Beginning The Restoration ~

I'm not quite sure how to start this...


Basically, Lindita sat in Bluewater Bay Marina static for a about 2 months before I was able to return and begin the restoration process. In my head, I was going to have her ready in a couple months, sail her down to Abaco before our wedding, and sail off into the sunset with my bride and start our new life together...  thats not quite how it worked out.

I returned to Niceville in late November after delivering my bosses boat back to Abaco. They were down there for a week or so, boating and enjoying a break from north Alabama in the early stages of winter. I spent a couple weeks doing some maintenance on Annie Lee before being graced with a little time off to begin our sailboat restoration project.

This being only my second boat i've ever owned, the first one being a 23' daysailer I bought for $500 and sold for not much more, I had great expectations of how fast I'd work through these projects. Like I said before, I thought I'd be ready to sail away after only 2 months... knowing what I know now, pretty much every little project that you think will take 1 day, takes 3. So if these projects were going to take me 2 months (in my head they would) they would easily take 6 months(multiply time by at least 3).

So I basically started deep, removed the mast and rigging, removed the inboard diesel, and continued to strip out every single thing inside the boat, whether it was bolted or screwed or not. Everything was going to come out! This process took alot longer than I thought it would. This was my first indication that my project boat may take longer than 2 months...

Following are some pictures of the beginning of the restoration process. Stripping and gutting out -

After we pulled the mast, we pulled the engine.

Mast~less

Then we spun her around and removed the bow rail and bowsprit, along with the dolphin striker and bobstay.

My buddy Mike towing me back to the slip.

First view of engine room after engine removal.

Layer of muck that was underneath the engine.

Jumbled wires and hoses everywhere!

The original motor - 32hp Universal Diesel

Removing the waste holding tank along with all the head plumbing

Galley fridge was on old engine driven Adler/Barbour

This is the plating connected to the bow eye tang that connects the Bobstay to the Bowsprit

Night shift supplies are crucial !!!

My friend Christoph on night shift cleaning out the cockpit lazarettes, being paid in beer.

Randy on night shift polishing the bronze anchor hauser cap

disassembling rigging for inspection/cleaning

Bowsprit undergoing some epoxy work

Mast spreader arms are mahogany

Stripping the aluminum spars

After I began the decommissioning/demolition process of Lindita, I suddenly had a much greater picture of just how much is involved with a restoration of a yacht of this size. Its not that any of these projects scared me... its more the magnitude of the projects that daunted me. Since suddenly I went from having 1 project (the boat itself) to having half a dozen projects going on at once:

1.) Mast and boom
2.) Rigging
3.) Bow
      a.) Bowsprit
      b.) Bob-stay and thru-hull tang mounting bracket
      c.) Sampson posts
4.) Engine
5.) Engine room
6.) Head
7.) Etc
8.) Etc
9.) Etc

Things were coming apart slower than I had expected, and putting them back together was bringing up more unforeseen issues I had not anticipated. This is of course how boat projects go...