http://yachthub.com/list/yachts-for-sale/used/sail-monohulls/joubert-magpie-34/172473

Any one here buy this?

I usually peruse Yachthub on a regular basis but have not done so as often as I should have. This is a real gift and I congratulate the lucky buyer.

thats a bargain alright!

If i was retired id buy it
Be good to have a bungalo for my H 28

There's $50 to $70K to be spent on this. Buy one in good nick for $35K

/\ Depends on what you want to do with it, doesn't it?

Yes, you could spend $70k. Or you could sand back and varnish the interior, check the gear and rigging and replace suspect stays with gal rigging (ugly, but it worked for decades and even in the '80s was standard for main halyards on Grand Prix boats for unusual reasons), maybe whack on an outboard bracket and a 9.8hp outboard, and have fun sailing around the harbour with friends.

The $35k would be the better avenue in many ways, but on the other hand it's very easy to over-capitalise on boats. The very high standard of finish and maintenance required by sailing culture these days may be turning off many, many people.

southace said..
Engine not running? I can see by the pictures and the age she i a full project and I would suspect some hidden surprises.

Borrow sam sturdy's aerostart she'd be a rocket

Ramona said..

MorningBird said..
There's $50 to $70K to be spent on this. Buy one in good nick for $35K

Or a handful of scrapers and a few litres of varnish Pull the engine and rebuild. I see a lot of labour hours there but not much money. I certainly would have bought it if I was quick enough. It needs a good set of primary winches but that's the only serious outlay. They appear on eBay fairly regularly. Hull and deck needs a wash down with metal gleam, I would not even bother repainting.

Like you say, not too much of a big deal to get her up to scratch.

Nobody seems to know how long fibre glass will last for yet. I have told my 18 yo son that he will inherit my yacht. It being a classic may outlast him.

A Lotus 9.2 is definitely a collectors item.

HG02 said..

southace said..
Engine not running? I can see by the pictures and the age she i a full project and I would suspect some hidden surprises.

Borrow sam sturdy's aerostart she'd be a rocket

Haha HG. I don't use Aerostart any more since someone on the forum suggested I could be suffering
from Aerostart addiction. It took a while to wean myself off it, but the old Bukh would have started
without it all the time. Duh. (actually I've replaced the inlet and exhaust valves and it's improved
the compression no end).

Ive had a look at her and she's spongy on deck and cockpit in places...so the engine is not the only issue

DrRog said..

MorningBird said..
There's $50 to $70K to be spent on this. Buy one in good nick for $35K

I'm def with MB on this one. Aesthetics aside there are numerous safety issues to consider. Would you buy a $500 unregistered car and take your friends or family down the freeway for weekender, endangering your loved ones and others? Maybe when I was 19 I would (hmmm... remembering the time I bought a motorbike the day after I got my L's (theory only) and rode it out of Lismore without a helmet. After I figured out how to change gears the cops pulled me over out of town). Not these days.

Maybe that's my problem but everyone seems to have had high safety standards on other issues but happy to consider taking out a boat in which every single line, fastening, wire, bolt, through hull and pump will be severely compromised. I can imagine the holier-than-thou outcry on here when someone does that and ends up on the rocks, damaging other boats, getting plucked out of the water, or worse.

Surely it depends who is going to sail a particular boat and how and where they will sail it. No one is saying people should buy a boat in this condition and sail across Bass Strait in it, or learn to sail on it, but it's not necessarily dangerous if used properly.

Not all lines, fastenings, fittings etc are severely compromised by age or neglect, and most of those that are, or could be, can be checked. And if a boat is just going to be schlepping around the harbour in experienced hands then the loads and strains that break stuff can be minimised. Yes, it's not good if a halyard breaks, for example - but if the boat is being sailed with an appreciation of its condition then it won't be just to windward of a lee shore in a big breeze and therefore the jib can simply be pulled onto the foredeck. And the halyards on a boat like an old Magpie would rarely be so marginal in construction that they would let go without warning you by developing fishhooks or in some other manner.

The analogy with driving a car down a freeway may not be a very close one. Cars would surely have more systems and parts that could have weaknesses that the normal experienced user cannot diagnose, and it's simple physics that something moving at 110 kmh in close proximity to other cars and roadside trees is a very different kettle of fish to something moving at 10kmh with much less to hit.

There's a bunch of people on here who drive old cars, which every serious source seems to consider more dangerous than new ones. If people can take considered risks like driving a classic car carefully, why can't people take considered risks like sailing boats with ageing gear carefully? It's also interesting to see how many boats that appear good cosmetically can have serious issues, ranging from the nice looking Compass 28 that suffered skin fitting failure on the mooring, up to the Beneteau 50 sinking we're discussing in another thread.

I will admit, my own boat is a scruffy one; it happens when you have kids and other interests. It was in dire need of new rigging and work on the donk and the underwater fittings (which is why it now has new keel bolts, skin fittings and rudder tube, engine, stays and spreaders, although it still looks rough) but at no stage was anyone ever in danger because of the condition of the boat.

A lot of this stuff is relative and subjective anyway. Some people have such high standards that they would probably call every boat owned by people on this forum a "POS" anyway, and they would be concerned because not everyone has their entire rig removed and checked each year, and not everyone makes sure their pro crew polish the boat every week and every time it leaves the dock.

Hi iv been searching all the obvious sites looking and trying to gather info to buy my first sailing boat,it's good fun,iv seen this boat and many others that look like bargains or in my price range,it seems a lot if the value in these cheaper boats has a lot to do with the condition of the engine,,hence the price,was thinking if I did buy a boat around the 15k mark I'd like to have a new engine for reliability,just wondering roughly how much it would cost for a new say 30ph engine cost to install,I know it's a pretty stupid question but little things like this info is hard to find for newby wanting to buy a boat,I have heaps if questions trying to understand all the lingo,can some one please tell me what lazy jacks are,I'm thinking it's something to do with the main sail to make if easier to get up
Thanks for any info appreciated

DrRog said..

Yep, good points, Chris. To be honest, I don't care that much about this issue but, having bought a 30 year old somewhat neglected boat, the sentiments above just don't make sense to me.

Granted the highway analogy was pushing it, but the classic car analogy is fundamentally flawed because these cars are lovingly restored and maintained and a car must pass a registration process ie be inspected by a professional and all safety issues rectified from the chassis right down to the rubber on the windscreen wipers. Boats - no questions asked, just pay the rego and away you go. You can sail out in 'safe and protected' waters of Sydney Harbour amongst the ferries and cruise ships, multiple yacht club races, war ships, weekend anglers and rent-a-boat wankers with no engine and old lines, rigging, rudder post, etc.

As I said, these are my thoughts but I'm not overly passionate about it. Additionally, I listen to people on here get quite stringent on safety issues and I think the statements are inconsistent with these.

You're right - it does depend on who will be skippering; they'll need to know when to stop bucketing and start swimming.

Dr, I should have explained myself better. I didn't mean to say that classic cars are poorly maintained, but it seems to be a fact that they are less safe overall than an expensive modern car, mainly due to their inferior crash performance. However, the guys who run beautiful classic cars are willing to compromise on safety so they can enjoy driving their classics rather than just leaving them in the garage. Sailing a run-down boat is similar in some ways, because you are willing to compromise on safety to enjoy being able to get out there sailing.

Sure, a perfectly maintained boat is the ideal and is safer, but it's all relative. A perfectly maintained 50 footer with full foam floatation and a full crew is safer than the 25-35 footers many people sail offshore with just one or two crew, but no one criticises the people who can only afford the smaller boats. People are quite happy to compromise their safety by sailing shorthanded across oceans, so why can't others compromise their safety by sailing run-down boats around the harbour?

We don't use all the available safety gear and routines when we go cycling, surfing, skiing or driving to the shops. It's pretty well established that we get too concerned with freak dangers and too complacent about chronic dangers, and that we regularly take more risks when we have more safety gear. We can sail a boat that is not perfectly maintained with a reasonable level of safety, as long as we compensate for possible gear issues in other ways such as by allowing more space off a lee shore in case that ageing halyard breaks and by not heading out to Noumea. It's not ideal, but it's better than sitting at home watching TV and getting fat (or going out for a bike ride and risking cars, or going hiking and risking breaking a leg for that matter!).

Have a good time with the 30 year old boat!

Hi Marlin,
One thing of note here if you are looking to delve into the market, the longer the boat, there is an exponential increase in price for the maintenance and ongoing costs.
One of the best pieces of advice I got a long time ago, was to buy a smaller boat you can afford to maintain rather than a bigger boat that does the same thing that you cant afford to maintain properly.
I was going to buy a friends 34', but took this advice and bought a 26'. Best thing I ever did.
A laminate mainsail for the 34' was over 5K, a laminate main for my 26" was $2.2K.
The Bukh leg went on the 24", replacement cost was 3.5K. My motor died, I bought a bigger outboard for the 26' for $1K.
The 34" needs 4 persons to leisure sail, I need 1.
If you've been around boats you probably already know this, but something to keep in mind if you don't!
SB

cisco said..

Too right Shaggy!! Nothing worse than having a boat that needs more than one to sail it and having nobody to go sailing with you.

Ill agree with that Cisco
on going costs and fees add up . I've been spending for a while now but its getting to the stage Ill just have maintenance to do soon once I retire just keep her tidy and go sailing . I hope

Thanks for the advice,appreciated,think I'd be stupid buying a boat over 30 foot now ,think I should start at the bottom and work my way up,iv been checking all the yaghts out at the marina here at nelsons bay,some very nice boats I mite add,but gee they look complicated,im
Moored beside a Bavaria bit over 40I'd say,nice boat but to big for a beginner like me,I need a cheapy to get started, i know that now adleast,

I'm Taking a few friends down the other end of the bay to watch the club racing tomorrow ,should be a fun day but the wind isn't predicted,can't wait though looking forward to it
Thanks again

great posts on here.

I looked at The Mottle 33 for $12k (our dream cruising boat) but living in tassie I reckon you'd want at least $25k extra in the bank just in case to bring it down, plu flights etc. may as well look at a well looked after boat from melbourne for $30k.

Another interesting comparison is my $4500 Etchells. Cheap buying, cheap sails (got a good 2nd hand main for $250) and the boat was in raceable condition (just). Even then after all that and the fact i get everything cheap as I sell boat stuff this is the list I am doing this winter
- Pull mast and replace standing rigging as I don't know how old it was
- remove spreaders, sand and repaint.
- remove boom, new outhaul system
- replace every rope on the boat (about 300m )
- sand off the 10 odd coats of antifoul, fair a few spots, prime and new antifoul
- remove tiller, new tiller extension and varnish tiller
- new wheel bearing on storage trailer
- 10 new cleats with new bolts
- a few new blocks
- new cover
- new fenders
- pull mooring and replace most of it

Even with my lower cost of parts, that is still coming to well over $2k, plus probably 50 hours of my time.

And all that's on a boat with no plumbing, electrical, motor or dinghy!!!

There is no such thing as a cheap boat!!!

Mind you I now have about 200m of good ute tie down ropes!!!