A Labor of Love

Maintaining a classic is constant labor of love...

As with any old wooden boat, Curlew presents us with many challenges as we endeavor to keep her sound. The following will provide insight into the many projects we have undertaken since her change in ownership in 2002.

December 2002 a short five months after the purchase date, the bobstay tang gave way to corrosion, requiring a quick haul out at South Coast shipyard to have a new one custom made. This was, in fact, the second emergency haul out the first only a week after taking delivery. The first was to replace a leaking shaft seal, but the process required cutting the 1.25 ” SS prop shaft in two places to remove a corroded old shaft brake. Yup a new shaft had to be made, definitely an expensive first week!

In June 2004 , we discovered signs of wood rot below the starboard foremast chain plates. Subsequently several planks were removed to address the problem.

At our October 2005 haul out we were required by the USCG to pull a random sample of hull fasteners for examination. All that we pulled were replaced regardless of condition.

2006 We did a planned selective refasten

June 2007, Rick Brown replaced a few suspect stern planks.

2008 saw us removing the old Kohler 8 kw JenSet. It was pushing the stern down too much.

Stern Plank Replacement

Rebuilding the Stern

Bullwark Repair

2011 Tsunami Damage

2011 Tsunami Damage Repair

To prepair for keel bolt inspection we had to remove the water tanks.

Base on the number of years in service we decided to have the transmission rebuilt. The year was 2012

One day as we were preparing for a charter, and the engine was warming up, the fresh water pump froze up requiring a replacement. Fortunately we had a spare. We also chose to rebuild the saltwater pump while we were at iit.

USCG new rule requires us to unstep the masts every ten years for inspection. We used the opportunity to paint the masts, install a new radar unit, and B&G mast head unit.