Just bought a project tri

Hi,

I have been reading this forum and others for a while. My wife and I have been wanting a small coastal limited cruising trailer tri forever but figured we would never be able to afford the f27 of our dreams.

Woot! We now have a 26 ft 17ft beam center cock pit trailer tri designed by Marpels and Brown. OK, it is hard chimed, plywood, over 40 years old, and has to be demounted to trailer, but hey we own it and have money left over.

The boat was taken apart in the sellers front yard and painted. He came down with cancer and is not doing very well so after 4 years he figured it was time to drop his dream and sell.

The original owner that he bought it from has died, and the guys that dismantled and painted the boat were not around. The owner knows very little about sail boats and was virtually no help on how it is supposed to go together and rigged.

I loaded all of the pieces I could find on a well designed 2 axle trailer with breaks.

The aluminum mast is about 33 ft with one spreader. It is a stout looking thing with no taper. I think it originally had internal halyards but that system has long been abandoned. The running and standing rigging is in a pile looking a lot like spaghetti.

It has a new looking 9.9 4 stroke Mercury long shaft with the controls run to cockpit. It attaches to an aluminum swing plate about ¾ aft. Looks real good, should not swamp or cavitate.

I crawled around inside and out and was amazed at how sound everything looks. The boat is simple and everything could be closely inspected except to the inside ends of the amas, swing dagger board and its box. There are a few bad spots on the deck, delamination of glass but the wood under is sound.

I could not find any winches to sheet the head sail with. I found evidence of 6 holes in a circle pattern under the aft deck but a new roadster top has been installed over this area. I found some old style winch handles but no winches. I will be looking for help sizing and find good used winches.

The 7x7 center cock pit is not self draining. It is open right to the bilge, and there are no hatch cover in the companion ways to fore and aft cabins. Take a big wave and I’m swamped big time.

We will bring it home on Sat. and will assemble it in the yard before we go to SF bay to do its shake down. I'm sure I will have to post pics asking what is this for. There are already 2 sails and some travelers that I'm clueless about.

I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, and way to excited to post any real question at this time, but a little encouragement could help.

Thanks
Will

 

That sounds like an interesting purchase. How about you stop everyone's imagination from working overtime to work out what it looks like and show us some pictures!

 

Sounds like a Brown 25. A friend had one many years ago, center cockpit ala Brown.

I sailed on my friends several times and thought it was a great boat for what it was, sounds like it's just what you might have been looking for.

Good Luck, Steve

 

This should link to all pics that I now have,

They come from the add that lead me to the boat.

Is there a better way to show pics for this forum?


http://feed931.photobucket.com/albums/ad160/taezow/feed.rss

Will

 

It is a Searunner 25 designed by Jim Brown and the plans are still available from John Marples who can also provide individual sheets. The center cockpit should be self bailing through the center board trunk so it is worth checking into how return that area to specs. There are a couple in my area and they are nice sailing boats. They were either sloop or cutter rigged , the winches don't need to be huge, and there are many photos available on the Searunner site. While not as high performance as the current crop they are probably better for cruising and exploring.

 

Thats the same design my friend had. Being a South Florida boat it didn't have all the canvas. He kept a windsurfer in the nets on one side and a small "sportyak" dingy in the net on the other. You really can't get much more boat in 25ft, and sweet to sail too!

Have fun, Steve

 

Thanks for the replies,

Good to hear that it is a decent boat.
The old buyers remose thing can make a guy crazy.
After looking at other pictures I see that I did not find a bunch of wooden parts, good thing I'm a carpenter.

What is it that makes modern boats faster, Hull shape, sails, mast, dagger board, weight, or all of the above? :?:

Will

 

Power to weight ratio and higher volume amas and wider beam to handle the increased power. The sails make a difference but yours can be updated too. Really though if you don't overload a Searunner can be a pretty quick boat, as for seaworthy even the 25 has been sailed to Hawaii though I'd hold out for something larger. There is nothing wrong with the hull shape, it is the lowest drag you can get next to a round hull.

 

Got my new boat home, and parked in the yard where I'm going to rig it up.

The specs for the searunner 25 are LOA 24'11'

I measure mine as 25'6'' from bow to stern and 27' from bow pulpit to end of rudder.

How is LOA supposed to measured?

I think mine must have got wet and streched

I have more questions but have to figured out to get pictures on this forum.

 

This is head sail with a strange metal thing in it.



What is this for?

 

There can be a lot of variables in owner built boats. That is a strange metal thing. Whem returning an old boat to specs it is well worth the time and a few dollars to get the information. I suggest contacting John Marples to see what plan sheets he would recommend. The searunner guys are probably laughing at me but there were a couple of cockpit sizes for the 25 that did leave the cabins open so you could use the cockpit seats as camping berths. They also had the option of a more enclosed cockpit but the good ventilation probably kept rot from starting. Beam was 16'7". Mast length was 28'. Your fittings are most likely different but knowing what was stock will help you figure out what to do with the gear you've got.

 

Camberspar

If that funny metal thin is connected to the stiff batten and the batten is curved then you have a camberspar. They flip from tack to tack and are like a half wishbone in the sail. It makes the jib self tacking without any deck hardware.

cheers

Phil

 

Yes it is connected to a round piece of plastic tubing with a camber.

I looked and there is block on the foredeck that must connect to the metal thing, with the other end going to a jam cleat, reachable from the cockpit.

Thanks! It is definitely a self taking jib.

 

Would this winch be big enough for my head sail sheet?

I have a 153% milar genny good to 20 knots, is what is says on the bag. It is 28' by 16' so 224 sq ft.

The winch is good for up to 200sq ft so I guess it is out. Dang it is very affordable.


http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...toreNum=10102&subdeptNum=10227&classNum=10229