Ahoy! From a Newly-Minted Com-Pac 16 Owner...

[Bilgemaster]

Ahoy!  As my inaugural posting to this fine forum I just thought I should introduce myself, before hammering you all with my incessant newbie questions.  I had only recently obtained a reasonably well-found Macgregor 26X power-sailor last August--my first sailboat, though I've been tooling around various lakes and rivers in a '67 Amphicar (i.e., the Devil's own stinkpot: basically an amphibious clown car) for decades.  Having attended to some necessary "Heavy TLC" like sanding and painting her bottom and trailer and much power-washing and waxing and whatnot right in my front yard, I finally put her into Virginia's Leesylvania State Park Boat Storage Lot right on the Potomac in October, from which she can make her way mast up right on down to the pair of lovely triple-wide launch ramps just a few hundred feet away...The next best thing to a slip (maybe even better in some respects, certainly maintenance-wise, and since I sincerely doubt I might sleep nearly as well if a storm were a'brewing were she in the drink!).  So anyhow, since then I've been in that boat lot most weekends rain or shine tinkering with this or that (especially with the strange and wonderful half-installed electrical work of her previous owner...No wiring diagrams natch. After all: documentation's for sissies!).  Now, every time I left the lot I'd pass by a sad-looking and obviously long neglected but still rather pretty little sailboat who'd clearly fallen on hard times: companionway hatch broken and missing, cabin wide open to the elements and critters, sails strewn through the cockpit, vines beginning their march up her hull, a registration sticker that had expired 7 years ago...All the hallmarks of an abandoned or at least sorely neglected boat on her way to the landfill soon, if she wasn't rescued.  Another season or two as she was, wide open to the elements, and she'd be a goner for sure.  Pacing out her length and from the still-visible logo I discovered that she was a Com-Pac 16.  So, using the registration number, and thanks to the good folks at Virginia's Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries who gave me the owner's address, satisfied I was on the up and up, I wrote to the owner a couple of weeks ago, sending him some pictures of the boat's sorry state and offering to either take her off his hands for some token amount or just do my small bit to help stave off the worst by gathering and stowing the sails, sealing back up the hatch and clearing away the vines until such time as the owner could attend to her once again.  To my surprise, a week later I got an email kindly offering me the boat and trailer for $1.  Needless to say, she's already back on her way to a full recovery: sails cleaned and stored properly, hatch sealed, tires holding air again, hubs greased, vines hacked back.  Her cabin woodwork, from what I can tell, remarkably looks pretty much still OK, and my hunch (though it's really still only that) is that I caught her well in time, and all she really might need is a really thorough cleaning, a little light carpentry around the companionway hatch and some fresh rope here and there.  Even the sails seem semi-decent.  Apparently, she also comes with a motor, some sort of genoa or "big spinnaker-like sail" (according to the previous owner) and a bunch of other nautical gear that's safely in his shed that I'll be picking up this weekend, most likely.

So, while I didn't really want her so much as felt sorry for her, now that she's mine I'm pretty damned happy about it.  Once she's all bathed and powdered and presentable again, my kids or friends can have some fun with her, and maybe I'll also rent her out through a decent service like Boatbound just enough to help her pay her own way.  After all, I'm led to understand that these little Com-Pacs really are superb boats to learn to sail properly in.

Well, that's my tale. Thanks for having me aboard!  While I rummage through your forum's archives, if anyone might be kind enough to point me to the "Great Fat Newbie Archive of Frequently Rehashed Questions" or to any definitive posts concerning stuff like parts sources, service tips, manuals and other stuff new owners might need, I'd really appreciate it. 

[Bob23]

Bilge:
   Please allow me to be the first to welcome you aboard! Very well written first post and I must congratulate you on a wonderful find. We'd all have done the same thing you did and brought that old girl back from her way to the grave. Very good!
   You have found the right place for all and any info you may have. As far as the "Great Fat Newbie Archive of Frequesntly Rehashed Questions", you came to the right place. Just poke around a bit on the 16 section or feel free to ask any question you want. Here, we specialize in both kinds of answers: correct and not so much!
   Tell us where you sail, more info, photos...
Welcome again!
Bob23 and Koinonia, a 1985 23/2 in NJ

[Bilgemaster]

Bob23:
Thanks for the hearty welcome!  Like I said, I'm pretty much new to sailing as such, apart from brief stints back in the Carter Administration as a "rigger's apprentice" aboard the museum-bound tall ship Balclutha (which mostly involved my just scuttling around the ratlines with a pot of pine tar where she was docked) and a spot earned by the diligent slathering of the sticky goo thereby as the spritsail man aboard the Golden Hinde II around San Francisco Harbor.  Apart from that and a few day sails now and then aboard others' craft, I'm an utter newbie to sailing...at least of my own boat.  That said, I'm on the Potomac River and nicely poised for journeys from it down and around the Chesapeake, maybe later the ICW. 

As for the Com-Pac 16, here she is "as found" (sorry about the mammoth image size):



...with more readily viewable pix of her and one of her "mother ship," my Mac 26X and her faithful Durango V8 tow beast (which is what $1,500 will get you nowadays if you're lucky) found online in the directory http://bukmop.com/ComPac16/.  Needless to say, the little Com-Pac already looks much much better than these shots.  Thankfully, I also noticed only a couple of days ago that there's another, very nicely kept, Com-Pac 16 also in the lot, mast up.  She'll doubtless prove helpful later as a handy reference for how things "ought" to be.

Thanks again for the kind welcome as I come to rights with my little sailed "foundling."

[Duckie]

Holy Cow!  She came pretty well equipped.  Not only that but she is a newer model with bow sprit and forward hatch, life lines, bimini, and who knows what all.  Yes she is set up with a genoa track, so she should have a big head sail.  Don't be surprised if you find yourself falling in love with this one the more you learn about sailing. 

Al

[Mas]

Ahoy there as well Bilge!  We learned to sail on a CP16. They are wonderful little yachts with sea kindly characteristics and a forgiving nature. Got excited when reading your post that maybe our old 16 had been found, but the bowsprit, lifeline and etc say newer model. Having the extra sail area will be wonderful! Do you know the year of manufacture? it is part of the hull ID number. Some of the later 16's had a CB. This was done in an attempt to improve their less than stellar performance going to the wind. The shoal draft keel which makes her such a great craft for the waters where you are, also if heeled over much moves into the shadow of the hull and then the ability to point well is diminished. Sail her as flat as possible is my recollection. A wonderful classic little boat.

Just got to go aboard a Macgregor 26 that belongs to a couple overwintering at our marina. They are not staying on the boat but are in an apartment there. Interesting craft. When i saw the trailer for it i would never have placed money on the fact it was for a sailboat! Then I saw the boat and learned about the water ballast. interesting!

Oh if it not too much trouble try to get the hull number off of the other 16 there. We are still hoping to find our first boat from 25 years ago!

[Gerry]

Welcome to the group.  I had a MacGregor 19 back in the day.  My CP16 is more fun to sail, stays more upright for the grandchildren, is much stiffer, takes less maintenance, looks more classic and is less expensive to operate and store.  I restored my 16 just like you will have to.  Great project.

Gerry

[HeaveToo]

Welcome to the group.  Compacs are good boats and they are a lot of fun.

[ChuckD]

Welcome, Bilgemaster!
Kudos and good karma on your rescue and renovation!

Please keep us updated!
Chuck (CP16 on Washington's Olympic Peninsula)

[Bilgemaster]

Ahoy there as well Bilge!  We learned to sail on a CP16. They are wonderful little yachts with sea kindly characteristics and a forgiving nature. Got excited when reading your post that maybe our old 16 had been found, but the bowsprit, lifeline and etc say newer model. Having the extra sail area will be wonderful! Do you know the year of manufacture? it is part of the hull ID number. Some of the later 16's had a CB. This was done in an attempt to improve their less than stellar performance going to the wind. The shoal draft keel which makes her such a great craft for the waters where you are, also if heeled over much moves into the shadow of the hull and then the ability to point well is diminished. Sail her as flat as possible is my recollection. A wonderful classic little boat.

Just got to go aboard a Macgregor 26 that belongs to a couple overwintering at our marina. They are not staying on the boat but are in an apartment there. Interesting craft. When i saw the trailer for it i would never have placed money on the fact it was for a sailboat! Then I saw the boat and learned about the water ballast. interesting!

Oh if it not too much trouble try to get the hull number off of the other 16 there. We are still hoping to find our first boat from 25 years ago!

No mas:  I believe mine is a '93.  As for the other CP16 in the lot, I'll be happy to jot down her Hull ID when I'm next in the lot, which should be this weekend.

[Bob23]

Bilge:
   Tell me about this other 16 on the lot. Although I love my 23, I've been on the lookout for a homeless 16. If she's for sale, can you let me know here or via personal message? Thanks...
Bob23

[tmw]

Yeah, Bob23, where are the notes demanding the initiation fee?  Is your cousin Vinny getting soft, or has the jealously of missing out on this deal distracted you?  Seems like the technique is to drive around marinas and send Vinny to the PO's house asking for the title

Bilgemaster, welcome aboard.  Oddly, I have yet to actually sail my CP-16 (bought at end of last season), but I've read great things about them.  Happy to hear you are saving one.

[DaleM]

Wonderful story.  Glad to learn about your finding her.  Keep'is posted and Welcome!

[Bilgemaster]

Bilge:
  Tell me about this other 16 on the lot. Although I love my 23, I've been on the lookout for a homeless 16. If she's for sale, can you let me know here or via personal message? Thanks...
Bob23

I didn't really examine that other CP16 in the boat lot all that closely, having frankly only just recently even noticed her, now that I am becoming more fully attuned to all things "Com-Pac 16ish."  I can only say that my general impression was just of a rather clean and reasonably "well-found" boat that I thought I might well be able to use later as a sort of living guide as to how things ought to look to help me perhaps get my own rather grubby foundling back up to snuff.  

Rest assured that although there indeed are a few semi-shabby looking craft in that lot, the one I got really took the prize for obvious neglect, which is what made her really stand out in the first place.  (That, and I sort of liked the little round portholes, though my aesthetic tastes tend sort of "old school" that way...Hell, I'd like to see a few belaying pins here or there!)  Still, I hope you understand: It's just a State Park boat lot.  It's not like that lot's some sort of mystical Eldorado where unwanted or lost Com-Pac 16s lurk off en masse to moulder, like some sort of mythical Elephant Graveyard kind of place for old pocket cruising day-sailers.  From what I can see online with a search of "Compac 16 for sale", it doesn't seem like there's any shortage of Com-Pac 16s readily available for purchase out there, and if you're gonna buy a boat, a motorcycle or a surfboard, then mid-winter's the ticket.  Sure, January might have been better, but late February is still likely to work out WAY better for a buyer than April or May haggle-wise.  So, if you're gonna pull the trigger, right now might not be the worst time to do so.  Just saying.

[Bob23]

Belaying pins. Funny you'd mention that.  A few years ago I had the bright idea of installing them on my 23. Never got around to it. It's now on the "if I ever retire" list.
Bob23

[Bilgemaster]

When I first started toying with the idea of getting a sailboat a couple of years ago...you know: lurking through the boats for sale listings and craigslistings and so forth like any guy about a decade out from retirement might do, I kept coming back to an old 42 foot Luders Cheoy Lee Clipper Ketch just about an hour south of me like this one.  I watched as her asking price slid ever lower and lower and lower still, until I might have been able to buy her, if I maybe sold a kidney or two. She was a big sprucey teakey sleek beast of a ship that really spoke to the 20 year old still inside me that once slid down the shrouds of the Balclutha to go get a huge hot roast beef sandwich at the Eagle Cafe, when it was still where it belonged.  It was those damned belaying pins at the masts that really got to me.  Like Cindy Crawford's mole.  But I knew it was too much boat too soon.  The right boat at the wrong time.  A six foot draft on the Cheasapeake?  I'd have the BoatUS towing folks on speed dial.  Just the slip fees alone, even way down where it was on the Bay would be like carrying the note on a small Mercedes.  No...definitely not the right boat for right now...but those pins...those pins...