At last I have my trawler!

40 years and 10 boats later, we FINALLY have purchased our first trawler.
My wife loves her because she is very slow...8 knots and I love her because, well, she's a trawler after all. Lots of cabin space with plenty of classic teak to keep clean

We have just purchased a 1982 Island Gypsy, 32 foot trawler. Named her
"Dot Calm", not Dot Com, and she sits at our dock behind our home on North Hutchinson Island, FL.

We brought her across the state last week from Pine Island, FL, through the Okeechobee Waterway, and up the Inter coastal waterway to our canal. A very beautiful trip across Lake O.

I would like to meet and chat with other Island Gypsy owners.

I am already faces with a dilemma. There is interior water damage on the port and starboard windows due to wood rot on the windows.

I would really like some ideas on how to change out the old wood windows on this model. I am not much of a handy man and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Looking forward to enjoying this forum!

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. NEW BOAT?

Welcome to the TF IG fleet. Pictures please.

Welcome aboard Rick. Congratulations, the older 32s have great space. How is it powered, I`ve seen anything from a single FL, to a pair of 200hp Volvos.
With windows, remaking them requires skill, I had one remade, inside and out. The front cabin tapers as it goes fwd, it is a job for a pro. I have 2 more on the fwd cabin now needing work. It might be worth investigating aluminum replacements, if you plan keeping the boat. Make sure you keep the drain holes at the bottom of the windows clear.

She has a single Ford Lehman 125 horse engine with about 4000 hours.
I will look into the aluminum window idea as the wood is just too much to keep up.
I'm afraid I am NOT much of a handyman, so I must depend on hiring others to do the skilled type of work. I pay a captain to show me how to do minor maintenance on the engine and he was a huge help in helping learn to handle a 32 footer single screw. All of my past boats were 26 footers and much easier to handle. My IG is like a big sail when it's windy and the tide is roaring.

Sp, much to learn but delighted to have found this website. I keep her in my back yard dock so I am tempted to spend far too much time on her since I still work 40 hours a week from my home

In addition to the window issues, I must also focus on cleaning up the teak deck.

Rick

islandgypsy said:

Named her
"Dot Calm"

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AWESOME name! Welcome aboard.

Rick, I just started a fresh thread on replacing wood windows with aluminum.
The teak deck is a whole new issue. Lacking the skills, I had mine redone 3 years back. It is likely the decks cannot be salvaged and are a cause of water entry. After removal of the teak, the substrate exposed is likely a fibreglass sandwich of teak pieces, probably rotten. I was lucky, mine was mostly a rare foam sandwich, the 2 small areas of wood were rotten, black and wet. Once we had a good surface 2 layers of fiberglass were applied, and painted non slip fwd, aft of the fwd step I went with new teak, which needed only 1 layer of f/g, but took weeks and cost $. If you can save what you have, new caulk, make good the plugs over the screws, etc, do, it will save heaps.

islandgypsy said:

I would really like some ideas on how to change out the old wood windows on this model. I am not much of a handy man and any help would be greatly appreciated.

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If you decide you want to retain the original wood windows but repair them, there is a ton of good information on the overhaul, rebuilding, and repair of built-up wood windows in the archives of the Grand Banks owers forum Grand Banks Owner's Resources. There are a lot of similarities between the two makes since some of the same people who worked on the earlier Grand Banks boats at American Marine migrated over to K&H.

We've reworked or rebuilt all but three of the 21 windows on our boat. It's not rocket science but it does take some specific techniques and a degree of knowledge of working with wood, bedding track and glass, priming and painting, and so forth.

If you decide the better route is to replace the wood windows with pre-fab aluminum windows that is certainly doable and probably fairly simple once you find the right windows in the sizes you need. Having never done it I can't offer any suggestions as to how to go about it.

Excellent, another IG devotee.

Don't worry too much about a bit of water damage, unless of course the forward cabin turns into an indoor swimming pool during inclement weather.However Bruce is right keep those drain holes clear, very easy, a long thin screwdriver, nothing to it.

IMHO, relax for your first year and just get to know the new love of your life. She is not young, and there will be some issues, but the motto of the forum is, 'it's not the destination ,it's the journey'(a little like having kids)

My suggestion.

Give your wife a surprise, prepare a slap up dinner(without telling her!) at the bottom of your garden, on board, with a nice bottle of bubbly. Trust me you will win quite a lot of Brownie points, it is important that your significant other half loves DC as much as you do, even better if she is good with tools.

Welcome aboard.

PS Photo's please.

Just sayin'

Rick


We owned a 32 Island Gypsy for a few years and had the same problems you are now faced with and all were corrected with a few dollars and a lot of sweat labor. We removed the teak decking on the bow and side decks and glassed the decks filling all the screw holes and painting the decks with non-skid. To fix the water stained walls in the forward stateroom we purchased a couple of home type shower stalls from home depot and covered the walls. The finished job looked like new from the factory. The boat is now doing the loop with the new owners and should be in your area for the next couple of months. A great boat you are going to love. Ray

Thank you

Great feedback everyone. So pleased I found this site.
Luckily my wife really likes the new IG because "it goes so slow".
She likes the slow ride rather than bouncing hard at 30MPH.

I do too, in fact I would imagine, all of you feel the same

Pictures to come.

islandgypsy said:

Great feedback everyone. So pleased I found this site.
Luckily my wife really likes the new IG because "it goes so slow".
She likes the slow ride rather than bouncing hard at 30MPH.

I do too, in fact I would imagine, all of you feel the same

Pictures to come.

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Absolutely. I'm on the water because I want to be on the water. If I want to get somewhere in a hurry I'll either drive or fly!

Congrats and welcome aboard!

"Dot Calm" 32' Island Gypsy 1982

Some of you were asking for a picture of my new, very old lady...
Rick

Nice looking boat Rick. You sure are lucky to have her in your own back yard. I truly wish I could do the same (and may someday). Bringing her across FL through the waterway sounds like a wonderful trip that I hope to do one day.

Welcome to the forum.

Ken

Cross Florida

Yes, the crossing from the west coast of Florida to Fort Myers was amazing. It took us 3 days at 7 knots. Very diverse scenery and a very big Lake O to cross.
Hope you too can make the crossing some day. Here are some pictures from last weekend.

Rick, our "old" IGs may be "old" in years, but the style and configuration lives on. I have, still do, considered a newer Integrity, or Clipper (original models last century were similar to MT), which reproduce the IG and its contemporaries, like GB. Similar boat, but new, hopefully developed and improved. What we have is still good.

islandgypsy said:

Some of you were asking for a picture of my new, very old lady...
Rick

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Welcome aboard Islandgypsy. They are nice boats indeed. Something you might like to put on the longer term plan, when you have sorted the windows and decks, could be to do what we did to our Clipper (CHB) 34, which had a similar cabin and cockpit layout, and only a small canopy out from the back of the cabin top. You can see what we did in the avatar pic, and here is another from a better angle. The canopy extension to cover most of the side decks as well as cockpit shelters the windows nicely, and just made the outdoor living all weather, and so much better.

great idea!

Pete-What a fantastic idea.
Your boat is beautiful. Nicely done.

Can you tell me what the numbers on the Kong-Halvorsen plaque in the cabin mean? There must be some sort of numbering system so I can figure out what the production number means.
Thanks

islandgypsy said:

Can you tell me what the numbers on the Kong-Halvorsen plaque in the cabin mean? There must be some sort of numbering system so I can figure out what the production number means.
Thanks

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In my case the plaque means ..Gourmet cruiser...32' in length & hull number 20.

Haven't got my builder's plaque handy. It's on the boat and the boat is surrounded by 6' high snow banks. But I think it says something like IG32 146, the 146 being the 146th IG32 built.

my emblem

Does anyone know what this means? My Island Gypsy was built 1982 but I don't know what the 32-14 signifies.
Thanks,
Rick

emblem

Anyone know what my numbers signify?
Thanks
Rick

32' and hull number 14.

Larry M said:

32' and hull number 14.

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What he said.

Emblem

So does this mean this was the 14th Island Gypsy made in the 32 foot size forever or just that year?
Thanks
Rick

islandgypsy said:

Can you tell me what the numbers on the Kong-Halvorsen plaque in the cabin mean? There must be some sort of numbering system so I can figure out what the production number means.
Thanks

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From memory, my plate says IG36-39. "IG36" is the boat model, "39" is the hull number. If that does not resolve it, best post a pic of the plate.

islandgypsy said:

So does this mean this was the 14th Island Gypsy made in the 32 foot size forever or just that year?
Thanks
Rick

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For all time, not the year. Note the year is not on the plate. Did the 2 original bound books about the boat come with it?

islandgypsy said:

Pete-What a fantastic idea.
Your boat is beautiful. Nicely done.

Can you tell me what the numbers on the Kong-Halvorsen plaque in the cabin mean? There must be some sort of numbering system so I can figure out what the production number means.
Thanks

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The IG fellows should be able to help you with that. Mine is a Chung Hwa CHB, not an IG - wish it was, it would be worth more. Sorry, should have said "have helped you with that". I agree with what they said thought - 32 feet model, and hull number 14.