Welcome Aboard!

These pages will cover the restoration and upgrades I have done to a 1979 Choate 40.
I acquired the vessel in poor condition at a reasonable price and so far have put twice that amount into her.
From the evidence I have found, she had been de-masted, run aground several times, slightly flooded, run hard and put away wet.
Fortunately, she had new standing rig with a used mast from a Catalina 40 and a recent head job on the motor.
The rest of the info I'll segregate into pages for detailed information.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

A few Odds & Ends

I picked up a new quote today that about sums up this boat......

"Maybe it's not always about trying to fix something broken. 
Maybe it's about starting over and creating something better"

It seemed there wasn't a drawer or space long enough to hold all the cooking utensils so I devised this holder. 

Then originally the first aid kit was held on on the panel with velcro but the sticky was always coming loose. So, I built a shelf and hold it on with a bungee. It's a lot easier to get on and off now and will not fall off every day either.

Here is another reason I went with redoing the hull to deck joint. This stanchion had been moved by the previous owners so many times, because of leaking, that it was looking like Swiss cheese. In one of the attempts of trying to seal it with polyester resin, it leaked thru onto the cushion below, ruining the cover.

I found a surprise the other day.  I was pulling some wood trim out to access some of the wiring to be secured and discovered this little treat. Apparently this has been this way since the boat was built 32 years ago. Fortunately it didn't cause any problems other then blackening of the wire. And it was even the positive wire to boot. It was the wire for the mast running light. I cut it and re-spliced it with clean ends. I probably could have just taped it off, and it wouldn't have made any difference since the wire was still all together.

 A friend made me a pedestal cover in exchange for some work on his davit winches.

Here's one of two old sanding blocks that I've had since my first boat in 1980. The other one is in worse shape and crumbing apart. I'll be retiring them soon. I'll have to buy some new ones for doing just maintenance.




to be continued..........