"Learning curve" or "I have a dream..."

So here it is a year later and more change! Since September 2017 I have been working on a new project a Bristol 35. My Siedelman 245 was awesome and taught me a lot but because of my height always felt a little small for weekend cruises. I happened to be browsing craigslist one day I September of 2017 and saw the Bristol 35 for sale and within a couple of hours I was the proud new owner. She had been sitting in a slip for about 7 years with no attention and needless to say was in rough shape. The upside was she had good bones and I could see that she had a lot of features that I wanted including headroom, a full keel and wide enough decks to walk on and a big cockpit! Happy!

It has been 11 months since my last journal entry and the boat is in the water. Her name is S/V Hope and she is still a work in progress but she is mine and I couldn't be happier with the way she has turned out. So many things had to happen from when she was in my back yard last winter but they were all accomplished a little bit at a time and now the learning curve begins again.

Finally finished the bow area and I am moderately satisfied with the results but as always it could have been better...
I have noticed that when you own a boat you get to make a lot of choices during a repair and the cool thing is that at the end of the day this is your boat and you get to call all the shots. I have watched so many YouTube repair videos, boat builds and sailing adventure videos and the one thing I take away from all these is that it is your boat and you can do what ever you want to address the situation and still continue to move forward with the dream. There are so many compromises that one takes in to consideration including availability of resources, time and skill sets that one has or doesn't have and yet somehow things get done and the project moves forward. As I get closer to my self imposed deadline I am forced to deal with the reality that I still have a lot to do and yet I move forward. The other night I had a little bit of a scare in the reality that I might actually accomplish what I have set out to do and was I really ready to take this on...and still daily I move forward.

The front stay plate was suspect and I decided to remove all that and reseat all the bolts on the nose. The nose piece was also in bad shape and have finished it and am looking forward to remounting that and getting the nose complete and ready to accept the standing rigging. Here is a picture of the old nose piece and my new rendition...

I made a listof all that has to be done and with a drop dead of April 3, 2016 I figured I might want to check the sails. I unpacked the sails in the living room and the mainsail was original and appeared to be in good shape, the Jib was set up as a roller furling with the canvas protection and that also seemed to be in good shape as well. There also was a light weight genoa (?) that has two small rips in it so I will be taking that to a sail repair and also working with them and with a rigger as I want to change from the cheap rolling furler to a hank on Jib because I am thinking this might be a more affordable way to go. My max budget for the boat is $5,000 and I have about $1200 left to complete the project so I don't have much wiggle room. This budget does not include slip fees that I hope to retain effective April 3rd. That is all for now...

When I bought the Seidelman 245, I noticed the previous owner had carried the mast on the boat and kept a bumper on the hatch to support the mast when down. Over the years the weight of the mast had caused the plexiglass to warp downward and caused water to pool in this area. I took the hatch apart and flipped the plexiglass and rebuilt the hatch and finally completed it this weekend. The most difficult part was getting all the previously drilled holes to align and there was some customization involved but it actually turned out ok!