Here we go again...

It started out pretty innocently...

  

Saw a boat that could be what we were looking for advertised nearby in Mandurah...

Looks ok in the ad.  Go for a look and put an offer down subject to a survey and sea trail.

The sea trial up to the lift goes ok apart from the wind indicator, Plotter, Log and the Watermaker not working.  Hey, so its not a new boat...

At the lift the next morning we start to get a better idea of how far it has been let go...

Plenty of mussels...

Oil in the bilge...

...that covers the rot.

Well that's not good.  The surveyor was even less impressed.  We would have let it go but the owners wanted to quit it.  Drew up a refit budget, then doubled it, and went back to negotiating...

2 months later...

 We made a new offer and set a deadline when it would expire.  An hour after the offer expired it became ours and started the refit:

Lets start by drilling a few 60mm holes in our new boat to fit in the second hand davits...

Measure up some brackets to hold them in place.

Cleaning out and repainting lockers

out with the old

20 years of grime and oil.

Wood rot!

Replacing floor stringers

Open up the port fuel tank (twice). Repair and re-line the tank.

Grind out and repair the delaminated transom.  Manufacture and fit the new stainless steel bumper, roof and davit brackets.  

Rub the boat down with 1200 and have the new vinyl applied.  Starting to look a bit flash.

Davits finally finished after strengthening the channels with a cubic meter of two pack filler...

Nice and snug.

With a new collar "Son of Merv" gets his first of many lifts.

Still waiting on solar panels and the motor exhausts to arrive.

Altering the existing cushions to fit the davits.  These little jobs burn through the time.  All work and very little pleasure so far...

Hired guns Stallion and Tonto finishing off the the hull.

Motors finally ready to go.

Netting for the Buff and kids.

The bilges look a bit better

New sail bag and window shades.  New windscreen and the extra solar panels. Almost there...

Splashdown! Friday January 12th 2018.

Six months after going mad and buying it we do a quick motor up to Mindarie marina. Tie it up and then leave on a six week drive across the country and back. 

We might like it again when we get back from a break...