October 27, 1010

October 27, 2010

          I recently “inherited” a boat from my friend Ron, who I met, worked with, and lived with for a while in New Orleans.  It is a 1962, 28’ Pearson Triton.  He had named her “Firefly”, but had never actually gotten around to putting the name on after painting the hull sometime last year.  While sanding it down he found the origional name, but can’t seem to remember it at the moment.  (Update:  He found some old paperwork, and it seems the name was "Panache")  Before him, she was known as “Kentucky Woman”.  Searching around a little bit I came across a website set up by some previous owners about their work and sailing adventures.  In case you are interested… http://sailingtrip0.tripod.com/toddandemily/  The dinghy on the site is still with the boat, but in need of a lot of work.  I have a feeling it will be used to size out a new one then hit the dumpster. 

          They had her in Pasadena, MD.  I’m not sure if this is whom Ron bought her from, because he told me he bought the boat from someone near Deale, MD who told him the boat was originally from Boston.  He then took it up to Maine for a couple of years, and ended up back in Deale, living aboard for a couple of years.  Strangely enough this is where I now live and reconnected with him.  Now he’s moving inland, so I get a boat! 

  

          Just to give you and idea what I was starting with, here is the view looking inside the entrance looking forward, and then back towards the entrance.

     

My plan is to strip out the inside and redo most of it without going too overboard.  I’m starting up front because it will be the easiest part to start in.  I know this will be a learning experience and I’m sure I will make plenty of mistakes along the way. The V berth seems like a good area to get some of those mistakes out of the way.

          Here it is, in all its glory.  This is what it looked like when I started.  I have the cushions propped up to get a little bit of airflow underneath there.  I just love the green, yellow and purple. Notice the numbers routered into the bulkhead.  I was told that this was done at the factory and also that it had something to do with being federally registered.  Hopefully it will assist me in tracking down information about her past life and voyages.

          First step was to empty out the berth and start cleaning a bit.  There was some standing water in there, it smelled pretty musty, and there was some mold starting on the bulkheads and ceiling.  After removing all the stuff I could, I cleaned up everything and started scraping, sanding, and stripping off the old (and ugly) yellow and purple.  I saw in the above website that the purple rails were originally nice varnished wood.  Why would someone do that?