More grassroots Sailing.. or how i am spending my summer

Hint.. it's a lot of sanding.

you may remember this time last year I picked up my 23 foot SeaSprite. Since that time I got very sick due to black mold, then I moved, and then I picked up a full time gig. Now that I am healthy again, I do not have the hours I used to have to dedicate to my projects.. but I do try to get an hour a day in.

Last week I built a "house' over the cabin out of 2x3s and tarps (I will show that picture later) so I could work out of the sun and rain, and not have to worry about rain getting into the cabin as I then removed the port holes and main companionway hatch.

Now that all that rotted wood is out of the way. I am getting down and dirty with removing 50+ years of paint.

this is how the companion way looked before I started sanding. covered in about three layers of paint that took an hour to get off. I found white, then Tan, and then an offwhite. Now she is back to her (crazed) gelcoat and after filling in all the little holes, I can get her primered.

And now down to the "clean" gelcoat

Another day, another couple of hours spent on the boat. found the source of a persistent and annoying leak and got the cabin top almost completely sanded smooth. (just need to finish removing the rotted cockpit coamings to get at the very corners of the cabin.

I think I am nearing the end of my destructive phase of this refit. I still need to sand the decks smooth, redo the forward hatch, build a stern hatch (and cut the hole for it) and redo the cockpit coamings.. but soon it will start to look better and better and get more and more expensive as I start to put her back together

pulled all the wood coamings off of the cockpit today. Amazing what you can accomplish when you break the work down into one hour chunks.

I will get to some more sanding tomorrow.. but right now I need to get ready for work so I can go watch more world cup

All this work and no comments yet? you guys are slipping.

More pictures. Got all the gunk off of the cockpit where the coamings were mounted.. and found "Danger!" a 3 inch long crack where the cabin, sides of the cockpit, and seat meets. Fixing all that tomorrow

Crack!

All nice and sanded:

Refinishing a boat is soul destroying work. I don't see any power tools at play here, but you can be sure I would have me a pile of them.

Not sure about where you live, but there is often a collection of day labour gathered around certain home-supply stores. I would be investing few pesos to get this done.

What brand is the hull? Is it deserving of this effort?

What are your re-finishing plans? Shoot some gelcoat or one of the high end marine paints? Awl grip used to be a decent choice, but it has been a lot of years since I played the game.

What shape is the hull in? Are you going to have to play the micro-blister game or is it good to go?

Fresh or salt water boat?

She is a 1963 Sea Sprite 23. A SailStar boat, a company that went out of business in the late 60s and was absorbed by Bristol. As Boat number 110, she is actually the 20th boat built and one of the earliest 'glass boats still around. Designed by Carl Alberg, she is also one of his earliest designs and I dragged her off of Lake Champlain last year, so she has only seen fresh Water.

She is a solid layup of 'glass. No coring in hull or deck, and she is thick and heavy. Sadly, because she came from a very cold (winter) climate and her 'glass is so heavy, the gelcoat is crazed from stem to stern, cabin top to keel. I just picked up some Marine high build primer (almost $40 a quart!) and once I get the holes in the cabin filled and fix the crack, I am going to start primering.

The hull from waterline to deck is already sanded. a few small repairs need to be made (some gouges and scratches) and I still need to sand her bottom and rip out all the through hulls and completely remove the remaining plumbing from when she had a marine head (they just ripped everything out and 'glassed over the through hulls). right now my goal is to get the cabin, cockpit, and deck done by the end of summer, and then her 'topsides' by late October. Over the winter I will strip out and redo the cabin furniture.

Some see it as Soul destroying, I enjoy the work. Using a DeWalt orbital with 100grit discs has allowed me a very "zen' time as it is just me working in the now. I only need to worry about the work, not what I am doing tomorrow and or what I did yesterday. I only need to think about now

You're a better man than I.

Many years ago I picked up a $100 1985 Hunter 23 and dragged it home with dreams of refinishing it. All I can say is that plans change but I sold it for $600 to a guy who wanted a project of his own.

Boats grow when removed from water (the hull sanding was something like refinishing the Queen Mary!

Wear a quality respirator. That is nasty dust.

Here you go.. how she looked when I was dragging her home

I respect your efforts.

After years of working on boats in exchange for other people's money, I couldn't imagine doing it on my free time. Or in exchange for other people's money again.

She has pretty lines. Hopefully, you can keep convincing yourself that sanding is fun. I can do it for short time periods only.

Deceptive thread title - I see no evidence of sailing.

She is a sweet hull and good on you for bringing her back. I hope you splash it into the water sooner, rather than later.

another hour or so done today... hot and muggy out there too!

Today it was fun with Glassfibre.

remember this crack?

well, first I cut It out with a very powerful dremil like tool. not sure who made it, but it uses a foot pedal and my great uncle used to use it for cutting and polishing semi-precious stones to turn into jewelry. It's big, it's powerful, and it is a lot quieter than a real dremil. And it went right through the 'glass like it wasn't there

After that, I backed it with a sheet of waxpaper and gaffers tape before mixing up a batch of resin and adding glass to it. Not only did I make a mess.. but I got the preliminary work done to fix it. tomorrow I will back it with a sheet of 'glass from inside.

after that, I decided to fill all the holes on the cabin top. When I redo the handholds and companionway, I would rather drill new holes rather than trying to make the new wood match the old holes. these I backed with gafftape and just dribbled enough in to allow them to form a bubble of resin on top.

Tomorrow I sand them flat!

I really need to get a blog to detail this better

The before picture explains a lot - particularly why you are tackling the project. Without it, and without knowing the model, frankly my first impression was why spend the time and effort - that boat looks rough. But she is a very good looking vessel and worthy of a refresh. Enjoy.

I drug a dirty but otherwise very useable O'Day Daysailer out of a backyard 2 falls ago to have something to learn on (above my Sunfish) and take the family out on. I'm enjoying having it and would like to get it out more.

In the very first posting you mentioned sickness from black mold.
Was that mold from the sailboat?

Someone mentioned "deceptive thread, no sailing going on."
The answer here is that much of sailing is... just working on your boat.

Tools: I would say that roughly 6 years ago I bought a Fein MultiMaster and though not cheap it has been invaluable on boat projects.
Cheap versions are now available.

The mold was from his house. I think I had a short bout of the same thing once.

yes, the place I was renting had an unheated (and illegal) room that had a small water leak. I had complained to the landlord several times about it and was basically ignored. One day I opened the door and damn near got knocked off of my feet by the smell of mold. It certainly explained my rising blood pressure, sinus headaches, and sinus infections that never went away. getting out of there 4 months ago was the best thing that ever happened to me... I am now back to my old self again.

No pictures.. I will take some tomorrow when I finish, but I just sanded all the areas I glassed today. Some of them came up beautiful, the rest need some more resin to level them off and fill some pinprick holes

Now that I see the 100 ft view, I see where you are going; this is a nice hull.

I caan dig the Zen thing, anyone who does projects has to go there.

Please keep posting as you go along.

Fun project. There is a certain satisfaction to boat refinishing. I've done a couple and picked up the next one last week. A 1977 Mitchell with a 1977 Johnson 25. Lucky for me, most of the work on this one will be in the engine. Keep up the good work.

Rather than boring everyone to tears with 4 billion posts about sanding.. I decided to start a blog. Mind the growing pains as this is the first time I have ever done anything like this.

Seasprite23 flirt