Vega marine yachts

I have met the owner over the years, Udo Vogel, a very passionate naval architect / boat builder who loved his craft. He lived in Torrance and they built about 99 boats, mostly commercial fisherman with some yachts in the mix. A true German work ethic with the attention to detail to match. He worked for Rados Marine Engineering in San Pedro before building a Luders sailboat in his "spare" time and then built his company. The local crew was quite talented and went on to build larger local yachts like the famous "Crystal". His 42' commercial swordfish stickboats were all over SoCal. I doubt he had anything to do with the extension, was the vessel the Sodar (Rados in reverse) or Picante?
His son is a highly talented metal fabricator going from aluminum fuel tanks to towers to stainless steel art work out of his shop in Signal Hill and is now marketing a corrosion free stainless steel fastener product called Foreverbolt.

The 75' is the stretched Sodar and the 60 is the original Picante which was home ported out of Dana Point for many years. The Sodar was an attempt to get into the void that was expected as Elliot was retiring to Oregon on the sale of his yard in Santa Monica. Vega Marine did not have the necessary capital maintain this larger yacht building segment and did not survive financially.

Some other West Coast built options in Pilothouse style are:

60' Jones Goodell Pilothouse - http://www.**************/boats/197...9/Newport-Beach/CA/United-States#.WZrRDXKWyUk

72' Elliot Pilothouse - http://www.**************/boats/198...39541/San-Diego/CA/United-States#.WZrRfHKWyUk

These all have good "bones", condition mainly depends on how they have been maintained and up-dated.

Hard not to like that 60 Jones Goodell...clean lines. Looks like it has had a good life.

Met one of its owner years ago when it was named "Art's Toy", he cruised up and down the Pacific Coast and absolutely loved the boat, said he never had as good a night's sleep as when he was underway onboard, praised it's sea keeping abilities.

The American Dream (ex Sodar) Hull and Deck were cold molded (Glass over Plywood) I believe. Have no idea how it handles with a 15' extension without extending the running gear, the rule of thumb I have seen in the past is usually more like up to 10% Extension of Hull Length, after that you go into redoing the Running Gear. 15' is 25% of the original 60 foot design, would have to investigate this thoroughly.
The Baci Salati (ex Picante) Hull was built out of Fiberglass from a mold, not sure if the deck and bridge were from a mold as well.
The 60' Jones Goodell has a Fiberglass Hull and Aluminum Deck/Topsides. She is a great sea boat with a lot of proven miles on her, well known in most West Coast ports.
The 72' Elliott is cold molded all-around (Glass over Plywood). I saw a sistership in Newport Harbor Shipyard that was going through a refit/extension around the year 2000 and was amazed when they cut the laminated glass covered plywood stringers. There were in great shape , looked absolutely new, dry as a bone and was a testimony to the materials/construction techniques used by Elliott.

Small world, here is a pic, she is chartering out of Cabo San Lucas:



Ask Jesse at NHS what he thinks about a 15' stretch on a 60' hull without moving the running gear.

A solid glass hull with an Aluminum topside sounds like a good combination...great idea. No coring problems to deal with or hull corrosion below the waterline. Seems that combo would be used more often on boats that are not built for high speed cruise.

She came into the yard as Gladiator and left as Alure. Owner took her down to bare bones before being hauled out. Nice refit although I never understood why they converted the enclosed helm into a movie theatre. Didn't know she was being chartered; I was under the impression that the family that bought her wanted to keep her private.

What you should be building next

My old man built a building in Costa Mesa with a big 70' long bay in it with the sole intention of building a boat like that. Its a dream but maybe one day I will make it a reality.

Udo Vogel built my boat around 1980-1981 , the Mary Noel, a 36' Vega commercial swordfish boat with out riggers, tower, and 4 steering stations. It was a beautiful boat. Beautiful workmanship. Udo was a GREAT guy.

I bought the 60 foot Vega Marine "Baci Salati". We moved onto the boat and have been working on it for two months now. It has some challenges but it is almost ready for prime time. Does anyone know where i could get the original drawings for this boat? Alot of the major systems are hidden and i don't want to just start cutting holes to find things like fuel tank sensors.