Your Opinion? Embarking on a Typhoon Project

[Dick Villamil]

Already restored a Typhoon (1976) that had water in the bilge that froze and the expansion of the frozen water caused many small cracks in the fiberglass hull. After drying the hull out and drilling several holes in the bottom and at the top of keel ballast I first dried the space between ballast and hull with acetone then filled with epoxy resin from the bottom holes until it exited the upper holes. I then used a dreml and diamond bit to route out all the spiderweb cracks (1000+/-) then filled with epoxy with adhesive filler. As for the mast it appears to be toast. Rigging Only can replace the standing rigging relatively inexpensively. I wouldn't pay any more than $500 for the boat (better yet get free and take it off the liability of the club where she site) and trailer then prepare for a fall and summer of restoration. Looks like the poor boat was neglected to the point that somebody should restore this really nice boat. Be aware there may be some deck core water as well.

Once you locate another mast the standing rigging and sails aren't a deal breaker since there are a lot of used sails available. In a few years you can put new sails on her. An internal mast support is easy to make and descriptions are on this web site elsewhere. Steve's recommendation is very valid but the poor mistreated Typhoon needs some TLC by someone and it could be you!!!

I am still sailing my Typhoon 16 years after I restored it with some help from friends and very glad I did it - learned a lot, get a lot of comments from sailors and power boaters as well!

[wikakaru]

I would run away from that one and walk away if it was free.

By the time you replace the mast, standing rigging, running rigging, sails, work on the trailer and try to get the boat back into reasonable condition, you could buy a decent Typhoon and be sailing without all the work. I have spent far too much of my time on projects over the years and now see that I would have been far better off looking for something I didn't have to save.

Free boats can get very expensive, Steve.

Steve is absolutely right, unless you are the kind of person who enjoys the project as much as the sailing that results when it is done. (I am not such a person, so I would definitely walk away.) However, I also hate to see beautiful boats being neglected. If the project itself is what you are interested in, go for it. Based on what you have shown in the photos, in my opinion $2,000 seems like a lot of money for a Typhoon in that condition. Perhaps make a lower offer to the yacht club and see if they accept. If not with this boat, then there are a lot of other neglected Typhoons out there that are deserving of rescue. If you do a good job you will have a beautiful showpiece that you have resurrected yourself and you will have saved a boat that otherwise would eventually get chainsawed to pieces.

--Jim