The Perfect Small Family Sailboat? | Island Packet 31 Boat Tour 

Great layout. Thanks for sharing

I have an Alberg 30. I love it and I couldn’t afford the island packet but they are absolutely worth it. My dad has this same boat and has circumnavigated the world once and is on his second trip now.

I'd say she looks pretty darn good for a 35 y.o. that's been knocked around on the Gulf Coast by hurricanes (& snow storms!) I just can't get over all the space you've got above & below deck thanks to the IP 31's wide beam. Great choice for a family with little ones. Best of luck!

Great find! Just bought a 1985 Island Packet 27 three months ago. Only surprise were the tanks. The water tank was from 1994 and had lots of holes in the bottom due to corrosion. No big deal. Cannot wait for the chainplate repairs! I replaced the two aft chainplates but ... that's it. I'm living dangerously I guess. The Yanmar is awesome after cleaning the cooling system. Tough motor, love it. I'm trying to copy your boat's bimini design. Mine is a mess right now. Keep up the great content!!

hell yeah- nice new family boat- going to be fun!

Like the new boat! Beautiful woodwork on deck and down below. Great potential and I agree on removing the propane heating having kids on board . I would keep the aft bert as it is as it will be great for your son to play close to the cockpit and would not change the access to the engine room as you have great access from above already. This boat will be great when passing through your fingers. I am looking forward following your projects on the Island Packet 31. Keep the woodwork inside as original it looks awesome. Congratulations on the new boat.

Great vid, I would put some fresh paint on the deck, maybe a new engine.

Nice little boat..reminds me of my 1988 Bayfield 26! Similar interior, bowsprit, flat rear end, wide beam! Better strip all the woodwork and start fresh. Its a fantastic hull design. well worth the trouble...probably perfect to add a self tacking cutter rig stay sail. Looking forward to follow the DIY Cheers

It's good to see you guys back.....been a while 😊.

Well, congratulations, it’s a pretty cool boat, I’m sure you will get after it! Thanks for the episode

That boat looks awesome. Great shape for its age.

I really love your sailboat, Zach! Congratulations!

Really nice boat, great you came back with youtube content!

Congratulations nice boat I enjoy working on mine Even the difficult projects or therapy it's always nice to sail what you've done

Congratulations on the new boat. Looks like a great buy. Wild we roam on RU-vid made their own flexible solar panel mounting system for their flexible Bimini. Maybe worth checking out. Enjoy the time you get to be on board with your family.

i love island packets and I think they're a beautiful boat and love that 31 I've been looking at one myself

I had an IP 27....those boats are well built . Not that fast,but they will always get you there in one pieca.

Remember these boats are for you to sail 😊 Replacing the chain plates and the thru hope replacement looks like a good idea. The boat looks really nice, well thought out...

Great boat. IPs are stout. Definitely replace the chain plates. Lost the rig on my 84 H31 due to defective chain plate and was costly and not covered by insurance. All the best.

I've just started watching your channel so I am jumping around the videos. Some very good stuff. The Cheoy Lee looks really good. Great job on that one.....I am impressed. IP's are really good boats with a lot of good features and utility. I have chartered two and while not very sporty in light air, they will look after you. The issue with the chain plates is that IP encapsulated them in FG which did not allow air to get to them....that accelerates stainless steel corrosion. Sometime in the 90's IP stopped that practice. So when you swap them out, leave them open to the air!!...it is a big and difficult job, but necessary. Good luck.

Fair winds to you and the family!

Id have the seacocks and thruhulls addressed before worrying about the chainplates. Broken chainplate wont sink the boat.

I think you are very wise changing the plates up-front. The previous owner of our boat was having the rig tuned and a lower pulled out of the deck while tensioning.

More boat projects! Go boys go!

Great boat , looking to perchance one in the next year, Great job on the Choey Lee, shes beautiful..

HI, NICE BOAT, LOT OF WORK TO DO, BUT IT WILL BE WORTH IT. LOOKING FORWARD 2 WATCHING THE PROGRESS. REGARDS FROM THE U.K.

We had an IP35, lost in the hurricane. Great boats. On you IP31, where is the fuel tank located? Also considere doing external chainplates. Out boat had those and even after Hurricane Ian, although the boat was partially sunk, the mast was still up. 150mph winds.

I have that same heater. Can't get any gas to flow to the heater.The smaller line of about 3 feet adapts to a larger line that goes to the propane tank and there is a diaphragm where the bigger and smaller lines join. It is just behind the hose hookup.

Congratulations on the IP31. Love my IP31 #152. I just replaced my 4 hatch lenses and Tony at Hatchmasters was helpful with pieces/parts for the Lewmar Superhatches.

Would it be worth converting to external chain plates so you could keep an eye on them.

I just bought a IP 31 over the fall! I’ll be following along intently and looking forward to seeing what you have in store for her.

Outside of the boat for sure! Use the existing as backing plates.

See if you can mount the chain plates on the outside of the boat.

Great detailed walkthrough! These are beautiful boats. Couldn't get a sense of the cockpit drainage setup. How do you think she'd handle getting pooped in a big sea?

A great boat. Im super jealous

Nice tour. Your Fenders need attention. You need more. I had my boat set up like that and the one fender keeping the boat off the dock "Popped" during a wind storm, they will do that occasionally so don't depend on one bumper to do an important job. It caused damage to my boat and now I use more fenders.

Good luck with your new boat. Are the chain plates rusted, pitting or signs of any cracking? If not I would concentrate on the leaks first , & the electrical second. I wouldn’t get carried away if your going to upgrade in a couple of years. Also I have seen small gravity fed diesel heaters mounted up higher which is a great option for not draining the batteries & staying plenty warm.

For the fridge ... Does the compressor run? If yes check the thermostat sensor. In the head fit a flip up cover on the AC outlets. Cheers Eric

Congratulations, nice boat. Owning a IP 32 myself I will look for your next projects. Btw. have a sharp look at the aluminum holding and water tanks. We had to replace the water tank due to corrosion caused by the chloride in water preservation products. Does the IP 31 have no cutter rig? I saw no staysail in the video.

Nice boat Bro. 👍👍👍

What are you gonna do with the Cheoy Lee? I have to admit I'm sad that you two won't be finishing it. IP are great for what they where built for. Definitely not a performance cruiser and tougher to handle in close quarters but for safety at sea, I don't think you could have made a better choice. I was worried for you until I heard you acknowledge the chainplates. IP's are notorious for that problem area. Make sure the rudder mount gets a good inspection also. If anybody is qualified to do the work, it's the SailBros.

Nice video. Thank you.

Thanks for the great tour and great images! I have one question tho, why are you selling her already? Greets from Germany!

+1 on the comment suggesting you mount the new chain plates to the outside of the boat. My ultimate boat is the Orion 27-2, aka Pacific Seacraft 27 and it's got the chain plates unceremoniously bolted right to the side of the boat. But I think they look badass! Google it and see what is looks like. I'm not sure what the existing chain plate pockets look like, and if you could just properly cover them over and fasten the new ones to the side...which would be an easier job and possibly be more robust. Kind of depends on the construction of the areas around where the chain plate pockets are (is "pockets" a good description?) The area that the chain plates fasten to. Is it wood core? Can you ensure that the wood is solid?You etc etc. I guess it would be a similar situation if you decided to install the chain plates on the side, you'd want to be sure the FG is solid, with no leaks or side spots. Either way, please take good video so we can all admire your work and work we were there with ya! Thank you!!

Looking good!

Wow thats a nice boat

That hole at @17 minutes looks like a great start for a speaker place for a stereo.

Thanks for the video, have a friend who owned a IP similar and like you said it won't win any races but safe and roomy. Looks like it has good bones perfect fixer upper!! If I could ask what is the problem that happens to the chain plates?

Great boat!

My Contest 33 has an engine access panel in the cockpit like this. I am not happy with the gasketing or the bolts that dog it down. How does yours clamp down?

Sweet! Now some netting so the tykes can crawl around and see the dolphins.... Slow but comfortable with that classic look.

Sounds like a good boat for livable platform, except for chainplates and thruhulls and performance

congratulations. We have an IP35. The chainplates are redone, but external and thru-bolted, much better, you should look into that, easier to maintain. add a Mantus anchor and you are good to go. Once you own an IP, you will never not own an IP, a bigger one maybe but not another brand.

Hopefully I'm not late on this but... Go External on the chainplates from Chainplate Express... WAY LESS intrusive damage to repair it that way. I think it looks better with externals but... To each their own. You can then examine them and the stainless can get Oxygen which is what it needs to prevent corrosion. Just my nickle. Edwards Yacht Sales still has a picture of an IP31 with external plates done, Google Search Island Packet 31 external chainplates. You'll get the info. Boat name is Promises Kept / Marco Island, FL. And I think that hole was a speaker??...

Grear boat, dude. She's alittle slow, but gorgeous to look at.

I alsa bought IP31,started with the engine,the old one was 20 HP wich isn’t good,I get a new yanmar 29 for her.I have a lot of work to do

Make a prioritized list of project tasks,, concentrating on structural integrity, safety and sailability. You don't have to.make it perfect. Make it work for the next 5 years when you will probably be ready for something bigger. Keep resale in mind. That said, a really nice boat.

Some people freak out over a little squishy spot in a little 6 in.² area I don’t think you’re going to fall through lol nice boat

How did you inspect the chain plates and find they needed replacing?? Plan on buying one and want to be sure about this important item...

only issue with the older island packets is chainplates. when i asked island packet about them. them said as of 1998 they fixed the chainplate issues.

I like. Ya done good. Enjoy.

Early Island Packets had chain plate issues as they aged. Anything after the late 90's you probably don't need to do that because the used a better quality stainless in their manufacturing.

If possible, can you share how much you purchase the boat for?

My sailboat has already double in price and its a 20 footer. So many repairs and projects.

Awesome!

what's it cost to replace all the chainplates?

Given that Island Packets are by reputation excellent for any sea, I'm always put off by that salon table on the bulkhead. Can't seem to get past that design feature shared by most all IP's under 40' I've seen listed... my own failure perhaps to appreciate its practicality over its aesthetics.

It's in really good shape but the lights don't work or its soft in one spot , it kills me when people say that , like when i look at an outboard to buy ,it was just running last week but theres a hole in the block ! You vessel is really nice but almost all need some work and granted yours is not in need of much , nice purchase !

That rack and pinion steering is probably the most dependable you can have . The step over is the price you pay for that .You literally have to have a catastrophic metal failure for them to fail .

A ton or room for a 31 footer. Nice.

Cool song

Some people cut the helm shaft down and steer from port or starboard with clearance to move around....

Nice

zach, what is the draft on her?

You can check out sailing soulianis they just did that repair on their boat give you some ideas the best way to go about it

How much you want for it? 😜

Hello 👋 take me out to the water 💧 please 🙏 hahaha 😆jajaja saludos Bro

I don't like rear cockpit I like center

Let me know if you are interested in selling your propane cozy cabin heater.

Move slower with your camera.