The biggest success was the engine. As you know, when I purchased the boat it was agreed that the engine was toast. Well, I acid cleaned it which helped, but the real culprit to the overheating was the raw water intake hose. It looked new, but the inside liner had separated from the jacket, and was getting sucked in on it's self. I motored a couple of miles to the mooring at full speed (7 knots, not bad for a 22hp diesel pushing a 52ft boat) and the engine stayed right in the middle of the gauge the whole time!
I also finished painting the decks - in the end I used Interlux Perfection 2 part paint, because it means when I repaint the cabin house I can use a 2 part again, and not worry about a 1 part getting eaten by the chemicals.
The Stern and bow were both very dinged up (down to the roving in places) so I filled both and re-gelcoated. I got very very lucky with the gelcoat. I randomly ordered Oyster White cause I figured it might be close (no color chip provided) as well as a bunch of tints. It turned out that the Oyster White was the exact color match of my 30 year old boat. After plenty of buffing the original gelcoat looks amazing. I have a few more places to fill, fair and re-spray, but I'm confident it will look amazing when I'm done. I used one of those little "Preval" sprayers for the gelcoat. I put it on pretty thick, then wet sanded and compounded it down to look right.
I overhauled the saildrive and it works great as well. Smooth shifts and no vibration - not bad for a 30 year old engine and saildrive.
The rig was very easy to step, and we had it up in about an hour. I still have all those little details to attend to, but perhaps sailing tomorrow.
