Story: I bought my Marlin (1965, hull #78) in the fall of 2006. Sailed it for a week before it was hauled, just long enough to figure out what didn't work and needed to be replaced. Which ended up being pretty much everything in the running rigging. I sail alone most of the time, and much of the remainder is with people who don't know how to sail, so everything needs to work well and easily. The good points of the boat were that the mast had been replaced about 10 years or so before I bought the boat, and at that time a short bowsprit had been added to help with the weather helm issue. Also, the hull had been painted about then, too, although the decks are original gelcoat (and very scary looking), and all the nice teak is not only Cetol'ed (ugh) but prior to that must have been scrubbed by an over-zealous owner so is all grooved. Consequently with the orangy Cetol, up close it looks like that bad vinyl siding with the fake wood grain molded in. Oh well.
Here she is when I bought her. Note the lifelines (really? on a 23' daysailer??), those were the first thing I took off! What you can't see are the ancient bronze winches, the tattered sail cover, the ancient mainsail and boom, and the three strand line on the mainsheet. But she's purty!
First project over the winter was to strip and refinish the cabin doors. Much better without that godawful Cetol!
This is what the cabin looked like. The head discharges directly overboard! I filled it with expanding foam to make it unuseable in case the Coast Guard ever checks.
The original primary winches:
Re-filled the seam between the ballast keel and the hull. Before you ask, I don't remember what I used. I can tell you that it has held up very well after two summers and the paint sticks to it fine.
Cabin cleaned, sanded and primed...what a difference! (Thanks mom)
Bottom paint going on. The bottom isn't in great shape but it's not horrible, and I'm not that picky. We did scrape and sand off the loose stuff, and put two coats of new paint on. It has held up well, one new coat this past summer and it's doing fine.
Starting to look better! We let the hull-keel joint dry for a good week before painting it over.
Bottom done. Here you can see how far forward the rudder is and also how raked the rudderpost is. No wonder she's got a bit of weather helm, particularly since the boom is 11' long...
In this pic you can see the outboard bracket on the stern (as well as the old name). The boat also has a well in the cockpit that is much easier to use, as there is no way one could steer and reach the outboard on the bracket at the same time. So I decided to remove the bracket. Unfortunately the bracket didn't really want to come off, and left me with the mess seen in the bottom pic; this is after sanding off the remaining teak residue glued to the hull
Phase one of the epoxying:
And I'll just skip to the finished product. Much better!
New winches, Lewmar #16ST's. These things are awesome. Can't imagine sailing without them. Boy were they a pain in the butt to get on the boat, though. You can see the bare teak where the old winch bases were just forward of the new ones.
Cabin doors completed. We also repainted the nonskid on the cockpit seats and sole but I didn't get any pics.
In the water, finally! New boom and mainsail, and nearly all the running rigging was replaced as well.
First sail after the refit. Having a vang with an 11' boom is really a necessity....not sure how no one else added one in 40+ years.
A couple shots on the mooring:
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