Ricks Front Door

Vessel Name: Honey Badger
Vessel Make/Model: !074 Grampian 2-34
Hailing Port: Clear Lake
Crew: Ricky, Terry
About:
Ricky Davis and Terry Woods. I am 56, Terry is 29 (for the 22nd time.) We are currently engaged and soon to be married. Ricky owns Ricks Front Door Refinishing in Houston. Terry currently works at the same company. I have 4 children and Terry has 2. Together we have 5 Grand children. [...]
19 September 2012 | Legends Point
18 September 2012 | Houston
Recent Blog Posts
19 September 2012 | Legends Point

Spit Shine

Why is it, that all the boats we've looked at for the past three months have had dingy, and dull Teak wood? There was nothing warm and cozy about any of the interiors of these boats. I just wasn't impressed with any of them. If your trying to sell something, you want to impress the buyer. You want people [...]

18 September 2012 | Houston

First Sail Blog

This is my first post.

Spit Shine

19 September 2012 | Legends Point
Ricky
Why is it, that all the boats we've looked at for the past three months have had dingy, and dull Teak wood? There was nothing warm and cozy about any of the interiors of these boats. I just wasn't impressed with any of them. If your trying to sell something, you want to impress the buyer. You want people to say "wow" this looks awesome.

We are soft sanding all the Teak woodwork. The wood was dirty and dull, and begging to be beautiful again. After cleaning off all the dust with paint thinner, Terry applied a minwax, Red Oak stain on all the wood in the V Berth, behind the bedroom door, and the chester drawers. Wow! What a difference a day makes. Now, there is life, and you can hear a big sigh. I drove to the marina to help Terry today after a few hours at work. By the time I got there, she already had all the V Berth soft sanded, cleaned and stained. I brushed a coat of
glossy Helmsman Spar Urethane on all the prepped wood. Man o man, what a big
difference. The wood sparkles now. Terry is priming and painting the walls behind the dining table and settee. We think a deep red will contrast very well with the black shag and newly gleamed woodwork.Tommorow we try to finish the woodwork. November is coming as quick as the leaves are turning yellow on my peach tree.




First Sail Blog

18 September 2012 | Houston
Ricky
This is my first post.
I have always dreamed of sailing. Swashbuckling with pirates on the high seas, visiting deserted islands, pretending to be Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. What young man hasn't?
Now I get to realize my dream. I had never sailed on a sailboat. I grew up in Ft Worth TX. Like most everyone, I have boated, but not sailed. To me, that was what rich people did.....we were not rich. A few months ago I decided to just go for it, start looking for a boat and get my basic Keelboat Sailing certificate. I got it on August 12, 2012. The next step is to figure out what kind of boat we want and what size. Hmmmm, Do we want a GIANT boat or a little bitty boat? Craigslist is my favorite website, type in the word sailboat and they come off the screen by the hundreds. I had a $15,000 budget. WOW! They are really proud of these boats around here! OK, so no gigantic boat for us. How about a tiny boat for the two of us, we don't need much room, right? Should we buy a Catalina, I got my certificate on a 22' Catalina, that was pretty easy to sail, I feel comfortable sailing one of those now. We go look at a few 26 'Catalinas and a couple of 31' Hunters. We even drove 2 1/2 hours to Lake Charles to look at a boat that was supposed to be our dream boat. On Craigslist it was beautiful, in person, it was a dog. Can you say bow wow. After weeks of searching all the web sites for sail boats, visiting boats after boats after boats, constantly being let down by boats conditions and the price they were wanting for them, I finally placed an ad on Craigslist stating that I was searching for a boat http://houston.craigslist.org/boa/3271409347.html .....

As if by magic, the next day the phone rings. It is a 70 year old man who was talked into buying a 34' Grampian by his friend who wanted the trailer that the boat sat on. He really didn't want the boat, even though he was raised on a boat in his youth, and has sailed all his life. For four months he worked on the boat, replacing all the through hull (things) that needs to be replaced while the boat is in dry dock. He repainted the hull with 3 coats of zinc and waxed the hull. This boat was made in 1974, but sat in a barn in Colorado for 15 years before being trucked back down here to Kemah where it was originally purchased. Monty, our new sailing buddy, has worked tirelessly this whole time to get this boat ready to sail with his friends, but guess what, nobody wants to go sailing with him. Now he has a 38 year old boat that he really didn't want in the first place, and has sank thousands into it, and no ones wants to go sailing with him. He bought the boat for $5000, spent thousands fixing it up, put the mast on, got it into the water, found a slip to store it in, so now what? He goes online to Craigslist, scanning the boats for sale and VOILA, there is my ad, begging someone to sell me they're unwanted boat. He had his boat on C L for a month and couldn't find a buyer because it was in dry dock being repainted and repaired at the time. The minute I set foot on his boat I knew it was the boat I had been looking for this whole time.

Wow...isn't it funny how things work out if you just have patience and don't stop looking. We now own a rare antique boat, (only about 50 were made), http://sailboatdata.com/view_builder.asp?builder_id=24, we paid $7000 for it. It is ready to sail other than cosmetic clean up on the inside. This boat has thousands of dollars in spare parts and sails stuck in holes all through out the boat. Drawers full of new engine parts and fuses and everything else you need in an emergency. Terry and I are wanting to sail to Florida in a few months. We are clear coating all the wood, inside and out. We are reading blogs and watching YouTube videos about people doing the same things we want to do, go to places we want to go. We are still learning the parts of a sailboat, (scupper...really!) what the hell is that, lol. Our plans are to be leaving for Florida in November....gulp....now I have to learn to navigate. Oh well...I think I'll get back on Youtube now.

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