Then I took a break

In the weeks that followed, a lot actually got accomplished, but not enough to get the boat in the water by the end of the summer. Highlights include stripping the paint off the starboard side of the hull, removing the pulpit and stanchions (and filling the holes), stripping the interior of most of the woodwork (taken home to be stripped and refinished) and cleaning up/fixing the boom, which had come apart in pieces over the years. It was kind of one of those times that things definetly had to look worse before they could get better, or at least that is what I am telling myself.

Aside from that work, I decided on a color scheme for the boat. While initially I thought I would do either Flag Blue or black for the hull, further reflection made me think this would be a bad idea. Aside from the fact that half the boats in Marblehead seemed to be showing up in blue (my own family was already guilty of that), I also worried that with the older hull the print through of the original fiberglass could be an issue, and since I would be painting it myself, I wanted a color that would be a little more forgiving in terms of application (dark colors show imperfections more). Ultimately, I decided on using Interlux Perfection paint for most of the project, the hull in New Rochelle Red, Mediterranean White cabin house and boot top, black bottom and Hatteras Off White decks.
I think that this should look very sharp, but is still pretty classic. When the toe rails and coamings are freshly varnished, and the mast and boom have been refinished (they are finished bright), the boat should really stand out.

Despite my enthusiasm for the project, I had to head of to college in the fall, and the project got put on the back burner for a while. I covered the boat up, thinking I would be back the next summer to pick back up where I left off. Unfortunately (for the boat, not for me), the next summer I was coaching sailing full time, so I didn't work on the boat at all. And the summer after that, I was living in Boston and interning at at financial advisory firm, so the boat was, sadly, the last thing on my mind. I spent my weekends sailing dinghys all over New England, but rarely made it back to M'head with the time to work on the boat.

Thankfully, in the summer of 2008, I found myself back at home (at least four days a week), and with enough time to actually work on the boat. Coupled with that fact was that our big boat was on the hard for the summer having work done, and the fact that we would lose our mooring in Marblehead harbor if we didn't put the boat in the water by the end of the summer, which would result in waiting at least 15 years to get it back, giving me plenty of motivation to get the project rolling again.

So that's where the boat project is at now, and hopefully it will be in the water by August.