Working on the Boat

After a four hour drive using my Jeep Cherokee as a tow rig we made it to Discovery Bay and squeezed the boat next to my parent's house.

Cody wet sanding the bottom next to the house

Our first job was to get the mast off and all the crap out of the boat to sort through it. Among it was a lot of good stuff like hardware and a MOB pole and a lot was just the random clutter that boats collect.

We started making a list of new parts the boat would need and what work would need to be done. I had been talking to the J/24 owner and rigger Brian Malone who I sail with in Florida about my project for a long time and he agreed to help me out. He is also the owner of Speed Merchant Services, a mobile rigging shop and racing yacht service provider, and giving us wholesale pricing on anything we need. I was able to get the boat new standing rigging, halyards, sheets and some new hardware at a great price.

Sanding the bottom was obviously the most daunting task and with day time temperatures of 100 degrees in Discovery Bay we would be working at night. First, Cody and I had to remove all the "crunchies" (little tube worm things) with a putty knife before starting to wet sand the ancient growth off the epoxy with 150 grit paper. We weren't using long boards, just large hand sanders, as the bottom was already pretty fair and they were the best we could find locally. Every night for three weeks we would sand the bottom for several hours.

After weeks of sanding we finally get a smooth bottom