It is really crazy that we were sailing that ship until 2011. And crazier that it would at least triple the cost to just fuel it up once.
It is really crazy that we were sailing that ship until 2011. And crazier that it would at least triple the cost to just fuel it up once.
It was set up at Pier 38 in San Francisco ready to be a concert venue of some sort until that chapter ran out and the city ran them off.
There is also the matter of a previous owner trying to sell the ship and sending people out to see the ship after he takes deposits from them.
Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:This former Coast Guard cutter popped up on FB about 3 years ago & I've been watching the price drop ever since. For a landlubber like me it seems like a bargain. Then I realize I couldn't even begin to afford the fuel to get it home.
In reply to John Welsh :
I'm pretty sure that ship is 293'
It's a fascinating story, but I'm pretty sure I know how the story will end.
He will spend his entire life fighting to keep it alive, but it will eventually go to the scrapyard.
SV reX said:It's a fascinating story, but I'm pretty sure I know how the story will end.
He will spend his entire life fighting to keep it alive, but it will eventually go to the scrapyard.
Not a horrible outcome.
Based on the first video I saw I never would have seen it get this far. I really want to see where it ends.
Been following another dreamer build a 75 foot steel boat for around ten years. ( SV Seeker) He got it to the dock and they wont let him launch for insurance reasons.
In reply to NOHOME :
If you really want a ship that been slowly heading towards the scrap yard for decades, here in Philly we have the SS United States. 1000' long and still holds the cruise ship trans-Atlantic speed records. Taken out of service a year before I was born and has now been static for over 50 years, much longer than it was in service.
If the "trees to 40' boat" project you were referring to is Acorn to Arabella, that project is still going strong. They are hoping to have it in the water sometime in 2023. They are currently working on the interior fit-out.
I watched a couple of videos. He welded in some new steel to the lower portion of the pilot house using what looked like repurposed shipping container. Probably a effective/economical solution. But, as I was watching it, I was thinking, "...but the coast guard inspection might not see that as a right solution."
I may have mis-labled it as the coast guard. As pointed to above, it might be the insurance company who reject the rebuild techniques.
As for fate... This will be this guys home. He was interviewed sitting in one area that was fashioned with residential furniture. He will work on it, endlessly, until he gets hurt, it sinks or he looses the lease on the dockage. The boat will ultimately get scrapped. Towing that hulk out of there will offset any value the ship as. Like a Ford Tempo sitting up to the wheels in weeds, anything the scrap is worth will be offset by the tow to make it go away. You're then just happy to hand over the title in exchange for seeing it leave.
But, im not knocking him. Its a cool place to live if regular accommodations are not your thing. He's also an interesting individual. Not just another guy in the suburbs. I went to looking at the maps because I know it would be hard to hide something this big. I was not faimilar with this area known as the delta of Stockton. I had no idea there was this much deep water channeling into central California. It's a unique area of large maritime surrounded by farming fields. Just 20 minutes to main Stockton but seems to be far away from other people and any real urban feeling. Yet, he is just 7 miles to the closest Walmart and a Harbor Freight just another mile from there.
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to NOHOME :
If the "trees to 40' boat" project you were referring to is Acorn to Arabella, that project is still going strong. They are hoping to have it in the water sometime in 2023. They are currently working on the interior fit-out.
Another fascinating YouTube channel is the Sampson Boat Company, he's restoring a 109-year old English sailing yacht called Tally Ho. It's been an incredible amount of work.
I was watching the SV Seeker channel for a while but kind of got tired of it - that's interesting about him not being able to launch the boat.
I read all 37 parts of the story. It seemed to end pretty abruptly. I guess the allure of owning a vessel like this is better than the reality. It would be very difficult to do anything with it without it dominating your life or an endless supply of money.
Maybe he should use his above average negotiating skills to take on a rich partner and be the head of the crew (not the captain as he doesn't seem to have the background) but the guy that makes it all work for rich partner and runs the day to day of the ship. It may give him the opportunity to enjoy the vessel and let it become the most it could possibly be.
Honestly, I was a bit put off by the fact that there are no deck-mounted guns. At a minimum, I'd want a 50-cal. machine gun fore and aft, plus at least one 25-mm gun. And a couple deck-mounted torpedo tubes could come in handy also, against, you know, pirates and such.
After all, these are modern times.
In reply to stuart in mn :
There are so many if you venture down the rabbit hole of YouTube sailing channels. Another one I found recently is Ocean Capable Small Sailboat. A family guy building a 14' sailboat in his San Diego garage during his spare time.
I give these guys credit. I never realized how much more work it is to film yourself doing something until I tried to do it.
Given the unique location of this big ship which is 60 miles inland, surrounded by farm field but on water, I think the best use of this would be airbnb.
One or two rooms done "good enough". The real attraction is the upper deck and the huge views it offers as well as the "unique" factor.
In reply to NY Nick :
Where did you find a 37 part story? Link?
NOHOME said:There is a very long story about how he came to own the thing and the travails of restoring it on a layman's income. No lack of shady individuals in the floating relic business.
https://museumships.us/shipsbytype/other/aurora/87-aurora-restoration-project/398-aurora-part-01
I will warn you that the story just stops at the edge of a cliff as our hero is facing down unsurmountable bureaucratic foes in San Francisco. The YouTube vids pick up after that without mentioning any of the current bureaucratic challenges.
It is right here. NOHOME is right about the cliff...
I ended up down a Wikipedia rabbit hole reading about this ship and now I know all about Heligoland island history.
When I was in my 30s, I looked at a 93' tug boat. It had more living space than my house at the time had and I had a place to dock it for free. I had thoughts of gutting it and turning it into a residence. The sheer amount of work it would take was astronomical. I can't imagine adding a couple of hundred feet to the project.
I'm afraid that time and the marine environment are digging the ship's grave as fast as he's trying to fill it in. I can only imagine what the hull looks like if it hasn't been hauled in 10-20 years. I know what my 20' boat looks like after a couple of weeks.
She needs a wealthy owner with the same vision who is willing to dry-dock it and spend $50-$100 million stripping it to the bare hull and building it back. New propulsion, new systems, the works. It's going to cost tens of thousands of dollars per year just to maintain it and another $100k+ per year to crew it.
That's going to take some deep pockets and I don't think it can be done by one man, a shoestring budget, and a dream.
I thought SanFord was an ambitious project. Apparently, not ambitious enough.
In reply to Toyman! :
I have a hard time telling a guy he is doing it wrong when he has a track record of pulling E36 M3 off for 14 years. He seems to feel that he has a purpose so that puts him ahead of a lot of people.
He says it will cost $4 million.
I do $10 million projects all the time. $4 million is a pipe dream. I think the $50-100 million budget is much more realistic.
Even if money and manpower problems were solved and the project was completely finished, he still has the problem that the entire channel has silted in and is no longer deep enough for the ship to sail.
I suspect that means the hull is buried in muck. I don't see how it is possible it will ever sail again.
AirBnB is the best option. Assuming authorities allow it to remain in the water at all.
He should probably have decided a long time ago to start cutting out some of the significant maritime architectural features and start selling them. They would be better preserved sold off in chunks to people interested in utilizing them for various interesting design ventures. Restaurants, movie sets, private theatres, museums, collectors, etc...
Im afraid a lot of beautiful features are gonna be lost to time because he was unwilling to recognize the likely best use of them.
I admire him a lot. But as an aficionado of historic architecture, I have a lot of mixed feelings.
My brother spent 3 years restoring a 36' house boat....and I thought that was a huge project!
NOHOME said:Been following another dreamer build a 75 foot steel boat for around ten years. ( SV Seeker) He got it to the dock and they wont let him launch for insurance reasons.
I've watched SV Seeker here and there over the years. I had no idea he had made it out of his yard. The whole endeavor was just amazing/insane.
11GTCS said:In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
The training ship was a bit bigger ( 560’) and had oil fired boilers / steam turbines but my memory on fuel economy was that it was in barrels per mile. There are 42 gallons of oil in a barrel.
A couple years ago when I did the math I think it was about $17k to fill it up, and I don't think it would have made it from the PNW, through the Panama Canal & up to the Gulf Coast without topping off along the way.
mfennell said:NOHOME said:Been following another dreamer build a 75 foot steel boat for around ten years. ( SV Seeker) He got it to the dock and they wont let him launch for insurance reasons.
I've watched SV Seeker here and there over the years. I had no idea he had made it out of his yard. The whole endeavor was just amazing/insane.
Seeing SV Seeker mentioned made me do a quick search on updates, which turned up a riveting thread over on SailingAnarchy about everything wrong with that endeavor
NOHOME said:In reply to Toyman! :
I have a hard time telling a guy he is doing it wrong when he has a track record of pulling E36 M3 off for 14 years. He seems to feel that he has a purpose so that puts him ahead of a lot of people.
I don't necessarily disagree and I really hope he pulls it off. But the reality is the marine environment spends 24 hours a day destroying boats and ships. Just keeping up is a job. Everything corrodes, rusts, gets eaten by the sun and wind and rain. It is a constant battle against nature and the bigger the boat, the deeper the wallet it takes to fight it.
I'm $5k into a rebuilt engine in my 20' boat. He's looking at 100-200 times that much if he has to repower.
TheTallOne17 said:Seeing SV Seeker mentioned made me do a quick search on updates, which turned up a riveting thread over on SailingAnarchy about everything wrong with that endeavor
Thanks! This must be the boating equivalent of us watching a garbage car build get all kinds of YT praise. Since I don't know anything about boats, I don't know what sucks.
This blew my mind in a random thread I found:
To really appreciate his compass remarks you have to realize they were made by someone that spend over a decade designing and building an "expedition vessel" and that likes to compare himself to Shackleton. Without ever spending a night at sea until two weeks ago.
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