Posted by paulsebra (paulsebra@…>)
Good Day,
I have just finished rehab on a 1981 F33 and am trying to sell it -
so I would like to comment on 2 threads that have been running here.
First, Sales - I have gotten a lot more response from building a web
site www.F33CatKetch.com and posting pic’s and videos in one spot and
then directing people there from ads in Boattraderonline, boats.com,
Sailboatlistings, and Craigslist, etc. With the Yahoo “starter kit”,
they waived the $25 domain registration fee and the site rental is
about $12/month. The SiteBuilder tool is very easy to use, pick a
template and go.
I tried using a broker at the Marina in Hilton Head where the boat
is … he was not interested in an older boat - I guess business
must be good for him to be so fussy.
Second - Electrical wiring. I spent 2 years off and on rehabbing this
Freedom that I had once intended to cruise - those plans have been
put off for a bit … but boats this age NEED wiring work for
safety’s sake and you will go broke hiring someone to do the monkey
work of pulling wires through the bilge. On my boat, I replaced all
the AC wiring components, they were installed with no Galvanic
Isolator and household solid core wire … not suitable for marine
use.
The DC wire was of better quality, but was NOT tinned - why is the
quality of the wire important? … well bare copper is corrosion,
corrosion is resistence, resistence is heat, heat is fire, fire is
bad.
The Casey book is great, there are others that you can study - even
the West Marine Catalog has a decent introduction to wiring. It’s not
difficult, but you must be meticulous and careful. Invest $150 and
get yourself some good crimps, a Volt/Ohm meter with alligator clip
ends and a tone for zero resistence readings, good side cutter, and a
heat gun for the adhesive lined terminal ends. If you are doing
battery cables or anything heavier than no. 4, you will need
profesional “lever action” crimps - try to borrow those or get a shop
to make up the cables - my “big boy” crimps can do up to 4/0 cable,
but the cost over $200 - only needed for battery cables.
With the book and these tools you can do a fine job. 95% of the work
will be figuring out where the wire goes, what is connected to whet
(hence the VOM with the tone), and coming to grips with the fact that
boat cable (that’s what you want written on the wire covering, it
means ABYC certified, tinned, multi-strand wire)and the heat shrink
connectors are so **** expensive. But what you save on labor will
allow you to buy only the best in parts. Try to get a commercial
account someplace - Port Supply at West Marine, through a Yacht Club,
Marina, whatever - you will save 30% minimum.
If anyone has any specific questions, please send a reply or e-mail
and I will do what I can. I believe the effort to fix your own boat
is worth it, because you will know your boat much better and will be
self sufficient in case anything breaks - plus I hate to pay a yard
$90/hour for something I can do myself.
Sorry to be so long winded, Good Luck
Paul