Some sailboat buyers want (and can afford) to plunk down a boatload of money to get on the water right away. For others, restoring a great used sailboat is half the fun. For handy types with the tinkering bug, as well as the sailing bug, the restoration approach can be a budget-friendly, cash-flow-driven way to get into boat ownership.
There are plenty of great old fiberglass sailboats out there that can be had for a song (but follow Practical-Sailor’s tips on what to look for and look out for). If you want the vessel to look and perform like new, however, you can count on putting in lots of elbow grease and, more than likely, buying a new set of sails and repowering. The upside of the restoration approach is that you can buy at a low price and then do the restoration work and fund the required upgrades over time, according to your priorities and cash flow. This assumes, of course, that you’re the DIY type, though it’s a safe bet that that describes plenty of readers of Practical-Sailor.com.
The repowering part is cheaper and far easier if it’s an outboard-powered boat in the 18- to 26-foot range. After looking at everything from an 18-ft. Cape Dory Typhoon to a Pearson 26, this sailor paid $2,700 cash for a 1980 Tanzer 22 in late 2018. In retrospect I probably paid too much, given that I did not want, and did not take, the seller’s stinky old two-stroke 7.5 hp outboard (and to think many of us used to pollute the waters we love with a sheen of oil). I was drawn to the T22 having shared one with a couple of friends back in the 1990s, so it was like seeing an old friend.
There’s a reason more than 2,500 Tanzer 22s were built and sold between 1970 and 1986. To better understand the boat’s appeal, you can’t find a better summation than Darrell Nicholson’s 2001 review for Practical Sailor.
The Restoration Begins: Year 1
Every boat owner wants a vessel they can be proud of, so restorations usually start with a deep cleaning, from stem to stern. Empty every locker, drawer, cabinet and bilge hold, tossing out the garbage and junk and setting aside what’s serviceable before deciding whether and where to put it back onboard. To address the cleaning, Drew Frye comprehensively offers suggested brushes, pads, cleaning agents and working approaches in this article.
As part of the cleaning project, I also removed most of the interior wood trim, bilge covers and the companionway step for refinishing over the winter at home. The insides of the lockers and bilges were extensively cleaned, but I put off repainting these little-seen spaces in favor of more immediate priorities.
There’s nothing like compounding and waxing to revive a dingy hull and increase your pride of ownership, but beware: As detailed in this article, you should avoid using automotive products designed for paint rather than gelcoat. You can also create swirl marks and remove more gelcoat than necessary if you’re too aggressive with abrasives and power buffers. Older and higher quality boats have thicker gelcoat, generally, so I wasn’t too worried about buffing through the gelcoat. Nonetheless, I wanted to spend more of my efforts on the time-consuming tasks of sanding, fairing and improving the surfaces of the hull and keel in order to maximize performance. I later opted for yard to handle the compounding and waxing for the predicable fee of $19 per foot (the cost in Haverstraw, NY, in the spring of 2019).
The boat’s existing mainsail and roller reefing genoa were serviceable for the time being, but I knew from the start I would repower with a clean, quiet and reliable modern four stroke outboard. To keep weight down I stuck with the owners-manual-recommended 6 hp motor. It makes no sense to overpower and add unnecessary weight to a displacement hull.
I opted for Tohatsu’s extra-long shaft (25-inch) Sail Pro model, which features a larger prop designed for displacement speeds and a built-in 12-volt alternator. I also replaced the existing outboard motor bracket, recalling that the same bracket on my old shared Tanzer made it hard to lift the outboard out of the water. The bracket would also visibly bend when motoring through sloppy seas, which always gave me visions of the bracket snapping due to metal fatigue and the outboard sinking to the bottom. What’s more, four-stroke outboards are heavier and have more torque than their two-stroke predecessors. The beefier bracket proved to be rock steady regardless of wave action, and its heavy springs made it easy to lift the 59-pound outboard out of the water.
After all the cleaning, refinishing, refitting and work on the hull, I was raring to launch by early May, but yard delays kept me ashore well into June of 2019 (as the big boats always come first). I used the extra time to install an electric bilge pump and a backup manual pump with all the hose, strainer attachments, and through-hull fittings required. Here’s a roundup of the major first-year/first-phase restoration expenses (with 2025 price comparisons):
Your hours spent below the waterline will pay off in performance. Every boat owner has to sand and paint in spring (or have it done), but buyers of boats in need of restoration can count on more scraping, sanding, fairing and possibly having to strip or scrape down to gelcoat and apply a two-part barrier coat. I myself had to remove and grind down my boat’s swollen iron centerboard to bare metal and apply Petit Rustlock primer before painting. I also torqued the keel bolts to spec and recalked the keel-to-hull joint before applying a multi-season bottom paint. I’d ballpark the cost of coatings and materials for hull restoration and woodwork refinishing at $500 and the labor hours at a month’s worth of days (a big cost saver over having yards do the work, likely less meticulously).
Year 2: Performance and Rigging Improvements
After the first season’s experience of a score of daysails and one overnighter, I better understood my sailing needs and priorities. For starters, I recognized I’d be doing mostly solo daysails and only a few family/friend sails or overnights. I’d previously sailed as a single person, and I discovered, as many newbie sailors do, as explained in this video, that my friends and family like to keep it short and sail only under ideal conditions.
Thus, for my second season I prioritized upgrades for single-handed sailing, including an autopilot and self-tailing winches. To improve performance, I also replaced my main sail and upgraded to a second-generation, Tanzer 22 class-approved racing rudder, which I found on eBay for less than $300. I kept the beauty upgrades going as well by installing a sleek, modern hatch for the forecabin. Here’s a rundown of the expenses.
Inflation may not be as bad as my 2020-to-2025 price comparisons appear. One advantage of taking your time with a restoration is taking advantage of special sales. I recall, for example, that the Andersen winches and Lewmar hatch were purchased on sale. These sorts of sales seem to roll around late in the season and in midwinter, so watch out for special deals and hold out on purchases (like the new hatch) that might not be a priority.
Year 3: Finishing the Sail and Rigging Upgrades
I so appreciated the performance improvements provided by the new main sail that I ordered a new 130% genoa for season three. And given that I was ordering a crisp new genny, I also resolved to replace the Schaefer SnapFurl roller reefing system. The SnapFurl gets its name from the leading-edge foil, which is a full-length, two-piece PVC extrusion that’s cut to length and snapped together over the forestay. The design makes it less expensive and comparatively easy to cut and install. Rigid foils comprised of sections of metal tubing, in contrast, have to be carefully measured and cut, slid piece-by-piece over the forestay, and screwed together with tiny screws using a thread locking agent like Loctite.
Unfortunately, the PVC foil of the SnapFurl system twists, so the top of the sail lags behind the bottom of the sail as you’re furling, thereby wringing the sail like a wet washcloth. It can’t be good for the sail, and, in my experience, it also exacerbated the occasional problem of running out of furling line (and leaving a few inches or feet of sail unfurled) when getting a tight wrap in high winds.
Other assorted projects in year three included repainting the lockers and bilges and fixing a few topside gelcoat cracks and holes. Here’s the rundown on the big purchases in year three:
Here, again, the furling system was purchased on sale while the 2025 figure is the list price. Watch for sales on sails and sailing gear.
Takeaways and Lessons Learned
After three years I had pretty much taken my Tanzer 22 restoration as far as I wanted to take it. In year four, 2022, an unexpected business windfall, plus my desire to explore bigger waters and take longer journeys (in a boat with standup headroom) led me to upgrade to a 1976 Albin Ballad 30, which I purchased for $16,000 cash. After spending four seasons mostly on the 12-mile-long by three-mile-wide stretch of the Hudson River known as the Tappan Zee, I was ready to sail a bigger boat on the Long Island Sound, sailing out of Mamaroneck, NY.
After spending $2,700 to buy the Tanzer and $8,115 on restoration and upgrades over three years, I managed to sell the boat in the summer of 2022 for $8,750. While some experienced restorers do manage to find hidden gems and turn a profit on paper, but if you add in yard and marina costs—$850 for winter storage and $1,350 for summer dockage for a 22-ft. boat in Haverstraw, NY, in —buying and fixing up boats is a tough way to make money.
I had never intended or expected to turn a profit on this project. For me it was a way to buy, fix up and sail a boat largely on cash flow. The reno work was done mostly during the winter and early spring. That, too, was a reward in getting out into the fresh air down by the water, spending time tinkering (a.k.a., relaxing), and seeing and taking pride in the results of my labor. The real payoff happened from May until November, logging more than 75 days of sailing over three years. I also learned a lot of sailing lessons and gained a lot of renovation skills that I’ve been able to apply to my latest, new-to-me boat (which was in far better shape than my pre-renovation Tanzer 22).
The last thing I’d add about renovating boats is that you are putting new life into a vessel. As you can see by the numbers, I don’t pay heed to the old “a boat is a hole in the water” saw. Every bit of energy you put into a vessel will extend its potential for long-term enjoyment, either by you or by the buyer who follows you. If you care about your boat, the buyer you want is the one who sees himself or herself not so much as the new owner but as the latest caretaker.
