Work Done
Chase – like all boats! – has been a work in progress for the 14 years we’ve owned her. The original idea was to get her gradually refitted and equipped over the period of several years, after which she’d be ready for some blue-water work. The reality, however, is that it takes many years to accomplish a refit on a piecemeal basis… indeed, after the first 5 years, we found we were repairing or replacing stuff we put in during the first year! The feeling was that we’d never get ahead.
Enter the Landing School at Kennebunk, where students learn a variety of marine skills including boat building, composites, design, and – most importantly for Chase – systems. Chase was lucky enough to be accepted at the Landing School as the Systems Program’s project boat in 2002, and we got more accomplished on her in one year than we did in the previous five. It helped that basically we paid for parts only – labor was provided in the form of learning students. Chase was stripped from top to bottom – even faulty bulkheads were removed. The engine was rebuilt, new hatches added, the electrical system completely rewired, new equipment added (the best of everything), the mast re-rigged (and a dangerous crack repaired!), the rudder modified, a new nav station built… the list went on and on. In the end, though, Chase was essentially a new boat – a total retrofit from top to bottom, with all new equipment. She was ready for her Transatlantic!
Since then, the work done by the Landing School has held up 100%. In 2008, we brought her back again for a new engine installation. The students installed a brand new Westerbeke 44, and reorganized our wiring. Again, they made her ready for her next ocean voyage.
Besides the systems work done on Chase at the Landing School, she had a full cosmetic overhaul after she got loose from her mooring in an early spring storm in 2005. She fetched up, stern-to, against a steep rocky shore, with her starboard side battering a marina Travelift dock. We got her off, but the damage was extensive – almost as much as she was worth. Nonetheless, she was repaired in full, including an all-new rudder, a fully faired hull and keel, new paint, stanchions, toe rails, stem plate. So, between 2002 and 2005 Chase became a new boat – inside and out! Work more recently (2009-2010) was accomplished indoors in a heated warehouse, as we got her ready for the crossing to Europe in June. New standing rigging (3/8 dieform), a new prop, electronics additions, a new cockpit sole, and a full cosmetic touch-up were the projects.