Last summer, I bought hull #37831 and decided to spend my time sailing the boat in lieu of some much needed TLC. I've posted a few threads (and read through a good many more) in preparation for this work, and I can't thank the members of this forum enough for the kind advice and for sharing your experiences. Living three hours from where I keep the boat in Michigan, I've finally found an unencumbered week to get started on the work there. I wanted to document the project in this thread to keep track of triumphs and failures and ask questions as they arise.
Hull #37831 (name TBD) is a 1966 boat that has had quite a bit of work done to it over the years, and is need of a little love now. I'll break it down into the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good: I got a great deal on a complete boat. It came with all the rigging, centerboard, new-style rudder upgrade with a like-new tiller assembly, a reasonably clean and crispy sail, a mast-up Sunbrella cover, and a Dynamic (I think) beach dolly. The dolly alone is worth more than I paid for the whole kit. The bones of the boat are solid, with no signs of previous major repairs, no deep scratches or gouges in the underside, and no leaks when on the water. It floats and came ready to sail, and that already makes it a 10/10 in my book
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The Bad: The mast tube has a leak in it, and the hull fills with water if left covered outside. As a result, hull was full of water when I bought it, and the boat was on the heavy side. I cut a second inspection port and have been drying it out since around October. I wasn't able to weigh it beforehand, but it seems to be approaching a more manageable weight. I'll be fixing the mast tube leak as part of this project, since I plan on storing the boat covered outdoors in the summer.
The Ugly: Previous owners did a horrendous topside paint job. The slathered it over pretty much everything, including the factory serial plate. From what I can tell where the paint is peeling away, it looks like they applied paint directly on top of oxidized gelcoat without any surface prep. Additionally, the coaming could use some love, and they slathered on some fairing compound over the well for the old-style rudder components when they did that job.
The plan is simple: get the topside up to standards! Going to leave the bottom as-is, maybe some light wet sanding to spruce up the gelcoat, but at the end of the day, this is a pleasure boat, not a racer, and it'll probably be beached from time to time. My plan for the week is to sand off the old paint and see what we're working with as far as the gelcoat goes. If it can be saved, I'll go ahead and wet-sand and polish it up as best I can. If it can't, going to move forward with a proper topcoat paint job in May when I'll have time to do it right from start to finish. Compared to some of the project boats I've seen y'all complete, I think this one should be fairly manageable, but you never know what you'll run into. I'll post updates on this thread as I work through everything.
Hull #37831 (name TBD) is a 1966 boat that has had quite a bit of work done to it over the years, and is need of a little love now. I'll break it down into the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good: I got a great deal on a complete boat. It came with all the rigging, centerboard, new-style rudder upgrade with a like-new tiller assembly, a reasonably clean and crispy sail, a mast-up Sunbrella cover, and a Dynamic (I think) beach dolly. The dolly alone is worth more than I paid for the whole kit. The bones of the boat are solid, with no signs of previous major repairs, no deep scratches or gouges in the underside, and no leaks when on the water. It floats and came ready to sail, and that already makes it a 10/10 in my book
.The Bad: The mast tube has a leak in it, and the hull fills with water if left covered outside. As a result, hull was full of water when I bought it, and the boat was on the heavy side. I cut a second inspection port and have been drying it out since around October. I wasn't able to weigh it beforehand, but it seems to be approaching a more manageable weight. I'll be fixing the mast tube leak as part of this project, since I plan on storing the boat covered outdoors in the summer.
The Ugly: Previous owners did a horrendous topside paint job. The slathered it over pretty much everything, including the factory serial plate. From what I can tell where the paint is peeling away, it looks like they applied paint directly on top of oxidized gelcoat without any surface prep. Additionally, the coaming could use some love, and they slathered on some fairing compound over the well for the old-style rudder components when they did that job.
The plan is simple: get the topside up to standards! Going to leave the bottom as-is, maybe some light wet sanding to spruce up the gelcoat, but at the end of the day, this is a pleasure boat, not a racer, and it'll probably be beached from time to time. My plan for the week is to sand off the old paint and see what we're working with as far as the gelcoat goes. If it can be saved, I'll go ahead and wet-sand and polish it up as best I can. If it can't, going to move forward with a proper topcoat paint job in May when I'll have time to do it right from start to finish. Compared to some of the project boats I've seen y'all complete, I think this one should be fairly manageable, but you never know what you'll run into. I'll post updates on this thread as I work through everything.
) last time they took the coaming off. They were pretty filthy, but I sanded one a bit so I could get a better look at it and see what it was made of. You scared me for a second, as I didn't remember hearing any nuts dropping inside of the hull when I took it off. Thought I was gonna have to go digging around to recover them! Glad someones else went through the trouble and expense already.
