G'day
About six months ago I was lucky enough to be able to buy Tropic Bird, a
28ft wooden ketch- H28 in fact, that Dad and I had built in our suburban
back yard. She was launched in 1969, we owned her for about six years
and subsequently sold her.

I'm documenting the process of making her looked loved again, a process
which the previous owner started, after a previous previous owner let
her go sadly to seed.

http://photobucket.com/albums/b102/tropicbird/

At the moment she's up on the hard while we take everything under the
waterline down to bare wood (or lead as the case may be)- there's about
20 years of accumulated antifouling, layer after layer after... I've
also got the masts out, we'll be re-rigging everything, the main's been
stripped to bare wood ready for varnishing. The last bloke did the
mizzen, it looks good already. New stanchions and life-lines will
complete this episode.

Still in the future a
Strip and revarnish portside doghouse, hatches and ventilators
Rebuild Galley
Rejig bunks
A thousand other little jobs which pop up...

After Chief Mate and I finished sanding the main mast yesterday ready
for varnishing she said to me "that couldn't have been work, I enjoyed
it too much"! I'm a lucky fella...

JM

I don't think I've ever seen a 28 foot ketch, not in a semi-modern
boat, anyway. She has sweet lines, and is well worth restoring. Very
nice, and good luck.


On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 05:17:23 GMT, Moores family
wrote:

G'day
About six months ago I was lucky enough to be able to buy Tropic Bird, a
28ft wooden ketch- H28 in fact, that Dad and I had built in our suburban
back yard. She was launched in 1969, we owned her for about six years
and subsequently sold her.

I'm documenting the process of making her looked loved again, a process
which the previous owner started, after a previous previous owner let
her go sadly to seed.

http://photobucket.com/albums/b102/tropicbird/

At the moment she's up on the hard while we take everything under the
waterline down to bare wood (or lead as the case may be)- there's about
20 years of accumulated antifouling, layer after layer after... I've
also got the masts out, we'll be re-rigging everything, the main's been
stripped to bare wood ready for varnishing. The last bloke did the
mizzen, it looks good already. New stanchions and life-lines will
complete this episode.

Still in the future a
Strip and revarnish portside doghouse, hatches and ventilators
Rebuild Galley
Rejig bunks
A thousand other little jobs which pop up...

After Chief Mate and I finished sanding the main mast yesterday ready
for varnishing she said to me "that couldn't have been work, I enjoyed
it too much"! I'm a lucky fella...

JM