At long last, the protective cover comes off and LC begins the last leg of the road back into the water (it's been a long road). Here are some photos (Webmaster edit: broken link fixed] taken just after I removed the cover from LC yesterday. I've left the tin roof on as I do not want to take it down on my own (to much risk of damaging the paint). I will remove it on the 4th Jan when my friend comes back from Mahinepuna Bay where he is on holiday. The rail needs to be painted as that was not possible while the cover was up and round hatch is still a work in progress.

LC was damaged in 1995 (hurricane Luis) while we were in St. Martin. She went ashore and sustained some nasty dents to her hull. Fortunately, they were all under the water line, so after fixing the paint I just carried on sailing.

In 2002 I got to New Zealand and found employment with Johnson Yachts. That gave me the opportunity to start repairs. I took LC out of the water late 2003, removed most of her interior and cut out 2/3rd's of her plating under the water line. Then she sat for a year as I was too busy with other things.

Late 2004 the bottom was welded up again and the keel modified (see below). Then I changed jobs and she sat once again as I got back into the computer world. It was 2008 before I started working on her properly again. And now finally the end is just a month or two away. I have promised myself that I'll never make myself boatless for so long ever again. In the process I have made a number of changes to LC which hopefully will make her a better boat. I also have (I hope) corrected problems that have popped up over the years that I have owned her.

Firstly, I have made an effort to remove every single piece of wood that is (now was, but for the bridge step and that is mounted on stainless steel) on the outside of the boat. I love wood and there is plenty of it below decks but above decks on a steel boat, it has just been a major maintenance hassle. During this overhaul and refit, I found rust under every piece of wood. In many instances things looked perfect, no rust stains or bubbles in the paint but when I removed the wood there was rust.

The Hull: Shortly after I launched her I increased the depth of her keel by 200mm (8”) by adding a false keel to the existing one. This was just an I beam that had a bit of chain inside and the sides welded up. It was more to
increase the lateral area of the keel than (better windward performance) than to add more ballast.

Now I have done this job properly. I cut the false keel off, cut the real keel off and then reattached it 300mm (12”) lower. This has done two things for me:

a) It has put the ballast where it belongs, at the bottom of the keel and it has also given me an increased righting moment equal to the weight of the keel i.e. About 4 800 foot pounds.

b) It has also given me a nice sump (150mm (6”) x 300mm (12”) x the length of the keel. I have always wanted the sump as with the normal Tahitiana bilge, the slightest bit of water, gets everywhere. While steel boats do not leak you can get a wave down the hatch or as I did on one occasion, I emptied an entire 100 Lt water tank into the bilge. No doubt now that I have the sump, I will cease to have such mishaps any more!

I cut down the bulwarks from an average height of 300mm (12”) to 100mm (4”). in doing so, I got rid of all the bulwark supports which were a rust trap and a real pain to maintain. I also got rid of +/- 140kg of useless weight
in a place where it does no good. After cutting down the bulwark, I welded on a 20mm (3/4”) schedule 40 Stainless Steel pipe on as a rail cap. It should be much easier to maintain than the old galvanize pipe cap was. The galvanized cap did not rust much but keeping paint on it was a pain.

Cabin/Deck: Have added a low pilothouse (400mm/16in). The aft facing side is raked forward approximately 30deg and has a door on it that I fabricated from aluminum. Why a door? Because no matter what you do, sliding hatches will leak and I cannot abide water in the boat. A door also can be opened and shut quickly. On top of the pilothouse I have a "Hasler" hatch and a pramhood.  All control lines lead to the Hasler hatch.

All wooden handrails replaced with stainless steel made from tube. Also the wooden cockpit coamings have been replaced with steel and the edges trimmed with stainless tube.

Whole interior repainted and then sprayed with 50mm of polyurethane foam for insulation. Then the entire interior was rebuilt.

Rudder: I have made a new properly shaped rudder. It's still steel but now has the correct section.

Engine: Have eliminated salt water entirely from the system. The engine is cooled with fresh water stored in a cooling tank in the keel. Exhaust is now dry and the outlet submerge a foot under the water to help keep things quite. Also have fitted a "Kiwi Prop" a type of feathering prop similar to a "Max Prop" but at a more affordable price.

The Rig: I have changed La Chica's rig twice before and this is now the third time and I suspect it won't be the last time (I think I'll stay with the junk rig but try the varieties :-) ). LC originally had a gaff cutter rig of 750 sq. ft. This has been her fastest rig to date. Under it she has occasionally done 8+ kts on a broad reach which is very quick indeed for these boats. The downside of the rig was the 21ft boom. It was real labour to handle and the Monitor self steering windvane could not handle the weather helm on a reach. None the less I crossed the South Atlantic, single handed with it.

In St. Martin (Netherlands Antilles) I cut 10ft of the boom and added a mizzen, turning her into a gaff ketch not unlike the original Tahiti's. The mizzen was fully battened. This has been a good rig. On a reach I dropped the mizzen and she was balanced. To heave-to, I dropped the main and jib, she just rode the waves like a duck (sea gull?). At anchor I kept the mizzen up and she rode very quietly to her anchor (will probably need to workout a new system for the junk rig).

I'll have posted before on the new (junk) rig and once LC is swimming again, I'll be posting more on the rig and the trials and tribulations of getting it all working smoothly together. However between what I've learned from Aphrodite and Graham's, David's, Arne's and many others postings, I feel that I should not have to much difficulty in making all work as it should for me.