Boy, have we learned a lot! This is my first experience with a full-service boat yard. They can perform engine work, rigging work, painting of hulls or masts, fiberglass repair: you name it. They are not an inexpensive company, but they have a great reputation.

Svendsen's pulled the mast yesterday, in preparation for painting. Conni and I removed the boom the day before. In order to paint, every item must be removed from the boom and mast: wires, rope, hardware. For the mast, that even meant the sheaves, wire for VHF, radar and lights, as well as line leads into the mast, as well as any tracks. We removed the main sail track and the spinnaker pole track: we created a naked mast! We removed items that were screwed on or riveted on.

Everyone at Svendsen's was amazed by the condition of our 27-yr-old mast. Evidently, the constant rain and cool Alaskan temperatures have preserved our mast! The rain that we all begrudge has continuously washed the salt from the boat, keeping corrosion at bay. All chemical reactions are slowed in cooler temperatures and the corrosive reactions are slowed dramatically in our cool temperatures. Amazing! Our mast has virtually no corrosion and the mast paint is in superb condition. In fact, we were asked if we actually wanted to paint it! Of course, we need cruisers insurance and they always require new rigging, but it's interesting. I shudder to think what the boat might look like after a few years in the tropics. The painting team would bring colleagues by to gaze at our ancient but well-preserved mast.

When they pulled the boat, they took their time, being careful to miss the prop shaft and the transducer near the keel's leading edge. Passports have a teak cap rail that protrudes past the edge of the hull. When the boat is lifted in slings, the slings themselves can compress the cap rail and damage it. Holy smokes! I never even thought of that! Their elegant and simple solution was to use pre-made rolls of carpet under the slings as they approach the cap rail. This simple gadget completely cures the problem! Several places on the cap rail are, indeed, split and I suspect that years of hauls by the fine folks at the Seward Small Boat Harbor have damaged the cap rails, although certainly by accident.

Interestingly, the boat is resting on a home-made cradle rather than jack stands. See the photos on our site. The yard manager, when I asked him about the cradles, said that Svendsen's was the only yard in the Bay area that did not lose boats during the earthquakes several years ago. The cradles kept the boats stable and unharmed. It's a better mousetrap.

We've stripped the mast and boom, Svendsen's will paint the parts, and, i guess, we'll re-install the hardware that we've removed. I'll install new marine-grade wiring, new VHF coaxial cable, and re-fabricate the entry holes for the various wires.