this is the 2 draft
Finding My Dream Boat and Liveaboard
Back in October of 2008, I started looking for a live aboard boat. It needed to be small, cheap, and easy to single hand. At the time I was fourteen, and as you can imagine looking at boats anywhere from Annapolis Maryland to Norfolk Virginia is not very easy since I can’t drive. Therefore I kept to Craigslist, and Spin sheets magazine (spin sheets is the local sailing magazine). I wanted something about 25-30 feet but smaller would be better! I found a 1979 Coronado 25 in need of some TLC but she came with many extras. She had a of headroom five feet eight inches. I learned about that boat, and had spent more than a month researching and looking at the photos. We reached an agreement on the price and delivery, but just as the delivery was working out and the night before I was going to get the title, the owner called me to say he had sold the boat! I was crushed. It took me about two weeks to even look for another boat. During that time, I was so mad at the seller for selling the boat from out under me. Then I started looking at boats again I realized that his actions should not make me lose my dream.
In a few days I found out a Coronado 27 in Baltimore Maryland, an Ericson 25, an Irwin 25, and an O’day 25. I went to see the Ericson 25 first because it was much closer. The boat looked great from the inside! I went down below and saw that the cabin leaked from everywhere. all the cushions where soaked! I still looked at the boat because I knew that could be fixed. I walked around on deck and much to my dismay as I walked up on the starboard fore deck, I felt a slight give but passed over it. On the way back from the fore deck I checked the soft spot again, I put all my weight on the soft spot and it was so weak my foot almost went right into the cabin! I had now eliminated one boat and had three to go. So I proceeded to look at the next boat a O’day 25 it seemed like a nice boat. I had eliminated the Coronado 27 in Baltimore Md. The Irwin 25 would not work because it needed a new centerboard. It was Thursday afternoon and only two days before I was going to see the O’day when I found out the dock I would be keeping the boat at only has three feet of water. This eliminated the other boats because the drafts where too great for the slip. I resumed my search and While on Creigslist I found a 1978 Bayliner Buccaneer 27. I emailed the seller to ask if the boat was still for sale, and while I waited I researched the boat. All I could find was information on how bad this brand of boat was. by this time I was discouraged. Then I found a MSN group of all the Buccaneer owners. It had a lot of info on people who had Buccs, but it seemed so many needed new bulkheads, floors, or they had rotted hull and deck core. I was almost scared to look at the boat. I decided I would go see the boat anyway but I was certain it was going to be a pile of rotten wood, when I got to Leeward Marina in Newport News Virginia, and waited for the seller to show up, I had not even seen the boat in photos. I only knew that it had a diesel inboard that did not work. It also had a outboard on the stern. We waited about twenty minutes for the seller to show up, right as we were backing out of our parking space, he called to say he would be there in three minutes. So we waited and he showed up. we walked down the dock and got aboard the boat and I walked quickly around on deck. Of course, it was the worst day of the winter and was thirty degrees with the wind blowing at 30- 40 knots. I got down below and checked out the cabin. The owner left, and I went back to our car, talked to my mom, and went to show her. I said “I’m getting this boat”! So i called the seller to say would put down an offer, we waited for him to come back or call back and then we decided to leave. then he called when we were about a half an hour away from the boat. I talked him down $500 from his original price and then wrote a check, that was it I now owned my first boat! After a lot of disappointment I now had a boat that was close to what I wanted and in good shape.
Now the real fun started. I went down to the boat the next weekend to get her ready for a ten hour delivery sail! I went to turn on the navigation lights. Nothing! I tried again but nothing. So I checked the battery, and made sure all the cables were nice and tight. Still nothing. Then I took the distribution panel off to check for broken wires or a blown fuse. Still nothing. So I checked the battery zincs and they were as dry as the desert! I left to buy the distilled water and just to be safe a new deep cycle battery. I tested it out and still got nothing! Unfortunately the delivery sail was going to start at four am. So I talked to a guy at West Marine, and he had the idea of getting the suction cup dinghy navigation lights and taping them to get the right direction. I used some duct tape, and they worked! I also had to get a new outboard as the one that came with the boat is a 1969 Johnson sailmaster 4hp, I went with a brand new Mercury 9.9 four stroke long shaft with electric start. The best thing about it is it cost $300 more than the boat!
we left for the Chesapeake Bay at five in the morning, with our little dinghy nav lights leading the way. Then we ran into our first problem! I did not know the mast height and there was a bridge in front of us! I figured that the mast was about 40 feet, but we could not find the bridge height on our charts. Then we found on the chart that the bridge vertical clearance was 25 feet! We tried calling the bridge to see if we could get an opening but no bridge tender responded. we called the Coast Guard and after a half hour they figured it was a bridge tunnel, and it was. We then motor the rest of the way because there was no wind. Just as we where entering the North River in Mobjack Bay, the wind piped up but we did not sail because we where already in sight of the dock. After docking we had a small christening party! I later found that it was to my luck that we had not tried to sail as a clevis pin was missing its cotter pin!
Now that I have my boat at her new slip I have been working out all of her kinks, and preparing her to live aboard. for example tearing out the 30 year old carpet on the walls! I’m also rigging the boat for single-handed sailing and installing a few “goodies”. Owning a boat and fixing her up is a dream come true for me.