Making Her Ours

Our time frame to start the Loop with our newly acquired trawler was fairly relaxed and we were determined to make her right before even thinking about departing on the Loop. We discussed our project with our family and our eldest son, Anthony, favored us with the following production:

So the boat was off to Huckins Boat yard located on the Ortega river just west of our marina. Huckins is a storied boat builder and has been in business for about 100 years. They are known for building beautiful cruising motor yachts with large diesel engines. Their boats have the profile of a PT boat from World War II, which is understandable since Huckins built PT boats then.

Seaglass spent nearly 4 months in the capable hands of Huckins Boat yard. Her bow pulpit had a rotted plywood core which was emitting orange debris across the forward deck. The pulpit was removed and Mirage Manufacturing fabricated a brand new one for us which Huckins installed after servicing the anchor windlass. We chose Huckin's because of their reputation for exemplary, world class boat painting. We were not disappointed. The hull was thoroughly cleaned and painted a new beige color (Moonglow) with contrasting edge stripes above the waterline; new bottom paint was added below the waterline. All of the portholes were removed, cleaned and rebedded. New stainless steel porthole screens were ordered and installed. The interior teak and holly decks were cleaned thoroughly and re-oiled. The work completed, Sea Glass was on her way next door to Lamb's Yacht Center, also on the Ortega River.

At Lambs, the heads were replaced and the Vacuflush system currently installed was rehabbed and brought up to spec. First Yacht came over from St. Augustine to do a 1000 hr. service on the engines and generator with new fluids, hoses, belts, impellers and primary and secondary filter replacement. Lambs technicians then fixed damaged cabinetry, replaced the teak flooring in the workroom, replaced the dishwasher, removed and replaced the air conditioners, installed all new faucets and shower heads, fixed all the loose plumbing connections, replaced all the electrical outlets and switches, installed a new helm chair on the flybridge and replaced all the house and starter batteries We ordered a new dinghy from Bourbon City Yacht Tenders and Lambs unboxed it, set it up with an outboard and placed it on the boat deck. They also replaced the braided dinghy lift line and serviced the dinghy winch. Other subcontractors reupholstered the entire boat and replaced all the canvas and isinglass on the flybridge, cockpit and dinghy.

We also replaced all the electronics onboard with three new large Garmin screens, a new open array Garmin Phantom radar, an AIS transponder, a cellular hub and extender and a Nebo transponder. Finally a sign painter replaced the Sea Glass moniker with a new name. This is when she really became ours!

The boat spent three months at Lambs Yacht Center before returning to Port 32 marina.