New Boat! - Hopefully

Great! pictures please.

The deal is done!! It was a long drawn out process for a variety of reasons, but she is ours! We sailed her for 3 hours (and she did awesome!) to a local marina where we had her hauled out, so that we could bring her home. She now sits comfortably on our property and the work has begun.

Now she is out of the water and we have been looking a little deeper, we feel the work required is actually less than we originally anticipated.

We have taken out most of the stowed items, and have begun making priority lists, and tool requirement lists. ..... now the real work begins!!

Here are two pics of her, one in the water as we left the marina, and one on the hard. We will post more soon

Europa34,
She looks good. Newer than mine, where I had to sort of create the extended hard-top with frame and canvas, but definitely the sedan or Europa style with roomy and sheltered cockpit is nowadays the way to go.

Don't go too all-out initially is my advice. Many issues will be more cosmetic than functional or seaworthy relevant. Take your time and prioritise things, addressing those which absolutely must be done for safety or usability/functions sake, then worry about the cosmetic.

In other words...if it ain't broke, don't fix it, Just saying'… from someone with same boat only even older.

I'd be interested to hear you summation now of what you think needs to be done, and in what order..?

PS. Sorry, I forgot what I had posted on this thread previously, so I have deleted some of the advice I repeated, as now looking back, I see the tanks have already been done, and the decks are a must do as well. That just leaves the front cabin. I might mention I had to replace all the front cabin teak lining, as the PO had stripped that out, then run out of puff, after doing the decks and main cabin repairs, etc, but I found it not that hard to do the Vee berth cabin lining, and I am definitely no expert. Also, I didn't have the full workshop and the boat at home like you do, so that should be fairly straight forward for you, and yet here, even my amateurish results are acceptable I think..


Cheers,

Congratulations, The better model of the CHB inventory.
The nice of the Europa model of the CHB is the house side windows are somewhat protected from the rain and therefore the leaks which are historic with CHBs is mitigated. Not eliminated, just lessen. Other that this objection, the CHB in my opinion is one of the better buys for the dollar afloat. I parse that with the boat in question being sound in all other normal expectations other than the window issue if addressed-(Oops- Forgot the teak decks- If they have not been removed in time leaks develop-sorry to have not mentioned)- Please don't take my comments adversely these are time noted ills with the CHB fleet, The last being steel tanks that have been pin holed around the filler pipe as the deck fuel fittings become faulty allowing water to collect on the tank top. So- If you purchase a CHB with fiber-glassed decks, alumunum/stainless fuel tanks and after market windows. you will have acquired a total enjoyable boat.

Al-Ketchikan

Congrats. Looks like another 13K registration boat found her way back home.

Welcome aboard! We love our '79 CHB 42' Europa. Sure she has some maintenance problems but I'm almost done fixing them. You can fix almost anything on your boat, just like on your sailboat. Get a good survey and don't listen to anybody who hasn't seen THAT boat.

Congrats

Get Er Done! - Congrats!

Hi Peter,
Thanks for the great advice!

I think you did a great job, I hope our V-berth turns out as nice!! Our boat came with a queen island bed.

We started this endeavor thinking we would fix everything before putting her back in the water, but a sunny boat ride home on the fly bridge, has made us think "get done what needs to be done to be safe and/or requires lots of tools" and the rest can be done at the dock.

Our priority list to build structure around the boat (including scaffolding to work on) re-do the decks, add a bow thruster, clean everything well, check all systems (water, electrical, engine etc), re-do V-berth, update electronics (as apparently the boat will float in 1' of water according to the upper helm depth guage ) , re-bed all fittings, fix small gel coat imperfections and give her a good coat of paint.

We will keep you posted with pics as we do repairs!

Thanks again for the advice!!

Hi Al,

Yes, CHB window leaks were a concern for us. We looked at many CHB's and found that all the tri-cabins had some pretty severe interior water damage. We are lucky with this one, the only water damage caused by window leaks is around the portholes in the V-berth which we are re-doing anyway

One of the first projects is to tackle the decks to eliminate the water ingress. Then we will move on to the inside.

Having the fuel tanks replaced already, was a huge bonus for us! One less thing to do, and again, most of the ones we had looked at still required this to be done.

We do not take any comments adversely!! We are happy to have the advice from others with more experience than us! Keep it coming!

Thanks !!

Thanks all for the Congrats and advice! We are happy to share our progress and will keep everyone posted with pics

"We do not take any comments adversely!! We are happy to have the advice from others with more experience than us! Keep it coming!"

Glad to have you acknowledge the intent. While I am at it, a suggestion of an item to add to the inventory- Capt. Tolley's "Creeping Crack Cure" finds & fixes leaks. It is a UK product that many east coast marine outlets carry. I have not found it on the West Coast although your Canada marine stores may carry it. Very inexpensive and very effective for those hard to find cracks, such as around port holes. Google it up, it may be a fix for you.
Cheers,
Al

Al said:

While I am at it, a suggestion of an item to add to the inventory- Capt. Tolley's "Creeping Crack Cure" finds & fixes leaks.

Click to expand...

That product might work for shorts wearing members of the building industry.
The decks are a priority, the water migrates elsewhere from the decks, you need to stop the process.

Hi Bruce- You are so correct, however the suggestion was directed to those small cracks or leaks that seem to defeat the current number of sealants. This product is the consistency of evaporated milk, a bit thicker but very fluid. The intent is to flow the product around the top and sides of the window frame or surface crack leak with repeated efforts till the crack or window frame will not accept any more. About a 15-20 minute space between applications.

Teak decks on CHBs really require total removal and resurfaced with fiberglass including non-skid.
With the huge amount rain here in Ketchikan, any leak on a CHB deck leads to soft under deck if not addressed. Very disconcerting to walk on such a deck.

Fellow here coated his teak with bed liner. Worked for a while then started to blister due to penetration allowing water to seep under. Ended up pulling 3 foot strips. Not pretty.
The crack sealer comes in 8oz bottle so it is not intended to mend a huge area or project. I have been very successful over the years in stopping those nagging tid bit leaks so recommend it for others with frustrations. If it will work in shorts to stop a leak it may have a future in Florida with the senior set.
Sort of complements duct tape. It can't fix stupid ....but it can muffle the sound!
Cheers,
Al-Ketchikan (Bridge to Nowhere) Alaska

34 Europa said:

Hi Peter,
Thanks for the great advice!

I think you did a great job, I hope our V-berth turns out as nice!! Our boat came with a queen island bed.

We started this endeavor thinking we would fix everything before putting her back in the water, but a sunny boat ride home on the fly bridge, has made us think "get done what needs to be done to be safe and/or requires lots of tools" and the rest can be done at the dock.

Our priority list to build structure around the boat (including scaffolding to work on) re-do the decks, add a bow thruster, clean everything well, check all systems (water, electrical, engine etc), re-do V-berth, update electronics (as apparently the boat will float in 1' of water according to the upper helm depth guage ) , re-bed all fittings, fix small gel coat imperfections and give her a good coat of paint.

We will keep you posted with pics as we do repairs!

Thanks again for the advice!!

Click to expand...

That sounds about enough to go on with Europa. If you are going to paint the hull, I strongly recommend the 2 pack approach, as it is just so much more long lasting and superior to one pack paint for that job. (Interlux Perfection) It was the one thing I felt important to have done professionally about 7 years ago, and we never regretted that decision it came up so well.

Oooh, I envy you that island double in there. I've looked at that mod - have seen it done on a Clipper 30, but it would just be too much ripping apart to do it now. I hope you are not suggesting you are going to convert it from an Island Queen double back to a vee berth, are you..? If so, please don't is my advice.
Cheers,

Hi

Soooo, we did it. We bought our first trawler!! We brought her home in March and got her all tucked away in our yard! The first project was to build a structure around her so that we could work on her in the sun and the rain! That structure is now complete and teak deck removal has begun. (we are replacing it with fiberglass)

There are a few, and by a few I mean many.... projects to complete before she is back in the water, but we are thrilled to begin working on her!

What a great place to work on your boat! I hope you are able to get it back into the water soon!