I took the day off yesterday to drive north of Boston, about 2 1/2 hours to buy the ugliest boat I've ever owned. Not the ugliest I've seen but close to it.
I have been searching for a Marshall Sanderling Catboat. For those in the know, the Catboat is a New England designed working boat. Meant for a "Man and boy" to work out of all da long. It's a versatile rig with an over sized sail on a gaff rig. Just one HUGE sail with two reefs points so the sail can be reduced to manageable size as the wind increases.
The Marshall Sanderling has been in continuous production since 1962, and over 830 have been made since then. The company is still in business in Dartmouth MA, just around 90 minutes from my house in Brewster. It's a 18' boat with a 8 1/2' beam.
So I was looking off-Cape for a Sanderling and saw this one ad "Lobster Sanderling Conversion" and I thought, "What the???"
This is what I found:
Now unless you know these boats it might be hard to see the swan in this ugly duckling! But I did see it so two weeks ago my buddy and I took the drive north to see how hard it was going to be to return this boat to where it should be!
The story behind this conversion was interesting. The man bought the boat in 2000 to help him through retirement, just another hobby. His wife passed away in 2009 and he became ill. He was a 70 year old retired machinist. He decided to convert he boat, with the idea that it would be converted back, to a small harbor cruiser. He worked on it for two years, launched it, used it twice and then passed away. His son just wants the boat out of there. And the son is a recreational fisherman, not a sailor.
Along comes me. The boat does have a 9.9 Yamaha engine with remote controls all set up, and that has to be worth at least $2K. The trailer looks great the bearings fel good, so after a little bit of sazall fun we hooked it up, loaded all the extra gear and headed home. Oh we arrived at 8AM and were ready to head home by 10:00AM
We made it back to Paul's by 12:30PM. He owns a storage business so we are going to work on the boat there to try and whip it into shape well enough to get one sail out of it next week.
By 3PM we had finally uncovered and exposed the Sanderling beneath that monstrosity!
I did forget to remove the remote control spotlight from the Mast hole but I did that right after the picture was taken. All that has to done is to replace the upper gudgeon and the running rigging and this boat is sailable as is!!!
Of, the final price $2,500 with trailer title, boat title, and all the goodies to go with it.
I am now the proud owner of Hull #69 of the Marshall Sanderling Catboat family. Just wait until you see next years pictures!
New name, maybe "Plumb Bob"..... Suggestions are being taken.
Don
Good find. That sounds awesome. I don't know anything about sailing so a lot of the terms you mentioned are beyond me. However it sounds like a truly great hobby.
Don, if you did that in one day, the same day you bought it and brought it home, I expect it will be turning heads next summer in a harbor loaded with beautiful boats. I just hope it doesn't take too much time away from your career on Beerleg.com
"Outstanding on the Water" or just "Outstanding".
The two happiest days of a man's life ....
The day he buys a boat and the day he sells it!
The two happiest days of a man's life ....
Non-Boaters always think this, Dave. Probably started by a sailing widow 🙂
The two happiest days of a man's life ....
Don:
Does it still have it's centerboard, and did you get the rudder and sail?
The hull is looking pretty good and I am sure once you complete your repairs it will be fun to sail. I assume that you will have a gaff-rigged sail when you are done.
It looks like you got a great deal even if it does need some work and it doesn't take and fuel.
T.W.
The two happiest days of a man's life ....
Well, I have crewed on sail boats and enjoyed it, but the extent of my navy is a canoe.
I spend my fortune on airplanes.
There's the old joke about aviation - How do you become a millionaire in aviation? Start with 2 million.
But it looks like you may have gotten a good deal on your boat. And while it's a shame what the guy did to the boat, it did look like he did a good job.
N Transit
>
> New name, maybe "Plumb Bob"..... Suggestions are being taken.
>
> Don
I always wanted to name a boat "N Transit" with a fancy North Arrow through the "N".
I never will, so you can use it if you want to.
N Transit
Name it the Dura Dura. YOU CAN SAIL IT ALL DAY LONG AND YOU DON'T NEED WATER!
N Transit
bahahaha!
I agree, good find, Don.
I just received a deposit on my catboat. Time to downsize so we can do some other things. They are a joy to sail.
Sailing in the Thousand Islands, St Lawrence River, Ontario, Canada.
Two summers ago when sailing with my then four year old granddaughter.
She said "Sailing is easy G-Paw"!
I need to visit the CAPE again and see this project.
Grant
Now, how the heck
are you supposed to go sailing without water?
Studied the first pic and thought "Looks like a pelican".
Then you mentioned swan and duckling in your first line of information.
Maybe you can name her Lidar cause all she does is Lie-dar all day while you're out working.
Or maybe Expelican. Gives you an excuse to tell others about how your turned a pelican something much more graceful.
Nice boat Grant, is that the Cape Cod 16? or Arey's Pond 16? The grab rails look to small for a Sanderling but the lines look it!
Don,
My cat is a Menger 19 built on Long Island, NY.
Grant
Wow. the Menger 19!
That would have been my first choice, but they were much to pricey and no one would ever do this to a Menger.
For those that wonder, there are really three catboats in this range 18-19' that are the best, the Menger 19, the Marshall Sanderling 18' and the Herschoff America, also 18'.
The Menger is the "best", the Sanderling is second and the Herschoff comes in third.
But the Sanderling is the fastest 🙂
Nice boat Grant I bet you're going to miss that one!
New name, maybe "Plumb Bob"..... Suggestions are being taken.
I like "Plumb Bob"
Not too oringinal, but are you partial to "Foggy Idea" ?
How about "It Depends" ?
Good luck with the new boat.
Ken
TDD
A few years ago Ted Dura (TDD) had a post on the old POB board about how much he and a crew could get done in a day WITHOUT TAKING ANY WATER BREAKS. Of course this lead to a long argument about taking water breaks and such. I'm sure Ted could sail all day long without any water in sight.
don, i was shocked to see the wheelhouse go when i scrolled toward bottom, but it probably will move a whole lot better without it (less 'sail' in the air)
Where's my line?
