You know how it goes. Someone posts with enthusiasm on social media that they’ve got themselves a free boat, something utterly derelict, and plan to fix it up.

There are two flavours of response: 1. Best of luck mate, you’ll enjoy the work, and 2. Sorry buddy, big mistake, the most expensive boat is a free one.

Those are two very different answers, so what’s the truth here?

And if you’re thinking of saying ‘yes’ to that free boat, how do you decide whether to proceed or not?

To investigate, Iet’s look at Aurora, our Morgan Giles 30, the rebuild of which is nearly complete.

Initial cost of a so-called free boat

Alice and I paid £1,500 for Aurora, so she’s not quite a free boat, but the joke goes that the Aries 2 self-steering gear was worth about that, so you could say we bought a self-steering vane with a free boat attached.

Whichever way you look at it, we could have bought a much better boat.

Nearly everything wooden was rotten; of the wooden components, we kept only the mast post, engine beds and three minor bulkheads.

All the other wood we had to cut out and throw away. Most metal components we rescued, such as the mast, toe rails, windows, pushpit and pulpit.

But the engine needed replacing and there were some expensive write-offs such as hatches and primary winches.

Once the interior had been removed, the hull and superstructure needed much modification and repair.

We glassed over the two foremost portlights and three through-hull fittings because we either didn’t need them or wanted to move them.

Getting the Treadmaster off the deck left us with several rounds of filling and sanding.

The sealant in the hull-deck joint was dry and leaky, so the joint had to be opened, re-sealed and closed. Getting to a hull and superstructure we could work with was a lot of effort.

We spent substantial time and money just getting to the starting line.

External help

Whether you have external help or not involves a trade-off. Employing a marine professional will increase costs, but doing it yourself means the project completion date will get further away.

Some people prefer to do everything without help, even if that means never finishing their boat and going sailing.

They like the work, the hanging around the yard, the nerdiness of it all. But I call those people boatbuilders.

I am a sailor first; I want to go sailing. I decided from the outset to have help.

The deal with Aurora was this: Simon Papendick at J-Star Boat Services in Walton-on-the-Naze would restore the outside, while I’d rebuild the inside.

There were some exceptions to that rule but not many. Simon did the heavy internal demolition, made the big structural bulkheads and fitted the engine: I did some of the exterior work such as making locker lids and handrails and rebuilding the portlights.

Simon’s help has been invaluable.

The project will take five years when finished, while I initially thought it would take two or three; the difference in time is explained by my over-optimism, and by time lost to the pandemic when we could not work at the yard, although pandemic or not, without Simon I think we’d have taken a further three years to finish.

I would have found it much harder to keep going without someone else working on Aurora, someone to talk to; I may even have given up.

The long ranks of part-finished project boats in any boatyard are testimony that many fail to complete a boat project.

Then there is Simon’s expertise. He is a master boatbuilder and a talented and patient teacher. I could not have wished for a better partner for the project and would have been way out of my depth without him.

Time and effort refitting a free boat

I estimated I would spend 1,000 hours on the project and Simon would spend the same; 2,000 hours in total. In the end, 3,950 hours will be needed.

Of the extra 1,950 hours, about 250 were carried out by Alice and a few dear and generous friends, and 200 by Simon; the other 1,500 hours fall to me.

So, how much did it cost? It’s time for some hard numbers and analysis.

Broadly this is how much our ‘everything out’ rebuild cost:

Donor boat, which includes the mast, boom and self-steering vane – £1500.

Yard labour, and parts and materials for internal demolition and dismantling of the boat: opening and re-sealing the hull-deck joint; making and fitting structural bulkheads; modifying the hull and superstructure; sanding, filling, fairing and painting the entire exterior; repairing and refitting toe rails; fitting refurbished portlights; making new hatch frames and fitting new hatches; making or repairing wooden components such as plinths for the traveller, jib cars, deck organisers and winches; reconstructing the companionway/main hatch; fabricating, repairing and refitting metal components such as chainplates, bow roller, through-hull fittings, deck fillers, cockpit drains and second fuel tank; making custom glassfibre components such as shower tray, main water tank, and icebox; repairing and refitting the rudder; making a new tiller; fitting handrails, vents, whistle, and a big pile of deck gear; repairing the mast and boom; antifouling – £45,900.

Interior fit-out Materials for a new interior: marine ply, teak, iroko, mahogany; polyester glassfibre and resin, epoxy resin and fillers; paints and varnishes; gloves (hundreds of pairs), sanding discs (lots); insulation and trims; straps, screws, nuts and bolts – £9,900.

Plumbing components: calorifier, matrix heater and towel rail; diesel cooker; custom fuel and black tank; rain catchers, vents, through-hulls, and seacocks; bilge pump and related components; a complete set of fittings for heads compartment and galley; lots of pipes, hoses and clips for the hot, cold, black and grey water systems; several pumps– £8,100.

Machinery, wiring and electrical equipment: multifunction displays (MFDs), compass, instruments and gauges; fixed radio; internal and external lights; switch panels, batteries, chargers, anodes, power supplies and outlets; fitting a new engine, all peripherals and drive-train – £15,300.

Sailing and safety gear Sailing and safety equipment: anchoring tackle and docking equipment; liferaft and grab bag; fire equipment and alarms; running rigging, standing rigging, strong points; refurbishing the Aries 2 self-steering gear; emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB), personal locator beacons (PLBs) and electronic flares; lots of deck gear from winches to windlass– £12,300.

Other expenditure: upholstery, cushions, pictures, fittings, and signs; spares and repair materials for on board; tools I did not have – £2,100.

Total – £95,100

And that’s just the boat… at old prices! The cost of materials is much higher now than when I bought marine ply, paints, resins and glassfibre four years ago.

In addition, there was also the cost of travel and accommodation, plus lifts and trucks, surveys, insurance and storage.

Some of these expenses are the usual costs of owning a boat (insurance and storage, for example) and some are my fault (travel and accommodation, for living a long way from the project), so may be considered not strictly rebuilding costs.

Certainly, some of the costs are specific to Aurora, so if you’re thinking about a project like this there are some costs you might avoid.

Aurora is an expedition boat and special. She is insulated for sailing to cold places, which was not expensive in terms of materials but was very time-consuming to fit, and she has extra components – such as large water and fuel tanks – for sailing to far-off places.

I’ve also not included the cost of gear which we have yet to fit, such as a diesel water heater, wind generator, new sails, drogue and sprayhood, or items we already have, such as galley equipment, bedding, handheld VHF radio, tender, clothing and footwear, lifejackets, harnesses and various other essential gadgetry.

The cost of my time has also not been added.

So is it worth it?

My first answer is the one I give our friends and family when they ask; we could have completed the project for around £50,000 had we not decided to refit Aurora as an expedition boat and I’d done all the work myself.

On the other hand, had we drawn up plans for a new hull and custom design and given them to a yard saying ‘build us that’ we would have had little change from maybe £200,000.

So in round numbers, Aurora, at around £100,000, is twice the price she could have been and half the price she might have been. We’re happy with that.

If we’re lucky, we’ll get 15 to 20 years of sailing out of her; that is six to eight weeks a year (around 850 days of sailing each or 1,700 in total), which is around £58 per day per person for the boat.

Sure, we’ll have maintenance, insurance and other costs, but we can still expect to sail for well under what it would cost us to sail on other people’s boats, especially as we want to cruise high latitudes.

It doesn’t matter that we could have bought a well-found Morgan Giles 30 for a lot less. I saw one advertised for about £20,000, which according to the broker had been refurbished for £120,000.

She was gorgeous, and astonishing value, but she’d not have taken us to where we want to sail.

You can’t compare Aurora with other Morgan Giles 30s; instead, you need to compare her with those typically aluminium or steel expedition boats which are much bigger than Aurora and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

They are well beyond our reach. Aurora, despite being expensive for her class, is expedition sailing on a budget.

We knew from the start it wasn’t possible to take a small glassfibre yacht to cold and remote places unless we had the freedom to design a boat suited to how we wanted to sail and live.

We’ve reduced the bunks from five to three to make room for extra water and fuel.

The settee-bunk is wider and therefore more comfortable than one in a standard 30ft boat.

The forward bunk has been reinvented so it’s easy to get in and out when set up as a double.

Except for the heads, all internal doors, and the resulting claustrophobia in small boats, have been eliminated.

Shelves have been made to fit the crew’s holdalls; a large luggage space has been built to take our expedition shore-going kit.

To save on battery power we have an insulated locker-cum-icebox rather than a fridge.

We downsized the massive and awkward dining table, using the beautiful drop leaves to make a smaller one, and installed a small but permanent chart table.

We will also have the luxury of new plumbing, wiring and instrumentation.

Then of course there is love. All logic is futile when you fall in love with a boat.

Aurora is worth what we have spent because she is special to us.

The moral is this… If a production boat will do what you want, buy the very best example out there and go sailing.

If you can’t afford the best out there, buy a smaller boat, one you can afford, but still the best example you can find of that boat. And go sailing.

If you catch yourself looking with dangerous desire at something rare, ask yourself if a production boat will do the job anyway; do your best to answer yes, then buy the best and go sailing.

If you cannot manage that and must rebuild that free boat, go in with your eyes open.

A total rebuild is years of brutal and expensive work. It has the potential to break your will and your bank balance.

For me, the only justification for a complete rebuild is if you want the boat to meet your specifications… and you love the boat.

Of course, there is a caveat: if you’re more of a boatbuilder than a sailor, and you love being at the yard then you do not need to worry about finishing the build and going sailing: enjoy the work.

When rebuilding a free boat, you have to choose where the value lies for you.

Is it in making and sailing a special boat, something you’d not otherwise be able to sail, or is it in boatbuilding for its own sake?

Or, if rebuilding is not for you, just go sailing.

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