[quote=dmgbear55]Actually the costs were not all that extraordinary compared to buying a new boat or a much newer boat and that is essentially what I have now. Here is an approximate breakdown of the big ticket items:
Sails $2,000
Standing rigging and wire
halyards $700
Paint and supplies
for the hulls,beams and mast $700
Running rigging $250
Tramp $250
New complete Harken traveler $400
Total $4,300
Boat in 1976 no trailer ~ $3,200
So I spent more rebuilding it than it cost me new in 1976, But now it actually has a traveler that works. It is also much more colorful than it was back when I first bought it. I also have a very high confidence in the rigging and structure that I did not have before the rebuild. I need to get out and do some shakedown runs to confirm that every thing is sound and we are making plans to do that soon. Hopefully then I can get some video of the boat and complete the story on the rebuild and post it.
While the boat is 40 years old it is not an antique. It represents the state of the art at that point in time and the price point that Tom Roland thought he could sell a bunch of fast boats at. Having replaced every rivet and had every last bit of this boat apart it is actually stunning to realize how many elements and systems there are on this 17' boat. The fiberglass is just as good and strong today as it was in 1976 maybe even stronger with the minor repairs that were done. The aluminum had some pitting that was not visible when assembled, but was not near bad enough to be a structural issue. That the rivet holes had not enlarged at all was huge in my opinion because if they had enlarged they would have had to have been all relocated or enlarged and that would look bad and in some cases been structural issues. This boat has spent equal time in salt and freshwater for reference.
So I think the question someone reading this should be thinking about is, if you can buy a Nacra 5.2 (or similar older boat) for $1,000 to $1,500 and spend another $4,000 to make it totally new, is that a good value case. I think it is and there are lots of ways to spend way less than I did on this boat rebuild, but I was going for like new condition and I think we are very close to that. I haven't put any value on the time I put into this project because I was having fun (except for all that sanding of screwed up paint coatings). I think many cat sailors could do much of this same work with only a few new tools added to their toolbox, mainly that honking rivet tool for pulling the Monel or Stainless rivets. While I am now satisfied with the Interlux Perfection paint job I am not sure I would recommend this finish to someone else as many of you know it nearly drove me crazy(ier).
dg[/quote]
No HTML tags allowed (except inside [code][/code] tags)
