Just thought I'd give myself and my boat a proper introduction.
First me: I'm a mechanic/rigger/marine electrician at a local boatyard here in Bellingham Washington. Bellingham is North of Seattle, just south of Vancouver Canada. Bellingham is known as "The gateway to the San Juan Islands". In fact I live on one of the lesser San Juans, Lummi Island.
But I'm really from the Northeast. The wife and I are here just for a change.
I grew up in NYC and spent my early teen years on Cape Cod. Went to High School in Andover NH, and college in Bennington VT. Worked in the tech industry in Boston for 5 years and got fed up with sitting in a cubicle. We sold the house and spent some time hanging out on the Cape. Spent a couple of months sailing to Hawaii from CA. and around the islands for a bit (with some friends on a 55 foot Bruce Roberts steel ketch. My avatar is me on top of Mauna Loa looking at the sun.), then came back home to Cape Cod. Took the Marine Systems course at The Landing School in Kennebunk, ME and lived in Portland for a while.
One day we decided to see what it was like to live on the West Coast. Packed up our house plants and cat and moved out here. That was about 2.5 years ago. Been working in the boatyard since we got here and love it.
When I started working at the boatyard my soon to be mine Medalist was already in residence and had been up for sale for awhile. The owners live in Montana and were very difficult to contact. They also owed a lot of money to the boatyard for storage. After looking at the boat every day for about a year I tried contacting them. I got them and made an offer. They took it and the boat was mine. Suffice to say they were sad to see her go but also very happy to be done with it.
I contacted Art Karpf in New Rochelle, New York who was the original importer for LeComte in the 60's and still runs the former LeComte boatyard. He had the history of the boat on file and gave me the rundown.
I'm the 4th owner and my Medalist was built in Holland in 1964. She is a MK1 with a MK2 underbody (rudder etc), wheel steering and a modified tall rig. She has the mast and rig off the LeComte Northeast 38. One of the only ones ever made like this.Because of the larger rig she has a nice big bowsprit and pulpit.
The last owners before me pulled out the old A4 and let her sit in various boatyards for about 6 years. She needs a lot of updating and cosmetic work. Otherwise she's still pretty stout.
OK enough with the yakking here are some project pics from the past year or so:
This first bunch is from last summer. A lot of stuff has been done since then. Lets call these "before" pics.
You can always click for larger.
Here she is as I found her. I spent most of last summer redoing the bottom in its entirety. Previous owners had already ground off the blistered gelcoat. I ground it again, filled faired, sealed and bottom painted.
Bow pulpit.
Pulpit side view.
Messy deck looking aft.
Messy deck looking fwd.
Interior in disarray.
What a mess.
Sanitized for your protection...
Love that vintage linoleum.
V-berth (very small).
Thats the water tank. I had to grind and cut out each and every one of those bolts. I made a new lid out of glass and installed it with all new stainless bolts. The tank inside was pretty clean but i cleaned it and sealed it anyway.
Heres the new lid in progress. Has since been Bilgekote'd
Old hull...
Blisters.
New hull!
Port coaming removed. The coamings were toasted. The original factory had used a solid piece of teak and had cut out the inside of the forward 1 foot leaving a thin veneer still attached to the remainder of the solid piece. They then laminated in thin pieces of teak to make the compound curve of the forward end of the coaming. The glue holding this together gave up years ago. So I need new ones. Not sure how to replace them though. Not so good with the woodwork...
Stbd coaming intact (such as it is).
Heres an old cockpit hatch cover. It literally disintegrated in my hands.
Heres a new one that I had one of the shipwrights cobble together for me. Its mahogany veneered marine plywood with a teak inlay and drip edge around the outside. Not as fancy as the originals, but the cost was right (free)
The cockpit looking a mess.
OK I think thats enough for now. I have lots more (just had the mast sandblasted and awlgripped!), but that'll have to wait for later.
Thanks for your patience!
