On willful ignorance, a rather bleak tableau, and this is really interesting...
As I've mentioned before, I'd really like to do a landfill-fodder-fixer-upper-project-boat to test just how cheaply and quickly one could put together a "proper" cruising boat...
Astute readers will recognize this boat as a Hobie 33 and it just came up for sale locally. It's floating, has a rig, and most of the apparent work needed is mostly of the cosmetic and improvement sort. It's a steal for $1500...
Now, as it happens, the Hobie 33 has always been one of my favorite boats and would be my personal choice if I were to do the single handed TransPac on a budget with the intention of winning my class. It's a very cool boat.
As a cruising boat, the limited headroom is somewhat problematic but the thought of being able to blow past ALL the cruising catamarans on any point of sail just might make up for it. You might want to think of the Hobie 33 as a modern and much more luxurious Folkboat and it's just my impression but having met several folks cruising on Folkboats and every single one of them seemed to be having a wonderful time... Something that cannot be said for a lot of folk on very expensive yachts.
So, I spent no small amount of time doing the numbers last night.
The Hobie has a very active class association which means that if you don't screw up the boat too much it will more than likely be fairly easy to sell down the line if you decide to sell it for a boat with more headroom. Cost for a turn key Hobie 33 in good shape is anywhere between $15-20,000.
My rule of thumb in rehabbing an old boat is that the entire budget should NEVER exceed the difference between the amount you pay for the boat and the cost of a turn key boat in good condition... In this case, since the asking price on the Hobie is $1500 and a turn key boat can be found pretty easily for (let's just say) $16K, that allows for a maximum budget of $14500. for rehabbing and improvements.
My initial guesstimate for what it would cost to sort the boat out and bring it up to snuff in a cruising version is about $5000. Factor in the WTF and Oops overage (20%) and you wind up with a total of $6000 work on the initial payout of $1500 for a total of $7500. Not too shabby!
Being that I have some cast off stuff from "So It Goes" and I'm pretty good at scrounging I'd expect I could do it for a lot less (spelled half)...
Of course, there is the sweat equity component and my guesstimate puts it just around 120 hours of labor or three weeks of full time work. You'll have to figure out what your own time is worth...
Listening to Mylène Farmer
So it goes...
