Puffin - a 1937 Hillyard sailing yacht

I missed the updates, sooo dreamy.
No sailing to Corsica then!

Maybe try to avoid Canal du Midi in peak season.
I used to commute on it s towpaths.
Seeing rental boats bouncing around in locks,
with sloshed tourists vaguely holding lines,
and water cascading down made me wince numerous times.

How’s the maintenance been like with a wooden hull? I’m looking at a 1989 wooden cutter, it’s triple plank celery top pine (a new one to me!)

We have a plastic sailing boat, but I've spoken to a few people with wooden boats here (Sweden, so this prob varies with climate) but from what they say maintenance is pretty similar as long as you keep up with it. With a plastic boat you can skip a year here and there with no issues part from dirt building up. With a wooden boat you soon need to do repairs rather than maintenance

Generally speaking I’m pretty conscientious with regards to maintaining things- often the issue is that I cross the line into restoring/upgrading.

Which means I’m fairly relaxed about it when people tell me about the maintenance requirements- but lacking context I may be making a big mistake.

I think you need to be very careful with your starting point. I think it's probably similar to the kinds of cars you've had - taking over something in good condition that's been in the hands of a knowledgeable owner is miles apart from taking over something that "just needs some minor fixing up". This goes for everything thing you buy used, but more so when it comes to something niche as a powerful car or wooden boat.

^ this is so true.

How big is the boat in question?

47’, I have the survey from the marine surveyor and it’s in very good condition with for example the standing rigging replaced in 2023.

47’ is massive! If you keep up with maintenance on a wooden boat, it shouldn’t take up too much time. I’ve been doing a bit of painting and varnishing every season but haven’t been out the water since Chichester (2022?). Will be lifting out in March and spending a couple of weeks in the yard to paint the hull and a few other bits and pieces.
A 47’ wooden boat as your first boat is ambitious! Lots of stuff - moorings, lift out, hard standing etc is charged by length so could be pricey.

47

Wow! Are you planning to live on it?!

For at least a couple of weeks per year, and depending on how work allows hopefully more.

That is a flipping massive boat for 2 weeks a year!

So would you be calling the boat 'Penguin' and have it repainted in white and orange?

I was looking for something smaller, but the available pool of boats is not huge here, and (for example) the chap selling a Contessa 26 wanted £20,000 for it, and it was a bare shell inside.

I’ve seen a lot of boats in the 30-40 foot range that are advertised as “ready to sail” which turn out to be haggard and in need of $30-50k of work to put in the water, on top of a hugely ambitious purchase price.

Anyway, I’m going to go and see the wooden boat this weekend- it may also be a floating ruin, we shall see.

47! That's a lot of boat. Mine is 30 and plastic, and that's plenty of upkeep for me. Wouldn't want anything bigger when it comes to maintenance, for sailing though....

Lots of boats for sale in Phuket/Krabi/Langkawi. Buy one there and sail it to Singapore?

This one is usually moored at Langkawi, its cruising around Thailand at the moment and I’m seeing it in Phuket on Saturday.

47' wooden is massive for a first boat. Factor an annual lift on that and a good percentage of purchase for maintenance. Worm-can.
First boat for me now would be 30-36' GRP. Keep it for 3-4 years whilst work out what you want. Anything HK or Aus way you can have delivered?
That said. Did my shorebased nav stuff with this guy, Mat, 25 years ago just before he bought the boat and he did alright https://www.thebluepeteryacht.com/about

Problem with stuff further afield is that it costs a huge amount in time and cash to go and look at it.

Aye, fair comment. Maybe if you like it and it fits how you are likely to use it, worth condition the deal on your own marine surveyor survey if anyone competent near by?

I’ve got a survey for the Woodward, from a surveyor who told me to run away from a Dufour 40 that I was looking at- he seems fairly happy with the Woodward.

Definitely don’t buy a 47’ wooden boat unless you’ve got endless pockets and/or time. You’ll be spending weeks per year on maintenance unless you pay someone to do it.

I’ve grown up working around sailing dinghies and later yachts.

The amount of upkeep on anything wooden is massive.

The amount of upkeep on anything massive (let alone wooden) is… massive.

I should probably get this moved out of the Puffin thread as it’s a distraction.

did the new thread happen?

I asked for the off topic posts in this thread to be split out into a new one but it’s not happened yet.

I went to see Yantara today, better than I expected in many areas, but some things do need work. It is (once started) going to be quite a fun project I think.