Honey, we now own a sailboat!

She is Ours....Now What?

Most of the family knows that we have been power boaters these past years. As my wife and I have reached that age of our lives when the kids are all out of the house but we are still too young to retire, we have had some time to seriously do some "golden years" planning. This involved purchasing a "project sailboat" and selling the power boat because you can not serve two masters. Starting this, I knew nothing about sailing much less the nomenclature of all the components of a sailboat.



Figure 1 - She was built to cruise!

Welcome to the Constance Marie.  She is a 1980 Hunter 27' sloop which of course makes her designed by Mr. Cherubini. Think of her equivalent to a '55 Chevy. A lot of them were made and owned by many families.   Found her earlier this month in a local paper for $4k. My wife, Olivia recommended that I call the owner and I did.  Olivia loved sailing from her earlier years. I told him I would buy her.    I told the owner that I was looking for a project boat to begin my transformation to sailing.  He was thrilled because I was not pursuing a survey as a prerequisite for the purchase. This would be a pure leap of faith that I was not taking on something I could not finish! The day we went to close the deal, the owner asked if I wanted to see her first. I said sure and as we were getting into the dink to motor out to her, he asked me if I wanted to know the name of the boat?  Ok I said. She is called the "Constance Marie". I nearly fell overboard. My Mom who passed away in 2007 at 90 (remove the double 00 and you have 27) was named Constance Marie! Mom was always a stickler about the significance of numbers in people's lives.

Well, when we boarded her I wished I had brought a machete because September is spider season in our region and the boat looked like it was all decked out for Halloween.   I learned then that she was launched originally on the Patapsco River leading into Baltimore. Also learned that the head had not been used in 10 years, most of the lights did not work, she had an original experimental 10 hp Westerbeke 10-2 diesel engine, all the portals were missing screens and most of them leaked with broken dogs, She had one battery system, the teakwood exterior and interior had not seen finishing in years, the original depth finder did not work as well as the original prop meter, the stuffing box was maintained in Mordor and the prop shaft "wiggled" three inches as it rotated.  But what I saw and envisioned was nothing more than a labor of love and I fell for Her right then and there.  After all, how many children get to resurrect a dead parent! 

When we got back to shore, we closed the deal and the Constance Marie was all ours.   I was surprised that in the paperwork transfer how much information about the Constance Marie. I learned that in 32 years we were the third owner. The last two surveys were provided as well which gave me a good history of our new purchase. Surveys were done in 1992 and 2002.  I called the surveyor who performed the 2002 survey and was pleasantly surprised to learn he was still in business. I was even more surprised to learn that he was a Master Piper of Scottish descent. Well, all was shaping up to be too good to believe. My paternal side is Scottish  and all I could see now was the Scottish battle flag flying proudly from the Constance Marie.

While all this was occurring, we also joined the yacht club where the Constance Marie was moored.  It was like going back to the 1950's when I was a young boy growing up around the Great South Bay of Long Island.  This yacht club was founded in 1952, the year I was born, it is a do-it-yourself, and help your neighbor type club.  Like a hippie commune in the 1970s except for sailors who want to fix up old boats and cruise.  Nothing bigger than a 35 foot Pierson wider than 12 foot beam and going as small as a 17 foot American on a trailer, smaller if you include the 80-100 dinks.  All told over 120 boats of all sizes and shapes and almost all close to 20 years old or older.  We even have some in the historic registry.  

Figure 2
First pulling of the Constance Marie

We launch and pull our own boats with the help of our tractor and rig, we weld, we cut, we mill, we turn, we grind, we sand, we paint, we lift until the job is done. We are moving to getting baywise certified through controlling our water run-off and installing a professional boat wash basin to comply with the emerging regulations. Aside from the work in the yard, our social event includes our annual April celebration of the Burning of the Socks where we march to the Piper, bless the boats, fire our cannon, raise the flag, burn our socks and enjoy the pot luck feast provided by our own membership. We have our spring shakedown cruise during Memorial Day Weekend, our 4th of July cruise to Georgetown, Havre de Grace and North East to enjoy the fireworks, our summer Hawaiian Luau, our pig roast, our "Down the Bay" cruise to points famous in Chesapeke history, and finishing up the year with our Commodore's Ball and Christmas fund-raiser for the needy in our area.  Well, I hope you will cruise with me as I unwind the maintenance Journey of the Constance Marie.  My intent, by the time we dock, is to provide the novice a good overview of repairing the structure, features and finishes of a mid-sized sail boat.  Let me remind you, in September 2012 my knowledge of sail boats and sailing was missing in action.