>>If any of you are
>>uncomfortable with the aspect of making their opinions public, feel
>>free to answer off-list.

Ha! The day this motley crew stops making their opinions public is the day
the world stops rotating.

>>Also, if any of you have a Baba 30 currently
>>for sale, feel free to forward information, photos, equipment lists,
>>pricing, etc.

Jess, check out www.yachtworld.com. I've just spent a ...um... little bit of
time checking out the Baba listings and I'm surprised at how many there are!
Seems to be a buyer's market.

You'll want to search on each of these terms:

Baba
Tashing
Tashiba

However, the BEST Baba 30 (actually a Tashiba 31) on the market right now is
Tom Currier's 'Chinita' (you might have to copy/paste this)
http://yachtworld.com/core/listing/pl_boat_full_detail.jsp?slim=quick&boat_i
d=1265899&units=Feet&currency=USD&access=Public&listing_id=32744&url=

Without question, for a boat this size - Baba or otherwise - you'll not find
anything nicer.

Now as far as the Baba line goes I was going to ramble on about this, but
then I remembered that Bruce Pappas has all the info you need here:
http://www.babaowners.org/

So, making my opinion public, I'll give you a little insight into our
wonderful Soņadora. Now, she's not perfect. If she was, she'd be too good
for us. But she is a heartbreaker and I think that term works for most
Baba-philes. That's how we got into this mess.

Ours is of the older vintage. Hull #22 of 300-something hulls. They were
still trying to get it right when they built ours. More than once there was
a 'what the hell were they thinking???' moment. Check out my site and read
about my chain plate adventure:
http://www.sail2live.com/boats/sonadora/chainplates.html. There are
countless stories like mine, but it seems that towards the end of the model,
TaShing got it closer to perfect.

The biggest thing to realize, especially with the older boats, is that you
can have two models of the same year and they can be very different. One may
have an aluminum mast and one may have a wooden mast. Even two boats with
aluminum masts may have different masts depending on the dealer who sold it.
That goes for a lot of the rigging, though in general all were cutter rigs
in the earlier models. I think the Tashiba models were available as sloops.

Also, be prepared for an experience that rivals the fiercest of religions:
teak-ism. Check the e-mail archives for a recent discussion about this. This
topic pops up about every 6 months. You'll learn why it's 6 months once
you've owned a boat with copious amounts of teak.

And oh, about the teak? That's where the heartbreaking comes in. I recall
one person who came onto the list wanting to know how to REMOVE the teak on
the boat...permanently! Wow. This person probably thought public tar and
feathering would have been better. So, ya gotta love the teak. If you're not
up for the teak, there are probably 100,000 other boats you could consider.

With all that said, these are wonderful, wonderful boats. They sail much
better than you would be led to believe. They are built as tough as a steel
boat (check out 'My Baba Fell Over' in the archives). For any boat of the
late 70s/early 80s, the fit and finish are way above average. Though some
items are of concern 20 years later. Namely, the chain plates. There are
some extreme examples of chain plate rot though most of us have been lucky.
What happens is that water gets in where the chain plates pass through the
core. The core holds the water and it eats away, little by little, year
after year, until the chain plate is history. This may not be apparent above
or below deck so the only way to really know is to remove the chain plates -
all of them.

Also, those salty bronze opening ports get a bit long in the tooth in terms
of the seals. It's a simple affair to replace the seals. Do the glass while
you're at it. I had all new laminated glass cut for around $250. There's a
link floating around here somewhere where you can find the seals.

On our boat, teak-to-deck connections have been on the leaky side. This
summer I'm on a mission to stop most if not all. They can be very elusive.

That terrific bowsprit is something to take note of as well. It is built
with laminates of teak and holly. One of the holly laminates on our bowsprit
has dry rot. We will have to get that replaced before we do any serious
adventuring.

In terms of pricing, it seems there's a wide range. I've seen 'em around
$30k up to over $100k. In any case, you'll get what you pay for. The price
mainly reflects the cost you'll put into it sooner or later. The ones at
$100k are turnkey and fit for anything you'll encounter. Ours was way at the
low end and after 5 years we've only done about 20% of what we'd like to do.

So, if you're ready to be emotionally involved in your boat, a Baba is the
ticket. As Cindy once said to me, "She wants to be pretty." That's probably
what got you to post here in the first place.

Cheers,

Rick Beddoe
s/v Soņadora, 1978 Baba 30
http://sail2live.com

p.s., there's like 20 or 30 guys named 'Rick' on this e-mail list, so last
names are a plus.

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Received on Sun May 7 23:22:28 2006