Venture 222 Restoration / New Owner

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AeroMech_215
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2019 7:03 pm
Sailboat: Venture 2-22

Venture 222 Restoration / New Owner

Post by AeroMech_215 »

Hello, new to the forum and even newer sailboat owner now. My coworker and I bought a 1971 Venture 222 sailboat about a week ago now. I was planning on using the forum as a somewhat log of our restoration of the boat, as well as our adventure into sailing. We were initially planning on waiting till this winter to look for a boat but ended up finding this one and picking it up for a whopping $300. Anywho, I'll give you the story up till the date of this post.

The Plan-
Learn how to sail (Basic Keel Boat Sailing classes at the local college)
Clean Ext/Int
Gut Interior
Remove Keel and repair
Take the boat off the trailer (that is if it floats/ doesn't leak)
Restore the trailer
Boat back on the trailer
Strip/Sand Int and Ext
Inspect and Repair as needed
Prime and Paint
Finish exterior so that we can be sailing it by the time spring rolls around.

You may of noticed that we put the cart before the horse on this one a bit, but after researching the cost of renting sail boats in our area, we figured buying one and little restoration would take us further.

We initially found the boat on craigslist with an asking price of $700. Ad said 1971 Venture 222, with new sails, trolling motor, and sitting on a double axle trailer. Met with the previous owner (lets call him Kevin) who admitted that he didn't know much about sailing and was more interested in getting rid of it, cause his landlord was making a stink about it. He informed us that the previous owner to him (owner #1) traded it for some construction work. Owner #1 said he had bought new sails for it recently, before the trade. Kevin however, never did anything with the boat and it has been stored outside on his property for the past 10 years. Kevin also had left the companion way open at some point, so the boat had a couple of inches of standing water in the hull. We pulled out the new sails, which looked like new, and thankfully had been kept in the garage rather than on the boat. Also found a Spinnaker stuffed in one of the bags, also in good shape. We inspected the rigging, and other than the plastic sheaves on all the original blocks, it all looked in really good condition, no fraying or unraveling of the cables. All the running rigging will eventually need replacing. We didn't venture too far into the cabin area due to the standing water, but got a look at the chain plates and saw no signs of damage or over stressing. We are aircraft mechanics so we brought along some tap test hammers to try and find signs of de-lamination in the fiberglass. I was concerned that the standing water might of caused damage to the hull over the years, but amazingly we didn't find any de-lamination. We inspected the keel as best as possible and it has been damaged at some point and the fiberglass has de-laminated from the core. The keel was not stuck in the keel trunk so we felt that was a good sign. A lot of the boat looked good, but the standing water made us nervous and we told him it was definitely a project and we would talk over. He told us, if it's still up after a week, that we should shoot a low ball offer and he might just bite on it. We talked it over and my main argument for making the purchase was the sails. They looked in amazing condition, no tears, no sun damage, stitching wasn't failing, and the grommets had minuet signs of wear. Also the price of new sails, even if we found a better boat, was big factor. Figuring that if sh~t hits the fan, and we bail on our grand sailing scheme's, that the sails and trailer could be sold to recoup the money invested. We waited 5 days, and hit him with $300. "Sounds good, come get her"... Needless to say, she is now sitting in my driveway.

First order of business was to pressure wash the exterior, cause it was needed, and to get her cleaned up for when my wife got home. Just a bath made me feel better about the whole thing. I next, stepped the mast to get it out of my way for the interior cleaning/gutting, plus i wanted to see it raised... make it look more like a sailboat. Took me a few tries of catching every piece of rigging on everything imaginable, but got there in the end. Again it gave me a more hope and a feeling of one more little checked off box on a long list. Had to saw off one of the hold down bolts, but next got the pop top raised. Interior cleaning/gutting time, and soon a big upswing in hope/confidence in our purchase. As nasty as it was, I found all the original cushions stored in the bow. Only one had fallen into the bog at the bottom of the hull, but under the dry cushions we found three more sails in bags, thankfully well away from the water. We found the original Main sail and Jib sail. The third sail was an old Spinnaker that looked as though it was blown up into four large strip of fabric. Oh well, still happy with the first two. Oh yeah, found the poop deck..and... "Jackpot! Port-a-pooper baby!" We knew that it had been a option on the originals, from the bit of research that we did on the boat, but didn't expect it to have one inside. Anyways post cleanup inventory:

Original Main and Jib sails
Port-a-potty
All original cushions if needed for copying later
Handful of fiberglass battens
Box of replacement hardware
and and anchor.

All of that plus the Minn Kota trolling motor (older version but literally brand new in original box), New Main sail, New Genoa sail, Good condition Spinnaker sail, and the trailer... We felt like we got a pretty good deal.

That is the story up to this point. Last night I attached to boom and decided to raise all the sails in turn. Don't worry, it was dead calm, didn't want to be sailing my boat and trailer down my driveway. The raising of all the sails made me feel good, plus it allowed me to fold them up very neatly. Need to jump in it tomorrow, grind off a couple of screws to finish the wood panel removal, pressure wash the interior, and vacuum out the last of the dirt and grime. After that we plan to attack the keel removal process. Gave one of my buddies, who was also interested in sailing, a chance to buy in, so now we three amigos are in this together. We figure that all cost split three ways will make the whole thing easier to swallow and keep the fun in it. Plus I have owned a ski boat in the past and found that one owner usually doesn't get enough use of a boat in a year to justify buying it. Any words of advise, mods that are a must have or needed, maintenance manuals, pictures of your personal boats (so we know how things are supposed to look), or just general encouragement will be greatly appreciated.

Again we 3 are totally new to the sailboat world. I apologize if i didn't use the correct terminology for some stuff, still learning as I go. I will try and get pictures up ASAP. Thanks for reading.
AeroMech_215
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2019 7:03 pm
Sailboat: Venture 2-22

Re: Venture 222 Restoration / New Owner

Post by AeroMech_215 »

AeroMech_215
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2019 7:03 pm
Sailboat: Venture 2-22

Re: Venture 222 Restoration / New Owner

Post by AeroMech_215 »

Sorry used the wrong link. This should be the correct one.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
Maraquita
Chief Steward
Posts: 81
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2016 9:44 am
Sailboat: MacGregor 26D
Location: Whitewater, CO

Re: Venture 222 Restoration / New Owner

Post by Maraquita »

Lots of people have spent a lot more for a lot less boat! Have fun and keep us informed.
Florida-Blizzard
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2019 11:03 am
Sailboat: Venture 2-22

Re: Venture 222 Restoration / New Owner

Post by Florida-Blizzard »

AeroMech 215, nice find on the boat! The winches you have alone are worth $120 each, used. The basic small winches run $99 new and $60 used, if you can find them used.
I just bought a 1979 Venture 222 (2-22) for $750 (does not have the port in front of the mast). Had a 9.9 Johnson, mostly usable single axle trailer and original main/jib. Despite the interior yours looks pretty good. My interior looks pretty good mostly because it has absolutely nothing in it. Just white fiberglass and the one bulkhead at the mast. I've been working on it for about a month now. Haven't got it into the water yet but I'm getting close!
So far I've done the following:
- Scrubbing on the deck and hull and that made a huge difference.
- The swing keel looks OK and moves in and out of casing pretty well but the winch for it was pretty much rusted off the mount. I found an identical one and just installed it yesterday.
- Rails for sliding companion way panel were mostly rotted away. Replaced with Z Channel aluminum.
- Removed corroded port frames and foggy Plexiglas and replaced with solid pieces of 1/4" Plexiglas. Just drilled holes through the glass and attached directly to the deck.
- Replaced trailer bunk supports that were mostly rusted through.

Still much to do.
If you need any hints on where to find parts let me know. I'm still fumbling around myself but I have found a few nuggets of information.
Jconn
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2017 10:21 am
Sailboat: Venture 2-24

Re: Venture 222 Restoration / New Owner

Post by Jconn »

Aerotech,

You got a very good deal for $300 if there's no rot in the hull, deck, etc. It's a beautiful boat. But good deal, bad deal, it's really immaterial. Buying and restoring a MacGregor Venture isn't something you should do looking for ROI. I've spent the past three summers (in NW Indiana, I can work in my driveway from about April through October) restoring a 1972 Venture 2-24 that had been sitting in a guy's back yard under a tarp for 8 years. I sailed it only 1 day, in October, each of the first two years on small inland lakes, and finally got it in the water on Lake Michigan this past August. My goal is to sail it up the west coast of Michigan and under the Mackinac Bridge. You can find photos of the restoration of my Poca Loca at a Yahoo Group for Venture 24s. There are all kinds of ideas people have come up with and posted photos of on that group on how to get the boat up in the air to sand and paint the bottom and to drop and repair the keel. I jacked up the trailer about 3 feet with the boat riding on it , slipped under the stern a rear cradle and under the bow a 12-foot long beam slid on top of the trailer rail. I blocked up the beam on both ends with pillars of solid concrete blocks spaced far enough apart that the wheels of the trailer would pass between them. Then I lowered the trailer so that the boat could rest on the rear cradle and front beam, and then rolled the trailer out from under the boat. I hauled the trailer off into the yard to replace the bunk boards and repaint the trailer. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Venture24/info I bought the boat, a slightly used 9 hp Nissan 2-stroke motor, four sails, and homemade trailer for $1,800. The keel had a thin crack in the fiber glass that was easily repairable. The hull was solid, but had multiple coats of paint and it and the keel needed to be sanded down to the base coat. The bottom and the keel were resealed with five coats of epoxy, then three coats copper-based top coat. My guess -- because I stopped counting -- is I have more than $3,000-$4,00 into the restoration, on top of the original cost. I bought a new kick-up rudder, tiller, tiller clutch and telescopic mast crutch from Rudder Craft in Idaho and I'm very satisfied with the purchases, even though the cost was well north of $1,000 for those four items alone. I know I will never recoup that money I've put into the Poca Loca, if I tried to resell it, but I have no intention of ever selling the boat. Your twin axle trailer is really overkill for a boat of that length and weight,IMO, but it's only two more tires and wheel bearings you have to pay for compared with the factory single axle trailer the boat came with. One bit of advice is to replace the lights using LEDs, but maybe not the wiring. I re-used some wiring (it had been partially re-wired before) and replaced some, but now I have all LED lights. Your wiring may well be ok, too. Good luck with your project. I've learned so much from the generous sharing of knowledge from MacGregor owners on sites like this. My one more "must have" tip for you is to buy a swedging tool, wire and fittings and re-rig your forestay, adding a turnbuckle, if you don't have one, and a Hyfield Lever, if you don't have one. http://www.downwindmarine.com/Johnson-Q ... 90707.html This explains it. https://stingysailor.com/tag/highfield-lever/ Best $70 I spent on the boat so far. Regards, Joe
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Freedom77
First Officer
Posts: 481
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2010 9:43 am
Sailboat: Venture 25
Location: Lake Mead, Nevada '76 V-25 #928

Re: Venture 222 Restoration / New Owner

Post by Freedom77 »

Aero Mech, You should be arrested for a steal like that. As mentioned the winches alone are worth almost as much. Looks to be in pretty good shape. A bit of TLC and you'll have a great boat. We had a '71 V222 for five years. Used to sail to Catlalina from San Pedro and drop anchor for a week every year. Trailered all the way from Baja to BC and points in between. Full Sails and Fair Winds, Old Salt 8)
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Ixneigh
Admiral
Posts: 2225
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:00 am
Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
Location: Key largo Florida

Re: Venture 222 Restoration / New Owner

Post by Ixneigh »

That’s a good boat. The quality of the stainless tubing is very high. I took mine to the Bahamas and had a great time. The fiberglass coated keel never gave me any problems I just kept the coating maintained.

Ix
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