[Paddlewise] The Poor Man's Mothership

When I posted my desire for a kayak mothership several people chimed in that
they, too, were either looking for or recovering from a kayak mothership so
I thought I'd bring everyone up-to-date.

My original idea for a kayaking mothership was a 40-ish foot trawler diesel
trawlerl. Unfortunately, my wife refused to drive the getaway car in my
carefully planned bank robbery regardless of the meticulous (she called it
"ridiculous) planning. My most articulate argument ("if they catch me, I
retire... if not, we go paddling") fell on deaf ears. Well, they might as
well have been deaf what with all the "la la la"-ing.

So, perforce (another word I've always wanted to use), I was reduced to plan
B. And then, as reality slowly set in, to plan C, plan D and plan E. I'm on
plan F now; which seems appropriate, somehow.

That remarkable advertising vehicle, craigslist.org, offered a plethora of
choices. Everything from a beautiful 1948 (still younger than I am!) Grandy
with a covered slip in Oak Harbor (Whidbey Island) to fiberglass hulks
needing engines in backyards all over the Pacific Northwest to costly and
overpowered plastic yachts clearly made to stay at docks. The Grandy, at
$8,000, was tempting with its long sedan roof just begging for a gaggle of
kayaks and beautiful wood interior. I had, however, already owned my two
wooden boats, thank you very much and I'm no longer as dumb as I look.

Because I live some distance from salt water (and salt water marinas) the
choices dwindled down to a variety of trailerable power boats. I would
prefer diesel power but there were only two of those available anywhere
close to my price range; one derelict Chris Craft at $2500 and  one Carver
2665 with a Volvo Penta diesel in Arlington at $18,000. I was actually
tempted by the Carver but the price (and the 2000 hours on the engine)
scared me off.

I did, however, like the shape and finish of the Carver hull. So I began to
look for boats in the 25 to 26 foot category constructed of fiberglass with
low engine hours (or recent overhauls). Gasoline boat engines are overhauled
and rebuilt much more often than marine diesel engines (and much more
cheaply) so it's not that unusual to find boats with low hours on a rebuilt
or new block. Or low hour engines all by themselves.

Fiberglass boats can suffer from a fate worse than wooden boats, however.
While the hull of a fiberglass boat is almost invariably glass fiber clear
through, the decks of these boats are invariably "cored" with foam or wood.
Very often the wood is not marine-grade plywood; occasionally it is balsa.
The problems come when water makes its way into these wooden cores and
dry-rot spores begin to take hold within that closed environment. After a
while the sturdy wooden core turns into dust and the decks sag and peel. On
a wooden boat you can usually see this problem much earlier and correct it
before it becomes a disaster but on a glass boatg the wooden cores are
hidden away from a buyer's eye and the problem is much more difficult to
spot. So if a seller can show you a receipt for repair of his complete
decking, that's a plus.

Another selling point is electronics. The boats in my price range (unless my
wife decides to drive the getaway car after all) are generally from the
1970s and 1980s and if they have any electronics at all it's generally of a
(ahem!) certain age. The value of a radar set with a CRT (cathode ray tube)
display is often nowhere near what the seller thinks it is. That diesel
Carver came with so many separate electronic devices added over the years
that there was, literally, no space left on the tiny inside steering station
for them all to be mounted. So the compass was in back! Apparently not used
that often.

So now what I was looking for was a well-made fiberglass powerboat with
(sigh) a gasoline engine recently overhauled or rebuilt, with solid decks, a
flybridge (because I like flybridges), an inside steering station (because I
also like being warm), a way of either carrying 4 kayaks or with enough
space so that building one that would keep the kayaks out of the way would
not be too difficult. I would prefer that it have no electronics at all so I
could add my own. It also had to come with a trailer that my 1994 Dodge 3/4
ton pickup with a Cummins diesel could tow it.

As to electronics, not too long ago a boat owner would buy and install a
GPS, a radar system, a sonar fish-finder (or depth finder), a VHF radio, and
whatever else separately. Each device taking up a small but finite amount of
room. On a 40-ish foot trawler the space for such devices would be sufficien
but not on a 26-foot cruiserl. Today, however, one can buy a single display
unit and then wire up all those separate devices as sensors to it and simply
switch between the various inputs. Or display them all at once! All in a
choice of 5, 6, 8 or 10-inch displays for prices ranging from around $3500
complete.

I am happy to report that I found a gasoline-powered version of the diesel
Carver for a small fraction of the price the owner of the diesel was asking.
My wife and I go to colllect the boat this weekend. It comes with no
electronics and no stove. For some reason all the other people looking at
this boat wanted a stove and the empty space where the stove once had been
was, apparently, a detraction. For me it was another plus. My thoughts on a
stove are based upon my experiences running my 35-foot wooden salmon troller
in the 1970s. That boat had a squalid living space in the foc's'l with two
bunks (one atop the other), an abbreviated table for eating, and a diesel
stove.

Modern power cruisers seem to all come equipped with an alcohol stove
installed on the theory that an alcohol fire can be extinguished with water
alone. I'm thinking that I have a fire extinguisher anyway and that's closer
than pumping water. In addition, when Susan (my wife) and I were cruising in
the Pacific we knew several people who had been severely burned by alcohol
stoves because the cook couldn't see the flame. Alcohol stoves have to be
primed by lighting a little alcohol in the cup under the burner and letting
that pre-heat the burner. If one accidentally adds alcohol to a pre-heat cup
that still has burning alcohol in it, the results can be nasty indeed.
Especially if the cook is wearing a bikini.

In the Pacific Northwest we seldom have to worry about the cook wearing a
bikini; certainly not later in the day. But the same thing that reduces
bikini-wearing also makes a diesel stove a happy addition to a NW cruising
boat. It not only cooks, but it heats too. And cheaply. Certainly cheaper
than alcohol. So I plan to install a DIckinson diesel stove in that empty
space and if it's too hot to fire it up I'll just put a butane cookstove on
top of it; or better yet, paddle to shore and cook over a roaring fire on
the beach.

Best of all, I can add all these goodies and still be over $8,000 less into
the boat than if I had bought that diesel Carver. A guy can go a long ways
on $8,000 worth of fuel even at today's prices.

Now you are up-to-date and with a little luck I'll be able to regale you all
with marvelous stories of paddling from our new Carver mothership. And if it
all goes awry there is always my fallback plan and the local bank.


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
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