Lessons from Nomad

We have been doing some serious work on Nomad. As a result of having so many parts off I have learned a thing or two about what I want to see on an ocean going boat.

I was surprised to find that Nomad had no backing plates under the bow pulpit mounts or lifeline stanchions. The washers used at the factory had crushed their way into the fiberglass. We put 1/4 inch mica blocks under the bow pulpit mounts and used fender washers under the lifeline supports. On any ocean going boat those items should be mounted as solidly as possible, with big, glassed in backing supports that can take a hell of a load.

Swim ladders must have steps. Round bars of bar steal are just too slippery to be of any use. Even on a calm lake to climb back aboard after a dip is to risk a broken limb. In a rolling sea fully dressed? No chance. Note: swim ladders are made of some hard stuff...punching holes in it will take effort and the best drills available.

Nomad's companionway steps, which hinge up to get to the engine like many boats, has no latch to hold them in place. On the lake it is an item I am likely to leave as is. On a blue-water boat everything that opens or moves or swings should be latched in place.

The hull / deck joint on Nomad is held together with self tapping screws set on about 9 inch centers. Okay for a lake boat, but during this last bit of work I discovered several of the screw heads pulled through the deck flange with some gaping of the joint. Oversize hardware and some new sealer fixed her up. On my next boat I want to see bolts with big washers on each flange, glassed in. That joint needs to be solid.

Once again it seems to me that boats are not assembled with the kind of robust quality I would have expected in an item intended to face some pretty hostile environments. Little things, but Deb and I are going to spend literally hundreds of hours this spring, fixing a list of "little things."

Nomad is a 1986, factory boat that has spent her whole life in fresh water. Given the amount of work needed just to keep her (or get her) in the shape I find acceptable, just how much work would be involved in an early 1980's salt water boat? If we buy such a boat as our home will we spend a year in the yard, spending money like mad, trying to make it into something we feel secure living on? Should we move "age" up near the top of the list of things to consider? Quality of maintenance, not year of manufacture, is what is important when it comes to airplanes, and I am sure the same is true of boats. But I can look at an airplane and its maintenance logs and get a good feel for what shape the machine is in. (A skill that didn't keep me from taking a job flying a Poppa-Oscar-Sierra Citation V!) I'm not as confident I can do so with a sailboat.