Gidday there! This is hopefully going to be my online tracking of the upgrade/overhaul of a Jim Young 7.8 (26ft) GRP trailer sailer I came into possession of in early January 2009.

The vessel was built in 1983 and was last used as a Charter vessel from Havelock, last sailed in January 2006 (according to the logs)

The initial flurry of work was conducted in late January and throughout February.

The vessel is in average to poor condition and was flooded inside, and we suspect had been left flooded inside for at least 6 months. This resulted in alot of black mould inside and a solid day of drying and cleaning. From there the electrics and all plumbing were stripped out and disposed of. (including a still 1/4 full black waste bag...) The old RM69 removed and the heads washbasin removed. The plumbing had rusted in place through a bulkhead, so required the use of an angle grinder to be removed. Once gutted internally the interior was sanded.

From there the next goal was to seal the vessel for winter to prevent it being refilled on a daily basis from leaks. The forward hatch was removed, cleaned and resealed fixing some of the problems, however the bulk of the leaks were from the windows, not wanting to do things to half arssed I decided I would repaint the exterior prior to resealing, trying to save doing it twice. This involved a serious amount of sanding and resin to fix the gunwhales. There had been alot of damage to the fibreglass and water ingress into the plywood along this area, some of which had to be removed. Once everything was dry the gunwhales were resin coated and filled. Setting the scene to primer and paint the window frames and the sides of the vessel.

Unfortunately with the windows back on I had run out of funds and nothing much happened from February through to April.

However today my daughter and I finally got around to building an engine stand for the Honda 15hp outboard than came with the boat. Thus it has finally left the garden shed for the luxury of the garage!