Intersting Vessel

Always hard to evaluate steel boats from photos. The best have welds which are not visible. The steel is bead blasted and coated with epoxy on receipt--and welds are coated with epoxy, as soon as finished and ground fair. You don't know the quality of the welds. There is an axiom--never drill a hole in a steel boat to attach anything--this boat has a lot of holes.

I have seen steel boats which you could not distinguish from a finely molded and finished fiberglass boat. The better the finish, the more defects are noticeable.

The interior fit and finish is a bit on the "rustic" side--knotty pine is not the best wood for a marine environment.

The Westerbeke 70 was a fairly limited production engine--Marinized Perkins on a Mazda block. It can be a good engine, and 3000 hours is not a lot, if it was well cared for...which raises the question, of why it was taken out. It the prior boat was underpowered--then OK. But we don't know if that engine had problems--if non, a reasonable power plant.

Photo of a well finished "Union Jack" by Glenn L


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Bob,

I believe Westerbeke produced both a diesel and a gas engine from that Mazda industrial engine block. I could not find anything in that CL blerb indicating which one this boat had/has. If gas, 3000 hours might be kinda high.

For the record, I installed a gas Westerbeke 70 in my Bartender 20.5 ten years ago, ran it a couple hundred hours before I sold the boat, and it was a sweet, detuned engine, normally aspirated and easy to work on, with a very good conversion.

Just for yucks, here it is over the engine logs, for initial test fit.

http://www.pbase.com/bartenderdave/image/89000978
 
Bob,

The helm is set up for twins? What am I missing here?

Unlike a home built airplane that has FAA certification, I don't believe that a home built boat requires USCG cert, State cert, a NA stamp, welding certification, etc. You put it in the water and see if the welds hold. It seems to be priced with that in mind.

Mark
 
Marco Flamingo":1m0xcyk2 said:
Bob,

The helm is set up for twins? What am I missing here?

Unlike a home built airplane that has FAA certification, I don't believe that a home built boat requires USCG cert, State cert, a NA stamp, welding certification, etc. You put it in the water and see if the welds hold. It seems to be priced with that in mind.

Mark
Click to expand...

Mark, you are correct that there are two control binnacles at the helm station. I have no idea why--since there is a single diesel on the midline, with a single drive shaft going to a single prop in the other photos. The plans for the "Union Jack" describe her as a semi displacement vessel, and don't seem to have twin screw options.

One option that many trawlers have is to put in an auxiliary engine--usually a separate shaft and prop, or a auxiliary drive to the main shaft (chain, belt or hydraulic). I don't see any evidence of that in the photos or description here. But looking at the stern view, there is apparently an outboard bracket welded there, so I presume that he was planning to put an outboard auxiliary.

00F0F_9vxLB1zKgd9_600x450.jpg


One item which set alarm bells off is photo #11: Note the drive shaft--two universal joints, jury rigged of the output of the transmission, and especially the small piece of shaft in the middle...looks like problems to me down the line or sooner.

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Yes, if it floats you can take it on the water...I suspect that the welds are good enough for what it is--but there are several issues--one is the type of rod used vs the steel in the plating, and corrosion. What if there is a blow to the side of the boat, will the welds hold?

At one time we had a slip right next to Long Beach Alamitos Bay marine ship yard. It was a popular place for Home built boats to be launched. There were some real abortions--including several that sank at the dock within the first 48 hours. I remember one 45 footer, which had basically 2x4 frames, and lattice planks (5/16" x 1.5"), covered by a single layer of fiberglass cloth set in epoxy. It sank the first night.
 
If it cost over $160k to make in 2014 then why is it being sold for $40k?? Even if the guy is just cutting his losses and getting out, it's still a huge red flag IMO.
 
When you’ve spent your entire life in commission sales you get to see a wide range of negotiation tactics and there is no shortage of advice from friends or experts on how to get the best deal. But what if something is priced well below what would seem to be a reasonable price? That’s when things really get interesting. I call it: “The Perplexing, Paranoid Pricing Practice.”
If I ever win the lottery my fantasy is to buy a brand new hundred thousand dollar luxury car and put it on craigs list for 10 grand “AS IS, NO WARRANTY” and watch people go nuts over what the deal with it is. My bet is it would never sell.
 
Lollygaggin":2odd07av said:
I didn't notice any sizeable scuppers that would be capable of shedding heavy seas. :?:
Click to expand...

Good point--there are a couple of medium size scuppers along the aft side decks, but even though there seem to be scuppers thru the hull for the cockpit--it is almost level with the sliding glass window/door--which I would suspect is not re-inforced or tempered glass--and water might well get into the main saloon there. On the other hand, this is not a boat for heavy weather. There was a 25 foot "ocean going" trawler built in New Zealand a few years ago--and it made one short ocean passage before it was shipped in Puget sound deck load. Really small power boats don't do that well in heavy ocean weather.

boojum_underway.jpg

Boojum 25 underway.
 
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