Chapter 24: We Must Be Crazy

That’s what you’re thinking, right? We know it is. Frankly, we are thinking that ourselves pretty often these days. Because, this has, so far, not gone exactly to plan. You may also be thinking “they made a big mistake buying that boat.” Yeah, we’ve been thinking that too. To be perfectly honest, you’re right. We did make a mistake. We bought this boat knowing she was going to need some work. But the sheer scope of the problems was beyond our grasp at the time. We did have Meraviglia surveyed and the surveyor has an excellent reputation. He and his associate spent all day aboard her. But, frankly, he missed stuff. Now, some of this stuff, we don’t blame him for because there was no way of knowing some things without disassembling the boat. For instance: the fact that the gel coat was falling off: it looked completely fine until we started to remove the healthy-appearing bottom paint. And the rudder: short of removing it, there was no way to know the extent of the damage.

Other things, though, a competent surveyor should have noticed and documented: the decayed state of the water and diesel tanks, the rot around the leaking portlights, the substandard wiring. Those things are on the surveyor.

Bottom line? Meravigila has been neglected for a long time, receiving the bare minimum of maintenance. And when a boat is almost 40 years old, that has a way of increasing problems exponentially. And that’s where we are. In hindsight, buying this boat was a mistake. We admit it. We thought we did our homework and were thorough. And we did. And we were. But had we known more about boats before the purchase, we would probably have made a different decision. However, we’re here now and we can’t change the past. We own Meraviglia. We’ve invested a lot of time, effort, sweat and (a whole lot of) money into her. We’re committed to bringing her back and taking her on an adventure.

But we’re also realists, and we realize that we have two choices: we can spend the time now “finishing” her-making her as perfect as a 40 year old boat can be or we can do what needs to be done to make her safe, seaworthy, and comfortable and then go sailing. We’re going with the latter. To “finish” her means we would be in port for another 8-12 months. For instance, we have discovered that the entire forward head (bathroom) needs to be gutted and rebuilt-the laminate is all coming off the bulkhead and counters. To do that now, before we’ve ever had any “fun” just doesn’t make sense for us. So, we’re going to patch her up, accept that the head doesn’t look showroom-ready, and go to sea.

Our original goal was to leave in August. We’re probably going to miss that goal, but we hope for September and we still hope to be in Annapolis in October. To that end, we are working. We arrived here 27 days ago as you read this. We’ve worked on Meraviglia for 24 of those days. Eight to ten hours per day except Sunday, when we do a half day. And we are going to keep at it until she’s “done”. We know we’ve highlighted a lot of the problems and complications in these posts, but there have been a lot of “wins” as well. Want the list?

Removed, cleaned, and reinstalled 7 portlights

Replaced gaskets on 7 portlights

Removed, cleaned and reinstalled 3 hatches

Replaced gaskets on 6 hatches

Removed rotted bulkhead and rebuilt

Removed rotted cabin-side wood and rebuilt

Rebuilt propane locker

Rebuilt shower enclosure

Cut and polished topsides

Removed all the old lettering and had new name and graphics installed

Removed 6 of 9 chainplates for replacement

Cleared clogged drainlines for freezer, refrigerator, and propane locker

Cleared clogged cockpit drains

Ordered and had new bimini and dodger installed

Installed new oven/cooktop

Not too shabby for a couple of noobs, right?

So, we keep going. Did we make a mistake? Yes, we did. Are we learning from it? Every. Single. Day.
































































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