My new-to-me 1981 42

Surveyed it, sea trialed it, and bought it up in Greenport, NY. Two weeks ago my wife and I picked it up and cruised down the coast over 4 days back home to the Chesapeake Bay. The projects have begun!

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This last one is for water-baby. Within the first 15 minutes of taking ownership, we encountered rough seas and found out very quickly that those front windows leaked like a sieve.

Thanks, pictures hide a lot. lol. There are a million things to be done, but we are taking everything in stages and enjoying the boat while we pick away at the projects.

I grew up in the Annapolis area, but we live down near solomons island now. My brother-in-law has a 1982 42' and lives just about 2 miles from us, so we have been spending a lot of time rafting up with them lately and checking out the different upgrades he's done for ideas.

I'm definitely going to fiberglass in the windows. I have a 21' paramount that I've been practicing my fiberglass and paint skills on. I think i'm feeling just dangerous enough to try it myself on the big boat now. I'm going to remove a lot of the unnecessary teak as well.

Well, it's been a year since we bought our Post and I guess its time for a progress report. We spent a lot of time enjoying the boat while attacking small projects last summer. Then I got into the bigger stuff over the offseason. I'll start with the exterior. I removed the outriggers and any unnecessary and outdated hardware mounted all over the boat. In October, I began the process of replacing the forward salon windows with fiberglass. I got as far as glassing them in before the cold winter started, and i shut down until March. I've been working diligently ever since and am finally wrapping things up for another summer of enjoyment before starting a new set of projects in the fall.

Here's how she looked last summer..

Here's where the fun began. Removed the front windows and glassed them in with marine ply. then removed the teak eyebrows and began filling holes and fairing...

Then i removed the rest of the teak and all hardware around the house structure. I began filling holes and grinding out stress cracks. Found a bunch of rot in various places and removed and replaced the rotted wood with fresh marine ply. The further i went, the more i found.

Fast forward a bunch of weekends and evenings and I was ready for paint. I went with three coats of Interlux Perfection 2-part paint over top of two coats epoxy primecoat primer. I used the "roll and roll" method to apply it, which i felt worked better than the "roll and tip" method. It isn't perfect, but it is a drastic improvement over what it was. Plus, i probably saved tens of thousands of dollars by doing all this myself. That helps me live with a few imperfections.

My wife and I have also done a ton of work inside the boat. I'll take some pictures tonight and update the thread with the interior projects.

It's been a long, but rewarding process. I'm ready to finally get out on the water tomorrow and start enjoying the fruits of my labor with a cold beer.