No, Dagny isn’t a woman, she’s a boat! I don’t know why the tradition is to give boats female names, for me it all depends on the character of the said boat. Dagny could be a ‘he’, but I’ll go with tradition and so a ’she’ it is. The previous name was ‘confidence’ but I thought it sounded corny, and I am not the least superstitious.
I bought Dagny a few years ago and started restoration of her steel hull. Sandblasting wasn’t a blast but I managed to have the hull stripped clean and applied a few coats of epoxy and bottom paint, the kind that barnacles are supposed to hate.. Of course there are some bad-ass barnacles out there, and a year and a half of salt water later, I need to repaint the bottom.
I actually lost ownership of the boat while married, for a number of reasons. To make a long story short, I gave the boat away, for nothing, it broke my heart. I had spent so much time, sweat and money on it, that I really wasn’t happy about losing it, especially that I had sold my motorcycle (GSX-R 1100) to save it, to no avail. After I divorced, I found Dagny floating in front of O’Learys at Marina Jack, and bought her back. Dagny is now safe on the ground, ready for a make-over.
First, I will take care of the hull, re-paint it. The deck will be sandblaster and epoxied.
The cabin roof has to be replaced, that will be a big job.
I’m having a Chinese junk sail custom made in Vietnam, those guys really know how..
The mast will be a 35′ (29′ above deck) steel street light pole..
I might replace the inboard diesel by an electric motor, it’s clean, silent, and can be recharged with a wind generator and solar panels.
At last, the inside, which needs a lot of work to really make it nice. I will use high quality materials there, and not try to save money.
So, I am looking at 1-2 years before being ready to leave on some ocean crossing, sailing adventure..

Filed under: Personal

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