Rotten to the core! - By Shelly and Tom

Sailing from scratch?  Slight understatement.  A planned work weekend for our beloved Southwind gave us some unplanned lessons.  While thinking that we were ready to begin prepping for new port lights and paint we ran into unexpected discoveries, ROT! Yep, wood rot!! And not just a little. Although it is unclear the source, wood rot has become a huge issue for us.  We uncovered rot along the port side of the cabin, enough to convince us that we need to replace the whole side. And with further investigation it became apparent that we would be working our way around the whole cabin, after all, no need to do the job half way. Southwind has been sitting for years and at some point all of her port lights were removed.  This made for a dark cabin. We were  planning to open her up a bit with some fresh port lights, not exactly this open...anyway I guess when we are done we will have sturdy sides and some nice new lights! At least the weather is on our side, the days are cooler and no rain in the forecast. We are also very fortunate that upon opening things up and inspecting the main structural beams we found that all is well structurally, I think that if we had uncovered rot in the structural beams it would have sealed Southwind's fate. It was a reality check weekend for us all. I think Tom spent about 30 minutes just trying to wrap his head around the large opening in the side of the cabin created with just his hand. I am usually the one picking out the positives and even I had my moments of doubt.  Eventually we pulled ourselves together and got to work removing all of the old wood from the cabin port side and forward, starboard side will be next. Each time we feel a bit overwhelmed we just take a moment to remember where we are headed. At least this hard work is for us! This is definitely a big project but we are all in! Southwind is a dream come true for us,  a work in progress, a goal and the beginning of a new life!  As we taped down the plastic to cover her bare bones at the end of our work day, I couldn't help but feel that as we tore her apart we somehow were bonding with her. We will take care of her and she will soon be taking care of us!

Port side cabin strip down process

Forward cabin

Almost done!

All stripped down...finally