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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

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

This has been a labor of love for over a dozen years.  I’ve invested $40K (my cost and equipment installed) into this restoration project – along with my many hundreds of hours of 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 good weather and all sorts of truly adverse conditions, both weather and sea – the furthest reach was to South Addison/Jonesport, Downeast Maine for a three-week singlehanded cruise.

Swing keel Chip Ahoy is a great small sailboat easy to trailer and 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 main mast on its own slide track. 

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 half its insured value.
 

Asking price is $20,000 $11,500

Just over a quarter of the amount I've put into on 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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