UN 30 Project

[Ballard Sailor 21]

Seems like this deserves a post here since it's where the story started...

Re-posting this story (6 Feet More) from my blog - you can find a ton more pictures there of both the boat and the trip.

May 21^st, 2020 I get this message on Sailing Anarchy:

Hi! I know you've brought several Moore24s back to the west coast.  Do you think there would be interest in getting this boat back closer to home?

It's the prototype of what would become the Wilderness 30.  Bought it from one of the guys who built it in Santa Cruz (Actually lived on it in the upper harbor!)  Story goes like this:

He and several guys working for Moore wanted a larger Moore 24, took the lines of the 24 and blew it up to 30 ft.  Ron Moore said " Don't call it a Moore30 'cuz I'm gonna build a Moore 30."  George Olson helped them with the appendages but said Don't call it an Olson 30 'cuz I'm gonna build a Olson 30."    So they called it an UN-30 (after the Un-Cola ads for 7-Up), built three of them and later sold the mold to Wilderness, who modified it, put on a doghouse and gussied the interior.  Anyway, she's followed me from Alameda to San Diego to Jacksonville to Lake Superior.  Probably looking for a new home relatively cheaply (need to speak with partner.)  Think there might be any interest? Dave

(all the photos I was sent sent can be found at my blog - 6 feet Moore)

Dave and I went back and forth through emails and phone calls a bit before I decided to get ahold of Ron Moore and learn the real scoop from the Godfather.  As always Ron was happy to talk boats and even happier with the trip down memory lane this boat question caused.

Turns out there was a guy named Bruce Clayton that was working with Ron and Jon back in the 70’s who took a gazillion measurements of the Moore 24 mold (they had no drawings remember) and took it to a marine architect to have it scaled up to 30’.  They smoothed out the sheer where the freeboard had been raised on the Moore and built three boats.  Pyrza that we have here is #2 and the first owner wanted a queen sized bed under the cockpit with some headroom for romping around and such so it has a shallow open cockpit.

The Godfather had nothing but good things to say about how the boat sailed – reminded me there was going to be mushy core in the deck after 42 years and then said “You two are family now.”  He was so happy we were working together to get an old Santa Cruz boat back to the West Coast and fixed up. How do I not go get the boat now?

A month goes by, Covid19 cabin fever sets in and my wife has a bad day at work.  I make her a couple cocktails and low and behold she looks at me and says “Let’s go get that boat!  Where is it?”  Afton, Minnesota, sitting on a farm.  Isn’t that where every old trailer-able boat is sitting in Minnesota?

Turns out the boat is now owned by Dave’s friend Nate who had brought it north after it sat under a bridge in Florida too long.  Nate used her on Lake Superior but as life changed he spent more time on his Ultimate 20 as it’s easier to ramp launch and get out sailing in all the different places there.  Makes sense.  So the UN sat on the farm for 2’ish years after a deck refit was begun before we were called in.

1676 miles east of Seattle – we hit the road June 22.  80 miles per hour 2.5 days east, 14 to 15 mpg and gas pushing $2 per gallon.  We stopped for the night at Elks lodges after long days of driving and slept in our van (2004 Chevy 3500 4x4 Roadtrek conversion van), both were closed as we arrived so late but it’s nice to have a quiet place to call home and not deal with the noise of a rest area (Members only, ask me about membership).

Anyway, we arrive at the boat and there’s no doubt she’s a big Moore 24 hull shape with a doghouse that reminds me of a Henderson 30 bubble.  She’s rough and definitely in need of some love all around.  We meet Nate, look her over inside and out and I look at my wife and say, it’s gonna need about $20k to get going again, you in?  To my surprise she smiled and said yes!

4 hours of packing the boat, stripping the mast, tying her down, etc, while getting stung by ground hornets and sweating our asses off in the heat and humidity of the Midwest that us left coasters aren’t used to, we hit the road for a 4 hour drive back to the Elks lodge we left that morning.  One change though after the hot sweaty day – we got a cheap hotel room so we could shower before visiting the lodge for dinner while it was open.  Alexandria #1685 you were super hospitable to us tired travelers, thank you.

1676 miles, 8.5 mpg, 3 days later and two more Elks Lodge’s (Coure D’Alene you were amazing) we made it back to Shilshole Marina.

The trip was a hot one, a long one, but a fun one. I found myself reminiscing while driving across North Dakota about how we used to crank the heater and open the windows on the old trucks when hauling horses. Sometimes even stopping to throw buckets of water in the radiator to cool things down.  92 degrees out and pulling a good 20 miles an hour in 1^st gear going over the divide my wife asks why there is heat coming out the vents – I suggested she roll the windows down as the gauge moved towards 250…

Once home we’ve cleaned her out of everything and got a good look.  Some minor tabbing issues, broken keel bolt under the hoisting eye, bottom needs to be done, bad core from the bow back about 2’ and some cracked windows.  The running rigging needs to be replaced but most of the standing rigging looks ok.  She’ll need a lot of new deck gear but fortunately for us Nate had removed most of it, filled the holes with epoxy and redone the non-skid.

I dropped her off at CSR Marine July 9^th to deal with the keel bolts and possibly a bottom job, otherwise I’ll get her over to Henderson Boatworks in August sometime.  We hope to have her out sailing come fall and slowly turn her into our performance cruiser with the Moore as our race boat.  Jennifer’s already decided she’ll be called 6 feet Moore…  More to come!

(full gallery of photos can be found at my blog article - 6 feet Moore)

 

[sunseeker 138]

Really cool story. Please keep us updated with pictures of progress.

[huey 2 484]

A little disorganization goes a long way toward fun sailing.       

..........I love your description of mixing Life and Sailing....   love the blog and some great photos....    good luck and best wishes with a fine corona project .

[See Level 663]

Congratulations, great light air boat 

You should have some good competition if Bart ever gets my old one done.

[Ballard Sailor 21]

1 hour ago, See Level said:

Congratulations, great light air boat 

You should have some good competition if Bart ever gets my old one done.

What's Bart (Hood River Bart?) working on now?

[JimBowie 328]

I dont care what Scooter calls a "SCOTW" I call your wife Sailing Chick of the Life.  What a jewel she is.  Keeper.

[See Level 663]

 

[Somebody Else 605]

Awesome worthy project Ben! It's nice to see pictures after we talked at Windermere.

[Ballard Sailor 21]

2 hours ago, JimBowie said:

I dont care what Scooter calls a "SCOTW" I call your wife Sailing Chick of the Life.  What a jewel she is.  Keeper.

I lucked out on the bar stool shuffle for sure.

[IMR 53]

Awesome find!!

[redboat 35]

Very cool boat. Great story. Boat deserves another life and proper care.

[Ballard Sailor 21]

On 7/11/2020 at 4:20 PM, See Level said:

 

That's right - I forgot he mentioned a Wilderness.  Looks like such a different boat than the UN 30.

[AnotherSailor 252]

Wow, very cool boat and a big project! I sometimes wish I had the space for a project like this, but it is probably a good thing I don't.

They did not copy the transition from freeboard to deck (I know there is a name for it, but I forgot it at the moment) that is so characteristic of the Moore. That is a plus, I would say. The lines are beautiful and this thing will fly!

Congrats! 

[Delta Dog 7]

Great project here.   Looking at the pictures, so much familiar about the interior...I bought and restore a Wilderness 30 called Special Edition 6 years ago.   They are great boats...glad to see another one getting put back together!

[msvphoto 13]

Congratulations!

Here is a pic of her sister, Wildflower (#3) on O Dock in Santa Cruz. We have owned her since 1996. #1 is still here in Santa Cruz also.

#1 and #3 were next to each other on U Dock in Santa Cruz harbor when we bought her and the dock sign was changed to "Un Dock." 

Looking forwards to watching your progress. I like the longer cockpit on #2 a lot. 

Happy to hear you're saving her. 

[Pro looper 71]

Hey Ballard, Mario from Santa Cruz you know the one stoked for you guys I know you will do a good job with your  new ride

after what you did with UFF DA  I sailed plenty of miles on Special Ed back in the day W/the boys fun ride for sure. 

PL.

ps. bummed that the PCC's didn't happen so you guys could make your annual migration to the place that both boats 

were built

 

[Delta Dog 7]

On 7/14/2020 at 3:21 PM, Pro looper said:

Hey Ballard, Mario from Santa Cruz you know the one stoked for you guys I know you will do a good job with your  new ride

after what you did with UFF DA  I sailed plenty of miles on Special Ed back in the day W/the boys fun ride for sure. 

PL.

ps. bummed that the PCC's didn't happen so you guys could make your annual migration to the place that both boats 

were built

 

Hitch a ride up to Richmond w/ Dave and come sail on Special Ed again! It would be fun to have you along for one of our advertures.

[Ballard Sailor 21]

On 7/14/2020 at 3:21 PM, Pro looper said:

Hey Ballard, Mario from Santa Cruz you know the one stoked for you guys I know you will do a good job with your  new ride

after what you did with UFF DA  I sailed plenty of miles on Special Ed back in the day W/the boys fun ride for sure. 

PL.

ps. bummed that the PCC's didn't happen so you guys could make your annual migration to the place that both boats 

were built

 

Hey Mario!  Hope all is well with you.  Still wondering what we were thinking but she should be a fun boat and seems to deserve being reborn.  She's at the boat spa (CSR) now to get the keel pulled, bolts fixed and bottom done.  One of the yard owners there has fallen for her I'm told.  

[Ballard Sailor 21]

On 7/13/2020 at 6:17 PM, msvphoto said:

Congratulations!

Here is a pic of her sister, Wildflower (#3) on O Dock in Santa Cruz. We have owned her since 1996. #1 is still here in Santa Cruz also.

#1 and #3 were next to each other on U Dock in Santa Cruz harbor when we bought her and the dock sign was changed to "Un Dock." 

Looking forwards to watching your progress. I like the longer cockpit on #2 a lot. 

Happy to hear you're saving her. 

I'm sure we will want to get the boat down to Cali sometime for some fun.  Maybe a ditch run or ???

I notice you still use the forward lowers, does it really need them?

[Pro looper 71]

Looking at the photos I think that if you have a hinged mast base  that they are not necessary you can just make them 

inline like the Moore

PL.

[msvphoto 13]

21 hours ago, Ballard Sailor said:

I'm sure we will want to get the boat down to Cali sometime for some fun.  Maybe a ditch run or ???

I notice you still use the forward lowers, does it really need them?

Would love to see her when you're done. So glad you are saving her. Look forwards to hearing more as you progress.

Not sure if we need the front lowers or not honestly. We are currently working with our slip neighbor (well known SC rigger for decades who also has a Wilderness 30) doing some rigging work (replacing the lowers and putting on a Harken roller furler). He did not suggest we change/remove the front lowers when we met to measure stuff last week. Plans are to put new ones on at this point.

 

 

[Ballard Sailor 21]

Keel off - some new bolts this week

[AnotherSailor 252]

Seems like you made the right decision to replace those! Did you cut the ones in the back or were there only 8? 

If you don't mind, I would be interested to hear (and see) how you replace them. 

That weathered keel is certainly a piece of art!

[Ballard Sailor 21]

1 hour ago, AnotherSailor said:

Seems like you made the right decision to replace those! Did you cut the ones in the back or were there only 8? 

If you don't mind, I would be interested to hear (and see) how you replace them. 

That weathered keel is certainly a piece of art!

Only those 8.   It's too narrow any further back to set a bolt in the lead.  Interestingly the seam wasn't cracked in the least.  It was holding on great.

The plan is to cut the bolts down to good metal and weld on new allthread.  We've done this on other big boats before that had corrosion only at sump level but good bolts underneath.  

[Ballard Sailor 21]

To make it more interesting...

[AnotherSailor 252]

Is that an imbedded nut? What did you replace?

[Ballard Sailor 21]

On 7/29/2020 at 10:11 PM, AnotherSailor said:

Is that an imbedded nut? What did you replace?

That is what they found, this is a picture before replacement.  I had them replace the keel bolts with new.  Does seem like an odd installation, but who knows what else is in there.

[AnotherSailor 252]

41 minutes ago, Ballard Sailor said:

who knows what else is in there.

Hopefully a bit more than a nut 

[See Level 663]

Keel bolts were probably attached to a steel plate mold top for support and accurate spacing.

Whether there's a welded grid or just spaced nuts on all thread...

How are they doing the new ones, horizontal holes for nut access?

[Ballard Sailor 21]

On 7/31/2020 at 6:40 PM, See Level said:

Keel bolts were probably attached to a steel plate mold top for support and accurate spacing.

Whether there's a welded grid or just spaced nuts on all thread...

How are they doing the new ones, horizontal holes for nut access?

The corrosion was inside the sump area where the steel lifting eye attachment was so they are cutting off the bolts where the metal is good and welding on new allthread.

[Ballard Sailor 21]

The Keel is back on!  Entire write up on the progress here in my blog - https://ballardsailor.wordpress.com/2020/08/19/the-keels-on/

Basically has new bolts welded on, large washers on the bolts this time as didn't have any prior and the new lifting eye is getting built.  

While waiting I shaped and varnished new floorboards and acquired a used outboard with controls that needed a little tinkering and asked the yard to take care of some soft core in the deck at the bow - leaking pushpit bolts is the suspect. 

a bunch of pictures and descriptions on at the blog article - https://ballardsailor.wordpress.com/2020/08/19/the-keels-on/

[Varan 1,664]

Thank y'all for coming to our little club on the little boat and showing us how to do it right. Dog, BBQ, and mighty fine sailing. You all are awesome.