Cherepakha - Introduction

[Niantic Mike]

Hello all, would like to introduce myself and share the story of my sun cat.

Back in December, I got a text from my uncle: "FREE BOAT ALERT!" with a picture of a catboat covered in moss, lichen and oak leaves and a bilge filled with stale water.

By the end of the week it was at my house and ready for a winter's worth of work. Unfortunately, this past winter was a much colder one than we'd been having in CT, so work was slower than I'd hoped and my planned launch date of April 1st had to be postponed.

Power washing helped tremendously. I removed the old decals and name after seeing there were already 4 other catboats named Whisper in New England.

Gutted the interior, all new plywood. Also went about adding a rail around the cockpit as one of the things that I really don't like about sun cats is the lack of trim there which seemingly all other catboats have.

Luckily the trailer and motor were in great shape and only needed minimal maintenance. For some reason the previous owner decided to leave the sail cover off when he stored the boat so I have a near pristine cover and a nice brown/green stained sail, oh well.

Finally got her in the water May 10th. And proceeded to find that the bolts mounting the rudder had actually snapped in the mount. Luckily with some Yankee know how, I was able to sort that.

Looking forward to a good year on the water with my first sailboat.

[crazycarl]

Wow, what a make over. Great job, you now have a beautiful boat to be proud of. The wood trim atop the cockpit coaming is impressive.

[Niantic Mike]

Thanks Carl. It's actually not real wood, but it has a grain and looks like it even up close.

Mike

[soilgod]

Great resurrection.  You will enjoy sailing that boat, and have plenty of stories of her restoration to share with other ComPac sailors.  Be sure to crack a couple of PBR's

[Christopher]

Nice and what a great deal!
Enjoy!

Suncat Second Wind

[Niantic Mike]

Great resurrection.  You will enjoy sailing that boat, and have plenty of stories of her restoration to share with other ComPac sailors.  Be sure to crack a couple of PBR's

I'm actually a Narragansett guy! Crush it like Quint!

[passagesfromtheheart]

Wow! Your boat's transformation is incredible — she looks absolutely beautiful! What year is she, btw?

[Niantic Mike]

Wow! Your boat's transformation is incredible — she looks absolutely beautiful! What year is she, btw?

Thanks! 2011.

[kickingbug2]

amazing. what a fine job you did. probably saved her from oblivion. the rail around the cockpit really makes her look traditional

[Niantic Mike]

amazing. what a fine job you did. probably saved her from oblivion. the rail around the cockpit really makes her look traditional

Thanks! The rail is my favorite part, really ties the boat together, as the dude would say.

[Roland of Macatawa]

Welcome to CPYOA.

You've done a wonderful restoration of that SunCat.

Difficult to believe the pictures that a 2011 had already been trashed so badly.

Best wishes for your first sailing season.

Regards, Roland