Second Time Around

Second time around situations are becoming a way of life for me. This time involves a sailboat. After finally deciding that the O'day 27 project was just going to be too much to deal with for a variety of reasons, I put it up for sale and after some time a fellow actually came forward and bought it. Within a couple days of that, my old friend Dave Nixon emailed to ask me if I would like to have his 15' Cape Cod Mercury that I had repaired for him five years ago. He hadn't used it in a couple of years and it had sprung a leak and was swamped, floating on it's internal flotation. So, a couple of weeks ago we ran up to Orlando and fetched it out of the lake.

After five years in the water, the last few months mostly under it, the little vessel is in need of some attention once again. A new bottom job is already underway and it will get paint inside and out. Since I plan to keep it on the trailer instead of in the water, I plan to use hard, slick paint on the bottom this time. This little boat is actually "containable" in my life in ways the 27 footer was not. I am pretty sure I'll actually finish this project and get to sail this time.

The reason the boat took on water, we found, was that it had been struck by lightning. There was evidence of the strike at the top and bottom of the mast and a golf ball size hole blown in the hull about 18" from the mast step.

A few more hours with the sander, some fiberglass and epoxy resin, and some paint and the little Merc should be ready for more years of happy sailing. I expect it to look like the photo below taken in '06 right after the last restoration.

To see what I'm looking forward to, check out these links to images posted back when I was sailing it on Sand Lake in Orlando:

http://brokenfeathers.blogspot.com/2006/11/daddys-delight.html

http://brokenfeathers.blogspot.com/2006/11/yet-another.html

http://brokenfeathers.blogspot.com/2006/09/sailboats-are-beautiful-things.html