Old Boat Nightmares #3
By Peter Nielsen
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After we’d sailed our boat for a year, we decided to pull the mast and have the old paint blasted off so that we could recoat it. It turned out that it wasn’t just the paint that was in poor shape. As we started picking away at the old paint it became obvious that the mast was more corroded than we’d thought. Even worse, close inspection revealed cracks around a couple of the T-ball sockets on the mast. The rigger who came to check out the spar condemned it without hesitation. Should the surveyor have picked this up? Since the boat was on jackstands in a boatyard, he couldn’t go up the mast, and inspected the rig through binoculars. I would advise anyone buying a boat to inspect the rig scrupulously. Our new mast is beautiful, but it wasn’t cheap!
Reader Comments
GEEZE DUDE, HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN AROUND BOATS?? MORE PICS WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE, AND A LONGER ARTICLE MORE HELPFUL, BUT I THINK YOU PROBABLY JUMPED THE GUN. ALL BOATS HAVE LITTLE PROBLEMS...UNLESS YOU ARE RACING OFFSHORE, THOSE LITTLE BITTY THINGS ARE WHAT MAKE A RIGGER RICH! YEAH, I KNOW, A BOAT IS A HOLE IN THE WATER INTO WHICH YOU THROW MONEY. BUT, IF YOU'RE BUYING USED EQUIPMENT, EXPECT USED EQUIPMENT! IF YOU WANT NEW EQUIPMENT CONVINCE THE WIFE IT WILL BE CHEAPER TO BUY A WHOLE NEW BOAT. FROM THIS DAY FORWARD YOU HAVE CONDEMNED YOURSELF TO A LIFE OF SECOND GUESSING THE RIG, THE WIRING, THE ENGINE, THE RADIO, THE EPIRB, ETCETERA, ETCETERA! IF YOU ACCEPT THAT BOATS BREAK, AND SOMETIMES GO DOWN AS FAST AS AUSTRALIA 1, THEN YOU ARE MENTALLY PREPARED TO GO TO SEA...AND NOT BEFORE! I'M THE DUMPSTER DIVING SAILOR NEXT TO GUYS LIKE YOU WHO THROW AWAY NEARLY NEW GEAR AND THEN I PUT THESE TREASURES TO USE FOR THE NEXT TEN YEARS! NO, I DON'T RACE. YES, I DO GET TONS OF FUN OUT OF MY BOAT. THE &
LETS ALL TALK IN CAPS!!!1
Based on what I am reading - the written words - I agree with Rodger. Peter you public loves you and your work, but if this was a first person story, shame on you, man! You of all people ought to know better. If you are recounting someone else's nightmare then a little more detail would have been helpful. Just because the rig wasn't inspected when purchased doesn't mean that caveat emptor's wrath of condemnation is in order. Come on, it doesn't take a magazine editor to conclude that if the bosun chair is not practical for the survey, maybe a Jenie-Lift cherry picker would have been better another option? We're not all ignorant readers, tell us the whole story (or at least enough to draw an informed conclusion) and share more pictures. I clicked the link titled "Nighmare #3" because, like the vast majority of boat owners, we are constantly dodging and weaving from potential nightmares and we look to this publication in hope to learn to avoid other's pain. In the c
I hate to pile on, but this situation was entirely avoidable. When buying a old boat, either the surveyor goes up the mast or you find another surveyor, or the mast comes out and gets inspected on the hard. Does that cost plenty of $? Sure does. But it's way cheaper than replacing a mast, or potentially getting dismasted when something that has been neglected breaks....