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**minaret** · 07-01-2013, 19:51

Thought I'd begin to post some pics of our winter refit of our Nauticat 52, "Wanderbird". I think this thread will consistently be a month or so behind our actual progress, as I have been extremely busy working 13-14 hour days to knock this project out something like on schedule. Like all things boat the project has grown in scope enormously since it's inception. I think some of you may be entertained by my plight...

I'll do pics in chronological order, starting with a few "before" pics and some pics of haulout and pulling the rig. As always, it's very difficult to take pictures at the right times when you are busy actually doing the work yourself. But I try, at the cost of great derision in the boatyard, to take pics of all the important stages. In any case, here we go-

**minaret** · 07-01-2013, 20:00

Here's some pics of the bottom being peeled. It wasn't too bad yet, but would have gotten worse pretty soon. I think we caught it just in time.

**minaret** · 07-01-2013, 20:06

Here's the bottom post grind-

**minaret** · 07-01-2013, 20:17

Here are some pics of the tent building process. There is actually some volunteer CF labor involved here-

**minaret** · 07-01-2013, 20:18

And here is the tent mostly finished, just need to add the 11,600 lbs of cement blocks we put on the bottom plates-

**minaret** · 07-01-2013, 20:24

Here we begin to pull hardware-

**minaret** · 07-01-2013, 20:34

Removal of nine bronze gate valves. At thirty years old, these are well past their life expectancy. Note the pink bronze, this is what bronze that needs to be replaced looks like. I've never seen any builder glass in thru-hulls so heavily! And check out that hull thickness...

**minaret** · 07-01-2013, 20:45

Here we begin demo in earnest. If you like teak, this may be painful for you. Teak fears me!

We removed all deck hardware from this boat, and stripped off the teak decks as well, in two very long and grueling days. This shatters all my previous teak removal records.

**minaret** · 07-01-2013, 20:50

Thousands of screws, and they were all flatheads! 1983 called, and she wants her screws back!

Matt Johnson · 07-01-2013, 20:52

Yeah!!! This will be great to watch. Good luck with the entire process.

**minaret** · 07-01-2013, 20:55

I think I'm done for tonight (it takes forever to upload all these pics), and it may be awhile before I'm not working in the evening and am able to update this thread again. But I just wanted to say here on CF, thanks James! It was awesome having "The Gentle Giant", as some in the yard have taken to calling you, around for the heavy lifting. And your refusal to accept any serious form of compensation is touching. Congrats on getting back to work, we miss you already!