San Diego Noob

[seajunkie]

Hello all,

My sailing odyssey started back in the late eighties. While in college I started crewing boats for my friends father. We raced on Eastern LI, RI, Block Island and did some cruising up to Nantucket, Martha’s Vinyard and such. These were some great times.

I moved to San Diego and have tried to get back into it. I now have a 2 year old and a 4 year old and I have dreamed of making sailing part of our lives. Since moving here have sailed a small Force 5, a West Wight Potter 19’, and a Catalina 14’. I didn’t really care for any of these boats. I’ve wanted a stable keel boat for the family.

Two weeks ago I came about a free Kenner Kittiwake 23’ on a mooring. This boat is a lot like the Cape Dory 25’, but you get what you pay for. I have been saving my pennies for years and decided I could put the 5k that I saved into this boat and upgrade it. Then I came about at Cape Dory 25’ on Craigslist and started reading your message boards about this boat. I have read about 700 of the 2794 posts that have the text “25” in them.

I’m hooked. I’m buying this boat tomorrow. I made a deal with Gary Slay who has a boat Registered in this registry (without a boat number) to buy his boat. Hull number 463.

The boat is in sailing condition which is a huge plus. I look forward to participating. I just joined the Kenner Kittiwake board last week, but I’m going to give that boat away (probably to charity). I can’t wait to get on the water. Hopefully I can help to create some great memories for my family with this boat. We will be in a slip on Harbor Island for two weeks. Our permanent home will be a mooring ball in Mission Bay with extended stays in local Marina’s as vacation permits.

I only have one friend here is San Diego who sails, and his boat will be on the hard for a few years to come, so this place is very very helpful. The members here add a lot of value to these boats.

Rich

[Gary M]

Nice to see another SoCal sailer on the board.

Here's wishing fair breezes and many adventures!

Gary

[Anthony P. Jeske]

Hey Rich:
Welcome to the board. I'm sure you'll find it as great a resource as I have. There are a few of us Cape Dorians out here in San Diego, how nice that now there's another.
If you're ever looking for crew, send me a PM (private message) and we'll go sailing.
Regards,
Tony Jeske
CD-28 #365
NO REGRETS
San Diego

[Warren Kaplan]

I lived in San Diego from 1975 to 1980. I remember doing a lot of sailing on San Diego Bay in Thunderbirds. Great fun sailing that bay (even if you have to play the occasional game of chicken with and aircraft carrier). I've sailed Mission Bay a few times in a Thistle.

Congratualtions to you. You're in a great sailing area with a great boat. Tell us how it goes. No matter where we are, we ALWAYS want to hear from Cape Dory sailors no matter where they are!!!

[seajunkie]

I really pulled the trigger on this fast. I have limited experience with boats. No survey, no experts, I just bought it. I was worried after making the purchase, but after spending the day cleaning her up and taking inventory, I couldn't be happier. I can't wait to get back next weekend. $3500 well spent. It came with matching sunbrella cusions. I brought them home to wash them. They look really nice.

[Mathias]

That is one beautiful boat for $3,500. CDs in that condition can easily sell for up to $7,500. It looks like the fiberglass is in great condition. All the brightwork is kept-up nicely.

And, look, you already have a cover. I would not spend money on that mooring cover. I have never seen a boat that size fully covered.

Here's what I would recommend: Replace the hatch boards with a clear plexiglass-type of material. Put a small grated vent into the plexiglass. Maybe 5"or 6" by 3" or 4". This will give you more light inside if you decide to overnight. Also the vent will keep the boat dryer inside.

Also, invest (or do it yourself) in a solar-activated vent fan built into your forward hatch. That will provide the through-draft of air from your new plexiglass grate to the hatch.

Best of luck. You have a great boat.

-Mathias

[seajunkie]

The brightwork took a lot of elbow grease to clean up. The difference in the condition of the teak under the sunbrella compared to the teak on the bow is drastic. I wouldn't mind varnishing if I could preserve it by covering it. A full boat cover is going to be way to much money though.

Great ideas, thanks for the suggestions, I will add them to the list. The previous owner lives on the boat next door. For the time being I can keep it open to air it out. I will need to put the fan in before I move it to a mooring where it will be locked up.

I am a little disappointed about the construction between the area between the cabin and under the cockpit. If any water builds up under the cockpit it seems like if can flow right through the thin plywood right behind where the bilge pump hose is. It seems like a fiberglass bulkhead or at least fiberglass lip would keep the water out of the cockpit. The "faucet" on what I think is a called a seacock (lower righthand corner) is broken. Is that an important item to replace? Niether side works.

[Mathias]

Rich,

I know it doesn't seem to make sense that there isn't a hermetical seal between the lazerette area (beneath the cockpit) and the cabin, but it does.

Cape Dory really built these boats to withstand pretty serious conditions. So if your boat ever became swamped, you want the water to be able to drain from the lazerette to the bilge, from whence it can be pumped out.

In my CD26, the bulkhead between lazerette and cabin is screwed in but there is about an eighth-inch or so of space all the way around. By the way, this offers some opportunities too. I have seen at least one person take out this bulkhead so they could build a longer berth for sleeping. In that project, he removed the little galley on the port side.

Evidence of the robustness of the design is the step in front of your campanionway (or entrance into the cabin.) (I mean the structure which has your built-in compass.) In my CD25, an earlier version of yours, I do not have that wrap-around bench. CD decided to add that feature for the case that you would be boarded by a following wave. If that happened, water would stay in the cockpit and drain from there instead of swamping into your cabin.

Now, it is rare that any of us CD25ers would encounter such conditions in the type of sailing we do, but it is nice to know the boat is designed for real ocean sailing.

I met a guy who took a CD25 to Bermuda.

That said, here are the reasons you shouldn't: First, the guy said he was sick the entire time. (It is an awfully small little cork of a boat to be bouncing around on 12 to 15 foot waves.)

But more importantly: (at least in my boat's design) the cockpit drains are too close to the waterline to drain quickly enough. So if you did get swamped, you would be in a precarious situation while that water was draining. If you got hit twice in row... yikes.

One last thing: You mentioned the seacocks. (yes those faucets.) Yes, they MUST be in working order. The reason is because they are holes in your boat. If the hose connected to them every fails, you must be able to close the seacock to prevent water intrusion.

From your photo, I couldn't really see the seacock. It looks to be located in the lazerette. Mine are in the cabin. If it is that thing, it looks as if there is no hose attached. Or am I not seeing that right? If so, then it is probably in the closed position. If so, it might have been your galley sink drain and no longer used? If you don't want to use the sink, then just leave it as it. I have never used my sink. I bring my water aboard and do dishes and such in the cockpit or a wash-bucket and empty it overboard.

But you should make sure all of your other seacocks are working. It is fairly easy to work on seacocks yourself. Use PB Blaster or WD40 or some liquid wrench to unscrew the seacock. Then you can take it home and take it apart to clean it, (use emory to remove any build up) and then re-grease it with a heavy, water-proof grease until it works relatively easy again. It's not a Swiss watch; it doesn't have to work by just your pinky alone, but you do have to be able to work it without a whole lot of force.

-Mathias

[seajunkie]

Thanks for you feedback.

Below is a better picture of the seacock. There is one on each side of the lazarette. The only thing attached to these seacocks are the cockpit drains. The seacock on the other side just spins. The sink was disconnected by the PO. I am trying to decide what to do with it. I'm leaning towards removing it. (who wants to do dishes anyway?)

The handle on the seacock is completely disintegrated. If I remove the seacock I'm thinking that water will fill at least to the water line.

It must be frozen open right now. Water drains from the cockpit.

[Paul D.]

That looks like a pretty corroded gate valve which I would certainly replace at the next convenient time with a seacock. Being on a mooring makes it even more important. There are many stories about close calls with gate valves. I replaced the ones on my Typhoon and felt much better. Maybe some 25 owners could better tell you the exact parts you should have, but being in salt water I would definitely not act cheap here. If she were mine I would replace with proper Bronze or Marelon seacocks.

Best of luck,
Paul

[Mathias]

Rich,

That is a much better shot of what is going on. Even though you may not want to ever close your cockpit seacocks, you will want them in working order. Just because if the hose or the hoseclamps fail, your boat will begin to fill with water and it will continue beyond the waterline. It could sink your boat if unattended (like at a mooring.)

From the picture, it looks like the hose clamps have some rust going on already.

The handle is missing from the seacock. You can buy those separately. I would get one on that seacock and see if you can move it. Far better to leave it as it is, if it is working.

If you have to remove or replace the seacock, it is going to be best to have that done while hauled out. Removing old hose in tricky places can be a real bear and I suggest cutting the hose off. It doesn't look like you have enough room on that hose to do anything else.

Technically, once you have the hose cut away, you could unscrew the seacock and stuff a soft wooden plug in the hole. This is a messy thing to do, since you would have a geyser of water coming out of the thru-hole until you get the plug in there.

I really don't recommend it.

Different people will argue about how critical this all is. Some say there is nothing more important you can do than to make sure your seacocks are in working order. I take a more pragmatic approach. If they have worked all along, then you can probably postpone this project. But I would get to it within a year or so. In Vermont, we have the mixed blessing of having to haul out every winter. It is a bummer not to be able to sail for six months, but at least we are forced to haul out and do repairs and maintenance that is necessary.

-Mathias

[seajunkie]

Replace the hatch boards with a clear plexiglass-type of material

Mathias when you say "hatch boards" are you talking about the three boards that go into the cabin from the cockpit? The only plexiglass that I can find is pretty thin. I did get a nicro fan for too much money and I was going to put that on the forward hatch. I saw one CD25 linked to these boards with plexiglass inserted into the center of the forward hatch with the Nicro Fan set in the middle of the plexiglass. That seemed nice, but I hate cutting up the hatch like that.

I can't bring myself to cut up the wood on the planks of wood that make up the cabin door. I was thinking about removing the middle one and inserting some 3/4" plywood with a vent installed in the middle. That might last until I can find a nicer solution.

[Zeida]

Seajunkie, the pictures you have posted of your new (to you) CD25 shows a very good looking boat, inside and out. With some loving care you can get her to absolute great condition. Go to the website of PRAIRIE, another CD-25 and you will see what a restoration job can do. You will get many ideas from seeing her pictures. I will forever miss my 25.

[seajunkie]

Prairie is an amazing restoration. I drool over those pictures. That is where I saw the front hatch with the plexiglass. I really like the outboard set up too. The inteiror is beautiful and and and and....

Unfortunately I don't have the coins to make that happen. Right now I want to set her up so that I can keep her on a mooring without worry. Ventilation will be key. I'm also concerned about the through hulls.

[Sea Owl]

Sea Junkie;

What a buy! I paid that much for mine, and have more work to do than you....but such is life!

On the cockpit drains. If the hoses look ok, I would bet the through hulls are basically sound. I just pulled the head on mine, and am working to 'close off' the thru hulls which were the intake and exhaust for the head. Finally got the old valves off, and the thru hulls look in good shape. Lucky there I guess. After some inspiration, I am capping the thru hulls off with PVC caps, suitably sealed. I have no need for them for any conceivable future use, but decided taking them out and fiberglassing the hull was more than I wanted to do. Hated buying seacocks, because again, I have no intention of letting water in (or out!) through them. Couldn't find bronze caps, so - voila! PVC, which won't react electrically with the bronze.

I would at least replace the hose clamps on your boat; rusted clamps are prone to give way. There isn't much pressure on these hoses, but they are important and as someone said, holes in your boat!

Based on hard experience, take a hard look at your rudder for cracks showing weakness. Having the rudder break off in your hand can be exciting!

Best of luck, and welcome aboard as another proud CD 25 owner!