Strangewaves is for sale!

Strangewaves is a very capable small cuiser/liveabord and a great simple boat to get started. I took her to several places between the San Juan islands, Puget Sound, Gulf islands, Discovery islands and more. I also lived onboard for a year in Victoria. She is currently in Port Townsend, WA.

The Tanzer 7.5 has a good reputation as a tough little boat. She sleeps four people but is a good beginning cruiser for two. Well loved and maintained, she features:

A very reliable 2012 Yamaha 9.9 HP with an excellent engine mount, an alternator for charging the batteries, an electric and hand start option, a main fuel tank of 3 Gallon + 2 extra gallons of storage.
A Standard Horizon Chartplotter with AIS (CPF 190i), a VHF with AIS (GX2150) and a mast mounted VHF antenna. The chartplotter and radio are connected to each other to share GPS postions and AIS vessel positions. They work beautifully together. The VHF radio features a DSC distress button.
A fairly recent main sail (~2011) from UK sails with two reefing points.
Two foresails: one small jib with reef point in excellent condition (great in high winds) and a larger genoa, old but very usable.
Two whisker poles.
A 30 amp AC electrical system with two 15 amp circuits, a DC electrical system with two 12V batteries including an isolated starter battery. Both appear to be in good condition.
A properly sized danthforth anchor with 80 feet of new chain that we have anchored on countless times.
A small capable kitchen that includes an icebox, small sink with new Whale hand pump, a portable single burner butane stove and ample food storage.
Survey done in early 2015.
Two large lazarettes (stern lockers).
Bottom work completed in the fall of 2016. Including new bottom paint and keel bolt check.
Disconnected Jabsco head included.
A disco ball.
And a bunch of random boat items such as: boat pull, snubbers, original mainsail, swim ladder, two cannoe paddles (for emergency purposes, we were actualy able to row the boat), a second anchor with chain and line, many docklines, many bumpers, a folding crab pot, four life preservers and more.

There are a few small issues, either esthetic or easy to fix, that should be considered as well:

Optional: The cushions are likely original from 1978 and in questionable shape (the shape and firmness is still good though). I personally solved the issue by covering them with bed sheets, but that perhaps does not work for everyone.
Optional: The “rub-rail”, rubber covering the hull/deck joint, is missing. It could be replaced with some work and a few hundreds ($450 CA from a company in Canada that still sells old Tanzer parts). It is however not structurally important/needed.
A new holding tank (like this one, $139.99 at West Marine) would have to be purchased and installed to meet the Coast Guard requirements. The boat came from Canada (where holding tanks are not required, the head used to be connected to the thru-hull when purchased). When I imported the boat, it was disconnected and still is to this day.
Optional for the moment: The head itself, probably original, still worked last time I have seen it run, but I am not sure for how long. Perhaps a new Jabsco ($170) would be a smart addition.
There are two bilge pumps on the boat, one fully manual (works great) and one electrical, where you have to turn the switch off/on yourself when needed. That second one appear to need a replacement as of recently ($21.76 for a new automatic one on Amazon here).

The boat has a clear history of ownership but was imported from Canada in March 2016 and the next owner will be able to apply for a regular Washington title in March 2019, after the normal waiting period.

My husband and I have had amazing adventures on this boat, but we are looking to scale up to something larger. We are asking $4000 (US).

All reasonable offers considered.

Tanzer 7.5 specs

Is the boat equipped with a water tank? Does it have a faucet near the sink?

Yes the boat comes with a water tank, I am not exactly certain of it's capacity but it is at least 5 Gallons. There also is a faucet near the sink, a "Whale" hand pump that was replaced about a year ago. The hand pump is an excellent fausset and it makes it really easy to control the amount water used. There also is a portable 6 gallons water tank that I cruised with as back-up water (which turned out to not be necessary even for previous long trips) that I would hapilly let go with the boat.

How was living onbord of Strangewaves for a year? Do you have a heater?

Living on the boat worked well for me and I quite enjoyed it. It is definitly tight, and at my height, 5'10'' I can't stand fully up right but she has been a great learning boat and head room typicly comes with a larger boat in my experience. I had a small size oil-filled electric heater which did very good at keeping the boat warm. I would leave it on low in the boat while I was gone too, as it greatly improve the condensation/moisture issue and a fair amount safer than leaving a regular blow heater. You do have to be more aware of condensation in winter but I found that leaving a small opening in one of the lazzaret (for ventilation), open up the cussions when leaving for more than a couple of days and keep a heater on low did very good. There is no off-shore heater though, but when I would cruise in the winter I would just plan out to go in marinas (in the cold months, guest slips tend to not be very crowded, unlike in the summer, and they are usually quite cheap during those months).

What is the state of the rigging? Do you know how old all the stays are?

As far as I can tell, the stays are in excellent shape but I am not certain about how old they are. The running rigging, hallyards/sheets/boom vang appear to be in excellent shape as well and I believe replaced by the previous owner.

Does the boat comes with a trailer?

No it does not, I don't own a trailer that fits this boat.

What is the overall lehght?

It is 24.6 feet plus the engine, which I estimate at 27 feet since it needs to be tilted up during storage to properly get the propeller out of the water.

For this size of a boat, you can get something that's just good in enclosed bays or something that could take you anywhere around the globe, where does the Tanzer 7.5 stands in this?

To give you my opinions about the Tanzer 7.5’s seaworthiness, I have to respond with my opinion for smaller boats’s seaworthiness in general. Despite a lot success and great stories of adventures in small boats, I believe that a larger boat would give you more safety and comfort.

When I think of successful small boats crossing I think of stories like this guy on a small scamp (a boat that, to me, seem dangerous in protected waters) currently crossing the Strait of Magellan, or this other other guy that crossed the Atlantic by stand up paddle board... People do it and have done worst in very successful ways, but I don’t think it is a good idea. I would personally not condider sailing across oceans on anything under 30 feet, but again, this is my opinions, yours could be different and many people prove it is possible with various small boats.

I can't find stories of people going overseas on small Tanzers, do you know of any that did?

I came across this article talking about a few diffrent ocean crossings done in small Tanzers.

Read in this article: "Though most people think of these boats as local cruisers, several have made notable passages. A 7.5 owner sailed his single-handed from Quebec City to St. Malo, France, and later returned to Canada with another crew member. Another 7.5 sailed solo from Nova Scotia to Bermuda and back. Tanzer 26 number 226 was sailed from New York to Lorient, France in 29 days, then returned to New York on a passage from Plymouth, England, in 31 days. Eric Spencer assured me that none of these boats were modified from the standard production boat in any major way. "

How do you find the boat's response in waves and strong winds?

In waves, the bow being light tend not to get buried even in sharp standing waves and surfing conditions. The most that I have seen on my boat was 5ft steady waves (is my guess, perhaps slightly more). The boat did quite good and was never the problem. In strong winds, the boat responds fairly well. The sails are prepared for it. There is two reef points on the mainsail and 1 on the smaller jib. The most wind that we have willingly sailed in was 22 knots upwind and we were still having fun and making headway. About the motor, a lot of people tend to complain about outboard engines because they tend to come out of the water. It has however not been a problem on Strangewaves, the propeller tend to stay nicely in the water even in decent size waves. The engine is strong and, in normal conditions, use just over starting throttle for a 5 knots speed. I have never pushed the throttle all the way up but for testing it.