Questions and concerns
Hello, I'm new to this site and would like your honest opinion. I'm looking at a 1978 36c and I think I can pick it up for around 10,000. It has been on the hard for 5 years and it looks like it is complete, sails are covered but will need reconditioning. I looked around down below and it looks like some water damage in the headliner, by the mast and also in the bow area port. It has canvas on the wheel (wood, real nice) also the ventilation windows on deck (not sure what you call them) need work. I love the lines and the overall look of this boat. Is it worth it to buy it and refinish it myself? I just retired from teaching and can do most of the work myself. The guy selling it it, knows nothing about it and is selling it since his father passed away. Any information about this boat I would appreciate. I will try to include some pictures soon. Thanks, Mack
Starting out with the succinct reply from Christian, I would only add that many later-abandoned restorations start out with a narrative similar to this. (Sigh...)
The asking price might be high, given the possible amount of places you would need to spend money and (more importantly, time) before you reach the sailing part that you are visualizing when when you start out on the adventure.
If you are comfortable with woodworking, that's good. If you study some of the blogs on this site and other similar sites where owners have done some major fiberglass repair, you'll see that this is a whole area of learning all by itself. Satisfying work, but it can be frustrating to work away and not be able to see the enticing result until you are about 90% 'done'...
If I had to hazard a SWAG (scientific wild assed guess) I would say that you would hope to end up with a 40K value boat that might consume 40 or 50K beyond the purchase price. The good news is that like other higher-end boats, the Ericson has some "cred" in the market among knowledgeable buyers. Downside is the scarcity of knowledgeable buyers... they are a small subset of the market in even the best of times.
It's unfair to single out any of your words when there's just your first post to work with, but when you use the work 'reconditioning' for sails I worry. Plan on buying new sails if they are old (or original). The material itself has a lifespan.
The engine will be a major deal -- if it does not pass survey plan on spending 15 or 20K to repower.
If the decks are soft, prepare to put in your labor (after some research) or hire it done ($$).
Rigging will need replacing.
All of this is doable and given quality of the design and underlying quality of the boat, it might indeed be a decent buy.
A thorough survey is the final arbiter. "All will be revealed" as the saying goes. I would get a separate engine survey.
Not trying to be negative, but my personal alarm sounds when I hear that it's been sitting for years. Strictly IMHO, but boats do much worse sitting around than they do being sailed actively.
If you have some pix please do post them up.
Regards,
Loren