I purchased Pearson Renegade #51; formerly Aliance, fall of 2005 in Niantic CT. I sailed her to my place of employment; Dodson Boatyard in Stonington, CT and immediately pulled her out to do a little work. I set a completion/launching date of July 15. I figured this was reasonable though demanding but would also give me a bit of a sailing season.
EXTERIOR:
I totally removed all exterior woodwork; cockpit combing, handrails, toe rails, taff rail, dorade boxes. I saved the pieces and used them as patterns and made new pieces in teak instead of the mahogany the boat was originally trimmed with. I made a new companionway slider and forward hatch out of teak to replace the fiberglass ones. After dry fitting all these pieces I took them home and prevarnished them.
I removed all the ports, fixed and operable. I made new fixed ports and cleaned and reglazed the operable to be installed again later.
As the boat was outside under a covering I next went on to do the interior. My boss was going to let me have shed space and eventually the paint bay to use in the spring as our customer's boats were commisioned for the season. In early May I moved into a shed and went on to work the exterior again.
I chipped, chemical stripped, ground and sanded the entire hull including the bottom, topsides, deck and coach house down to a remnant of the original gelcoat. This was the nastiest, dirtiest most tedious work I have ever done.
I glassed in several holes including former gauge locations. I wanted a fresh slate. I filled all the dings gouges, major crazing etc. I used Interlux Premium Filler for all surfaces above the water line and Awlgrip Awlfare below it. I fared and sanded until I couldn't take it any more or the area was totally fare and smooth.
I epoxied and barrier coated the bottom. I used Epiglass 1 : 1 epoxy (a quite thin material) to seal the crazing and bare glass areas on the bottom. It penetrates very well into crevices. I then used Interlux Interprotect (an epoxy barrier coat). This has a "hot" recoat window of 14 days and a "hot" bottom paint window of 9 hours meaning I would not have to sand the bottom again.
Intermittently with the coats of Interprotect on the bottom (to get smooth fare overlaps near the waterline) I primed the rest of the hull including deck, cockpit and coach house. A salesman from Alexaseal was trying to get us to try their product in hopes of getting our business from Awlgrip. He gave us several gallons each of their epoxy primers and 2 part linear polymer topcoat. My boss let Hirilond? be the test project saving me over $1,000.00 in paint costs. I used their epoxy primers alternately with Awlgrip's high build to fill minor crazing and build up a thick smooth base for the topcoat. I had a friend at work spray the entire boat (excluding bottom) with Alexaseal. I then painted the deck, cockpit sole and cabin top with Interdeck non-skid polyurethane. I then installed all the new woodwork. I did numerous build up coats over all bungs and gave it all a couple more coats of varnish.
INTERIOR
Inside I resurfaced all but a few bulkhead surfaces with 1/8" okume. The bottoms of the bulkheads had rot and delam due to neglect. I removed the worst of it stablized the rest with epoxy and filled the voids with epoxy thickened with 407. I made scribed frame patterns and trasnsfered this to new plywood. I glued these to the old bulkheads by coating the back of the ply and the bulkhead with epoxy and in effect making the 3/4" ply there into 1" These new surfaces got 4 coats of varnish and old ones were sanded and recoated as well.
I stripped, cleaned and repainted all fiberglass surfaces with interior water based Awlgrip. I reformicaed and trimmed the galley and added additional cabinet work. I totally rebuilt the head and installed a compliant holding tank head system.
Some drawers, the companionway stairs and a few other pieces were worth keeping. These I removed, stripped, and varnished before replacing them.
MISC. and RIGGING
The standing rigging is in good shape. For this year I simply repaired the mast wiring and restepped at launching. The sails are in good shape, though I would like to replace the #2 high clewed cruising genny.
I installed new LED running lights. I added a new transducer for the old depth meter and remounted it in the cabin facing aft. I installed the old VHF in a new location. I installed the old GPS on a hinged mount that swings into the companionway to be visible from the cockpit and helm and back into the cabin when not in use. I installed a new stereo system below.
I cleaned and reinstalled the binnacle and wheel. I fabricated a teak base and installed a flush mount compass as a binnacle compass ($129 vs $500).
800 hours and 8 months later on July 13th I launched her as Hirilond?. This was 2 days ahead of schedule. I still can't believe I actually met my goal.
Since then I have been mostly day sailing her and enjoying it while trying to do as little additional work as possible. I still have some projects left to do to make her truly cruise-ready; like cushions, dodger, more electrical and other small items. But the big, messy and time consuming work is done. Oh yeah, and I have to build a Spindrift 9N nesting sailing dinghy. These projects I am doing this winter.
As she was when I bought her
Launching 13 July
At her summer docking spot this summer
There are more pictures of her at http://www.renegade27.org/ and as I finish up this winter's interior work I will post more. Looking forward to chatting with you all and discussing ideas for maintaining our boats.
