Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
I just found this video clip by accident, not sure if it has already been referred to on the forum, based on Teleport's North West Passage passage.
Anyway, there's the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCYdn5NeDvw
In 2006 I was interested enough in Marco Polo III to hire a local surveyor named Ian Tulloch to take pics of the boat. The outside hull looked nice enough but the delamination in the deck and state of the engine room suggested alot of work.
I'm pretty sure Chris Bray could have done his own survey via pics and weighed paying $20k aganist the fact that the boat was located in a very good spot to start his trek. Free would have been a more compelling price?
My recollection from the early versions of the Bray's website is that they did not buy the boat from Jim Creighton. It had already been sold once.
The Brays did a number of interviews over time to various news outlets. Which is fine, but sometimes, you find, for the sake of a good story, a mixture of truth, part-truth and untruth. Links to some of these are floating around the internet.
Robert Self is correct, I did not sell the boat to the Brays. I sold it to Don MacInryre an Australian adventurer who planned to use it in an upcoming single handed Transatlantic race. That was cancelled because of illness in the family. After that, he had his hands ful organizing a replication of Captain Bligh's voyage from the Bounty to Timor. As it happened, one of the crew signed up for that cruise was Chris Bray. Plans changed and Don sold his boat to Chris. I don't think Chris saw any surveys of Marco Polo, as I named her.
So we have a young and adventuresome couple purchasing a boat, sight unseen, unsurved, half way round the world, expecting a boat that is almost ready to go through the North West Passage. Not. When they took possession, the boat had been sitting under a shrink wrap for two years. No provision had been made to look after it. I was not volunteering since it was no longer my boat, you need to let go, and once you start doing that, "you own it". The bilge had a lot of water in it. I don't think it was rain water, because the only place I could see where water could get in, the mast/cover join, was tightly sealed. I think it was two years of condensation. For one thing, we have the most freeze/thaw cycles in North America. Summers are hot and humid during the day and cool at night. Well, sort of cool.
About the deck delamination. The deck was 3/8 ply over frames, covered by glued teak strips held down by staples. The method was promoted by Gougeon brothers. When the stpales were removed, epoxy was troweled over the deck to fill the holes. Then you sand it clean. But it's impossible to know if you have 100% filled holes. I realized it was starting to leak and covered the deck with dynel fabric and (Cold Cure) epoxy. Later, I discovered an area in one corner of the fore-deck where actual rot had taken place. It was that repair job that was photographed. (I looks pretty awful) There was a dish shaped gouge which I filled with multiple layers of fiberglass and epoxy. This method teak plank mimicking is no longer promoted, for obvious reasons.
The engine room was unpainted, dirty and rust shows here and there. But the engine was sound. Also, there was a lot of soot to be wiped out, caused when an exhaust elbow burst and dirtied the compartment. On the way to Greenland, the obsolescent Dynastrat packed it in. If I had it to do over, I would have installed a modern starter motor.
About the price, I never did ask Chris what he paid for it. I sold it to Don for CAN$23,000 .
Around 1985, I asked the owner of Covey Island Boat Works what it would cost if they built it, cold molded wood epoxy. He said about C$300,000. Today, with inflation, that comes to around C$646,000. Sobering thought. If I had it to do over, i would have built a Badger.
Before I bought HOBBIT (ne Elsie N), I had the same Iain Tullouch do a survey. He found enough problems to convince me not to buy her. Then Annie came to visit and we went to see Elsie. It was an emotional experience for both of us. (It reminded her of her beloved Badger.) This time, I fell in love and the rest is history. Love is a loss leader that gets you into the grocery store.
Iain told that he has surveyed several boats that has significant problems, but the customer will still buy the boat because they just have to have it.