not end well. As I dug further into the boat I discovered more and more issues. The blisters in particular were so severe that they went through multiple layers of fiberglass. The decks we totally shot. It looked increasingly likely that the engine could not be saved-there was water in the oil and the compression was poor. So I sadly made the decision to dispose of the boat. I tried to give her away but no one who had the resources took her (understandably) and I didn't want to leave her at the yard in the hands of someone who would end up abandoning her. I did buy another boat, a Rhodes Swiftsure 33.

Sorry your first project didn't turn out.

But, I just did an image search on the Rhodes. Wow, that's a really pretty design. I think you won in this switch-up. We want pics! Start a new thread for the Swiftsure and tell us all about it.

Hi Marvin-Avery here. We communicated by e-mail a few times back when I had my Pearson Wanderer. Sorry I'm not great about responding to e-mails. I hope you're enjoying your boat! Good to see you here. I'll start a new thread for Clio.

Thought Crazer sounded familiar. How'd you give up Loon? She was quite a smart looking Wanderer.

I was realizing that the boat needed way more work than I wanted to put into it for the kinds of things that I want to do in the future. Mostly she needed a lot of interior carpentry and repair. Plus I never really liked the layout so I was looking at changing it entirely to move the galley aft. I loved the boat but ultimately decided I'd rather be sailing than rebuilding a boat almost from scratch. I found a guy who had the resources to care for her, despite not being much of a sailor. He is living on her at my old marina as far as I know.

I don't know if you've ever seen but there's a Wanderer that sailed from Newport to Bermuda several times in the Bermuda 1-2 race. That boat is now for sale: https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1969/p ... 0-3472024/

That's too funny. That's exactly what I don't like about my boat, the interior layout. Hoping I can do some work to start switching it to an aft galley this spring. Maybe. Got the boat for the right price and with the other right features, yard trailer and an upgraded diesel engine. So I was okay with dealing with this issue.

Yes, I had found Curlew for sale. I regularly stalk Wanderers on the web. What is interesting is that for the number of years that I've been consistently looking for them, I run across ones that I found years back or that I have only one or two crummy pictures of. Curlew was one of them. Had no idea about that race though, I'll look it up.

Sorry to hear that the Grampian didn’t work out. Based solely on her lines, I’d say she’s worth saving , even if you don’t have the time to be her savior. The Swiftsure is even more attractive and, from your description of her better condition, I think it’s not too much of a stretch to say there’s a happy ending to your story. Summer’s coming.