| Posted by mike , May 02,2003,21:45 | Post Reply | Top | Forum |
If you can get the boat on shore and disinfect everything with a chlorine bleach solution (try not to breath it,-maybe a powerwasher spray would work, you could see the extent of the damage. When you say the keel is broken, what exactly does that mean? Is it something that can be repaired with fibreglas and epoxy or polyester resin? A used 3-6 hp motor should be enough and you may find used ones for as little as $100 if you look around. Just to get it "seaworthy" you could even use a trolling motor to get in and out of launch area since it's primarily a sailboat. Ebay often has jibs or genoas that should fit since you have a fairly wide range of choices for your other sail. If you have the spars and rigging, your major cost may be replacing the cushions, electrical components which the water may have damaged. Once it's done, the outfit should be worth about $4000 so it should be worth doing, especially if you consider your time and labor as a hobby.
Legally, you should contact your local sheriff or police department and file for a salvage title, whether you plan to keep it for your own use or resell it. You are entitled to storage costs which should exceed the value of the boat and trailer. They can also look up the owner via registration numbers or perhaps Catalina has it in their files if it was the original owner. Depending on where you live, you may be required to try to contact the owner or just public notice may be enough. If you produce a statement of say $10/day for 4 years, obviously you'll become the owner by default. If you don't want to complete the boat, there are a number of other web sites that feature project boats where you could sell it and/or look for missing parts.I have a list of many of them I could send you if you don't want to search for them yourself. good luck, Mike