[oldbluesplayer]

Chance - I'm a bit apprehensive, as well, but I love my boat, it works for me, and I welcome the opportunity to see some of the really good ones "live and in person"

It strikes me that, just like with old cars, some go for the full up "frame-off restoration", and beyond, to customizations, while some are more at the repair level - mine is certainly the latter, and a work in process, as you said, as well.

For instance, on teak care, I've searched the web alot, this site and many others, but reading the reports, and seeing small web photos, never really gave me the direct info I was looking for, so, for my side boards, I sanded and applied 3 coats of Sikkens Cetol, pretty highly recommended, yet for the cuddy door and frame, I sanded and coated with teak oil. I can readily say both look good, it's been about 2 months since I finished the door, but my boat sits in the driveway, with trees for shade, not baking in the sun in a slip, so the teak oil, which I actually prefer the appearance of, has held up well, so far. I prefer it's appearance enough, that an annual touch up won't bother me at all - I think personal use conditions make a real difference, in this case.

Same thing with the floors, and resolving some soft spots. I recored the left side, and on the right side, I took the approach of drilling a pattern of holes thru the top skin, letting it's core dry awhile, and then pouring resin thinned with acetone into each of the holes - another method I've seen described on-line. Having tried both, now, I will say that recoring is definitely the better fix - the injected side is adequately firmed up, the recored side is solid, and I know I'll end up recoring the right side in a couple of years, and that dealing with the injected resin will probably make it harder to do.

In the meantime, I use it, and enjoy it, and have come to appreciate that it is the best handling open water boat I've had.

Bill