Arion is still for sale.  I have just dropped the price in my Yachthub ad to $12,000 but have also stated that ALL offers will be considered.  I am going to look at a small catamaran today and may end up owning two boats, which will be a bit of a financial disaster, but this may be my only chance to get a nice little cat to potter around on in my old age. Not sure yet if I will have the courage, or be stupid enough to buy the cat before selling Arion.  For someone prepared and capable of doing steel boat maintenance, and serious about a genuine cruising boat loaded with gear, this represents an opportunity to get a decent cruising boat very cheaply.  I will be available to assist you to get to know the boat and its systems.  If this boat was in NZ I think it would be snapped up!  Please refer to the Yachthub ad (boats under 25ft) for extensive photos and technical data.

Especially with so few sensibly sized junk rigs!

Good luck with your sale, There is nothing worse than having to scrap a good boat. I almost had to cut up my old 26foot daysailer because I had bought my current one and had no where to moor the old one. 

On the appointed day, as I was dragging her up the slipway getting ready to cut her up a gent came by and took her off my hands for the price of the mast and sails I was so happy to see her go to a new owner to continue sailing I forgot to go aboard a remove two brand new bilge pumps I had recently installed which were worth more the chap paid me for the boat... 

Anonymous wrote:

Tell us about the catamaran!

Selling of boats is a funny thing. Sometimes they can be for sale for years before the right buyer comes along. The boat I have just bought is a good example. It had been quietly for sale for years before I came along and snapped it up before anyone else could get their hands on it. It is of a relatively unknown design in New Zealand, and probably for its length has accommodation on the smaller size. But when I saw it for sale it was exactly what I wanted, and was in extremely good condition having been in the same family since a new boat.

So somewhere there will be a buyer for Arion.

The cat is a Simpson design, cedar strip round bottoms with epoxy and kevlar, epoxy saturated ply elsewhere, with a Wharram Tiki sloop rig, all beautifully built in 2004 but a bit scruffy.  It was built in Tasmania and sailed north, has cruised the length of the east coast four times.  It has lovely buoyant bows and narrow transoms, with stern mounted rudders on skegs. Lots of buoyancy compartments so it cannot sink if holed, two bunks on the bridgedeck, galley, toilet, chart table, etc, in the hulls.  I love it but I think I need an offer on Arion before I can proceed.  If Arion does not sell I will be in a real pickle financially, possibly lose both boats if there was even a minor problem, like one of the boats dragging ashore while I was on the other (I would have to keep them both at anchor because I couldn't afford mooring fees.)  I may miss out on the cat, which will be unfortunate, as I think it ideal for me.  But right now, I am very comfortable financially for an old vagabond.  I think in a few weeks I will take Arion back out of the marina I am in in Mooloolaba and go back down into Moreton Bay where I can skulk around, lie on my anchor and save $200 a week from my pension.  Hopefully someone will come along who likes junk rig, is not afraid of maintaining an older steel boat, and recognises that there are thousands of dollars worth of first-class gear on board.

Nicholas wrote:

Sounds like a plan to me. I had a very unpleasant experience when a novice looked at my boat last year and failed to understand that a classic steel boat needs working on continuously. He had a bit of a fit and got very excited about my advert. Since then.....no interest although I have continued to pour ££££s and hours of my life into her. Not just maintenance but huge improvements too. I am looking for a bigger boat to live on and voyage further but face the same issue of selling or not before buying new. My plan, if it comes to this, is to keep Tao at my yacht club for a year (£500) for sale and then to scrap her for the value of the rig, the yanmar engine, windpilot, fittings, steel and 1000kg of lead in the keel. Financially the only way it would make any sense. Sad but true.

I reall y hope you can make it work out for you.

In 2016, a yacht broker I know in Lake Macquarie, just north of Sydney, said that he considered more than half the boats he had on his books were unsalable.  There seems to be a huge glut of unwanted boats on the market here.  Scrapping them may be the only solution.  I have not investigated the logistics of doing that.  Keeping boats in dry storage here is prohibitively expensive (unlike England, winter storage is not a normal procedure).  it is difficult to sell off the gear while the boat is afloat, and quite possible that the costs of scrapping it might exceed the returns. People just abandon boats here and they sink, which is becoming an increasing problem for waterways authorities. If the worst comes to the worst, I will just potter around on Arion for a few more years.  It is a roof over my head after all, and the boat is perfectly seaworthy and functional.  I may have to pay someone to help me eventually for a week or so each year when I slip the boat for maintenance.  I'd prefer to get the catamaran for my twilight years but it may be beyond reach.  I remind myself that Arion is a good boat, and I am lucky to have him.  Chin up, as my English mum used to say.

Anonymous wrote:

Nicholas wrote:

Sounds like a plan to me. I had a very unpleasant experience when a novice looked at my boat last year and failed to understand that a classic steel boat needs working on continuously. He had a bit of a fit and got very excited about my advert. Since then.....no interest although I have continued to pour ££££s and hours of my life into her. Not just maintenance but huge improvements too. I am looking for a bigger boat to live on and voyage further but face the same issue of selling or not before buying new. My plan, if it comes to this, is to keep Tao at my yacht club for a year (£500) for sale and then to scrap her for the value of the rig, the yanmar engine, windpilot, fittings, steel and 1000kg of lead in the keel. Financially the only way it would make any sense. Sad but true.

I reall y hope you can make it work out for you.

In 2016, a yacht broker I know in Lake Macquarie, just north of Sydney, said that he considered more than half the boats he had on his books were unsalable.  There seems to be a huge glut of unwanted boats on the market here.  Scrapping them may be the only solution.  I have not investigated the logistics of doing that.  Keeping boats in dry storage here is prohibitively expensive (unlike England, winter storage is not a normal procedure).  it is difficult to sell off the gear while the boat is afloat, and quite possible that the costs of scrapping it might exceed the returns. People just abandon boats here and they sink, which is becoming an increasing problem for waterways authorities. If the worst comes to the worst, I will just potter around on Arion for a few more years.  It is a roof over my head after all, and the boat is perfectly seaworthy and functional.  I may have to pay someone to help me eventually for a week or so each year when I slip the boat for maintenance.  I'd prefer to get the catamaran for my twilight years but it may be beyond reach.  I remind myself that Arion is a good boat, and I am lucky to have him.  Chin up, as my English mum used to say.

Hey Graham....have you thought about sailing Arion here to NZ.  Thanks to the likes of Annie, and Alan of Zebedee and many others, Whangarei is becoming a bit of a Junkie hotspot.  Because of this, despite Australia having a bigger population, you just might have better luck selling Arion in cousin kiwi land.  Just an idea I'd thought I'd throw out there....

FLights are cheap too - if you had a serious possible buyer you could hop on a flight and go for a sea trial with them.  Once they see how awesome the junk rig is (unless prospective buyer is a junkie already of course) they will be sold!

Plenty of cheap, safe moorings in Whangarei and BOI too....

I make it all sound so easy, buy aye, stranger things have happened...

Good luck mate, with whatever ultimately happens with your neat little ship.