My old boat

[TC Chris]

Here’s my old sailboat, a pretty 1961 Seafarer Polaris. in the foreground you can see her spruce mast under plastic. For scale, she’s 26’3”. These boats were built in the Netherlands, perhaps because it was an early stage of fiberglass boat technology, and imported by Seafarer Yachts. She is hull no. 13 and the original owners named her Baker’s Dozen. We got her in 1968 when she seemed quite old. Now, of course, she is 62 and still sailing just fine. I snapped this photo just after the first overall coat of varnish on the toe rail today. Every year that mahogany gets 2 coats. This year I had to do some extensive spot repairs because I had the yard paint the hull and coat the bottom, and their masking tape pulled off some of the varnish. I expected that. This is the 55th spring I’ve spent weekends in the boat barn, varnishing and painting and maintaining.

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

That's a real classic with beautiful lines. There's a couple very similar at Champlain Marina in Mallet's Bay around the point from us.
Our Vanguard 420 is clunky looking, comparatively, though fast with all the sail she carries. As for wood, I gave up after a couple of years with an all-wood carvel-planked 1966 30' Chris Craft Crusader. Maintaining that boat, as classic and pretty as she was, wasn't a hobby, it was a career.

[Dr. Radio]

That's beautiful.

You'll have to excuse my obscure reference, but it reminded me of the boat that Officer Jim Reed kept wanting to buy in Adam-12.

[electra225]

I see an outdrive. What kind of engine does it have?

[TC Chris]

I see an outdrive. What kind of engine does it have?

8 h.p. Merc Mariner (2-stroke) in a well.

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

Lots of similar sailboats around this size have little Atomic 4 or Westerbeke diesels. You're much better off with the Mariner outboard, another brand of Mercury they made in the 80s. Same motor, different paint, like the Johnny-rudes.

More and more boats are going to outboards as they are so much easier to deal with, even boats up to 50-60ft now. I can tell you, after working on outboards, inboards, and I/Os for many summers which I'd rather have. Mercury last year introduced a 600hp 4-stroke V-12, an incredible motor. For a few years 7 Marine made an o/b with a GM Northstar block, 400hp, the biggest until the new Mercury. The demand is there, they sell all they can make. You now see 3,4,even 5 of these monsters on the transom of 60' offshore sport fisherman. These motors cost something like $60,000 EACH. I remember when OMC (Evinrude/Johnson/Gale) introduced their first 50hp V-4 in 1958 and we thought it was huge!

[electra225]

If one could find a marine version of the Packard/Merlin/P-51 V-12 aircraft engine, that would make an awesome boat motor. Grandpa's Chris Craft was powered by Chrysler straight 8 originally, then by a Packard 327 later on. The Chrysler was faster, the Packard stouter, more torque. I don't remember the maker of the outdrive, something I'm sure is obsolete by now. He couldn't use a Buick OHV straight 8, since it was too tall for the engine bay. The Packard 327 had nine main bearings and a four-barrel carburetor. It had its own radiator and six-blade fan. You had to remove the engine cover in the summertime to allow the heat to escape.

[TC Chris]

Lots of similar sailboats around this size have little Atomic 4 or Westerbeke diesels. You're much better off with the Mariner outboard, another brand of Mercury they made in the 80s. Same motor, different paint, like the Johnny-rudes.

The A4 was an option when the boat was new. My boat has 3 big pigs of extra internal lead ballast, which may have been to compensate for the lack of engine weight when the outboard option was chosen. An aluminum mast was also an option. Mine has the spruce mast. It's classic and lovely but it also adds weight aloft, quite a bit of it, which is a big no-no. Some years back I corresponded with a fellow in the Netherlands who had purchased a Polaris in England and sailed it home. He sent a very nice photo of the boat under sail that I had enlarged and printed on canvas; it hangs on my office wall. That boat has an aluminum mast. I compensated a bit when I replaced the old rusting steel centerboard with a big plate of bronze, thicker and heavier. And rust-free....

Chris Campbell