Pleasant Surprises

We've shared the nasty stuff previous owners had done to our boats - how about sharing the pleasant and cool things you didn't know about until after you bought your boat? In our case it involved the 1980's era "auto pilot"; the kind that keeps you on a heading, and that's it.

Badger doesn't have a flybridge, and as former sea kayakers we missed being ouside with the wrap around view, especially going up really narrow mountainous inlets.

One day, I was looking at the thick grey cord coming from the auto pilot control and how it disappeared into a 1" diameter hole. "I wonder how long that cord is", I said. "It sure would be great if it was long enough to reach the foredeck". So I started gingerly pulling, and about 12' of cord snaked its way out of the hole.

Then I said, "Wouldn't it be awesome if this was held down by velcro?" So I gave the auto pilot controller a little pull at a corner, and it was velcroed into place!

Now we can sit on the pilothouse roof with our feet dangling in front of the windows, and enjoy the complete views. Awesome

(We bought Badger from the PO's son, who didn't have a complete understanding of the boat.)

The PO of my trawler was a "spares collector". He had at least 2 of everything you can imagine. 2 complete gasket sets for the 4-53s, 2 starters still in the boxes, a complete heat xchanger, 4 new complete raw water pumps, cases of filters of each type on the boat, at least 2 of every 120v and 12v pump, spools of fuel hose, lots of various lengths of every other size hose, 100s of hose clamps all stainless, the list would be extensive. But, the entire boat was in such bad shape that you could tell he just fixed it when it broke, no maintenace at all. On the get home run we used all the fuel filters, some of the engine gaskets, the heat xchanger, one starter, one gear rotor fuel pump, trans cooler, several belts, an alternator (only had 3, and a spare), and had to rig one of the BW gears with a pair of strings to shift because of a broke cable that I just could not replace. All in all a very interesting trip from Ft Myers to Galveston.

Although my boat was cleared fairly bare post purchase, it did come with an old autopilot similar to yours, Murray. It wasn't on my list of must haves, and I didn't give it much thought. Now it is my favourite option. It holds a straight course in the roughest of water.

On a nice day I kick back in my hammock strung out on the foredeck, with the auto pilot remote on its 20 ft lead.

Coming from a 1939 wooden boat with a very basic Origo two burner alcohol stove, we were pleasantly surprised to find, in our "new" to us 6 year old boat, a Princess three burner propane stove, complete with a real oven (cue wife drooling), that had never been used. It still had all its protective packaging taped all over the burners, the face of it and inside it. The previous two owners must have marina restaurant hopped from her first location in Florida to where it was sold in Ontario to her second owner to where we bought it in Maine. (No, it was not a replacement stove as its serial number is in the IG manual that lists original equipment).

While poking around my lazarette pulling gear out to do a thorough cleaning I came upon 2 large boxes. Inside the first was an Espar Hydronic diesel heater and inside the other was an Espar Airtronic diesel heater. Both were new in box! The came a Balmar 140AMP Alternator with smart regulator, followed by a Heart 2500W Inverter/charger! All brand new never out of the box! Why these items were not mentioned by the very PO who had purchased them himself and knew their value is beyond my understanding, but I'm glad he left them instead of taking them with him to sell on Ebay! The Balmar and the Inverter/charger go on when I do my haul-out in November, the heaters might go on Ebay!

Rebuilt starter for my Perkins in a box wrapped in plastic .

My previous owner picked me up post purchase and brought me to church on Easter Sunday which was kind of him/his family. Then he gifted me with a folding Coleman stove-top oven gizmo. The new/improved versions are steel (thus would rust) and mine's stainless.

I've made more than one single serving apple pie. Well, it might have been more than a single serving, but I've got no resistance when it come to apple pie! None and the oven is small enough that it's just the right size for me/my burner.

As for equipment aboard? Besides the quart of oil, there were a couple of sink stoppers. A clean slate, and I was blessed. Eventually (though not quite yet) I'll have Seaweed perfected, except for the stuff that needs fixing!

Buried beneath 7 full, partially full, 2 leaked empty gallon and 12 quart lube oil jugs was a brand new spare nibrail propeller that was not in the listing.

Murray,
I do not know which AP you have now but the one my O.L. installed was guided by his GPS. Handheld Garmin 76 if I remember correctly
The AP was a Wagner, a new one for the time, around '95. If it is still the same unit then it may be possible to have it guided by a GPS. You would need the manual to set it up but if you have that then you may be in luck.

As far as ' found' goodies aboard that were lost or forgotten about by the P.O. we found a new, unopened bottle of Tia Maria which had rolled out of sight untill the rough stuff we tried to come home in rolled it back into reach where it was clunking.


We did enjoy it.

C lectric said:

Murray,
I do not know which AP you have now but the one my O.L. installed was guided by his GPS. Handheld Garmin 76 if I remember correctly
The AP was a Wagner, a new one for the time, around '95. If it is still the same unit then it may be possible to have it guided by a GPS. You would need the manual to set it up but if you have that then you may be in luck.

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Egad, you've got a good memory! (PS stove works great & thanks for the splash of alcohol warm up tip )

Lucky for me Badger's second owner kept all the manuals your O.L. passed along - it is a Wagner, a WMS Marine Systems 150M Autopilot. It works without the GPS turned on, so not sure if the "extra chip" was ever installed, but will read the manual to see if any added functions can be activated.

20 years ago I bought a sailboat in Puerto Rico. It was filthy, clothing just wadded up, mgazines laying everywhere. The owner was a strange sort, in ahurry to sell for very little money. I planned on a total re-fit. I made my list of equipment and bought it all on the mainland, had it shipped down. When I arrived to start cleaning up the boat I made lots of trips down the dock throwing the PO junk away. Moldy shoes, a jacket that had turned to much lying on deck for a year, "gentlemen's magazines" and underwear handled with rubber gloves. But the worst was a number of "rigs" left in small compartments or behind books. A rig is a hypodermic needle already loaded with a drug ready for use! Usually a small baggie with residue was next to the needle! I was extremely careful after finding the first "rig" because I did not want to get stuck on the needle! A thorough search as done and we felt that all had been removed. I removed all the tankage for replacement, all water hoses, and painted the whole bilge. Even pulled the diesel to fix a rear main seal leak! We then sailed to St. Thomas and the BVI for the rest of that season, leaving the boat secured in Hurricane Hole St. John for the summer. When we returned the next fall I immediately went out for a week's charter job. My wife had the job of opening up the boat and cleaning it up after 6 months of rain and heat. She thought that there might be a rat aboard and asked one of the "boat boys" to look in the compartment under the hanging locker. He did and found another rig! We had been cruining around in an area that is known for coast guard boardings searching for drugs! I was so glad that we had not lost the boat during a search!

One of the PO's had plumbed the bottom of each engine oil pan with a hose, leading to an electric pump. Oil changes are a snap. God bless him/her. Almost atones for using 5200 EVERYWHERE!.

Brand new blue T-shirts with our boats name on them. As long as we don't re-christen, they will be fine.

Well, I did find a spare starter for the Perk and a spare 1980ish Cetec Benmar AP controller. Oh, and a Micrologix Loran-C which has already gone to landfill.

Last week I was combining the maintenance logs the PO left with my own spreadsheet. I noticed I was a little past due for a valve adjustment on the Yanmar. It was installed in 2000 and, according to the records, has had oil changes every 50 - 100 hours before I bought the boat. For the last 10 years Shell Rotella T6 synthetic was used, which many would say is overkill for this application. I removed the valve cover and could not believe how clean it is after 14 years and 1,650 hours. There is about 100 hours on this oil, which is just beginning to turn slightly dark. Oil analysis was great the last two oil changes. This is the first look inside though. Happy, happy, happy. Thank you Doug, thank you Yanmar and thank you Shell!

Wow, that is a beautifull engine.

300 gallons of diesel

Two spare props, a spare transmission shaft, a dozen unused PFDs, and a full set of charts.

Two "commercial" type PFDs still in packaging, Rogue Wave wifi set up that really helps with connectivity!

Complete set of oil cooler lines, 4 spare oil coolers (enough for both engines and transmissions) a complete set of engine coolant hoses, a half dozen impellers and thermostats complete with gaskets! Brand new spare alt, new belts and enough filters for several years of changes.

Nothing at all. Now I'm pissed.

hmason said:

Nothing at all. Now I'm pissed.

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Arrrgghhh Matey! Thar surley be treasure buried in yar deepest, darkest, dankest bilge recesses

Don't know if a previous owner did these himself or had them done. One is a very clever, drop-down mount for a radar display unit that hinges down from the overhead at the helm and hinges up to completely remove the display unit from the helm station. When we replaced the radar that was on the boat when we bought it (Raytheon 2600), we were able to use the same retractable mount for the new display (Furuno NavNet VX2).

The other is a long, custom-built teak console in front of the helm station that holds electronics like the radio, depth/speed/etc diplsay, intercom/loud hailer, and so forth.

The only instrument in the helm console today that was there when we bought the boat is the Furuno Loran-C. It works fine, but Loran doesn't anymore. So we're currently wondering what to put in its place. We've replaced all the other electronics that were in the console with new equivelents.

Something that we did not learn until we flew to Alameda, CA to inspect, sea trial, and have the boat surveyed was that it had been built with a full-size queen berth to starboard in the aft cabin and a cabinet of six, full-size drawers to port instead of the usual GB36 arrangement of a double berth to starboard and a single berth to port with smaller drawers underneath.

Another pleasant surprise was despite the boat having had some four or so previous owners, every manual for every piece of equipment on the boat (with the exception of the generator and anchor windlas) was still on the boat, including the original Grand Banks owners manual. In addition to the Lehman operators, parts, and shop manuals for the engines, there was even the Ford of England operations and shop manual for the base engines (Ford Dorset). All these manuals have come in very useful over the years.

I found a nice emergency tiller under the aft deck next to a fuel tank . Just lift up the hatch and it slips right on the rudder post square head .

Most, if not all Manatees have a huge built-in ice chest below the galley counter which otherwise, would be inaccessible space. After we took delivery of the boat, I lifted the lid to find it completely full of high-buck iiquor (photo). That was four years ago and we're still drinking it. The boat also came with each and every household (or is that boathold) item to cruise.....silverware, plates, cookery, food stock, paper and plastic. Even found a porn movie (One Night in Paris) stashed up in one of the closets. It was so nice to purchase a boat that way that I plan on passing it forward to the next owner (minus the porn movie).

Mule:
I found one of those tillers on my boat too. Always wondered how you would go about steering from the back with throttle/shifter in the front, if single handing. Sure would be an interesting docking adventure.

healhustler said:

Even found a porn movie (One Night in Paris) stashed up in one of the closets.

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We're talking boat porn of course.

Larry , The next owner of Bucky will be one lucky man . You will be passing on plenty forward with all your new mods .

GC :
I lost my steering while in our marina last year . It was in the winter and no one was there . I had help on the boat so it wasn't too bad but still no fun . I new about the tiller but didn't think of it . Kind of like your fire extinguisher deal but nowhere near as scary . I just used the shifters and got it into a slip nearby . It happened right when I backed out of slip . My air pressure had bled down over the winter and this was first time out . I always check the pressure before leaving dock now .

When I did the sea trial, I ran the engine wot and the coolant rose up in the overflow bottle and splashed all over the engine and made a mess. I thought ( amongst other things) that it might be a head gasket or some other evil condition. When running at cruise speed, no problem with the coolant. My surveyor said, the coolant overflow bottle was too small for the 180 litres of coolant in my keel cooling system so I set about getting a larger one, suitable for the large amount of coolant. On my first haulout, I pulled the plug in the keel (as there was no record of it ever having been changed) and drained it all out. Cost me a fortune to dispose of so much coolant. When I put in the new coolant and burped the system, I can now run at wot without spilling a drop! Same old tank, the old coolant was so old it wasn't doing its job, not engine issues! Saved a couple of boat dollars having to fix the engine and got the money off the sale price to fix it!