Apparently, I'm not a very good "blogger". The whole summer has gone by without me writing once. Actually, though, it's because we spent so much time actually out sailing. We raced every Wednesday night beginning in June, through the end of July. We didn't do very well, but we certainly honed our sailing skills and we had a lot of fun. We also raced one Saturday morning in the Fair Haven Mayor's cup. We actually did fairly well in this race. It was a lot longer and we had time to actually get the boat up to speed, instead of the quick good around the bouys we do with our club on Wednesday nights. My son also sailed our Precision 15k in all the races too. He did very well. Last Saturday our club had its annual Rat Race and Stephan came in first place! It was a windy gusty day and there were several boats that did not finish, but he sailed great!

We also took a trip to Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn. There wasn't much wind on that Sat so we did a lot of motoring, but the wind picked up when we made it too Breezy Point (how apt!) And we got a little sailing in. Then we went out to eat at a lovely Italian restaurant before tooking in for the night. The next morning we headed out and got in 9 hours of great sailing.

This weekend we are planning on sailing down to Forked River. Here's to calm seas and south sailing!

I have some kind of fever...not sure it's quite spring fever. My husband just thinks I'm crazy. This actually seems to be a pattern in our relationship. My pat answer is that I keep his life interesting. Anyway, (to explain why he thinks I'm crazy this time) for the past few weeks we have been living with all the teak from my boat spread out all over our front porch, living room and kitchen in our tiny little cape. My family has gotten used to the smell of varnish and brush cleaner and having to walk slowly around the teak so no dust gets on it while it's wet. I had the grand idea last fall, while I was refinishing our handles and tiller that all of the wood should be varnished. Steve just shook his head and laughed at me. We had actually taken off the teak that held the slide hatch in place as well as the board that held the fuel tank and replaced them with star board just like the new Precisions. I have very carefully washed each piece with Teka and then sanded and now have been applying layer after layer of Epithanes varnish. I've lost count of how many layers are on my tiller and handles, but I think I am at nine or ten. My bulkheads have at least seven layers on each side and then all the other pieces (shelves, rails to hold cushions, stove, etc) have at least four. I figure that since it is inside the cabin I don't need as many layers. I suppose I can always go back and add some more layers if I need to in the future. At the same time, I have pulled out our v berth cushion and fashioned a set of sheets and a quilt and I'm working on slip covers for the rest of the cushions. We want to get the boat in the water next week! Now the reason my dear husband thinks I'm crazy is that in the middle of all the work I am doing on our boat --- I'm searching for my next one! I did tell him that I am looking forward to spending the summer on our 23, but hey, you never know when you might just find your next dream boat. I am kind of partial to rescuing them, haha.

Next, although with my attention span I kind of jumped around between tasks, I tackled the hull. I removed all the striping and lettering except the name Sunday Jazz. Then I compounded the hull, at least twice I think, and then polished it and finally put a couple coats of wax. Oh, and before the wax we replaced the boot stripe with the same stripe Precision uses on their current models. And by we, I do mean Steve. He has a great eye for this stuff and is good at replacing the striping. (I do all the grunt work, he gets all the glory, haha). We decided that we like the clean look of the hull without the waterline stripe so we left it off. She really cleaned up nice!

Step one after bringing our new to us boat home was to remove the barnacles. My least favorite job. Huh, actually it may not be my least favourite, but it ranks pretty high up there. Since I'm catching my blog up to the present, I can't remember quite the order I did it all in, but I do remember, scraping, acid washing, pressure washing, sanding, rinse and repeat. The bottom had been bottom painted at some point and also had an epoxy barrier coat. I needed to put another coat of the barrier coat on and then nice fresh bottom paint. I used aquagard because I was putting it in a lake primarily (although we have customers who's boats sit in salt water all season and do very well with it). While it was up on jack stands we also replaced the center board hanger. By we I mean Steve haha. I did get him to do some of the work!

While working at the Annapolis sailboat show in the fall of 2011, I had the opportunity to chat with a customer who had purchased his boat from the shop in 2001 (before we owned it) and was now trying to sell it. He talked to me for some time about the fun he had with it, but life changes and it was time to move on. He was down in Virginia beach and wanted help selling it. His problem was that he had a trailerable sailboat but had purchased it with no trailer. It had spent it's life in a sling when not actually in the water and it was in rough shape cosmetically, but had no serious issues. After many phone calls back and forth and him not being able to sell the boat on his own, he finally called me and asked me to buy it from him. I really wasn't looking for a boat, but he made me an offer I couldn't refuse. My husband thought it was to good to be true. We borrowed a trailer from a customer and made the trip down to Virginia beach. I was so excited! My youngest son was too and happily made the trip with us. The man who sold it to us had sailed with his son and was pleased to see it going to someone who would do the same. We brought it home to our shop and then the real fun began!

This is the year! I have been around sailboats for years, but this year we are putting my boat on a mooring and I am going to sail her. Seriously!!

My husband bought a sailboat dealership just over ten years ago, and long story short - when the economy took a dive, he took a new job and I got the shop. I have a lot of "head knowledge" but not a lot of practical experience. We sell trailerable sailboats and although we are not a marina, we have full service customers for whom we do everything for their boats except sail them. Actually, come to think of it, we do the sailing for a few of them too, haha. So I know how to wash, wax, take care of teak, rig, trailer, launch, retrieve...you get the idea. What I don't get to do much is SAIL.

That brings me back to my first point - this is the year! I picked up a Precision 23 for cheap and spent the last two years bringing her back into shape. A few days ago we plunked down the money for a mooring about forty minutes from our house at Fairhaven Yacht Works and I am hoping to have the boat in the water as close to May 1st as I can. I have big plans. I want to sail her.