Kaimusailing

The auction for the Beneteau First 235 ended and I came in second, losing out to someone who set a higher limit than my $1551. Sour grapes. The boat had sat at the dock since 2013 and obviously had a lot of growth on the hull. Sadly, a couple of boats had sold on this auction last week without any auction sniping going on.
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We've had overcast weather for a while and the batteries were getting low which I attributed to the cloud cover. In the morning I looked into it further and could see that the solar panel voltage and amperage at the charge controller were 0. Testing further gave odd results, as if both panels were functioning normally but the connection between them was bad, but the connection between them tested OK. The system has 2 panels in series, so if there is any problem in the circuit there would be no voltage and amperage to the charge controller. I ended up disconnecting both panels from each other and testing them individually. It is recommended to not disconnect the battery from the charge controller until the panels are disconnected. The batteries were down to 12.1 volts, which is low. I found the aft panel on the pilothouse was reading 25 volts, good, but the panel over the galley was reading 4 volts, bad. To fix the panel's wiring I would have to remove it and flip it over.
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When the panel was flipped over I found the negative wire, the ground, to have a bad connection, indeed it came apart while I was looking at it. The connection was restripped and crimped, the panel flipped right side up, screwed down with e6000 in the screw holes, and the connections down below at the charge controller also redone. The batteries came up to 12.5 volts after a few hours of charging.
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I had used the Makita cordless drill I bought from Fabio to do the panel screws. He kind of threw the drill into the deal to buy his endless furler, as well as a fairly new drone. After I finished with the panel he stopped by with the case for the drill. I loaded the drill, the two new batteries that cost me $27, and the charger in the case and put it away. Just to see if I got a good deal, I looked the drill, etc., up on eBay and found the drill went for just under $100 and the kit with the case and charger and batteries was $200 and up. To top it off he came by later with a Makita circular saw that looked new and said he wanted $30 for it, so I gave him cash and put that saw away. Looking it up I found the lowest price on eBay was just over $100.
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Now it's Pizza Night again and I will be making the same pies as last week but with less fresh garlic. The dough is rising and while it rises I am watching another auction by Boat Angel. There are 4 boats I am interested in and probably won't win any of them. Boats are starting to sell for higher prices. The boat that will end today is a Catalina 30, which is a generic small sized family boat, very popular, auction bids are now at around $2000, tomorrow a C&C 30 will end and it's bids are also in the $2000 range. This is a higher performance boat than the Catalina, but I would be happy with either boat. In 4 days a Lancer 36 will end and it's already almost at $4000 bid on it. It is a higher performance boat and is well equipped. I expect its winning bid will be well into the tens of thousands. Finally, a week from now, a Seidelmann 30 will end. This is a boat that wasn't produced for very long and this particular boat looks like it had flooded the cabin, and probably the engine, by about a foot. The interior is gutted, someone had installed a bunch of new winches on it, and it is noted that the engine does not "run/function". It is also located on the West Coast of Florida and there are no sails with it. It would have to be transported or towed to the boatyard to get going again. Some boats are worth less than zero. Its current bid is in the low $200's.
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The pizza oven seemed to be acting up and it took a while to change over to a new propane tank. The tank I had been using did not seem to be empty at all, but with a new tank the oven sprang to life. The pies came out just fine and we celebrated, because I had won the Catalina 30 with a bid just under $5,000. It's hard to tell what a boat is worth these days. In the recent past it has been hard to sell a monohull sailboat. Now I think there is more interest, people are realizing they'd rather be social distancing on a sailboat than be cooped up at home.
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Further news the next day, the Beneteau I had lost out on was relisted. I called Boat Angel to complain that I had not been contacted, as second highest bidder, when the high bidder reneged. They explained that eBay makes it difficult for the seller to contact bidders and many of their boats go unpaid and they have no recourse but to relist the boat. They offered it to me at my bid price, but what would I do with yet another boat. Tempting though. I suggested they relist reneged boats as Buy It Now items at the bid price, either the winner's price or the second bidder's price, that way they would get their bid price and the losing bidder could still buy the boat.
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My suggestion for anyone using Boat Angel and losing a close bid, call the number listed with the eBay ad and give your contact information to Boat Angel. If the winning bidder reneges then you would have the chance to buy the boat.
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The photo is of the Catalina 30. I will keep the name, I like it.