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SV Comanche
1973 Islander 30 MK II
She has undergone many projects since coming into our care. I have documented them but have not gotten around to writing posts yet. If we do, it will be soon. So keep checking back! For now, some of the photos detailing the projects are listed below.
SV Comanche is a 1973 Islander 30 MK II, not to be confused with the Bahama 30. She’s a masthead sloop rig, with a fin keel and a spade rudder. Designed by Robert Finich and first introduced in 1970 with the last hull built in 1985. A total of 500 being built. We purchased her in back in 2018 in Port Huron, Michigan. She was well loved, but not looked after. She came with a good assortment of sails. We think she had an Atomic 4 originally or some other sort of gasoline engine and was later converted to a Universal M3-20B. Thankfully, she had most of the original documents come with her.
LOA: | 30 ft / 9.14 m |
LWL: | 24.85 ft / 7.49 m |
Beam: | 10 ft / 3.05 m |
S.A. | ff6 ft^2 / 41.43 m^2 |
Draft: | m^2 |
Displacement | 5 ft / 1.52 m |
Ballast: | 8,600 lb / 3,901 kg |
S.A./Disp.: | 3,500 lb / 1,588 kg |
Bal./Disp.: | 17.06 |
Disp./Len.: | 40.7 |
Comfort Ratio: | 258.53 |
Capsize Screening: | 23.61 |
Screening: | 1.96 |
S#: | 2.10 |
We have provided some Amazon affiliate links below. So if you use those links to purchase any items it helps us out with no extra cost to you!
As a running list here are some of the repairs/upgrades we have done.
Cleaning/Reupholstered
- We cleaned, we cleaned and we cleaned… It was verrrrrrry dirty before.
Before & After Photos
- Reupholstered the cushions. They were PRETTY nasty. We went with a friend’s recommendation called JuJus Sewing. She is great and does excellent work! Can’t find her Facebook page or anything so not sure if she is still doing it.
Before & After Photos
Restored/Painted
Access covers
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Tiller
Companionway Steps
Companionway screen
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Refinished the teak
Fuel System
- When the tank was filled higher than half way (didn’t know about it prior to purchase) it would leak out where the fuel sender attached to the tank.
- It also had a few other areas where it would “weep” and air would get into the system. So we replaced all the hosing and tank fittings.
Before/After Photos
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Running Rigging
- We swapped the topping lift, making it adjustable from the deck,
- She came to us with a wired main halyard which I swapped at the top of the mast to be the new jib halyard.
- It made sense since the halyard will just stay at the top since we upgraded from hanks to a roller Harken Crusing unit 2 roller furler.
- That was an ordeal so we may write a blog post about it.
The original set up had a lot of “Home Depot Special” lines… they were absolutely terrible!
A friend donated a lot of really great lines for us that we are forever grateful for.
On the new lines we did our own splicing and whipping.
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Leaky Head
- The previous owner must not have drained all the water form the head so it froze and cracked. Upon taking it apart, it looked like he already did a repair before.
- We also rewired it since it was a bit of a janky job.
Before/After Photos
Water System
Added cockpit shower/spray nozzle.
- Materials
Upgraded/replaced the water pump and faucet. We had to manual turn it on before vs a pressurized system.
Before/After Photos
- Materials
Cleaned the water tank (OMG IT WAS TERRIBLE!)
- If you do this, be sure to use aquarium silicone. Reason being you don’t want a bunch of toxins leaching into your water.
After Photos (Apparently we didn’t take any before photos).
- Materials
Cleaned and overhauled the bilge/pump.
- The original bilge pump one just floated there. You had to pull out the nasty hose and stick it in the sink, pull the power leads out and manually hook them up to the battery which is under the stairs. Then hold the pump down because it wanted to float to the top. That’s only if it worked because there was so much debris floating around.
Before/After Photos
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Electrical
Added a 2nd battery bank (I know right..).
Before/After Photos
Added two trickle chargers to charge while on shore power.
Before/After Photos
Converted all the old outlets to GFIs (I know right..).
Before/After Photos
- Materials
Room Fans
- Materials
Repaired the auto tiller a Ratheon ST2000 Plus.
Photos
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Fiberglass/Bottom Work
Painted the bottom with VC17 every year.
Before/After Photos
- Materials
- VC-17
Fiberglass repair of a bad repair job on the rudder, Also Reinforced the skeg for the prop shaft.
Before/After Photos
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- Materials
We fixed some of the leaky toe rail. The rest of it (which isn’t as bad thank god) is going to be more of a project…
If you have specific questions feel free to reach out. I can send you photos or answer any questions you may have.
We found the Facebook group for Islander owners is also a pretty good/active resource as well.
Leave a comment below!
4 Responses
Hello!
I’m hoping that since I saw your ad, as well as the link to the website, that your Islander is still for sale?
Please reply so we can share numbers and possibly move forward in seeing, surveying, and possibly get it in water for trials as soon as the ice is out on Lake Erie, spring of 2023.
Btw, I’m in Pittsburgh, but I don’t mind coming as far as Detroit to give it an initial look over (for starters) thank you!
Warm Regards,
Arthur Engle
Thanks for reaching out! I reached out to you directly via E-mail. Thanks!
Great boat. I have a similar 1973 MKII. I would never find a boat built better. That is probably why islander yatch’s went under.
It really is a super solid boat!