Restoration of Sovereign started out as a repair activity
after a collision on her starboard quarter from Insight
following a 2003regatta. The collision caused moderate
damage requiring an insurance claim and time in the
Maritime Systems boat yard on Bayou Bonfouca. I took
advantage of the time to upgrade the repairs by repainting
the topsides, putting on a new bottom, installing a drip less
stuffing box, and installing new through-hulls for a new
16,000 btu reverse cycle ac system. The yard time was
extended while searching for a new toe rail. I searched all
over the web, solicited help from Stu’s C&C forum,
checked South Shore Yachts and Holland Marine and
called many boatyards but all to no avail. Maritime
Systems finally wound up straightening the toe rail as
good as possible and repainting it. She stayed in the yard
for just about a year and then I moved her back to my
condo just down the bayou.
Sovereign lay behind my condo in more or less neglected
condition while I bought new equipment for the planned
restoration and raced Insight, my Nelson-Merek 36. By
the fall of 2005, I had developed a new wiring schematic
and acquired a ton of new
equipment: including VHF radios,
12v and 110 volt power panels,
battery charger, galvanic
isolators, battery combiners and
the list goes on. The new
equipment was piling up waiting
to be installed; then Hurricane
Katrina struck. The water rose about 12 feet flooding both
the ground and second floor of my condo. Amazingly, both
Sovereign and Insight rode out the storm quite well but all
the new equipment in the condo was ruined. There was
flood insurance on the condo structure but not on its
contents. I started buying new equipment again while I
continued to campaign Insight.
In the fall of 2006, my friend James and I moved
Sovereign to the back of his condo in Eden Isles. James
previously ran a boatyard and has excellent mechanical,
fiberglass repair and painting skills. Since then, we have
been working weekends and many week nights taking on
this project in a more serious nature. Our goals have
evolved from refit to restoration resulting in many false
starts of our initial plans. We started out replacing all the
electrical and mechanical equipment. All the 32 year old
wiring was removed and replaced. Old electrical
equipment was removed and replaced. New electronics
including VHF, AM/FM CD, DVD, Bazooka amps and
speakers, Garmin chart plotter, Sirius radio, electrical distribution panels, installation of the air
conditioning, and much more were installed. Then we decided the interior liner had to be reconditioned
and repainted. The quarter births and pilot births had to be restored, old instrument holes in bulkheads
must be restored and the project seemed to take on a new dimension. The work would have been much
easier with the boat stripped of equipment but everything new was masked and protected as well as
possible. Even so, with all the sanding, grinding and painting, dust and over spray still finds a way to get
into some protected areas. After the interior glass refurbishment is complete, we will have to redo/replace
some equipment so it looks as new as the surrounding areas. It was not so much poor planning as
evolving goals
These next several pages show the various stages of these significant repairs. Use the next and previous
buttons to navigate through the restoration pages.
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Email Me: ed@yachtsafun.org
