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January 2017 Chip Ahoy's restoration, refit featured in Sailing Magazine HERCULEAN TASK An obsessive refit transforms a Catalina 22 into a showpiece By David Liscio Excerpt: A meticulous record keeper, Ford's log of the restoration [of Chip Ahoy] consumes reams of digital pages. Every steel nut and bolt is accounted for, as are the bigger-ticket items like roller furling, a new outboard engine, standing rigging, electronics, a longer boom, self-tailing winches. The list goes on. The bottom line is, as one observer once put it, sobering. The tally comes to just over $40,000.... READ/DOWNLOAD FULL ARTICLE HERE

Asking price for the bare bones version
 $7,500
negotiable upward depending on buyer's wants, needs, and choices

See:  Just some of Chip Ahoy's retrofit/upgrade and equipment costs

Some who've considered purchasing Chip Ahoy seem to think the full-package price is too high "for such a small old boat."  Apparently they have failed to recognize or fully appreciate what's gone into it and what is included in its full-package sale price.  The full package — everything needed to just trailer the boat to a ramp, drop it into the water, and sail off over the horizon in comfort — adds extreme value to the boat, as well as to the price of the sale.

Swing keel Chip Ahoy is not simply an easy to trailer off-the-shelf boat — a used boat to just drag out of the lot and hope it floats.  Far from it.  You've probably already determined that for yourself from elsewhere on this website.  If you haven't, I suggest you take the time to investigate these pages for some perspective of its value.

Others have decided that "it's more boat than we're looking for."  So I've decided that if a buyer is looking for a stripped down, no-frills, run-of-the-mill, well-maintained with every upgrade Catalina 22, perhaps we can still reach a deal — so long as a potential buyer is willing to settle for less — much less — than what can be acquired in a single package in a one-time purchase with all the work already completed.

Let me remove "the frills" for you and strip down Chip Ahoy to what I suspect perhaps some expect when they reach here to have a look.

If you're looking for a basic barebones used sailboat with nothing extra, here's what I can offer.  I can eliminate as much and many as possible all the extras, all the advantages, comforts, and conveniences I've built into it over my years of cruising experience with Chip Ahoy and my commitment to have my perfect singlehanding boat.  It would be a crying shame, but it can be done.

I can provide a well-maintained, highly improved and upgraded, proven seaworthy Catalina 22 with its well-maintained, rarely used (2-3 miles twice a year) galvanized LoadRite trailer, its mast, boom, and sails — stripped-down, bare-bones basic as possible for $7,500.

The mast and boom of course are included with all the upgrades, internal wiring harness and other equipment and improvements I've added to the spars.  The Furlex roller-furler system I added will stay with the boat.  The main and genoa sails are included, but maybe you don't need the spares (until you do).  All the standing and running rigging I replaced is included.  The new winches, rope clutches, and deck organizers will go with the boat, along with the built-in solar panel, solar vent, and tinted windows.  The boom vang, boom kicker, lazy jacks, radar reflector, and 5-Mile Wifi antenna, etc., are removable, optional; I can sell them separately if you want to do without them until you regret it.

When I bought Chip Ahoy it came without a battery (or much of an electrical system at all).  If you don't need the two batteries, I can eliminate them from the full-package sale price.  You'll still be stuck with the ammeter, the built-in 4-way battery switch, and the electric bilge pump won't work, but they'll be there when you change your mind.

Some of the costly upgrades and gear I built in will have to go with the boat; reverse-engineering and removal would be time-consuming, and frankly, sinful.

But there is a lot I can remove and eliminate, much that can be left out of the fully-equipped sale price to reduce the selling price and still provide some return on my $40,000 investment.

Maybe you don't need a $2,300 outboard.  (If you don't include the marine batteries, its alternator can't charge them anyway, and the electric starter won't work.)  Consider the Honda 4-stroke 8HP with about 100 hours on it an "extra," an unnecessary "option."  I'll sell it separately, and can reduce the fully-equipped sale price of the boat.

Radar reflector, wind vane,  two anchors and their chain and rodes?  Don't want them, don't take them.  The price drops from the fully-equipped price.

Don't need the Raymarine ST2000 tiller-pilot — or don't think you do yet?  I'll keep it, easily sell it separately and can lower the fully-equipped sale price of Chip Ahoy.  Ditto the removable Porta Potty, Origo alcohol stove, Garmin GPSMap 478, ICOM M302G VHF radio, the two VHF antennas, the hand-held Standard Horizon HX851 VHF radio, ACR ResQFix 406 GPS Personal Locator Beacon,  auto-inflate life vests/safety harnesses, Orion 12 Gauge High Performance Alert/Locate Signaling Kit, etc.

The IdaSailor HDPE rudder and tiller (with the pin for the tiller pilot) is removable, potentially could be eliminated to lower the cost from the fully-equipped price.  (The buyer would need to find another; stock rudders are cheaper.)  I can't imagine anyone wanting to do that, but different strokes . . .

If you don't need the ideal small cruising sailboat that's taken me a dozen years to perfect for singlehanding, if you'd prefer to undo my years of painstaking improvements and return it to a basic daysailer at a lower price — hey, Chip Ahoy's and my days together are over; though in no hurry I'm ready to sell.

With all the upgrades and improvements it'll never be just a "basic daysailer" — but it can come close if that's all you're looking for.

Then I can sell it stripped down to the basics for a lower price, sell the optional treasures separately.

The Full-Package Chip Ahoy

Asking price for fully-equipped is $20,000 $11,500

This has been a labor of love for the past dozen or so years.  I’ve invested $40K (my cost and equipment installed) into this restoration project – along with many hundreds of hours of my labor.  There is nothing like Chip Ahoy for a cruising Catalina 22 sailor.  It can and has taken me up and down the coast singlehanded in all sorts of truly adverse conditions, both weather and sea – the furthest reach to South Addison, Downeast Maine for a three-week singlehanded cruise.

Chip Ahoy is a great small sailboat easy to singlehand with lots of amenities, e.g., Porta potty, Origo alcohol stove, Garmin GPSMap 478, Hummingbird HDR-610 depth gauge, Nicro day/night in-deck solar fan, sliding galley/water tank (which I chose not to use and stored away).  It even has a 5MileWife antenna to hoist up the mast on its own slide track and halyard. 

It has a pair of 12V marine batteries with a 4-way switch which powers everything well, including my laptop, smartphone, outboard’s electric-start, etc., and the outboard’s alternator keeps them charged up when it’s running.  The small deck-mounted solar panel with controller keeps the batteries topped off while on the mooring. 

ICOM M402 VHF marine radio with two Shakespeare “Squatty" antennas; one mounted at mast top, the other on the stern pulpit. 

New Ullman Offshore full-batten, loose-footed mainsail in 2007 ($792.73) with mainsail cover. Furlex roller-furler system in 2004 ( $1317.75) with two genoas. New Lewmar 14ST winches with covers in 2005. Rope clutches. Two anchors:  Delta (Lewmar) Fast-Set anchor (14 lb); Danforth anchor (14 lb) with 20’ of chain and 200’ of rode (additional chain and rode with the Danforth).  The Delta sits on its bow-roller, the Danforth stowed below in a bag. 

I replaced its stock rudder with an IdaSailor HDPE rudder – fully swing-up to vertical ($578 in 2007);  handy in many situations and almost maintenance-free. 

In 2010 I removed, had tinted, and rebedded the cabin windows, had their frames powder-coated.  What a difference that made, outside and inside the cabin.

This Catalina 22 lacks nothing (I could think of); it’s loaded with more than I can recall to list it all.  (See a more complete list here.)  It’s ready to trailer out, raise the mast, launch and sail away.  I spent the past month scrubbing, polishing and waxing until it’s sparkling Bristol inside and out.  (I do this every spring; decided recently that I don’t want to do it again.)

The trailer is a 2004 galvanized LoadRite in excellent condition.  The outboard was purchased new in 2006 ($2,273); a Honda 8HP electric-start 4-stroke that’s been extremely well maintained, winterized and tuned up at the end of every sailing season because my life may have depended upon it – two six-gallon tanks, cross-hosed, were even just drained and refilled with fresh gas. 

I’ve singlehanded for virtually the entire dozen years of my ownership, have set up the boat to handle completely from the cockpit.  No need to go forward for anything except anchoring or picking up a mooring.  The RayMarine ST2000 Tillerpilot is included—program, point and sail; let it steer the boat while you leave the helm. 

If I could have thought of anything more to add to Chip Ahoy or to this list I’d have added it!  In return, it’s been a great boat to me – and over the years has gotten us back home through a lot. 

And remember – we use our boats up here in New England for maybe four months each year.  Eight of those other months our boats (and motors) are in/under storage, being maintained for the coming season ahead.  A season’s boat use in New England is limited, unlike year-round use in warmer climates.  Use of a 1974 boat up here is the equivalent of a 2004 Florida boat’s usage. 

See the complete latest Marine Survey here 

Survey Findings (Conclusion); 6/19/2008:

This being the second survey I have done in the past four years, I have found “Chip Ahoy" is in much better condition than my previous survey. The scope of improvements and the funds that have been spent on her care and maintenance has been intense.  She is better equipped than most vessels sailing locally.  I feel with her many, many improvements, it is extremely difficult to find any recommendations for her owner.  The replacement cost for "Chip Ahoy" now is somewhere around $35,000.  A new vessel of her size from Catalina would be close to $35,000 plus all the equipment aboard her, a new owner would be spending close to $50,000.
 

I feel she is a very good insurance risk and should be insured for $25,000 to protect the investment the owner has put forth.

Captain Allan Waldman

Certified Navtech Marine Surveyor
 

Chip Ahoy has been insured since that 2008 survey for coverage of $25,000.  That coverage remains in effect.  If the boat disappeared beneath the waves or from its mooring, is stolen out of my yard, is consumed by fire or otherwise destroyed, the insurance company would send me a check for $25,000.  I’m offering it for sale for less than just half its insured value.
 

Asking price for fully-equipped is $20,000 $11,500

Just over a quarter of the amount I've put into it —
 not counting my many hundreds of labor hours.

$13,500 less than its current insured value ($25,000).

$23,500 less than its surveyed replacement value.

(All receipts are available)

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