Sailboat Cowboys Flipping Sail Post-Sandy: The Art of Buying, Repairing and Selling Storm-Damaged Sailboats

at Auto Zone but a whopping $712 from the dealer for the identical part from the same manufacturer. Google ‘Bernard Moitessier’ and listen to this true and wise guru of sail when he says the difference between industrial grade and marine grade is price.

Add a battery charger, Shop-Vac and hand tools and you are off to a good start. Buy any specialty tools as you need them and add the cost to the project’s total expenses.

Nauti-Nell’s Marine Thrift Store

I contracted to scrap some junked and abandoned sailboats for the lead in the keels while we were there, sawed one up and sold the lead keel and netted $750 for ourselves the first day.

While haunting the maritime thrift stores look for a book called Charts of the Chesapeake and buy it for about five dollars.

Now take a piece of easily formed aluminum from Home Depot and attach it to the hull over the outside damaged area using self-tapping screws. I’ve used cardboard. Conform this to the hull shape the best you can, be artistic. Leave it and move to the inside where you have also cleaned the damaged area with your grinder and sterilized the wound with

Another underestimated source is Boat Angel. These people are based in Mesa, Arizona far from any ocean and use eBay as their sales outlet. The descriptions are accurate most of the time. The key to buying from them is finding the marina that actually has the boat and calling them for price of storage due, price of further storage, work allowed and

A booster will be a necessary piece of gear.

If a buyer is getting financing they will want a survey. This happens less than half the time, so play along. Part of the boating public still thinks highly of these frauds and some prospective buyers believe they can gain leverage from any defects found to lower the price. Remember that they are paying for this, so when they ask if you have a copy