Hi guys I have been offered a very run down Brolga 33 , Through a friend.
the engine is very old and can only run a few minutes then over heats and has lots of rust on it , sails are very old reasonable fit out and not sure how bad the osmosis is.
except for an S&S 34 this boat has been on my dream lists or ever. , so you can see my interest.
i was looking at a Currawong up north which is a bit run down, I would assume the Brolga is much more boat.
any thoughts would be much appreciated.
are the decks cored ? I am led to believe these boats are extremely well built ???
A 33 foot boat costs what a 33 boat costs
this one cost $2k to buy
End result not so much
Select to expand quotelydia said..
Lydia I consider what you did with that yacht outstanding , not many have your skill level, but I get what you mean ??
Select to expand quoteMAGNESIUM said..
Hi guys I have been offered a very run down Brolga 33 , Through a friend.
the engine is very old and can only run a few minutes then over heats and has lots of rust on it , sails are very old reasonable fit out and not sure how bad the osmosis is.
except for an S&S 34 this boat has been on my dream lists or ever. , so you can see my interest.
i was looking at a Currawong up north which is a bit run down, I would assume the Brolga is much more boat.
any thoughts would be much appreciated.
are the decks cored ? I am led to believe these boats are extremely well built ???
It depends! The engine could just need acid through the block if it's raw water cooled or an acid flush through the heat exchanger. I think it's a bit of a toss up which is the better boat out of a Brolga 33 or an SS34. Both vary a lot from boat to boat and much depends on what you expect. Both could make you very happy. Sails can be improved upon gradually. Osmosis is not worth worrying about. The Brolga is enormous inside compared to a Currawong. The decks are cored I believe but like the Currawong are solid 'glass where all the bits get attached.
It's all down to how much is the asking price and do you want to get your hands dirty!
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Sailing/General/Cheap-Brolga-33?page=1
Select to expand quoteExtract from Alex's article in Offshore about 1999 Hobart.
The first two days were just like last year, chasing the big kite downwind at close to Morning Glory's record pace of 1996 Routine, except that we found the only hole on the entire east coast just off Eden and almost parked for a couple of hours.Several sail changes later we opened our celebratory Cascades at half way, almost exactly two days out.
Nokia had finished and we were waiting for the forecast 40 knots from the south.
A final meal of chilli prawns and we watched the change move in.
It came at first at 35 knots, , directly up the rhumbline, then 40, then 50 by nightfall!
At this point, with three reefs and the #4, the boat was going very fast and pounding into a short steep break- ing sea.
We decided to go for the storm gear.
The tri-sail slowed the boat from about 8 to 7 knots and the storm jib should have completed the job, but Alex got his face wrapped around the inner forestay while setting it and we decided to stick to the tri-sail andreassess the situation.
Alex's face looked a mess and wesent him below to his bunk, but he seemed OK. "Absolutely no heli- copters please and bloody well keep racing" came the order, so we set the storm jib on the inner forestay and took a long tack westwards into the lee of Flinders and Cape Barren Islands where the seas were a bit easier and we could make a little better progress.
A night and a day and a night later, about 45 short tacks through the shoals around Cape Barren and North Eastern Tasmania down to Eddystone Point and we were abeam of St Helens.
We had lost our ability to charge the batteries a day or so earlier because water had got in through a partially open mushroom vent left open to accommodate the aerial lead for the Comsat 2, as a last minute compromise to avoid drilling the deck.From St Helens we tried a long tack out to sea and came back in at Scamander with minimal gain.
At midday on New Years Eve we used the handheld VHF to get a forecast from Scamander Coastal Patrol - 36 hours more of 35 to 50 knots from the south.
A short discussion and we agreed that the mathematics did not add up. We had three people with more or less serious injuries, no charging ability, intermittent prob- lems with the engine starter and the prospect of another two days bashing into the gale. We needed to stop and fix things and get some rest.
The alternatives were Bicheno, about a day upwind, or Skeleton Bay, about 14 miles astern.
No choice really and we surfed back to Skeleton Bay with 50 knots apparent at times in 8 metre seas and dropped anchor.With everything hung out to dry, we fixed the electrics, which was simple in calm water with no green ones breaking over the boat.New Year's eve in Skeleton Bay.
Appropriate for a millenium sleepover. We had some lamb curry given to us byJack Kristofferson after his brave attempt to get away in time to make Cape Horn before the window closed, and just a little OP rum to round it off.
Several replays of Monty Python, a passable imitation of Pete and Dud doing Jayne Mansfield's lobster and everyone was asleep by 10. Bugger the millenium!
At 0700 on New Year's Day we were off again, into a 20 - 30 knot southerly which at least allowed us to move south down the coast. We reached the point at which we had turned back the day before exactly 21 hours after turning back and the last three boats had sailed past us while we were anchored.
This was when the Iron Sturt called us up and asked us how we were going. Happy New Year all round.The rest was routine. Calm, blow, furious sewing of a huge tear in the #1 while the kite was up at Tasman Island and the usual busters at the Island.And the opportunity for the definitive photo of the race: as we rounded TI. Mari-Cha m was at Cape Raoul on her way back to Sydney a week or so after she had finished and we crossed south of Port Arthur. They were estimating Sydney in one day and 19 hours. Isn't technology wonderful?
So up the Derwent in the dark in a dying breeze, the first time we have finished at night and into a very quiet Constitution Dock.
About eight other boats and some backpackers who shared their fish and chips with us.
We had sailed 920 miles to get there, 600 odd since passing halfway, into a constant southerly from Bass Strait to the Hippolytes. The Brolga was undamaged but the crew were exhausted, battered, thirsty and exultant-we were in Hobart, later than usual but with honour intact.
In relative terms this race was harder than 1998, but maybe not as hard as 1977. In 1998 we had 60-70 knots full on for 12 hours and the rest was easy. In 1977 we had six days of southerly winds reaching 60 knots, with an 80 knot gust at Tasman Island.
Select to expand quoteRamona said..MAGNESIUM said..
Hi guys I have been offered a very run down Brolga 33 , Through a friend.
the engine is very old and can only run a few minutes then over heats and has lots of rust on it , sails are very old reasonable fit out and not sure how bad the osmosis is.
except for an S&S 34 this boat has been on my dream lists or ever. , so you can see my interest.
i was looking at a Currawong up north which is a bit run down, I would assume the Brolga is much more boat.
any thoughts would be much appreciated.
are the decks cored ? I am led to believe these boats are extremely well built ???
It depends! The engine could just need acid through the block if it's raw water cooled or an acid flush through the heat exchanger. I think it's a bit of a toss up which is the better boat out of a Brolga 33 or an SS34. Both vary a lot from boat to boat and much depends on what you expect. Both could make you very happy. Sails can be improved upon gradually. Osmosis is not worth worrying about. The Brolga is enormous inside compared to a Currawong. The decks are cored I believe but like the Currawong are solid 'glass where all the bits get attached.
It's all down to how much is the asking price and do you want to get your hands dirty!
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Sailing/General/Cheap-Brolga-33?page=1
Suggest clarifying this
"Osmosis is not worth worrying about"
If you are saying all polyester resin grp yachts >30-40yrs old will have a "few" outer laminate blisters then ok - assuming these are say around 50mm diameter and only in the outer skin. Easily fixed on slipping with grind out and acetone clean and heat air dryer blow out and repeat, then epoxy fill and maybe also epoxy glass over..........have done this on numerous yachts...........but if a yacht has gross osmosis problems all over then suggest as mandatory to walk away. I didn't with a VdS Black Soo early 80s and it took 2 goes to fix it and a lot of coin. A great yacht - end grain balsa sandwich and very stiff, good structural design, I put a cabin top raised ply hatch system onto it to get full headroom. Went like fertiliser off a shovel reaching and running and good upwind also.
I'm fairly certain that all the Brolgas were built by Geoff Baker. There may be minor blemishes with osmosis but I'm confident they would have been sorted by now. Osmosis would be the least of the problems.
Select to expand quoteMAGNESIUM said..
Hi guys I have been offered a very run down Brolga 33 , Through a friend.
the engine is very old and can only run a few minutes then over heats and has lots of rust on it , sails are very old reasonable fit out and not sure how bad the osmosis is.
except for an S&S 34 this boat has been on my dream lists or ever. , so you can see my interest.
i was looking at a Currawong up north which is a bit run down, I would assume the Brolga is much more boat.
any thoughts would be much appreciated.
are the decks cored ? I am led to believe these boats are extremely well built ???
I'd love a Brolga and perhaps they'll let me graduate from the Currawong when I grow up ...
Another way of asking a similar question is "How much money am I prepared to spend on a yacht IN TOTAL?" Not just the purchase price but everything required to get it into a safe, sailable boat. Then divide that amount by 2 or 3 (or maybe more if it is really run down) and that's an indication of the purchase price you can afford.
Cheers,
Kinora
Select to expand quoteRamona said..
I'm fairly certain that all the Brolgas were built by Geoff Baker. There may be minor blemishes with osmosis but I'm confident they would have been sorted by now. Osmosis would be the least of the problems.
Thought he passed away and the last boats were manufactured by his foreman.
The gal ring frame mast step is of course a big deal which would have long since rusted out or be in very poor condition in most boats. They wouldn't be cheap to extract and replace. There was a lovely one in Melbourne that I missed out on about three years ago that had a newish stainless steel ring frame.
Select to expand quotejulesmoto said..Ramona said..
I'm fairly certain that all the Brolgas were built by Geoff Baker. There may be minor blemishes with osmosis but I'm confident they would have been sorted by now. Osmosis would be the least of the problems.
Thought he passed away and the last boats were manufactured by his foreman.
The gal ring frame mast step is of course a big deal which would have long since rusted out or be in very poor condition in most boats. They wouldn't be cheap to extract and replace. There was a lovely one in Melbourne that I missed out on about three years ago that had a newish stainless steel ring frame.
The last Brolga was built in 1978. Geoff died in 1979. My Currawong was built by his foreman in 1979.
I know a few of Geoff's original Currawongs and Brolga's had osmosis to the extent they needed a gel coat shave and were still blistering afterwards. One of the key things imo is to keep the bilges dry inside to help keep the moisture ingress as low as possible.
Good to hear that Roma's Currawong had solid glass at the main fittings. My currawong had a balsa core deck with no solid glass at any of the fittings.
Select to expand quoteAndrew68 said..
I know a few of Geoff's original Currawongs and Brolga's had osmosis to the extent they needed a gel coat shave and were still blistering afterwards. One of the key things imo is to keep the bilges dry inside to help keep the moisture ingress as low as possible.
Good to hear that Roma's Currawong had solid glass at the main fittings. My currawong had a balsa core deck with no solid glass at any of the fittings.
Kind of interesting that my NS38 is sort of the opposite with solid glass on the coach house roof except around fittings such as the winches which has sandwiched ply.
