Upcycling a boat: ‘I’m not saying it’s for everyone, but I do feel that recycling a boat makes a great deal of sense’

When choosing his next yacht, Paul Dale breathed life into a sad and neglected 1980s cruiser-racer. He describes the process of upcycling his boat.

When it came to searching for a smaller yacht for upcycling, I was quite specific. I wanted a boat I could keep on my Chichester Harbour mooring while my other big boat, a Dufour 41, remained in the Caribbean for long winter cruises. The new boat, therefore, had to be cheap, yet enjoyable to sail, capable of Solent weekends and cross-Channels, and comfortable. I had other specific requirements for upcycling a boat: it had to be good looking with a racing pedigree, have a tiller for single-handed sailing, have double cabins fore and aft with the heads by the companionway, and a forward-facing chart table.

I soon realised, however, that these criteria, especially on a budget of around £25,000, could only be matched by the French cruiser-racers of the late 1980s and early 1990s. My extensive internet search narrowed it down to two boats: the Beneteau First 30 and Jeanneau Sun-Light 30.

I looked at examples of both, and thought the Jeanneau had a much better teak-laid cockpit. Original Yachting Monthly reviews of both boats were very good. I travelled to see three examples of the Sun-Light 30 on offer across the country, in Barrow-in-Furness, Brighton and Wales. The one in Wales was cheap, grubby, and uncared for. It also had an incredibly stupid name: Thrilla, and the engine took forever to fire up. The broker eventually gave up while trying to get it started and walked away, but I persevered and it eventually coughed, very smokily, into life. I made a low offer, which was accepted. The survey advised that the rigging was at least 20 years old, and that I should make no attempt to sail it!

So, I put it on a lorry and had it driven from North Wales to Chichester Harbour at a cost of £800 – far better than being dismasted off Land’s End! I bought the boat very cheaply, just £17,000, because I knew I would have to spend a great deal more money on it. I immediately changed its name to Alexia and replaced the rigging. I decided to make do with the smoky engine, the sad sails and the tired interior, in order to work out what I could really do with her and how I could start upcycling the boat. I started working on her the following winter.

A complete overhaul

The hull was inspected thoroughly and found to be solid enough. The rudder was removed and found to have osmosis, so I had it fully repaired and fitted with new bearings. The topsides were also repaired where necessary and buffed up, with the outdated red and black pinstripes replaced with contemporary grey and navy ones. New graphics for the name, SSR, and home port were also applied.

The only original items on the boat now are the hull, the spars, 80 per cent of the interior and exterior teak, and the fridge compressor, which just keeps on going! If anything didn’t work or move properly – notably the water pump, sea toilet and seacocks – I had it replaced. I don’t include what I call ‘service items’, equipment ranging from the batteries to the standing rigging, which need to be replaced on any boat according to a sensible schedule.

I always put a reliable engine at the very top of my list of priorities. The original 16hp Yanmar 2GM20 was rattly, smoky and coarse, so I replaced it with a 20hp Yanmar 3YM20, which was inserted into a revamped engine bay lined with modern acoustic shielding. Being fresh-water cooled it also runs a calorifier, so that meant plenty of hot water and a shower in the heads!

I made the most boring film in the world, entitled ‘Cold Start’, which featured me simply starting the old engine from cold and running it. I posted it on YouTube, then re-posted the link on eBay. The engine sold immediately for £1,500 in cash! So, with the purchase price of £17,000 plus the renovation costs of £36,000, it’s really a £53,000 boat, plus or minus.

We eventually sold our Dufour 41 in the Caribbean, and our thoughts turned to how we really wanted to sail from our mooring in Chichester Harbour. By now we had cruised Alexia over to Brittany and Normandy, so my wife suggested we think about buying a larger 32-footer. However, I sail single-handed quite a lot, and find that anything from around 32ft can become a bit of a handful when motoring into marinas on your own. So I looked at some new, and nearly new, boats in that size range for around £80,000 to £120,000, with very basic kit.

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Upcycling a boat: Decision time

As I researched and looked at the newer boats I soon realised that, in my opinion, modern boats are just plain ugly. The trend towards oblong-esque side profiles with huge topside windows really doesn’t appeal. And I like sugar scoop sterns, as opposed to drop-down swim platforms, as a safety and recovery resource. Contemporary wood laminates also don’t age well, while the interiors in less expensive boats can be very ‘plasticky’.

Having chartered a few new boats, I’ve found that the poor-quality fittings, such as table hinges, have a very short life. Yachting Monthly recently published tests of two contemporary open-plan 30-31 footers, and I’m still trying to get my head around the idea of buyers who don’t mind undressing at night while watching their weekend guests doing exactly the same thing in a boat with no substantial bulkheads and absolutely no privacy?

‘Dreadnought’ bows also mean you have to have a stupidly long anchor bow roller fitting. So, I looked again at Alexia, our little Jeanneau Sun-Light 30, and thought – why change? She looks great, she’s comfortable and dependable, and she sails beautifully. The clever design provides a sense of spaciousness and, as the name implies, she has a lot of interior light. I also thought about that year’s Round The Island Race, where I was helming Alexia and closely overtaking a 42-footer, whose skipper shouted over to me, ‘I used to have one of those’ And then, as we started to ease ahead, added, ‘I don’t know why I sold it!’

New opportunities

My experience of upcycling and upgrading an attractive older boat shows that it really can work – and make solid financial sense, especially if you look at the prices of new, or nearly new, production cruisers, and then work out what the actual price really is once they are fully kitted out. Alexia now has top of the range sails, an electric windlass, new winches, instrumentation, autopilot, three- blade feathering prop, and much more. And all within a £50,000 budget.

I’m not saying it’s for everyone, but I do feel that upcycling a boat makes a great deal of sense and ticks the environmental box, especially for younger owners who are thinking of entering the yachting world with no need for the validation of having something that’s ‘new and shiny’, and preferring, instead, to take a more sympathetic and environmentally friendly approach.

I also feel that there is an opportunity for a UK boatbuilder to start upcycling late 1980s and 1990s cruiser-racers, just as I did. They could do it a lot cheaper than I managed to do it, and make a decent margin as well.

Renovation costs: £35,900

Engine: £6,000 (net)
Sails (including spinnaker): £5,000
Upholstery: £2,000
Stackpack: £600
Winches, hatches, windows: £6,000
Furlex: £1,500
Windlass: £800
Instruments/electronics: £2,000
Prop: £1,500
Joiner work: £3,000
Sink, cooker: £1,500
Electrical: £1,000
Bits and bobs: £5,000
TOTAL: £36,000

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