Grand Banks Eastbay 58

Enlarge Photo

Photo by: Allen Schiller, East Coast Yacht Sales

Jamestown Boat Yard took a risk when it purchased a 2004 Grand Banks Eastbay 58 and began carefully to restore it to as-new condition. Designed by C. Raymond Hunt Associates, this model was the grande dame of the Eastbay line, combining the speed and seakeeping ability yachtsmen expect from the designer with the fine quality everyone has learned to expect from Grand Banks. The EB 58’s general arrangement plan invites extended cruises and contains all the conveniences you’d need to live comfortably aboard for as long as you like. Too bad that Grand Banks stopped building the model in 2005, after launching eight examples, and then destroyed the molds. If scarcity adds value to an object, a used Eastbay 58 is a good value.

What about the risk? In 2008, this EB 58, the sixth of the line, suffered a small fire. A capacitor on the air-conditioner’s air handler under the double berth in the guest stateroom overheated, exploded and started the fire. The capacitor wasn’t housed in a steel jacket, as is common now. This stateroom is on the starboard side just forward of the helm and down a few steps from the salon. Quick action by the local fire department confined the flames to the immediate area and prevented structural damage to the hull. The extremely hot smoke from this fire, however, caused the vast majority of the cosmetic damage and destroyed much of the wiring above the level of the cabin soles. The firefighters damaged some cabinetry and sections of bulkheads as they searched for smoldering core material and wiring insulation.

A preliminary survey indicated that the yacht was structurally sound. The smoke and fire stayed well clear of the engine room, as did the water used to extinguish the flames. The bilge pumps beneath the sole of the master stateroom kept pace with the firemen’s hoses and prevented any water from flooding into that area. Although the fire created a substantial mess and would discourage the bravest of owners, the crew at Jamestown Boat Yard, in Jamestown, Rhode Island, took on the restoration — something akin to a new build. The yard hired Tony Knowles, of Newport Marine Surveyors, to help assess the extent of the damage and to consult periodically during the repair, and he stayed with the project until the end. This October, he filed his final report, along with a colleague’s survey of the electrical system. The result of the yard’s work, much of which head carpenter Carl Rossi (below) oversaw or performed, is excellent. In the category of not so obvious is the list of new, and often updated, equipment the yard installed.



The thoroughness and quality of the yard crew’s work remind me of a frame-off restoration of a classic car that’s meant to be shown, not used. This Eastbay 58, though, won’t appear in any concours d’elegance. She’s meant for the sea and is for sale for $1,250,000.

Work began in the starboard-side stateroom and the galley opposite. The first order of business was to gut the stateroom and expose the inside of the laminate as it would have appeared during the original construction at Grand Banks. The mattress had rested on a cored-plywood base, cut into sections to allow access to a pair of stainless-steel water tanks, their fittings and hoses, wiring and the air handler. Teak ceilings dressed the inside of the hull in this typically classical interior. All this added fuel to the fire.

The bulkhead that separated this stateroom from the guest/day head and the full-height cabinet that housed the stacked washer and dryer had to be cut away entirely, leaving only enough space to provide a tabbing surface for bonding in the new panel. (Tabbing is placing strips of fiberglass over the joint and bedding it in resin — epoxy aboard this EB 58.) The laminate behind the burned-out ceiling had been subjected to extreme heat, enough to burn the inner layer and the core, but the outer skin was intact and sound.