2 Steps Back = 1 Step Forward?

Been a long week. The unseasonably high temperatures and humidity have hindered our work a bit, but we did get a lot done. Still taking out screws. Screws and more screws, removing all hardware, teak, hatches and portholes. This afternoon I was joking to our buddy Guy that we have had to have taken out at least 600 screws. Jeanne popped up and shouted, "600? Hell the portlights were 240 alone!" I thought about it for a second and realized, 24 screws per porthlights, 10 portholes...yep, that's 240. Good googly moogly. So, in reality, we've probably taken out over 2000. Then I started thinking that if even 1% of the screws allow water infiltration, that's 20 spots where water has leaked, and I know it's more than that.

Anyway, onto the subject of this post. After removing all the portlights, some of them have had water infiltrate, and there is some core rot around them. But, better to find this now than a couple hundred miles offshore in a torrential rainfall and water pouring in. So, one more thing added to this list. We hope, with some fairer weather forecast for next week, we will get the rest of the deck cleared and be able to start filling unneeded holes, fix the portlight's surroundings and generally prepare the deck for a new coat of gelcoat paint. The other set back was we were hoping to remove then rebed some of the portlights. NOT! Three that had been one time replaced with Vetus portlights, came out fine and are in great shape, but the other 7 were the original Grey portholes and they basically fell apart in pieces. So, 7 new Vetus portlights will be on order soon. So, we are still in deconstruction mode. Hopefully, SOON, we will be in re-construction mode.

Some of our friends/family have stated that the boat did not look this bad. Well, this is true. We probably could have gotten the boat in the water quickly as it really is not in bad shape. However, this is the best time to tackle all of this as it would eventually have to be done. And quite frankly, next year in the Caribbean, I don't want to be dealing with any of this. I want to enjoy my wife, our boat and our new lifestyle knowing every bolt, screw, wire, tank, fiberglass and engine is good, as we have had our hands on it.

- The Captain

Clearing Off The Top Deck

So, the last two days have been productive. Our buddy Guy came over and helped us get the mast down onto the ground. That enabled Jeanne and I to start ripping out screws. And man, do we have a lot of screws. We eventually plan to count all the screws we took up, but we are too tired right now. The plan is to get the entire deck cleared of everything so we can start epoxying in holes and filling in scratches with gelcoat. Some sanding and ready for paint. Here are some pictures of the boat finally.

This is after the thru halls were removed.

Top view of the deck from the stern.

 Top view of the deck from the bow.

 Our buddy Guy, after he helped us to lower the mast. Notice the rails are all down.

Jeanne removing screws!

One happy girl!

- The Captain

Railings Down

Started removing all hardware on the top deck. Railing and life lines all down. Now we can get the mast off of the deck of the boat finally and have some room to remove the rest of the hardware so we can start working on the bow pulpit and prepare the deck for painting.

- The Captain

Thru-Halls Removed

With the help of our good friend Guy, all of the thru-halls and seacocks have been removed. We found some interesting things digging through all the nooks and crannies. After counting, we have 12 holes in the sailboat now. That's WAY too many. After reading through the schematics I got from Gene Gammon at Irwin Yachts, there should only be 9. And, since we are eliminating the forward head, that should be 3 less. Looks like some fiberglassing is on the way.

- The Captain

Cleaning Out The Sailboat

The sailboat has been cleaned out. We went through the entire sailboat and removed everything. We found quite a lot of good things tucked away in all the compartments that went into the SUV. We also threw out about 12 bags of junk. What a difference it makes having an uncluttered work space now.

- The Captain

Sailboat Purchase

After six exhausting months of searching, calling, stepping onto different sailboats, we finally found the right combination of price, size and layout. Though the market is currently flooded with many sailboats, our criteria came down to this. First, we had to have a center cockpit. We love the layout with the aft stateroom. Second, we were looking for an older boat that had good bones where we can do a major refit. And finally, we wanted to stay within the 35 to 40 foot range. We narrowed our range down to the Coronado 35, the Irwin 37 and some Morgan designs in that length range. What we finally found and purchased was a 1976 Irwin 37 center cockpit MK III, in the sloop version. What's even better is it was already on the hard at Salt Creek Marina, a marina near us that is designed for do it yourselfers.

I laugh at Jeanne's 3 step plan. Step 1: Buy boat. Step 2: Make boat float. Step 3: Make boat pretty. Step 1: Check. Step 2 consists of the following projects: Remove and replace all thru-halls and seacocks. Remove all hardware, railing, teak, everything from top deck. Fix or replace bow pulpit. Fiberglass/fill any holes that will no longer be needed or need to be fixed. Sand entire boat. Paint entire boat. While all this is happening, we need to purchase and rebuild a new (used) engine. Once engine is ready and top-side paint is finished, we need to coordinate the lift to pull old engine, insert new engine and re-mount mast. Once done, re-mount hardware. Once these steps are finished, we will then paint the bottom and launch.

Once the boat is moved to it's destination, which will either be Gulf Port City Marina or Jeanne's best friend, Lynn's sister's house, we will then start working on the interior.

In the weeks to come, we will start showing before and after pictures of each of our projects.Wish us luck!

- The Captain