It can be done. I did it, so have quite a few westsailors albeit 18 if not 20 years ago now. With amazing support and advice (still) of many here it was not impossible. The w28 “hull” I started with was not all that much better than what you are looking at. but it takes a special combination of tenacity stubbornness patience and dreamer to see such a huge undertaking through. 5 years on the hard while juggling job and 2 kids was hard and more than once I was not giving either the boat or the family the time and attention they deserved. Many times I was ready to give up, but luckily my husband wouldn’t let me. (Sunk costs or maybe he figured out that tinkering made me happy and a bit less restless in suburbia). In the end we spent far more than if I had bought a lesser boat that we could sail and enjoy sooner while saving for the Westsail. That would have been smarter but also maybe we never would have saved..I still have an old unremodeled kitchen. Priorities. But you either have time or money and for a while time and sweat equity will move things along, but that last year and every year after it took an infusion of $. The learning curve and sweat equity paid off..pic is what it looked like on the day I sold that baby before moving up to a 32. So if this is the only way you can or will get into the cruising boat of your dreams, go for it. I know where you can find a mast and an engine at a reasonable price.. but if you have to pay to move it and pay a storage fee I agree- you would do far better to find a fixer upper much closer to being able to float or already floating. What I did not do, however, is take off cruising because by the time the boat was ready the kids and hubby were not. So if you want to be fixing boats instead of sailing boats for a while go for it. Or be patient a little while longer and a slightly better on May pop up. Folks have been getting some good deals on Westsails this last year or two..
