Big day today!

No that the keel is done, bottom prepped, thru hulls faired and sealed, today was the first day of barrier coating.  Yes it was snowing outside, as I rolled on the first three coats.  Thundersnowing actually.  Hoping to get three more coats on tomorrow.

The Purchase

So my buddy Joe and I drove to Oswego to pick the boat up.  We jumped in my 3/4 ton Suburban and drove the 600 miles Halloween afternoon.  Oswego is a college town and we got there early enough to watch all the students going through the bars in their costumes.  It was big fun to to watch until I realized that I was much too old to be one of "them", instead I must have stuck out like a sore thumb.  Its been 25 years since I was in college and hanging out in the bars.  While it seemed like just yesterday for me, to them I must have been the creepy old guy at the bar.  Pretty funny actually.  A few beers later, and we checked into the hotel with plans to meet the seller in the morning.

Morning came and off we went to meet the seller.  Buying a boat over the internet has its risks.  A buyer is relying heavily on the seller to accurately respresent their boat.  They rarely do.  When I sell boats online, I take 50 or so hi-res photos and share them with the seller.  Not just the glory shots, but photos of the "worst" parts of the boats as well.  I want the buyer to feel like they've seen the boat before they actually make the trip to come see it.  In the case of Luna Nova, the seller actually used photos from the seller from whom he bought the boat.  While they were very nice photos, they were several years old.  Moreover, there was equipment / instrumentation in the photos (from the cooler to a Sailcomp) that weren't on the boat when I saw it. The "new" tires on the trailer were dry rot.  The deck which "had not been swiss cheesed", was no where near the condition it was advertised.  The cabin sole was completely delaminated. The teak was in decent shape, but the painter apparently had never heard of masking tape.  The bottom... the seller told the bottom had never been barrier-coated because barrier coat "weighs too much".  I'm thinking the weight of a barrier coat is a pretty good trade for a dry hull without blisters, but what do I know. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the boat and surprise surprise, the bottom had ben previously barrier coated with Interlux 2000E.  But the seller was oblivious to it.  Sadly, whoever barrier coated the boat never bothered to sand it smooth, so while I was happy to see the condition of the bottom, I was not looking forward to sanding the barrier coat smooth.  More frightening was the sellers obliousness to the fact had been barrier coated.  Perhaps I should have listened to the alarms going off in my head when the seller told me the engine ran so well, he almost never had to use the glow plug (Yanmar 1GM10's do not have glow plugs). 

Long story short, the boat was not as described or photographed.  And sadly it seemd to me that everything the last couple owners had done to the boat was crap and needed to be redone.  Very frustrating.  But here I was 600 miles from home, cash in hand, and looking at a boat that was repairable.  And honestly, reparable J29 MHIB's are hard to find.  I should have called him on the false advertising, on the equipment that was photo'ed but not on the boat, on the shit workmanship, on the photo's that he didn't even take....  I should have walked.  Instead, an hour or so later and Joe and I were driving through New York, with an unregistered wide load on back roads, white knuckled in fear of low bridge overpasses and two upcoming international border crossings.....

Where to start?

Buying any old Jboat presents challanges.  For starters, these boats are old, really old.  Old enough that no matter how well maintained the boats may have been, they're tired.  Just like today, when these boats were built, they tried to make them as light as they could.  To achieve that, the decks and hull are almost entirely balsa cored.  By that I mean the typical section consists of a 3/4" end grain balsa sandwiched between two skins each consisting of several layers of glass.  If (when) water makes it into the core through any of the multitude of holes through the deck, bottom, or transom, the balsa core eventually turns to mush (think peat moss), and thats bad.  The whole strength of the assembly relies on the two very stiff fiberglass skins being separated by stiff end grain balsa.  Once the balsa rots out, there is no strength to the assembly and it will crush and no longer support load.  True story - a couple years ago I was racing at Key West Race Week on a J109 and we were fighting it out with an old J35.  On the last beat, they were getting away from us during a fierce taking dual.  But about half way up the leg we starting catching them and finally passed them.  We were quite proud of ourselves until they crossed the line behind us - holding their port winch in the air!  Apparently it ripped out of the deck about half way up the leg so they completed the top half of the beat with one winch.  That's what happens when the core rots out.

But the truth of the matter is all Jboats (and pretty much all other race boats) have some level of moisture in them.  But how much is acceptable?  Truth is I have no idea.  But I have cut holes in decks and bottoms of Jboats and replaced core trying to rid them of moisture.  Its a lot of work, and is very much a case of diminishing returns.  Basically when I'm looking at these boats, I'm looknig for minimal cracks/crazing and no delamination.  Once the fiberglass laminate loses its bond to the core, the assembly loses its strength.  If you can take a hard object and sound out (tap) the entire hull and deck and hear nice crisps "taps" like a snar drum rather than "thuds" like a base drum, chances are you've got a pretty good boat.  If you hear a bunch of "thuds" WALK AWAY. There are plenty other boats out there.  The  most likely areas that will be bad are under the stoppers, the winches, the stanchions and handrails.  In my opinion, topsides can easily be painted, bottoms easily faired and barrier coated, but repairing decks is a pain in the rear.  Either you repair them from below, fighting gravity the whole way, to maintain the look of the nonskid above, or you repair them from above which will tyically lead to removing all the deck hardware, and sanding and painting the whole deck.  A lot of work.

As I mentioned before, I've had a lot of boats, and if there is one thing I have learned its that you should buy the nicest, most well-equipped boat you can afford.  When it come time to sell your boat, chances are you will be lucky to get back your original purchase price no matter how much time, money, and "sweat equity" you put into the boat.  Buy the nicest boat you can, period.

A New Beginning

Introduction
This is the story of the ongoing restoration of a J/29 sailboat named "Fast Freddy".  The purpose of the blog is to share information about the boat and about typical hurdles one overcomes to make these boats race worthy. 

About the boat 
The J29 was manufactured by J/Boats between 1982 and 1987, with nearly 300 constructed.  While envisioned as a "one-design" class, there were actually four versions sold.  The base design was a fractional rig with an outboard engine.  However, options available included a masthead rig and an inboard diesel.  Hence there are four types of J29 out there, masthead inboard (MHIB), masthead outboard (MHOB), fractional inboard (FRIB), and fractional outboard (FROB).  To add even more confusion to the class, the fractional rigged boats were originally spec'd with a one foot oversized pole and a 163% genoa.  Of course, handicappers treat the oversized pole and genoa differently from fleet to fleet, so some "frackys" are rigged with the oversized pole and genoa and some are not.  If that weren't confusing enough, there are even some owners who have swapped out their fractional kites for masthead kites (and with considerable success, apparently). 

So, with so many choices, one of the most challenging decisions a would-be J29 owner must make is answering the simply question, "Which one?".  The MHOB, with a typical rating of 111, is the fastest and therefore the most sought after for one-design racing.  The FROB, with a typical rating of 114 is generally considered a bit slower in the light air but go great when the breeze is on.  It also has the benefit of smaller ($cheaper$) headsails and likely needs fewer of them.  Whereas most mastheads seem to have a Lite/Med #1, and Heavy#1, a #2, a #3 and even a #4, the fracky's get away with a #1 and a #3, and booze cruise quite comfortably with just the large mainsail alone.  The outboards are faster, but the inboards add a whole level of convenience.  So, which one indeed.

In my case, I chose both!  In 2009, I purchased a FRIB called "Smoke!"  It was purchased new by friends of mine back in 1983, but was later sold and used very sparingly here in the Great Lakes.  I found it and decided to bring it back to the waters of Grand Traverse Bay where it was Boat of the Year back in 1983.  Even though the boat had been lightly used, it still took an enormous amount of bring the boat up to racing condition.  The keel had to be templated and faired, the bottom barrier coated and long boarded, the exterior wood sanded bare and refinished, the diesel replaced, the interior wood sanded and refinished, new sails, new electronics.....  An incredible amount of work, needless to say. The end result is a beautiful boat that is as competitive today as it was 27 years ago.  We had a fun and very successful season with the boat, winning our fleet and once again winning Boat of the Year, even after all those years.  That the boat is still so competitive after all those years demonstrates why these boats remain so highly desirable. 

We found the FHIB to be totally dominant once the winds got above 7 knots - I think we won every race in those conditions.  But in the lighter stuff, the fracky was more of a challenge.  While we enjoyed some success in the light winds, the modern lighter boats clearly had an advantage.  In our defense, our fracky has a roller furling headstay so we couldn't slacken it like we would have wanted as the breeze dropped, and we had the mast butt too far aft and therefore too much prebend.  Clearly, we left some light air performance on the table.

"Fast Freddy"
 In November 2010, a few weeks after we put the "Smoke" away for the winter, I decided to buy a MHIB out of Oswego NY.  Why?  No good reason, I guess.  Boats are a bit of a hobby for me - we've campaigned ten different boats in the last fifteen years.  I enjoy working on them.  For me the inboard is a must - we keep the boat in a slip and I swore off carrying outboards up and down years (and a back surgery) ago.  I'm hoping our masthead will be as competitive as our fracky in the medium and heavy breeze, and have a little more something in the lighter stuff.  Time will tell.

USA 287 has been known for the last couple years as "Luna Nova", before that it was called "American Pride".  The new name of the boat is "Fast Freddy", in honor of my brother who we lost tragically and unexpectedly to some disease I cant even pronounce this spring.  I hope the boat will be worthy of his name, and will be a place for family and friends to gather and laugh, the way we always did we he was around.