You guys know we love a good trimaran, but yea we started out on one hull too. Mom has pictures of baby Greg in a wicker basket, plopped down on the cockpit sole of Grandpa Marshall’s Chris Craft 37’ sloop (yes CC made some sturdy cruising boats in the early 60’s). That boat’s name was perhaps an omen? Trio. I loved sleeping in that aft cabin, looking out at the small gauge salt train near the Redwood City Marina. When grandpa Marshall (Dad’s dad) died, his Newport 28 Juno became Dad & Valda’s. Chris and Dad sailed Juno up to Sausalito in 1985 and had to find Richardson Bay Marina in the very dark night (another example of overly optimistic time estimating, or as Jeanne says, Carter-time). Juno was a pretty sporty boat, not really suited to the folks’ Delta cruising plans. So in 2000 they traded up to Dad’s beloved Catalina 30, Maggie. It’s been a great 20 year run. My best day aboard was anchoring her in McCovey Cove during the 2002 World Series for a game the Giants beat the Angels. There were 100+ boats crammed in there alongside the packed stadium. Hell of a party.

But today, Dad can’t care for his boat and it’s time to sell. Joe and I have many hours in to her, going after a few years of ‘deferred maintenance’ stuff. Engine and trans are back up to snuff, various running rigging replaced, and two decades with of ‘spring cleaning’ done. A big shout out of thanks here to DonK for tending to Maggie while I’ve been off sailing Ravenswing. Don, that’s been a huge relief.

So, we finally advertised Maggie last Friday and got a flurry of emails & texts. The first shopper stepped aboard and felt the squishy cockpit sole. We had grown used to it and frankly Joe and i didn’t want to deal with it. But it’s a deal breaker.

We made an agreement over the weekend to sell Maggie to a very excited rookie sailor Wendy, with the promise of a new sole job. Here was my Monday morning. The softness underfoot lies between the tapes.

Put a cutoff wheel on the angle grinder and cut a perfectly good looking Catalina floor. Oops – water damage underneath!

Scraped & chiseled away all the rotted plywood and prepared the surface for new pressure treated core.

Bonded the new stuff in place

And use water-weight to press it all together during epoxy curing. Also there’s a car jack and blocks in the cabin, pushing the floor up in to original shape. All of that cured for two days. Today I’ve laid in four layers of glass and am now babysitting the vacuum pump, writing to y’all.

The new core and glass aren’t quite flush with the rest of the sole yet, so tomorrow we’ll peel away the bagging consumables and fill in low spots with chopped strand mat fiberglass. Then we’ll fillet around the edges so we can wrap glass tape 3” up the side walls. This should make the new floor stronger and more damage resistant than the original.

It was hard to get motivated to tackle Dad’s boat problem, but the excitement of our buyer certainly lit a fire, and I can’t wait til next Friday’s handover date when we get to take Wendy sailing and show off Maggie’s bay skills. We’ve got a week to get her all buttoned you for her new family!

I spoke to the marina manager Ken this afternoon, confirming the transaction. He said the Carters are the longest running customer at 35 years; this placed opened in spring 1985, and we were continuous with Juno and Maggie here. And Dave the Diver surprised me with the news that Ted Carter was his very first customer account! Same guy has been scrubbing these two boats also for 35 years.

Do sailboats get in our bloodstreams, or what, good people? Wow.