My passion is sailing

[Night Sailor]

http://svecho.blogspot.com

I have been writing a blog on restoring my 46' sloop. If anyone is interested in fiberglass work, there is some useful information in here.

Boats and egg campers have a lot in common.

[Ngrimm]

I went thru your blog and I am really impressed with what you have done! I don't think I'd trust my fiberglassing skills to keep anything afloat with all the stresses the ocean brings. Can't imagine the amount of effort required to accomplish what you have so far. Even without the hurricane you had to endure. Don't know anything about sailing but I can recognize your vessel as a thing of beauty. Best of luck to you! Norm

[GMike A]

Pretty impressive blog and heck of a lot of work under your belt. Makes the Eggs look like primers. I have a little 14 foot C Lark which I got in Seattle. It was built in the 60s and still in good shape since I keep it garaged. You could use it as a life raft on your sloop.

[cpaharley2008]

The nice thing about restoring a boat is you know right away if your repair is "leakproof"

[Night Sailor]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

The nice thing about restoring a boat is you know right away if your repair is "leakproof"

I can assure you, even the best efforts don't remove all leaks. I resealed everything last year and still had problem areas. This year I found a few more. It is all fresh water coming from in the top

[captsteve2002]

I agree working on the camper is easy compared to boats. I have owned 4 fiberglass boat, over the years, and sailed many on trips of over 2,000 ocean miles. I have never worried that my camper would sink ( guess I'm very lucky in I haven't found any leaks YET), and that was always a worry on ocean passages in sailboats. One trip I had about 6" of water over the top of the foor boards. Seems the electric bilge pump was back flowing back into the boat. Don't think I will have problems like that with the camper.

Good luck with your project, don't get discouraged.

[Night Sailor]

I past the discouraged state. Past the hump and now in the working daily/eager to complete it stage. Yesterday I picked up my new fuel tank. That is a major milestone and must be installed before the two aft bunks, framing for the primary winch, which in turn must go in before the aft lockers and primary winch respectively. It will be difficult to get it on the boat but a huge improvement. Typically boats this size carry about 49 gallons of fuel. Originally my boat had two 17 gallon tanks. I will be able to motor to 500 miles or more now.