Hi to all that are interested and to all who kindly contributed input with my original post of 27/08.
On Simmrr's suggestion I phoned the owner of the boat in Esperance and an hour later, drove from Fremantle to Albany on one of the last 3 days of my sick leave with my 10 yr old son (took us 9 or so hours). We looked at it the next day, then drove home again on day 3. I rang and made my offer that night and it was accepted ($10,000).
I am extremely happy with my purchase at this stage.
The boat (Pelagia) is temporarily on a swing mooring off the Princess Royal Yacht Club in Albany. I sailed it with my brother,two friends and son non stop from 11.30am on the morning of Tuesday the 11th of October to arrival at the yacht club in Albany about midday Thursday the 13th. Was a great trip all down wind with strength from 15 to 35 knots. The sea got to 3m - 4m and a bit of a nasty cross swell. Pelagia handled herself with grace and I found her to be very forgiving. We got up to 10knots + down some of the waves. She has proven so far to be an extremely dry boat. No water at all entered the cockpit except a little through the scuppers when surfing that drained right out again. There is not the slightest damp smell below deck and the bilge is totally dry. I think that being aluminium everything is welded on and there are very very few holes in the deck. All the stanchions are seated in welded bases and are super solid.
I am in love!
Everything seems to work magnificently (touch wood). The fridge is incredible.
Anyway thanks again to everybody on this forum not only the ones who helped directly with comments to my post but to everybody else because I have been systematically going through past posts and learning so much from all of you.


This is a pic of us preparing to leave Esperance and getting a bit of green stuff off the hull.


Me having fun

Dolphins amidships

Interesting sky off Albany (more bad weather ahead but we are home free)


Some waves were breaking

The photos are curtesy of my mate who takes photos I'm far too slack and busy enjoying myself.
I'm sure I will have lots more questions as time goes by.
Now I have to get her from Albany to Rockingham sometime between the 12th of Dec to the 5th of Jan (my booked hols).
Plan is to get to Augusta then hang for perfect weather.
Still have to slip her and anti-foul in Albany (got 20 litres unopened of anti-foul with the boat)
Cheers to all
Josusa

Great Photos Josusa,
That veiw of Albany I have seen a thousand times,, and always looks good.
Enjoy your new boat,,

Josusa Good winds and lots of fun to you

Hi Josusa

Congratulations on the new boat

She looks nice and it sounds like you had a good trip back and the photo's are great

Regards Don

Totally awesome. Really nice looking and sounding boat.

Good on 'ya Josusa
I was half thinking of putting in an offer like yours(+a little) and getting a crew together to bring her to Sydney…who could leave alone a bargain like that... love a well-kept aluminium 30 footer, and with a $1200 mooring up the river, seriously worth thinking of a move from my Trailer Sailer.

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Jolene said..
Great Photos Josusa,
That veiw of Albany I have seen a thousand times,, and always looks good.
Enjoy your new boat,,

Thanks Jolene, we could see the glow of Albany just off our starboard bow before it got light then matched what we could see with Navionics in the daylight. I have to say Navionics is a fantastic program, had it on 3 iphones.

Thanks HG02,Donk107,and Madmouse.

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GKandCC said..
Good on 'ya Josusa
I was half thinking of putting in an offer like yours(+a little) and getting a crew together to bring her to Sydney…who could leave alone a bargain like that... love a well-kept aluminium 30 footer, and with a $1200 mooring up the river, seriously worth thinking of a move from my Trailer Sailer.

Glad I beat you to it GK, it's funny how things plan out and what kicks into gear when decisions are made. My 10yr old son told me it was a great boat and a bargain and I should buy it. He meant it too but I don't think he expected we would be driving down a day later to check it out. I call him my "life coach"now. Even at a bargain price it's going to be stretching it but I reckon I felt 15 years younger immediately after deciding to buy her.

Very nice Josusa to hear you went and got the boat. I reckon you scored a bargain.

You're comments on feeling 15yrs younger are the most satisfying. Sometimes we get so bogged down with life. All the fun gets sapped from us and you feel it.

Just takes something like this to break the shakles and enjoy what time you have. I think those memories of adventure for your son will be eternal and he will talk about it long into the future.

Problem is now every time you see the boat you will dream of the horizon. Hope you dont like your job to much.

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simmrr said..
Very nice Josusa to hear you went and got the boat. I reckon you scored a bargain.

You're comments on feeling 15yrs younger are the most satisfying. Sometimes we get so bogged down with life. All the fun gets sapped from us and you feel it.

Just takes something like this to break the shakles and enjoy what time you have. I think those memories of adventure for your son will be eternal and he will talk about it long into the future.

Problem is now every time you see the boat you will dream of the horizon. Hope you dont like your job to much.

+1 for that simmrr.

Hi Simmrr,
I'm a public servant and work in Installation at the state art gallery. The government is putting the squeeze on all of us at the moment so I was in dire need of something to put a smile on my face. This has done the trick. I think as a parent I have an obligation to not be always super conservative (it's a crap example). There is a lot of pressure to go down that road and die before you are dead. I want my son to have access to the bigger picture and boats are a great conduit for that. They don't make a lot of sense financially but they do in almost every sense that counts.

That looks like an awesome buy.strong enough to go wherever you have the time to sail to, maybe a trip out to Christmas Island with some long service leave

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josusa said...
Hi Simmrr,
I'm a public servant and work in Installation at the state art gallery. The government is putting the squeeze on all of us at the moment so I was in dire need of something to put a smile on my face. This has done the trick. I think as a parent I have an obligation to not be always super conservative (it's a crap example). There is a lot of pressure to go down that road and die before you are dead. I want my son to have access to the bigger picture and boats are a great conduit for that. They don't make a lot of sense financially but they do in almost every sense that counts.

Some very wise words there! Congratulations on a great purchase. I think you did really well.

Yes tomooh I think it is strong enough to go anywhere. I looked into maybe going out of Australia but you have to register your vessel as an Australian Ship and it costs $1500 or so. At the moment I am looking at a mooring off Rockingham (just south of Fremantle) for $3500 to buy plus an annual mooring registration fee of $680. Once I get it up here from Albany I will potter around Rottnest and Cockburn Sound for awhile. Then maybe get a bit more adventurous.

Thanks Sectorsteve I'm feeling a little broke right now but nothing I won't recover from. Even the sails aren't too bad really a bit old but not badly stretched. The gennaker is not old at all. A friend who used to work for Tasker says you can recut dacron a couple of times anyway. I may go in a few twilights and enter the Fremantle Winter Series this year. We get some fantastic sailing days through the winter in Fremantle (when it's not blowing a gale it's beautiful).

Thought I would throw in a few more photos.

At the jetty in Albany from the bow

Gennaker at sunset

Before leaving in Esperance my brother and my son giving a waterline clean.

A photo with a photoshop paint effect.

At the jetty in Albany rear view

A bit chaotic below.

Mate, I had a rented mooring in Mangles bay. I recommend Offshore Mooring, they are the best for installing and inspecting moorings in the bay. it may sound crazy but the winter weather hit Mangles very hard. I had 40 ft concrete yacht moored near the sailing club on a mooring rented from Offshores Mooring.
Also when buying be sure to get it professionally inspected there used to be a few chonky ones around (not registered, not enough weight etc...) mine had 4 train wheels close to the yacht and 2x heavy gauge 50m chains anchored to the seabed facing the west and North west. Some mooring are to shallow as well so be sure to have a look at low tide, nothing worst that sleeping on a yacht that hit the bottom at every small wave.
Do not under estimate the wind there even in summer, a few time it built that much I had to spend 2 the night as I would not take the risk to go to shore with my small dinghy. The good thing is there is a few live aboard guys and they keep their eyes open so you get told if anything wrong with your boat and bastard are kept away. A few beers it is all it takes.
Have fun with you little ripper!

Thanks for those valuable tips Felix (iPhone won't let me put the rest of your title in). How long ago did you have your mooring? This guy has had to have his upgraded recently. I will go and dive on it though. Apparently it's rated for 10m boat.

I will enquire re Offshore Moorings. The mooring I will be looking at has 1.8m at absolute low tide and I draw 1.5 do you think that is enough? I may even go to hard stand for winter if I don't feel comfortable. The Cruising Club says swing moorings are not suitable in winter.

Had my mooring about 5 years ago, never had any probs with winter and my yacht was very heavy 13.5 t if I can remember well? Sold it when I got tired of cleaning bird shiit. Lot of shags there Had to inspect the yacht after every big wind events in winter. Offshore Mooring are in City Beach. He told me he never lost a boat that was on one of the moorings he installed and serviced.
Spent a few weekends there just sitting on the yacht fishing and (not ) catching crabs. Be careful as there is few sand banks close to the mooring line. have a map plotter handy, I got stuck over nite once and had a big heel at lowest tide.... my mate felt of his bunk ahahahha was on the rite side!
With 1.8m you should be ok the chop is not that big.
Once was at the yacht and strong south east wind started to blow, was to dangerous to get to shore as I had a small electric outboard on the dinghy, we spent the nite there, the morning I woke up and found the dinghy to be missing.
Let the water police know. 2 weeks after I got a call from them.... the dinghy was found 50 miles out of Rottnest. Was spotted by a plane crew flying into Perth, the water police was notified and they went out to have a look....... was my dinghy............ costed me a carton of beer!

Nice story about the missing dinghy. Got to get lucky now and then. I thought a foot clearance at low low water would be ok particularly as my boat has a fin keel. I like the sound of your mooring with the two 50m chains to stop dragging. Regarding the bird poo, nothing much to speak of on Pelagia when I first boarded her in Esperance and it's not like the owner was onto everything certainly not the topsides paintwork, but maybe birds are not a big problem in Esperance. There was a rubber snake hanging from the solar panel platform in the stern and I noticed that plenty of other boats in the general area had them too. Hard to believe that this could be effective but as I say there wasn't anything to speak of in the way of crap. I read a previous thread on this forum where a string of flags going from stern to bow and back again does the trick. Might give that a try. It will be interesting to see how much poo is on the boat when I get back to Albany in December. That will have been 8wks.

I tested all the bird fright gimmicks, none was good The birds swipe is good but not practical on a yacht, the netting is good but just cleaning takes less time than installing and removing the net. One of the live aboard guy had a couple of cats with him and no bird poo to be seen on his deck
I had a shag sitting on the bowsprit all day and it was like plastered in guano............ had to hammer it off, another one would roost on top of the mast and drop a stink bomb from there to be sure to get the best deck coverage, bird poo is extremely acidic and attack the deck paint.
At the end I bought a small petrol driven pressure water and cleaned with sea water at high pressure. If you go that way be sure the pump head of the unit is made of brass so doesn't corrode.

Shags can be a real problem if they take a liking to your boat. Mate had one take up residence and he found the best move was to install a better perch. When leaving the boat he propped up a broom off the bow, head up and when the shag perched on it he crapped straight into the water.

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felixdcat said..
I tested all the bird fright gimmicks, none was good The birds swipe is good but not practical on a yacht, the netting is good but just cleaning takes less time than installing and removing the net. One of the live aboard guy had a couple of cats with him and no bird poo to be seen on his deck
I had a shag sitting on the bowsprit all day and it was like plastered in guano............ had to hammer it off, another one would roost on top of the mast and drop a stink bomb from there to be sure to get the best deck coverage, bird poo is extremely acidic and attack the deck paint.
At the end I bought a small petrol driven pressure water and cleaned with sea water at high pressure. If you go that way be sure the pump head of the unit is made of brass so doesn't corrode.

Sounds a bit daunting if not depressing. The associated monetary costs of boating are bad enough, the drip (drop) torture of bird poo is the icing on the cake. Has anybody on this forum had unequivocally positive personal experiences with bird deterring? I read in another post somewhere about a guy set on boarding "mooring minders" and throwing nests over the side. Seemed a little extreme and illegal. What are people's thoughts on this? The idea (apparently from a bird authority) is that if you make it difficult enough for the local population ( they are very territorial ) they will relocate.

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Ramona said..
Shags can be a real problem if they take a liking to your boat. Mate had one take up residence and he found the best move was to install a better perch. When leaving the boat he propped up a broom off the bow, head up and when the shag perched on it he crapped straight into the water.

Sounds like a good last resort Ramona. Not sure if I would want to try the broom before I had a problem although it sounds like it is an inevitable hassle where I am planning to moor my boat.

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josusa said..

Ramona said..
Shags can be a real problem if they take a liking to your boat. Mate had one take up residence and he found the best move was to install a better perch. When leaving the boat he propped up a broom off the bow, head up and when the shag perched on it he crapped straight into the water.

Sounds like a good last resort Ramona. Not sure if I would want to try the broom before I had a problem although it sounds like it is an inevitable hassle where I am planning to moor my boat.

Birds are hard to discourage. The idea is to make other boats more attractive than yours. If they do move in then try to get them to perch somewhere convenient. Swallows are the worst!

the Adams 28 really has beautiful lines. very pretty boat!

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fishmonkey said..
the Adams 28 really has beautiful lines. very pretty boat!

Thanks fishmonkey I have to agree with you though I may be a bit biased.

The hull lines except for the stern scoop look true to Adam's design but not the cabin trunk. That said, though Pelagia's cabin trunk may not be as pretty as the original design I am sure it is a lot more practical.

Congrats on the new yacht. Alloy yachts are fantastic.