We bought a sailboat!

In May 2008, we purchased our first sailboat—a 1980 Catalina 22. It was in rough shape, filled with water, and needed a lot of work, including re-coring the deck and some extensive fiberglass work.

We bought a sailboat!

 In May 2008 we purchased our first sailboat a 1980 Catalina 22. It was in rough shape, filled with water and needed a lot of work, including re-coring the deck and some extensive fiberglass work. I thought the price was right in my eyes at $500.  There was no rudder, the keel was rusting badly, and it had no outboard. We hauled it home on the trailer it came on and drained the water.  I had some family over and we put the boat onto boat stands and dropped the keel onto a cart. By the end of the month I had a new baby to take care of, and no time to work on the boat.

 In addition I had an expansive list of project to get the boat ready:

  • New rudder
  • Re-bed hardware
  • Fix forward hatch
  • Clean inside
  • Fix table
  • Fix navigation lights
  • Sand down paint and repaint decks
  • Re-core decks
  • Fix pop-top
  • Fix maststep that had torn the aluminum mast
  • Replace motor mount
  • Strip Keel, epoxy, and paint
  • New cushions/covers
  • New Standing Rigging
  • New Running Rigging
  • New Masthead
  • Replumb cockpit drains
  • Sand down and repaint bottom
  • New electronics
  • New boarding ladder
  • Port side was smashed in and poorly fixed
  • Trailer fixed
  • Purchase Outboard

 These were just the things I knew about. Most of the things I knew I could do, even if I wasn't confident on the specifics of how. Some of the things that really stumped me where that the mast had a tear in the aluminum foot where the bolt goes through. The port side repair that had been done previously was a terrible patch job that looking back should have kept me from buying the boat.

 I purchased parts to fix the keel and mast step from Catalina Direct, and planned to start work in October after it had cooled down a bit. In late September I found a new boat that needed significantly less work. In Spring my wife and I stripped the boat of parts and took it to it's final resting place. This has actually worked out well for me, as I have spares of everything, including winches, a mast, and a keel. We hauled the boat to the dump and they pulled it off the trailer for us. (After throwing it in the air a few times)