Acquiring Scamper
When I first moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1983 we bought a 15' Montgomery sailboat. My wife, Beth, and I sailed that boat for a couple of years culminating in a week in the San Juans. We came back to Seattle and immediately traded it for a 25' sailboat. We kept that for about two years but as children started coming along we needed something bigger.
Having never tried powerboating our "family boat" became a 28' Bayliner. We ended up keeping that boat for 18 years, most of that time moored in Friday Harbor. The kids became pretty attached to it and it was hard to let it go. The reality was that the kids were growing up and had plenty of their own pursuits, gas is pretty expensive, and, when it's for me, I really want to sail.
To satisfy the desire for sailing I picked up a 1975 Marshall 22 catboat and kept it in Tacoma, near the house. That's a pretty great boat but owning two boats with upkeep and expenses for moorage, hauling, maintenance, insurance, etc. was too much. I decided to consolidate.
I found Scamper, a 1981 C&C 34, on YachtWorld back in October of 2004. I made the two hour drive from Tacoma and decided she was exactly what I was looking for so I began the task of selling the Marshall and the Bayliner, and then purchasing the C&C.
It didn't work out exactly that way. The Marshall sold almost immediately. I put an ad everywhere on the internet that was free and then in 48 North. Before the 48 North ad came out I got a call from a great guy in Olympia who was looking for a traditional catboat. He and his wife came out, looked the boat over, and bought it on the spot. I left that meeting and drove straight to Anacortes to look over the C&C. The Bayliner needed work and I decided to wait until closer to spring to sell it.
Judging by its condition, the C&C had been neglected for at least six months. The previous owner just wasn't as interested in sailing as he had thought. According to the broker he raced a bit but there was no evidence of any cruising gear or activity. Plenty of dirt and moisture everywhere. This didn't look too good for the balsa-cored hull.
Fred West at West Yachts was pretty helpful with the long distance aspect of buying a boat but I don't think brokers, in general, have caught on to this Internet thing yet. We arranged for a hull survey and a separate engine survey.
Before I went up to take posession, North Island Boat Works in Anacortes did a pretty good engine survey. They knew the circumstances of me taking this strange boat for a two-day trip home with lots of motoring likely. In addition to a condition survey of the engine they replaced the fuel filters, the water pump, both batteries, the belts, and checked the injectors. The biggest problem with the boat was that it sat idle so there was plenty of deterioration, etc. Everything turned out okay and the engine seems pretty healthy so far. The engine has pretty high hours (2,100). Most folks I've talked to say that the Yanmar 3GM should go 5,000 hours or more.
The boat has no "systems", no pressure water, no water heater, and that is a plus to me. A hot shower would be nice but I put a drain in the head's pan and can run a sun shower's hose through the vent.
Turned out the easiest way to get up to Anacortes to pick the boat up was to get a cheap rental car. Both the bus and train were in the $30 neighborhood, one way, and that wouldn't allow me to take any gear. I wanted to take a minimal amount of my own gear since the boat was pretty empty and was also rather old and unknown. My 13 year old son came along as deckhand and found the trip a great way to sleep in and watch DVDs.
The trip home went well. It rained most of the time but we had a nice sail across Juan de Fuca to Port Townsend. We got up early in Port Townsend and, with no wind, motored 11 hours to Tacoma. Last August, I made this same trip in the Bayliner in under 4 hours. Used a lot more gas though.
Having never tried powerboating our "family boat" became a 28' Bayliner. We ended up keeping that boat for 18 years, most of that time moored in Friday Harbor. The kids became pretty attached to it and it was hard to let it go. The reality was that the kids were growing up and had plenty of their own pursuits, gas is pretty expensive, and, when it's for me, I really want to sail.
To satisfy the desire for sailing I picked up a 1975 Marshall 22 catboat and kept it in Tacoma, near the house. That's a pretty great boat but owning two boats with upkeep and expenses for moorage, hauling, maintenance, insurance, etc. was too much. I decided to consolidate.
I found Scamper, a 1981 C&C 34, on YachtWorld back in October of 2004. I made the two hour drive from Tacoma and decided she was exactly what I was looking for so I began the task of selling the Marshall and the Bayliner, and then purchasing the C&C.
It didn't work out exactly that way. The Marshall sold almost immediately. I put an ad everywhere on the internet that was free and then in 48 North. Before the 48 North ad came out I got a call from a great guy in Olympia who was looking for a traditional catboat. He and his wife came out, looked the boat over, and bought it on the spot. I left that meeting and drove straight to Anacortes to look over the C&C. The Bayliner needed work and I decided to wait until closer to spring to sell it.
Judging by its condition, the C&C had been neglected for at least six months. The previous owner just wasn't as interested in sailing as he had thought. According to the broker he raced a bit but there was no evidence of any cruising gear or activity. Plenty of dirt and moisture everywhere. This didn't look too good for the balsa-cored hull.
Fred West at West Yachts was pretty helpful with the long distance aspect of buying a boat but I don't think brokers, in general, have caught on to this Internet thing yet. We arranged for a hull survey and a separate engine survey.
Before I went up to take posession, North Island Boat Works in Anacortes did a pretty good engine survey. They knew the circumstances of me taking this strange boat for a two-day trip home with lots of motoring likely. In addition to a condition survey of the engine they replaced the fuel filters, the water pump, both batteries, the belts, and checked the injectors. The biggest problem with the boat was that it sat idle so there was plenty of deterioration, etc. Everything turned out okay and the engine seems pretty healthy so far. The engine has pretty high hours (2,100). Most folks I've talked to say that the Yanmar 3GM should go 5,000 hours or more.
The boat has no "systems", no pressure water, no water heater, and that is a plus to me. A hot shower would be nice but I put a drain in the head's pan and can run a sun shower's hose through the vent.
Turned out the easiest way to get up to Anacortes to pick the boat up was to get a cheap rental car. Both the bus and train were in the $30 neighborhood, one way, and that wouldn't allow me to take any gear. I wanted to take a minimal amount of my own gear since the boat was pretty empty and was also rather old and unknown. My 13 year old son came along as deckhand and found the trip a great way to sleep in and watch DVDs.
The trip home went well. It rained most of the time but we had a nice sail across Juan de Fuca to Port Townsend. We got up early in Port Townsend and, with no wind, motored 11 hours to Tacoma. Last August, I made this same trip in the Bayliner in under 4 hours. Used a lot more gas though.
posted by John Williams at 3:54 PM
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