In addition to needing a whole new bottom. The boat had been stored in an improperly fitting cradle and had damage to the sides as well. So my keen sense of value was a little off on this one.
Undaunted by the task at hand, we moved the boat to friend Mike's garage and enlisted the help of another friend, Chuck Smitley, who does boat repairs as Seaside Yacht Repair in Cocoa Beach Florida. As Mike would say "For just a few dollars more you can go first class". We stripped the bottom, repaired the blisters and applied 5 coats of glovit barrier seal . Chuck repaired the sides and did a first class paint job for us.
I, also, have a cousin Jake who does airplane interiors in Little Rock Arkansas. For a couple wheels of Amish Baby Swiss Cheese he offered to do the upholstery.
We managed to strip all the lights out of Mike's Building getting in and out.
Of course, since the cradle was junk, I decided to find a suitable used trailer so we could move the boat to dry storage for the winter months.
The downside is the rerigging that has to be done each year.
She wasn't the deal we thought, but, we are very pleased with the way she turned out.
The other major mistake that we made was our decision to rename the boat. She was known as Eagle IIII in her prior life but that held no meaning for us. Not understanding the importance of paying the proper respects to the water and wind gods, we simply had the lettering made and put it on the boat. Big Mistake!! Shortly after we got her to the dock, Kat was cleaning with a vacuum. We decided to break for lunch and ran out for fast food. On our return our neighbors informed us that our boat had shorted out the whole row of docks. I looked in the boat to find that the bilge was full and the water level was rising. I got the bilge pump,marked shower sump, running and discovered that the vent on the dripless seal had come apart and was running a 1/4 inch stream of water. The water had risen high enough to short the extension cord on the vacuum and had shut down the whole row of docks.
After correcting this problem, I was on deck cleaning and had pushed my I phone into my pants pocket in order to keep it safe. I stepped past the shroud and caught the edge of my phone on the cable. My phone bounced out of my pocket and spun like a square wheel on its way across the deck and into the water. Unfortunately, Otter boxes do not float and are not water proof.
At this point, after almost sinking the boat, shorting out the dock, and losing my phone, we decided to schedule the renaming ceremony. On the day of the event, I fired up the boat to turn it around so the name would be visible from shore. I dropped her in reverse and realized I had no control. By this point, I had already drifted away from the dock. I went forward to see if I had lost a shifting cable and, again found water rising at a fairly rapid rate even with the bilge pump running. The drive shaft had backed out of the coupler and seal and I had a 1 inch stream of water coming in. I sent Kat for help and proceeded to plug the hole with rags. Fortunately, there was just a light breeze and plenty of room to maneuver. I got the jib out enough to steer and was headed back to the dock when the calvary showed up in the yacht club skiff and helped me back to the dock. After diving under the boat and reinstalling the drive shaft, we offered a 75 dollar bottle of champagne to Poseidon and the gods of wind and have not had any problems since. Definitely money well spent!
Capt. Mike
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