We purchased Lady in October 2000 after five or six owners and some hard luck. She had had her pilot house top ripped off at an overpass just outside Seattle when she was being trucked from Houston to Seattle. She was salvaged and put back together very well – no leaks or problems – but she has some subtle construction differences. She was also repowered at the time with a 6BT5.9 210 HP Cummins. While it takes up the whole engine room and is way more engine than we need, it has been reliable and given us an extra boost of power when needed.
Over the years, we have made changes. Some changes were ideas put on later boats; others were for our convenience - among them: removable steps going to stateroom for front access to the engine [a Smith Access - ed.], a door under the settee in the saloon for easy access to storage, and a boarding gate on the port side. Still, we knew we needed to do some serious work and started two years ago to get her looking her best. Although we are not done, she looks pretty good for an old girl.
We had long wanted a mast and had one made locally. It is mounted on the pilot house: has spreader lights, a place for flags, and a higher location for our radar. A year ago, we had Lady painted with 2-part Alex Seal. She still has her green hull, but now has a burgundy stripe, eyebrow and stripe on the stack. We also had new lettering done.
This past winter we redid the dinghy deck. We removed the teak pads which were in terrible shape and had it fiberglassed, smoothed out, and painted. At the same time, we changed one ladder post – moving it back to match the other side and give us more room on the deck.
We added a stainless mount on the ladder for the dinghy motor and new stainless rails to hold the dinghy on the boat deck.
Although not visually appealing – we had the engine overhauled this spring before heading north into Desolation Sound and the Broughtons in British Columbia. It included a new cylinder head, exhaust manifold, injectors and injector piping, transmission oil cooler and a new exhaust line. She performed beautifully!
We have more projects on the list – some may get done this next winter. There is always something with a boat!
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