So one day a friend sends me an online government auction. Whidbey Island Naval Air Station is shutting down their Seaplane Base Marina, and auctioning off their recreational craft, including a "repairable" Cal 20 with no rig, no visible signs of any gear that wasn't bolted down, and plainly missing some gear that should have been (the winches, for example.)
Cal 20 #1394, as I first saw her
But, what the heck. No bidders, auction almost over, less than $50... the bronze hardware and 900 lbs. cast-iron keel are worth considerably more than that, so why not? I could always strip off the useful pieces and junk the rest. Or so I told myself.
Of course, it cost me more to get the boat home than it did at auction. The auction required I take the bulky wooden cradle as well as the boat, so I used a large flatbed trailer and a rented forklift to get her to a relative's shop.
My Uncle-In-Law Jon offered his forklift experience in assistance
The pleasant surprises began at the marina. Far from lacking a rig, the anodized aluminum mast was next to the boat. (No boom, mast step, or winches, however.) A cursory inspection of the hull revealed no signs of any serious damage; a few dings and scratches, a break in the rubber rub rail, a few pieces of corroded hardware that a PO had added. The mahogany rudder was under the boat, off the ground out of the weather. And a pair of sails that the manager insisted went with this boat landed in the back of the truck.
(As it turned out, he was wrong... they belonged with a Columbia 22 that had been sold the previous week. I did manage to contact the owner, and he didn't want them... anyone have a use for them?)
More pleasant surprises when I got her home. Despite being out the weather for years, her cabin was nearly dry. (Some small leakage from a poorly-sealed lazarette hatch and the mounting holes for the winches.) Once the boat got a good scrubbing, it became apparent that most of the "damage" was really just dirt and some cosmetic issues - cracked gelcoat, etc.
The starboard quarter berth had some soggy/rotted plywood from that leakage, and one rotting vertical brace under the surprisingly solid cockpit sole (where the leaking water collected in the bilge) are the extent of the real "damage". The keel is badly rusted - already ground down to solid metal and undergoing major chemical warfare to keep it from happening again. The rudder had been painted - horror of horrors - and clearly, Navy personnel are no better than civilians at caring for rental equipment; there are several big bites out of the rudder where it's been banged into rocks. But it's overall sound, and by trimming off the bottom inch and splicing in a piece of fresh mahogany, that damage will be made good.
All the remaining hardware - mast, cleats, rudder pintles and gudgeons - are in very good shape, needing only a bit of cleanup to restore the good clean shine of bronze. A local second-hand marine shop has a pair of bronze winches for $100 - not self-tailing, but then, it's not really necessary on this boat, anyway. The mast step is not too expensive from Seals Spars, owned by the original master rigger for Cal Yachts. (Most of the other hardware is available there, as well... though you're paying for niche-manufactured parts from a factory operation located in the San Francisco Bay area. Overhead? What overhead?) A boom and fixed gooseneck, plus a decent 165% genoa, came off a parted-out Cal 20 in California for $75.
All in all, my $50 auction find is going to cost me an estimated $2000 - slightly less than the going rate for the same boat in good condition. Next spring, she'll be cruising the Puget Sound wearing a new, clean paint job, fresh sails, and a new name - Wyldside.
