Our Story
I’ve developed a love for sailing over the years, but I’ve recently had to put that passion on hold while my boat, a Contessa 32 named the Morlanow SV, is totally refitted and refurbished to make it seaworthy. I took it to a shipyard in Lymington, a port town in the U.K. that specializes in restoring old boats.
The first step was to raise it up on land and dry out the hull. Then they brought the boat indoors to make a full assessment of everything that needed to be done before I could safely take it back out.
We started with fixing up the old deck and cockpit. Although it is a vintage seacraft, my Contessa 32 was originally built in the mid-1970s. The nearly 50-year-old boat was out of date in several important ways and required fairly extensive upgrades.
Once the internal upgrades were finished, some cosmetic work had to be done.
Here is Morlanow SV with the first preparations for the first layers of primer having just been applied.. While it was drying, I had to select a new colour for the outer hull. After much deliberation, I settled on red.
Once the internal upgrades were finished, some cosmetic work had to be done. Here is Morlanow SV with the first layers of primer having just been applied. While it was drying, I had to select a new colour for the outer hull. “Hmmm,” I thought to myself. “What colour would look best as I was sailing around Newfoundland and Labrador on my way to Hudson Bay?”
The shipyard workers set about applying the paint overtop of the newly-dried layers of primer. A few hours later, it looked like this! What an elegant craft!
I can’t wait to get Morlanow SV Back into the waters for her trial sails after so many years on the hard.
But the first stop is back home to Portugal, A trip that will take a good week, taking her across the Bay of Biscay and along the Spanish and Portuguese west coasts.
When the shipyard workers had completed all the retrofitting, repairs, and painting, they returned Morlanow SV to where it belonged: the water. By that time, I had decided on the destination for my first trip in my newly refurbished boat. I would sail back home to Portugal in order to retrieve my lucky captain’s hat. After all, I can’t travel anywhere else without it.
