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| 1983 Passport Sloop |
Imagine is a semi custom 1983 Stan Huntingford boat built in Taiwan. The vessel is
42-feet with 13' beam and 6.5 draft. We are the fourth owners of the boat and the fourth to keep the name.
After a 2004 trip to the Exumas to visit
friends, the search began for a blue water boat that would prove both
comfortable and sturdy.
Initially we walked away when the
surveyor reported that Imagine's decks, cabin top and part of the bow was delaminated.
The previous owners were anxious to sell the boat after two years on the
market. They offered a deal that we couldn't ignore. If we knew the
work ahead, we might have made a different decision.
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| Ed at work |
Yes, under the teak there were
some major leaks. Brown water poured in around the deck prisms and into the berths and
nav station whenever Imagine heeled.
So we built a frame, covered it with shrink-wrap and removed 1500 plus deck screws. Lifting the teak was more than we bargained for as previous owners had been expoxied it down in several places. The hard work had started.
So we built a frame, covered it with shrink-wrap and removed 1500 plus deck screws. Lifting the teak was more than we bargained for as previous owners had been expoxied it down in several places. The hard work had started.
The first cut into the glass was
the hardest. Hidden beneath the deck, 3 X 3 mahogany plywood squares filled the space between
the inner and outer fiberglass skins. Each square pulled apart like a post it
note. After removing all the wet and delaminated plywood, it was time to begin the rebuild. It's a
wonder that we didn't end up in rehab ourselves before it was over.
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| The unveiling |
Life became a world of tyvek
suits, full-face respirators and sanders... Oh did I mention fiberglass dust.
The project began in the water, but was finished on the hard as it was
much easier to work without the rocking created by the wake of pleasure boats
zipping past the marina.
Weekends, holidays and vacations
were spent on the land bound boat. In the summer we woke in the dark of
morning and began our tasks under lights. By 10 a.m. we finished for the day, when the shrink-wrap became a greenhouse.
