SS23 “Grayling” #212 – 1 season renovation

From Zack King in 2005 as he continued the website:

To inspire owners to send me unique profiles of their boats I’ve added my own to start. I’m fairly new to the SS class and I originally purchased an old weekender (for $1) from a sailor in Mystic, CT which I saw a posted on these forums. What a big mistake! I paid to have the boat shipped to RI only to have a boat builder friend of mine provide a long list of everything that it needed (including a new cockpit sole). As handy as I think I am it was overwhelming to consider the project. So my first boat, aptly renamed “Uno” ($1), was donated to my friend to be completely rebuilt at New England Boat Works. She should see the water in the summer of 2007.

On to boat number two. Now that friends knew I was looking for a 23′ they were all on the look-out for me. A local friend and fellow 23′ sailor mentioned that he thought he had seen one buried in the back of a local boat yard but wasn’t sure if it was even a Sea Sprite or what condition it was in. Well…a few weeks and $1800 later I was again a new owner of a Sea Sprite, this one a day sailor built in 1967. The boat had good bones but had been sitting for over five years and was showing her age. All the varnish was peeling, benches were rotted, gelcoat cracked and crazed, deck faded, hardware unserviced, etc. My wife, a long time sailor, looked at me sideways when I told her I was going to “rehab” this boat in time for the 2006 season (less than 6 months). I still have a long way to go before “Grayling” is perfect but she looks and sails great and we’re working our way up the local fleet rankings. I owe a lot to my wife and son for being so patient while I worked on this boat. Pictures are better than words but completed to date are the following:

[sanded deck, topsides, and bottom – hand primed (2 coats) and painted (2 coats) deck – hand primed (2 coats) and painted(2 coats) topsides – painted(2 coats) bottom – stripped, sanded, and varnished toe rail, backrests, doors, cabin face – built new mahogany benches – replaced most of the deck hardware (leads, vang, outhaul, mainsheet system, etc.) with Harken – rebuilt winches – installed new adjustable backstay – installed new traveler system – installed some new electronics – new main and headsail by Thurston/Quantum – all new running rigging by Hall Spars – and a whole lot of other little stuff !]
I used all Interlux products to paint her. Top coat is a new two part Interlux paint called Perfection and I custom formulated the color by mixing dark blue and platinum. Two coats of primer and two top coats (all sanded between coats) were hand rolled and tipped with a badger hair brush. The finish came out better than expected and I highly recommend Perfection. Almost all the deck hardware is Harken except the bronze Lewmar winches which were original (when I bought it).