September 16, 2015
Aventura 2
Now that Aventura was in the shop, I took some time to go over the boat more carefully to help determine the most appropriate work list. The boat featured what appeared to be mostly original finishes inside and out, and, while a bit tired, dirty, and neglected, she wasn’t in terrible overall condition.
The topsides were as expected, and refinishing them was part of the project that was already determined. The hard vinyl hull/deck joint trim, which covered the seam between hull and deck and on which the teak toerail sat, was in fair condition cosmetically but otherwise in good shape and complete. I tried a couple methods on a test area to see about cleaning up the vinyl’s appearance, and had decent success. (first photo)
The bottom was in fair condition overall, with not too much paint and which was still mostly well-adhered to the hull–in other words, better than most. The ballast keel, as seemed to be typical on these boats, was a poor fit with the molded hull–substantially narrower, which required a heavy layer of fairing filler over the top from the factory to fair it in with the hull. This material had failed in a couple spots, leaving large voids of a cosmetic nature, but which would require repair/refairing nonetheless. Structurally speaking, there were no apparent issues with the ballast pig.
The decks were original gelcoat and molded nonskid, with a few cracks near hardware or stress points, and some evidence of core softness in the cockpit around the rudderpost, and on the port seats forward. Other deck areas, at casual inspection, didn’t immediately alarm in terms of potential core issues, but I’d do a more thorough inspection as part of the overall deck preparation process. The lazarette hatch was in poor condition and would require recoring, and the exposed core at the edges of both aft openings was soaked; these areas would require repair. Really, who thought that leaving the core exposed here was a good even remotely acceptable idea?
The cover for the outboard well, along with the hull plug, was not on board.
The woodwork was original teak, heavily weathered and darkened by time. There was a split in the toerail on the starboard side, just aft of the aftermost chainplate. Otherwise the woodwork was sound, if unattractive. Whether to salvage or replace had not yet been determined.
The interior showed its age, but wasn’t in terrible condition for all that. Someone had installed cork or similar type material on the cabin trunk overhead, which was painted to match, and which looked pretty good. Certainly some cleaning and sprucing up was in order, the scope of which would be determined in due course. There was some water damage to the chainlocker bulkhead, the extent of which I didn’t determine at this time.
The bilge had a lot of water in it, with no drain plug, so I drilled a hole in the deadwood to let out the water and start to dry things out. I’d install a garboard drain later. There was a fresh water tank and plumbing, and a rudimentary slapdash electrical system on board. Through hull fittings and hoses were in poor condition.
Total Time Billed on This Job Today: 1 Hour