It has been 5 years now since I was on a sailboat underway. It has actually been 5 years since I have been on any boat underway, as long as you do not count car ferries.
I consciously made a decision when we started the Akupara project that the next time I was sailing, it would be on Akupara.
Sometimes seems like that will never happen, but other times it seems like we are getting closer.
I am also going to sit down soon and add up all of the receipts and update the costs page. Scary thought but it needs to be done. I still reckon we are under our original estimate of $100000.00, so not too bad. A “brand new” 42 year old boat for 100k as opposed to a fully brand new boat for 450k.
Once we have the engine room sorted and the new tanks are in, Prodigy Marine will do the engine install. Somewhere between there and now, they will also sand the entire hull from waterline to caprail, prime and paint the hull. We will finish the sanding on deck, and either have Prodigy paint it at the same time, or do it ourselves.
There are a thousand little jobs still to complete inside Akupara like electrical, plumbing, refrigeration, heat, water tank replacement (or water tank bladders) chain locker doors, new companionway doors etc etc but there is one other job I have been putting off as well.
The dreaded foredeck re-coring.
:insert dark them song music here:
Ok it isn’t dreaded at all, after everything else we have done, this will have it’s own challenges of course, but it is all on deck in the sun! I will not be hunched over like some kind of monster, contorted into strange positions all the while working with tools that can cut your arm off!
This one I am hoping will go fairly smoothly. I estimate a day to cut the top skin and clean out the wet core, a day to cut the new coring and piece it into place, a day to glass it all in, and a day to do the final finish sanding and fairing.
Ok so in boat terms, 4 days will probably be 2 weeks of swearing, but you need to stay positive! 🙂
Our plan is to launch this summer. We were hoping for July 1st. There is still a possibility of that date, but considering in January we thought another year at least, I think we have stepped it up pretty well even if we miss July 1st.
There is a saying that a job will always take as much time as you have. If you plan 6 months, it will go right up to the last hour. If you plan a year, same thing. If you don’t have a timeline, forget it, it will never be completed! We want Akupara launched this year!
From the best that I can tell, Akupara has not been afloat on her own bottom since April 2011. The previous owners last sailing post is from April 11, 2011 and describes the preparations they were making to be hauled out in 2 days time.
If all goes well, and we launch in June of this year as is planned, Akupara will have been out of the water on the hard for close to 7 years 2.5 months!!
If boats actually have a soul, as is said they do, she must be getting pretty excited as we draw closer to returning her to her natural intended environment!
We are going to have a launch party and we are going to christen her at that point. Not because we are changing her name, but because in a lot of ways she is being re-born. She will have undergone a serious amount of work from refinishing all of the interior, to a new engine and fuel tanks, to a new hull colour and an whole bucket of other things!
This is the last picture the previous owners posted, taken somewhere down in Mexico. When we launch, I will use this picture in the before and after gallery!
Once again I find myself typing a blog entry on the verge of May. A quick check and this is the 3rd May that I have done this.
The bad news – we are still way behind schedule. Loads and loads of work to get done before we are in a position to launch Akupara.
The good news – the weather seems to be changing now finally. The temperature is up during the day and the rains are trying hard to come to an end.
The plan – This weekend the plan is to get back into the game. To create a final list of to-do’s, prioritize them, plan them out, and back at it.
Vision’s of humming sanders, the smell of Cetol and epoxy, the whirring of sewing machines, and the sound of a new engine (soon I hope) are starting to fill my dreams again.
The admiral and I just returned from 14 days in Mexico, so we should be well rested to jump back into this and we both decided that we must wrap it up this year. It has been too long since we felt the ocean swell under our feet and we need that to balance out the chaos in our daily working lives.
Well we bit the bullet and committed to another 6 months on the hard. We simply are not ready yet and although every part of our being wants to get Akupara in the water where she belongs, and out of the hell hole she is currently sitting in, she just isn’t ready and we simply do not have enough time to get her complete. We set out on this journey with the intent of having her complete before we launched and we are going to stay on that path for another 6 months at least. Our current goal is June 2017. That will be a respectable 2.5 years on the hard for a major refit and renovation. Still a fairly decent timeline for only being able to work on her on the weekends. Keep your fingers crossed that we can hit this goal.
Another 12 months on the hard. Damn. Oh well, she will be even better by then, and we will be able to enjoy her that much more!!
There is a certain type of person that is attracted to old boats. There is a certain type of person who is attracted to the idea of restoring old boats. There is a certain type of person who dreams of someday cutting the dock lines and sailing off into the sunset. When you take these three types of personalities and you combine them all together, you end up with one of a couple of different sub types of person. You have the doer’s, the dreamers, and the derelicts.
The doers are the ones who no matter what, find an old boat, fix as much as possible and then take off.
The dreamers are the ones who no matter what, find an old boat, continue fixing it for as long as they own the damn thing and never leave.
And finally you have the derelicts who no matter what, find an old boat, start fixing it, figure they can do everything on the cheap, lose interest, lose money, probably end up divorced, move onto their boat, eventually the boat begins to sink and they end up on the hard where they continue to hoard others cast offs. The decks continue to be accumulate detritus with new “treasures” appearing often, the hull grows a great colour of green, the rust settles in, the strawberry plants are in planters around the keel, and there are 101 different projects on the go that will never see completion.
I think every marina in the world must have all of these types of people.
The sad part is that in Akupara’s current marina/workyard, as in most I would suspect, this class distinction is completely evident in the order of the boats placement in the yard. The boats nearest the gate stand the highest likelihood of ever returning to the water, and the boats closest to the back fence, well let’s just say, if they do not burn down, get crushed by another derelict when it finally falls over, or the owner dies onboard one cold winter night, will probably never move again.
Akupara was moved by the yard and was placed at the very back of the work yard. We are not happy. As a matter of fact, we are very insulted. And, to add to that, we are now very worried about Akupara’s safety. In all seriousness, the back of the yard has quite a few undesirable characters to say the least.
The back of the line
Now I will admit that we have been unable to get down to Akupara recently as I have been extremely sick since coming back from Ontario and I will also admit that we have purposely not completed any work on Akupara’s exterior, but to move us back to where the derelicts live is a wee bit insulting. We thought we were making good progress for the most part.
There is one positive thing that has come out of this. And that is a renewed sense of focus to getting Akupara back in the water as soon as possible.
As Captain, I have cancelled all shore leave going forward. The entire crew will be on deck both Saturday’s and Sunday’s until we are able to launch. If you are suffering from a cutlass wound to your right arm, that is fine, I will reduce your workload, as your left arm will still function and there are a lot of one handed jobs that need to be completed.
We need to get serious again and we knew that before discovering that Akupara had been moved. This is just a big enough kick in the ass to drive the point home.
We are now re-evaluating our plans to determine if there is a quicker way back into the water and will probably have work to complete once we launch, but it is better than leaving her where she is as all of our hard work could be stolen, destroyed or otherwise ruined by the locals.
I have to admit that I am getting tired of owning a boat that does not float! Farley Mowat wrote a book entitled The Boat who wouldn’t float. I never actually read it but the summary sounds all to familiar.
“It seemed like a good idea. Tired of everyday life ashore, Farley Mowat would find a sturdy boat in Newfoundland and roam the salt sea over, free as a bird. What he found was the worst boat in the world, and she nearly drove him mad. ”
I do not believe that we have the worst boat in the world, and I do not believe that Akupara is driving me mad, but there are a lot of similarities! Akupara as of right now is not ready to be launched, and the idea of being on a floating, sailing boat is starting to drive me mad.
We are about to round a new corner. A really expensive corner. We are very quickly approaching the high ticket items. Electrical, mechanical, plumbing, rigging, cushions. Up until now it has been new plywood and lots of sandpaper and a few cans of paint and stain. Of course because it is all Marine Grade, it is still expensive but not like what is coming.
I do find myself drifting into the realm of well, that can be completed once we are afloat, which is a dangerous path to follow, but it is very hard not to. If she was in the water, we would at least feel her move a bit, and at least be out of the dirty boatyard.
I am thinking that I am going to re-prioritize our projects so that we can launch if we decide to at any point. So, that means the focus would shift to the hull. New seacocks, a few fiberglass repairs, and new bottom paint. After that would be the deck. Finish the sanding and hole filling and re coring. Once those items are complete, we would have a floating watertight boat. Of course she still would not be able to go anywhere under her own power so the rigging and the engine have to fall in there somewhere.
We can still use Akupara even if the odd drawer face is not sanded and stained. The electrical only needs to be able to start the engine and charge the batteries, after-all I like gimballed oil lamps, they are classy and we have a lot of flashlights. We have an icebox and new refrigeration can wait. Never had it on a boat before why do we need it now? And interior cushions are a luxury, we could always use cheap inflatable mattresses.
And that is how projects start to never be finished. And how a boat will never float. I don’t care if I re-arrange the order of the overall project list, but we need to Stay The Course, and get all of it done before Akupara hits the water. Well at least most of it anyway…
I need to stop looking at all of the beautiful photos of tropical island paradises posted by sailors on Instagram and Twitter.
I have a very scary anniversary coming up in August and I cannot allow myself to reach it.
30 years ago on my 15th birthday I was caught smoking cigarettes and I have been a heavy smoker ever since. I do not remember exactly when I took my first puff, but the day I was caught sticks in my mind. I was young, active, healthy, heavily involved in Martial Arts and yet I started smoking. I still do not know why I started, it wasn’t to be cool or to fit in or any of those reasons but regardless I did start and the time has come to stop.
In my build up to this I have read a lot of material and one of the things that is repeatedly stated is to tell everyone you know, so what better way than to announce it here.
I have set a quit date of Wednesday July 29th, 2015. I will be successful.
How does this fit in with rebuilding a Whitby 42? Easy, if I do not quit, I will probably be dead a lot sooner than I am planning on and that would just make for a shitty ending to this blog. After all, the goal is to complete the project and someday sail off into the sunset isn’t it? Kind of hard to do dead, or with an oxygen bottle or with any of the other possible outcomes.
Did I mention that the Admiral will be out of town for a week and August is away at camp.
Paige – I would advise that you find something to do, consider this fair warning, run, run now while you still can 😉
What the hell does scuba have to do with rebuilding an old boat?
Well a lot more than you might think actually.
Tomorrow we are going to finally get back in the water. Not with a boat of course but with scuba. All of the family are certified open water divers and we really enjoy the few times we have managed to get out. Part of the grand plan is to have the ability to dive whenever and wherever we so desire. Of course this necessitates owning our own equipment and we are partially there, but we still have a long way to go.
Although scuba diving is considered a sport or a hobby, I actually consider it a safety skill. In the event that we need to clean the bottom of Akupara, or make an emergency repair underway, with scuba we have that ability. I figure that the I overall cost of owning our own equipment will be offset by the dollars saved in not having to haulout. And who knows, maybe we will even be able to make a few bucks diving on other peoples boats, or retrieving that priceless Rolex that was dropped off of the mega yacht when they reached for the glass of spilling champagne! 🙂
We had our first fellow Whitby 42 owners onboard Akupara today! Denis and Rosario from “Counting Stars”. They are new owners as well and what a pleasure meeting and spending the afternoon with like minded people! It seems that most people who pursue and eventually purchase a boat of this pedigree have somewhat similar dreams, and no matter the specific destination, they all involve bluewater.
Their Whitby is in much better condition than ours is currently but they were extremely gracious and were able to see beyond the dirt and mold and see Akupara in her eventual glory. We eventually went out and had lunch and a beer together and swapped stories of adventures past, both offshore and onshore and our dreams of adventures still to come. Of course it wasn’t long before talk turned to “Blue” jobs and “Pink” jobs, but we had a lot of fun! 🙂
This is what it is all about. Meeting interesting people who share a common goal. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what your background is, whether you are a doctor, lawyer or an Indian Chief, all that matters is that you share a passion.
A lot of us may never realize upon seeing ours dreams fulfilled. It is a sad truth. But ultimately, is it the completion of, or the adventures to get there, and who you get to share it with, that makes for a successful passage?
And since I am being sappy, I want to share my favourite quote.
“To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea… “cruising” it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.
“I’ve always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can’t afford it.” What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of “security.” And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine – and before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man need – really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in – and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all – in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life? ”
― Sterling Hayden, Wanderer
I have a sneaking suspicion that although a lot of us talk about the worst case scenarios, few of us actually prepare and maintain a state of readiness to that effect.
Take the life raft that was on Akupara when we purchased her. The hard case was so weather beaten that it was impossible to make out a manufacturer, a last date of inspection or any other relevant information. The rubber seal that is in between the two halves of the case was hanging partially out and to top it off, the entire thing was tied with an old piece of rope to 2 wooden chocks that did not actually fit the life raft canister and had rusted screws to boot. One good wave and the entire thing would have been washed overboard.
The emergency watermaker was found way down in the bowels of the boat and there was no clear evidence of a proper ditch kit.
This is not how we run a ship and there was no way I was going to trust the lives of my family to an outdated, unknown liferaft, so I set it in the backyard and pulled the cord.
Now this isn’t the first time I have done this.
I purchased an old used life raft several years ago at the same time we purchased the brand new life raft for Mara II, our Alberg 30. I purchased the old one to give the family a chance to actually see and play with a liferaft in order to give them a bit of familiarity with it and with what it actually contained.
That life raft was actually stocked fairly well and had semi useable equipment inside of it. Akupara’s liferaft on the other hand had very little useable stuff inside, and what was there, was either soggy, rusted or covered in battery acid from the leaking D cells for the flashlight.
One thing that does amaze me, is that both of these old life rafts actually inflated on the first pull.
Inside the canister is a date from 1993 so I assume this was the last time it had been repacked, which means it would have expired in 1998. Then again that could also be the expiry date itself. So the long tall and short of it, is yes the raft inflated, no I would not trust my life to it after seeing it’s condition. I will put it up for donation on craigslist.org, maybe someone has a use for it OTHER than as a liferaft!
The last six months or so have been extremely busy for both Andrea and I at work and at home, not to mention our purchasing Akupara and the beginning of the restoration. The next six months will be just as busy if not worse so we both decided a quick getaway was in order.
We went to our agent, picked something reasonably inexpensive and 7 days later were on a plane to de-stress in the sun and the sand. Of course this means that in effect we lost 2 weekends of work time, but it was well needed.
We actually did not talk a lot about Akupara during our trip which was nice, although when we did, it was interesting how both of us were thinking along the same lines. We talked briefly about how important it is going to be to get the watermaker working properly. This was reinforced by the fact that we were in the Dominican Republic which is known for bad water and a lot of people on the resort were feeling the results of that. Even though they had not directly drank the water, they had still been exposed through the ice in their drinks. Which led of course to a brief discussion on the importance of ensuring the refrigeration and freezer needs to be 100% as well.
By day 3 the admiral actually made the statement “I don’t think I can stay in the sun any longer, I need to find some shade.” Tada – the dodger and bimini is going to have to be well constructed to allow for lots of airflow and yet provide for privacy as well. At night in the hotel room, we eventually gave up on the air conditioning as it was way too loud, but that also brought up the question of, as we grow older, are we going to need air conditioning to sleep. At this point we can manage just fine but it also seems to help with the humidity as well so perhaps we should investigate it.
We rented a little speed boat and went on a guided trip up a local river to experience the “true” island life. It was a lot of fun to be blasting around and seeing the jungle from the river side. Almost felt like we were in the movie Apocalypse Now, parts of which were apparently filmed in the DR, without all of the shooting of course. Hmmm, maybe we need to upsize the dinghy and outboard. Our RIB is 9 feet with an 8hp motor, but would it ever be nice to have a steering wheel as opposed to a tiller on the outboard.
As our eventual goal is to retire aboard Akupara, all of these little things are actually extremely important to us and the wrong decision now, when we have the time to make the right one, could possibly come back to haunt us, and I know for a fact that I am not going to want to start major repair projects or modifications in 31 degree Celsius heat.
Most of the week there were local fisherman performing their daily activities in the bay in front of our hotel and I commented several times to Andrea how simple their life seems to be. Not easy by any means, but simple. All of them were in old boats with peeling paint and leaking seams, some without engines, none with watermakers, refridgeration, freezers, air conditioning, dodgers or bimini’s, high speed outboards or any of the rest of the fancy stuff we “need” and yet they get by. Our plan is to eventually make Akupara our home as I have said, and part of the reasoning for that is to make life more simple and therefore more enjoyable, and yet all of our needs seem to do the exact opposite. This planning process as we refurbish Akupara is going to be a balancing act of need versus want and complexity versus simplicity. It is hard to make a conscious decision to give up something, but then again, if it makes life too complicated in the first place, is it even worth it?
I guess this trip actually had a lot more to do with Akupara and her refit than I thought! I wonder if I can claim it as research? 😉
So I have an admission to make. I have a problem. You see for years now I have been scouring Craigslist in search of charts, Nautical charts to be exact. Sometimes I have been lucky and have been able to find the odd one here or there, and now I have well over 500 paper charts. I told you I had a problem. The Admiral has recently discovered that our bed is not quite as hard as she thought it was. The cat has found a new play area under the bed, the dogs are bewildered by this as well. See, I pulled all of the charts out from under the bed and moved them down into the basement. The admiral will never look down there I know it! 😉 Some of the charts have been sorted and, although I hate the idea, have been rolled up and placed into tubes identified in big black lettering as to what part of the world they belong to.
I have charts for almost all of the oceans in the world. I am missing a lot of the South Pacific, including Australia, and several areas around Europe, but I am pretty much covered anywhere else. 🙂
So if you are planning a trip to Magadan, in the Sea of Okhotsk and you are missing a chart or two, I probably have it. 🙂
So anyway, I am looking for suggestions for down the road as to how to store a complete set, or nearly complete set of world charts on a Whitby 42?
