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And here is a copy of the guts of her appraisal

and a couple more

And a few more:

Here are a few.

Sure, I have some and I'll try to post them tomorrow.   Thanks for looking.

I never thought I'd be doing this but arthritis is forcing my hand.   Sirocco, A-205, who many of you know was owned by Steve Airing, is up for sale.  She was in neglect when I got her but I had her professionally refurbed from bow to stern.   In addition to all of the usual repairs I replaced her old Atomic 4 with a brand new Beta Marine 18 (diesel) and she is probably the prettiest girl at the dance these days.   I spent in excess of $20K on her rework, exclusive of the new engine and I have an appraisal that values her at $12K as she is with a $51K replacement cost.   She's incredibly nice, sails are good and stiff, she has a roller furling with a 165 jib and the teak and her combings are beautiful.   She had a 5 year bottom job (fresh water) and I have less than 25 hours on her engine.   She's even got a built in air conditioning unit.  She's very nice, easy to manage and would make a wonderful boat for a new sailor or for someone who wants a pretty and essentially maintenance free day sailer.   She's listed in a few places at slightly higher amounts but I'll take $9K for her.   The engine alone costs $7K.   I have an appraisal if you'd like a copy.   918-688-5878.  benchmark land@gmail.com

carbon, can you send a photo or two of it to me at benchmark land@att.net.   thanks, jon

It ain't all that thick....   Today I went to do a little work on Sirocco.  I have a problem with water draining down into the benches after a rain and when it pools it soaks my cushions....fore and aft.   We got a great rain last night and sure enough...water had pooled in the little grooves where the wooden seat meets the bulkhead.   I took a 1/4" drill and drilled into the bench, following the angle of the hull.   Didn't drill far and drilled right through my hull.   Water started pouring in and it pooled under the benches....would not run into the bilges.   I had to drill a 1/4" hole where the vertical part of the bench seat joins the deck to drain the water which continued to flow into the bilge.   Got with some guys and plugged the hole with marine adhesive and now I am going to have to pull my boat, put her on the stands and patch a hole that my "stupid" self accidentally drilled into the ULTRA THIN hull.   If I were to guess I'd say the hull where I made my major boo-boo is about 3/8" thick.   Maybe less

I have always loved life's lessons and as I am with a few others that I have under my belt, I'm sick about this.   But, on the bright side, I'm going to get a chance to pressure blast the crappola off of Sirocco's bottom, cut those seat boards and fix them so they will lift for storage, sand and refinish the cabin sole, fix that hole and hopefully sail this Fall.  

My wife told me that the next time I board Sirocco I cannot take any tools with me.     She's a very smart girl.

Thanks fellas, I appreciate it.    Gonna look for a small rug for that space until it cools a bit.   My cabin sole can stand a refinishing but it's really ratty around the edges due to old wood rot.   Sometimes I wish I had been a cabinet maker instead of being so pretty....lol

I have just recently completed some interior painting of Sirocco and her cabin sole needs some work but I don't want to do it right now because the heat finally broke in Oklahoma and it's sailing season.

I want to buy a faux oriental rug or grass matt that I can lay on the cabin floor but I don't know the dimensions of that interior space.

Does anyone have the measurement for that?

thanks.

Bill, please put me down for a set for Sirocco A-205 and let me know what I need to do to get you paid.   thanks,   Jon

Paul, your varnish job is stunning.   I have Ariel 205 which I've refurbed.  My woodwork has been Cetol'd and it looks good but nothing like yours.   How has your varnished wood held up thus far?

Thanks, LD.   After thinking about it and reanalyzing the event I finally decided that that hard wind was simply an unexpected change in conditions.   One moment it was calm and the next it wasn't and the weather persisted throughout the remainder of the day.   Like nearly everything else, it was just timing.   The handling suggestions that you guys have provided were also the conclusions that I came to as well.

I do use a cam for the furling line on the jib but in this case all I did was pick myself up and release the jib sheet and then I hauled in the jib til she quieted, at which point I gave her some storm jib and off we went.   She rounded up as she should have but XO cooled down a little slower perhaps than she should have.   I told her that it won't be long before she enjoys this kind of thing but she ain't all that convinced right now....despite the fact that she loves to talk about her gnarly experience with her chums.   She's a Southern girl and talking comes easy; heeling not so much.

Personally I enjoy each experience like this and I always learn a lot especially when I sail alone.    The only problem I find with sailing is that it makes me want a larger boat.  Sometimes.

Thanks Ed, I'll take some time with that entire thread.

Jerry, thanks for the reply.

I have been sailing a lot this Fall by myself so that I can learn at my pace and without any distractions.   I'm having a lot of fun learning to single hand and I'm feeling pretty confident so when this sudden wind came up I wasn't necessarily frightened but I was surprised and concerned for my wife.   Scared the beejeezus out of her and she advised me of it...a bunch.

I started this trip with a working jib and a single reef in the main but during the day the winds had slacked for an hour or more so feeling comfortable I removed the reef, increased the amount of jib and sailed a mile or more at 10 degrees....thinking that every thing was copacetic.    It was great and we were probably making 2-3 kts.  My intention was to sail back to the south with that gentle head wind and reduce the size of the jib to avoid excessive weather helm after coming about.  I don't think I was over powered for the conditions immediately prior to the wind but I may have been...especially with that 165.     This wind hit hard just as I came about and we immediately heeled to 35 degrees and stayed there until I could haul myself off the deck.   In response to all of that my first step was to loose that jib, point her directly into the wind and get the jib back on its roller.  After I got her under control I added a bit of jib, pointed off about 5-10 degrees and headed toward the leeward side of a large island in the lake where I dropped the main and returned to my slip under power.  

My dad flew bombers in the war and he always said that any landing you could walk away from was a good landing.   Seems like you could almost say the same about this kind of thing but I'm wondering if I handled this correction in the right way.    It's fun to sail in light air with a full main and jib but next time I'm going to be paying a lot more attention and start a practice of sailing with only a working jib.   Reefed main, too; it'll be good for me and will rein me in somewhat.

Oklahoma is noted for its windy weather especially in the Fall and often when I'm on my patio, regardless of the time of day, it will deathly calm and within a few seconds we'll have 20-30 mph winds.

Thank you again for your advice.   Be safe out there. jk