Easter Update

It's been a long winter!

The hoped-for commissioning date of April 17, 2011 has come and gone - so has any hope of making the start line for the Marion Bermuda Race - but not without valiant effort and a light at the end of the tunnel! Confirmed trucking date to Kittery Point Yacht Yard is June 6th for commissioning....stay tuned!

Before:

Awaiting refit in Claret Red

During:

'As new' bulkheads

It was pure euphoria to see her return from the paint shop on this beautiful clear day. Mr. OCD himself, 'Ducky' Clark had her in his shed for almost eight (8) weeks which impacted an already optimistic schedule to complete her by mid-April.  But given the weather in February and March, not much better could be expected!

The intended color scheme was actually quite different but Akzo Nobel couldn't match the RBG #'s  supplied by my friend Tim O'Connell (Wun Hung Lo) without physically sampling the Ferrari 'gun metal gray' color.  Since time was of the essence and I happen to be short by precisely one Ferrari, the fallback was Carinthia Blue with the same Whisper Gray everything else, albeit with the new double boot as suggested by Bob Perry.

Since the scum line was considerably lower than the old boot stripe, we decided to lower the water line by 3" with hull paint but only drop the boot by 1". The new boot is slightly taller than the old one @ 3" max. beam rising to 4" bow and stern; the second stripe starts 2" above the first  and is 1" tall.  This way, if we are off in our calculation, we can always raise the water line next year with bottom paint...but I really like the look of seeing 2" of hull paint reveal below the boot.

Color aside, the most dramatic change is seeing the bulkhead 'as new'.  No more old instrument holes or aluminum patches to look at!

Four weeks later

Four weeks later, she's sporting a set of 'original' teak eyebrows that she probably hasn't seen in 25 years, new opening ports, varnished grab rails, a new companionway, new teak instrument pod above the companionway, new teak seating, engine control box and a beautiful new teak coaming cap!  New name, (COUP D'ETAT), hailing port (Newport, RI) and cove stripes will be applied next week.

New teak bridgedeck, companionway, eyebrows and coaming

Note the custom stainless steel wiring conduit into the instrument pod.  Mike Dumas does beautiful welding work. He has also fabricated a new bow pulpit, custom sleeves for the new stanchions and boarding gates. The new Edson Vision II pedestal and steering system is now installed, as is the propane system, cockpit shower and Webasto heater.

New opening ports and galley

Progress on the interior has been solid too. She is nearly complete down below with only minor trim and lighting to be installed. A custom 12-volt DC-only electric panel will be installed behind sliding doors at the nav station this week. Her 500 Ah's of new batteries are installed 

Original USCG Documentation number engraved

Cushion teaser...you know you're getting close to the end!

Interior doors and hardware installed

A nice touch by Bob Eger was to engrave her USCG Documentation number into the companionway trim. Note the 'push button' cabinetry hardware below and hint of the new edson pedestal in the background.