What is the pricing doing on 16's?

[Mas]

So...have been keeping an eye out for 16's at a good price for some other folks here (who don't have one!) and the late model Mk2's and above prices seem pretty high now? (actually the Mk1's as well but more of them so more competitive pricing) Is this a function of supply and demand or just hopeful pricing? It is difficult to find any below 3K in good shape with trailer and motor. Found a Mk2 on Craigs a couple months ago at 2K and it disappeared in less than two weeks. The higher priced ones, as high as 6k for an 87' are not selling as fast so must assume are a bit over priced (though some have many upgrades and equipment) or is this a trend? They have always commanded good prices for what they are and are now selling for as much if not more than when new. Who would thunk a little sailboat could be an investment!!!!!

Looking in the mid-Atlantic area. Glad we have Mas already. 

[Potcake boy]

Fortunately for us, that is one part of the value, decent resale. I have owned 5 of these dependable vessels and have not lost money on any sale. Of course, I have followed the typical path of getting a boat all fixed up and then selling, so my buyers have gotten good value. I just don't believe it is respectable to allow a vessel to fall to disrepair because of neglect, though I have seen many cases of that. If only owners would realize that they aren't getting any use from their boat and decide to sell it before it deteriorates. I know of one case where a 16 sat in the water so long with the aluminum rudder down that some nearby stray current caused electrolysis to dissolve the entire rudder. When it was hauled, there was nothing left.

[Bilgemaster]

Meanwhile, at the end of the bell curve with the really cheap seats, I got my 1993 Com-Pac 16/III "Foundling" last year with its galvanized trailer and a fussy little Tohatsu 2-stroke outboard for a buck:

As Purchased (a perfect example of what Potcake Boy's talking about):



Currently:



Of course, it seemed the right thing to pay for her with one of these:



Yeah, I know: gloat, gloaty, gloat...but it's all love and karma, I tell ya!

[Potcake boy]

Nice rehab Bilge. Where did you get the rig, it doesn't seem to be the original? Yep, these boats are just about indestructible.

[Bilgemaster]

Nice rehab Bilge. Where did you get the rig, it doesn't seem to be the original? Yep, these boats are just about indestructible.

Thanks! As for the "rig" you mention. whatever you see, apart from the old red beach umbrella cover over the tiller, the Harbor Freight tire covers and the new wheels below them, was either there on the boat or scattered around on the ground or weeds nearby when I got her.  I quite literally needed a machete to get her out of the spot she'd been languishing in for at least a decade.  I feel bad for whomever may be assigned that lot spot in future.  The park's grounds crew may have hacked the spot flat after I'd vacated it, to move the Foundling next to my Mac 26X, but a couple of good Spring rains, and the new occupant of the spot may find their boat trailer engulfed with some tenacious resurgent thorny creepers.  Yikes!

[Citroen/Dave]

Was this C16 found at the Washington Sailing Marina near Ragan Airport?

[Bilgemaster]

Was this C16 found at the Washington Sailing Marina near Ragan Airport?

Nope.  She was found languishing in the Leesylvania State Park boat lot, albeit in a different spot than she is now. The tale of how I came by her is found here. 

Basically, I already had a sailboat in that lot that I was tinkering incessantly with, and kept passing by a rather forlorn, grubby, woefully neglected, but still somehow "pretty" little boat also in the lot each time I was on my way home: companionway hatch missing and so wide open to the elements, sails, etc. just strewn throughout the cockpit, being engulfed by weeds, creeping vines and muck.  I finally contacted the owner offering to just seal her back up somehow, stow her sails and other gear back in the cabin, hack back the vines, and maybe put some air into her flat trailer tires...basically just do my little bit to minimize the overall decay before it was perhaps too late.  Instead, he was kind enough to pretty much just give her to me for a buck.  I've been fussing around with her as best I can ever since. 

Although it's actually quite unlike me, disorganized wastrel doofus spendthrift that I usually am, for some reason I've been keeping a scrupulously accurate running log of actual expenses towards her restoration to the waves.  With a likely first splash date sometime next month (April 2017), I currently have precisely $471.60 pitched into her resurrection...$571.60 if you count the gleaming little 2-stroke Mercury 2.5 horsepower I picked up off craigslist a few weeks ago for just a C Note to perhaps replace the fussy, but nearly identical older little Tohatsu 2.5 that came with the boat (which in turn might find a new life on my little inflatable Intex Mariner 3 dinghy, which I snapped up brand new for a mindnumbingly low $72 bucks delivered and with a matching motor mount during some insane sale Intex was having last winter).

So, for those like me in the "cheap seats," who might need to bring this whole sailing thing in on a wafer thin budget, as you can see, it can be done without raiding the kids' college fund.  Brian Gilbert's great little book, Fix it and sail: Everything you need to know to buy and restore a small sailboat on a shoestring (Camden, ME : International Marine, 2006) [ISBN 0-07-145809-3] may be a great help. It certainly has been for me, with both the Com-Pac 16 and my MacGregor 26X.  As well as the previously-given Amazon link for the book, if you have 3 hours to kill (or go do something else), it seems the book is also available as a freebie download from DataFile.com at http://www.datafile.com/d/TVRFd01EazBOZz0F9/Fix%20It%20and%20Sail.zip, though they'll make you wait as a "non-member" for a long spell until the download commences.

[Tom L.]

"C" Dave on a totally different subject. Have you used your Intex 3 dinghy? I have been trying to find someone who has some direct experience with the boat. We are beach sailors but we now own a heavier catboat that draws about 2 feet. I don't want to get it stuck on a falling tide. I want to use the inflatable to go maybe a hundred feet from anchor to the beach. I was curious how it would handle standing on the tube and trying to board a boat. Rowing such a short distance is the plan.
Thanks

Tom L.

[Bilgemaster]

(...snip!) Have you used your Intex 3 dinghy? I have been trying to find someone who has some direct experience with the boat. We are beach sailors but we now own a heavier catboat that draws about 2 feet. I don't want to get it stuck on a falling tide. I want to use the inflatable to go maybe a hundred feet from anchor to the beach. I was curious how it would handle standing on the tube and trying to board a boat. Rowing such a short distance is the plan.
Thanks

Tom L.

Actually, my Intex Mariner 3 was at least originally intended by me for cruising in the bigger Macgregor 26X I have, getting from anchor or moorage to shore, and so forth, but I have not yet had a chance to use it.  I did get it registered with the state of Virginia, with its own registration number and sticker and everything, which is required here if you put any kind of motor on it...even a little electric one, which I also have (from a buddy who found it in the shed of a house he recently bought).  Once our weather here settles down and decides whether we have a sub-arctic or sub-tropical climate, and Spring's really sprung, I plan to haul it on down to the park and buzz around the Potomac for the afternoon, just to get a handle on it.  I'm led to understand that the Mariner 3 (successor to Intex' confusingly-named Seahawk II [not to be confused with their flimsier Seahawk 2]) is the very best and most durable of the inexpensive inflatables.  I know there are far better ones out there, but here's the thing: I can't be lobbing a couple-few grand at some Hypalon Zodiac military-grade assault craft inflated with unicorn farts. I'm not shooting the Panjshir River rapids to Baadqol on a hostage rescue mission.  So, I decided on getting one of these more "upscale" and hardier Intex Mariner models, reportedly certified by the National Marine Manufacturer's Association (NMMA) and as a U.S. Coast Guard approved vessel, as opposed to their lesser offerings, which range from straight up flimsy pool toys like their Challenger models to slightly more rugged pool toys, like the Seahawk models without the roman numerals (the far better but formerly confusingly-named Seahawk II having since been basically discontinued and its successor renamed Mariner 3 to avoid confusion).  It seems the most current Mariner 3 model I bought now includes rigid flooring slats like its bigger brother, the Mariner 4 has had for some time.

Frankly though, at 9'9", I wonder if the Mariner 3 might not be a bit big for a Com-Pac 16 and the use you describe. Bob Burgess' superb book Handbook of Trailer Sailing (which should probably be required reading for any Com-Pac 16 owner) describes how he rigged up a tiny little single-person backpacker's inflatable with a sort of fishing line to ferry folks to shore, one at a time, and then just reel the empty boat back, for just the situation you describe.  It's been a few decades since his book came out, so it's hard to say if the little inflatable he shows is even still made.  But I imagine for your purposes you could handily use one of those semi-craptastic little Explorer 100s that you can pick up for less than 10 bucks with free shipping here.  Hell, get two. Sure, they're straight up flimsy pool toys, but if it lasted even a season, kept your ass relatively dry and got that cooler ashore, you'd be happy, right?



Now, as for time and tide waiting for no man, while you may not be able to do anything about it, for only about a C-Note one of these great Timex Intelligent Quartz time/tide/temperature/compass babies[/url] will at least keep you informed as to precisely how she's ebbing or flowing, so you never get caught unawares in the first place. It's affordable elegance. I like 'em so much, I've got two: one black, one silver.  Look for the best prices online.  The black ones tend to be less expensive for some reason:

[ChuckD]

Bilgemaster,
I lept at the $10 Explorer 100 link...
But it looks like she has a 120# capacity. Counts me out!

That's an interesting challenge: something small enough for a CP16, but with integrity.

[Potcake boy]

Chuck - you need the Explorer 150     '-)

[Mas]

Well for me to call out thread drift is like calling a kettle black! So here's my semi lame attempt to steer it back, yet not!

We lucked out and found an older fiberglass sailing/rowing dinghy for next to nothing on Craigs. There are apps that alert you when items come up for sale you are interested in, so when the dinghy came up i called and was the 5th caller but the first to drive down and fetch it. They don't last long if good buys. It is heavy however and not the dinghy for Mas our 16 which we dry sail or leave on a floating dock if there for a few days, it was for Interlude. Many of the dinghies we found for sale, including a beautiful one at our marina are frankly more than what we paid for Mas (allusion to topic, and which of course at 18" draft does not need a dingy). 24" is only a little more than 18 so maybe just get a little wetter when you wade ashore? A lot cheaper! (A little more expensive now that Susan is less inclined to help push us off if grounded, usually costs me something!)

So the price of 16's are a great bargain when compared to many an expensive dinghy (setting ya up for back to topic!). Just get a 16 and ya got your dinghy and boat all in one. 

You may wish to reach out to folks who have their tenders just sitting on the dinghy rack seemingly never moved and deteriorating in the sun. They might try to sell you the larger boat attached to it's use though! We thus vote for the fiberglass variety, all of our boats, including our dinghy are antiques and work just fine still. None of them leak air nor need to be inflated, though the prices seem to be at times!......THERE BACK ON TOPIC! Wasn't that clever, bet ya didn't even see it coming, I sure didn't! 

[Bilgemaster]

...Thread Drift...

[Mas]

Nice Bilge! 

[Bilgemaster]

Well, if the Explorer 100 won't do the trick, maybe you should just get one of these.



I'm pretty sure that some enhancements shown may only be available separately.

Seriously though, the Explorer 200 can be had for just $15.96 with free shipping, is rated up to 210 lbs., weighs just 5 lbs. and folds up into about a foot square:



I wouldn't want to cross the Atlantic in one, but I gather it would get you to shore or to a marina handily enough from an anchorage for a season or three.  In fact, I just went ahead and bought one--though I now frankly admit to having a real hankering for that swan...

P.S. By the way, for just $19.37 you can get the Explorer 200 with appropriately craptastic pump and oars. They call them "French Oars" in the marketing blurb. I guess that's to prepare the customer for the fact that they give up so quickly...