Summer and Fall 2018: Back in May of 2018 I was browsing the craigslist listings in "boats" for the Gold County area, in California. A sailboat popped up, listed as a Piper 24. I was shocked! The Piper One Design is a 24 foot sailboat, designed by British yacht designer, David Boyd, back in the late 1960's. David Boyd was a renowned designer, penning the lines for two of the British Challengers for the Americas Cup in the 1960's. Only 57 of the boats were originally made and the vast majority of those that are still afloat race on the Clyde River, in Scotland.
Nobody but a crazy sailing Scot-o-phile like me would recognize this boat for what it is. The asking price was low. I offered $600 and the offer was accepted. What then followed was almost 5 months of delay over California State registration forms and so on. While incredibly frustrating, that was all resolved at the beginning of December, 2018 and I became the proud, if a little intimidated new owner of Alpha.
The trailer has a hitch and suspension system unlike anything I've ever seen before but my Scottish and British contacts through the One Design Association assure me that this is typical stuff.
The Hull is sound. Piper One Designs are made with a solid fiberglass hull, with chunks of lead and lead shot placed into the hull and fixed in place with "mash"...fiberglass cloth soaked in resin. This means that there are no keel bolts to fail. The internal bulkheads are not rotten, though one or two may need repair. The internal flooring is rock solid.
There is no delamination in the deck, which is great news as fixing that issue has been a major challenge for many Piper owners.
The one outstanding issue that was immediately obvious was that the trailer was severely compromised by rust, especially in one of the main beams. Before I could bring "Alpha" home to the San Francisco Bay Area, I'd have to get that taken care of.
"Alpha" was missing a few parts, and there were no sails. The obvious thing that was missing is the rudder. Well, there was a rudder, but it was useless; warped and dried out. It's pretty hard to sail a boat with no rudder, so that will be one of my first projects. She also didn't have a boom or sails, and one of the rigging wires was broken. I will need to replace that wire before sailing the boat at all, and then in light winds. A complete rigging re-do will need to be done before heading out on a blustery day, as all the wire and fittings are original 1971 materials. All in all, this is a big, but do-able project, and wow, is she pretty!.
"Alpha" is hull #35 of the Piper One Designs.