TL;DR CM30 mast is 35'2", boom is 12', big metal plates and internal braces make her look like she'd been in the process of being converted to a trimaran, and she has no name... but she's awesome.
Bought a CM30 about a month ago after seeing it on Kijiji super cheap and it looked decent. The previous owner had owned the boat for about 4 years, one of which the boat spent in storage. He didn't sound like he was actively on drugs when we talked on the phone... but the boat was super cheap, and he clearly needed money, so I was listening for it.
We knew nothing beyond our gut feeling and the fact the advertisement said "standing head room." We gave a stranger a non-refundable deposit, and started driving the 2 days it would take to pick her up.
When we arrived, I was happy to see that the seller didn't look to be actively on drugs anymore than he sounded like he was, but he'd just returned from a year in Europe and needed the cash. The boat was in the water, and we drove her to the dock so that he could walk us through taking down the mast and securing her on the trailer.
Given the price tag, I'd taken a quick look at the sails, but we didn't raise them, and I just assumed that for the price we were paying that it was likely we'd have to replace them. What we did check was that she was water tight. The interior was dry and in *great* condition. She had a heater, a stove, a fridge, LOTS of easily accessible storage space, lot of sleeping space, and just everything we REALLY wanted. So about an hour from boarding her for the very first time, we got papers in order, loaded her up, and started the trek home.
Once we got home was when we started noticing the quirkiness. Her arrival sparked a lot of curiosity around the boat yard. She doesn't have a name, and the name recorded in the log book we found is different from the name on all the toolboxes and labelled thing that we found aboard, which is also different from the name the seller had indicated.
Then we took a closer look at what the seller had said were "kayak rack mounts" which are huge steal plates that match to heavy duty, professional looking structural braces in the cabin. Most of the boatyard elders agree that it looks like the boat had been modified for floats on either side (converting it to a trimaran).
The mast is fractional (not masthead), and stands 35'2" as opposed to what looks like it should be about 27ft by the forestay measurement.
The boom is 12 ft long, and from the boat log, it appears that the owner who did a lot of the modifications (not the person we bought it off) wanted a larger boom because he felt it would address his problem of heeling too much?
The main sail is from a 34ft boat from the sail numbers, and the head and foot were cut with scissors (not seamed) to make it fit.
The 155 and genaker seem in good condition, but both seem small for the boat.
We've had it out a few weekends already and have been working on it steadily, and it's not like anything was in horrible condition (except the sails) but it feels like we walked in at the tail end of a restoration project and don't have access to whoever started it all. The boat overall has been awesome, even trying to figure out where to go with the oddities has been fun.
But before I spend a bunch of money on buying sails for the current rig, I thought I'd ask if anyone had any thoughts about whether we should switch out the mast for something closer to the original design, or just handle the potential to be overpowered with extra reefing points.
I was also curious on whether anyone here had ever heard of a CM30 being converted like this. I've never seen a monohaul boat transformed into a quat or trimaran. It didn't even occur to me until we got her home and other people recognized the metal plates for looking like that's what they were.
Anyways, it's been a really interesting adventure so far. We've camped out in her a few times. Navigated our big lake in very smokey conditions, and enjoyed THE HELL out of standing head room and all the other cozy comforts she came with!
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