Capri 18 Maintenance Update

Wow! It’s been a month since we pulled our beloved 1987 Capri 18 out of the water to give her some much needed cleaning, bottom paint and general TLC. Happily most of the hard work has been completed and she is back in the water and sailing again! There are still some odds and ends to tweak, but overall we are very happy with the results. Here’s an abbreviated list of what we accomplished over the intervening month.

• Bottom pressure washed to remove the scum and barnacles. We then used straight muriatic acid in a spray bottle to remove the remaining barnacle shells (trailer protected with tarps).
• We emptied out the boat and gave the interior and exterior a good scrubbing. There were a number of Mud Dauber (mud wasps) nests built in various nooks and crannies in the cabin, including behind the electrical panel.
• We used custom built scaffolding to lift the boat off the trailer and covered the tailer in tarps and proceeded to tape, sand and bottom paint. This year we applied 2 coats of West Marine CPP Ablative Anti Fouling Paint (3 coats on the leading edges and waterline). This paint does not have as much copper content or anti-slime additives as the paint we used before (West Marine PCA Gold – Discontinued), but it was on sale and hopefully will last a couple of seasons in the brackish water and should be better for the environment.
• The Mud Dauber nest damaged some of the switches of the electrical panel so this was an opportunity to replace them and to clean up the old wiring mess. We also purchased a new lithium battery. The Capri 18 has a built-in battery box in the floor that is EXACTLY the size of a group 24 lead acid battery manufactured in 1987. Unfortunately todays Group 24’s have added tabs and other protrusions that prevent them from fitting into that space. Luckily today’s modern lithium batteries have sufficient amp hours in a much smaller package.
• The sails and mast were given a good scrub, the running rigging was all replaced with new line, the standing rigging was cleaned and inspected, and the old broken masthead WindTrak (birds use it as a perch) was removed and replaced.
• We used a heat gun and scrapper to remove the old varnish from the exterior wood, tiller, and cabin sole. Sue’s brother Paul fabricated some new trim pieces for the companionway to replace the old rotted ones. Everything was sanded and given 3 coats of exterior satin finish spar varnish.
• The interior cushions were cleaned (they are the original 1987 fabric, worn but still serviceable). Sail covers were run through the washer and dryer. The exterior was polished and waxed to a shine. She cleans up nice for a 38 year old boat.
• We cleaned and tuned the 80’s vintage Honda 5HP 4 stroke outboard and trailered the Capri back to the local boat ramp and motored her back home to our dock where we finished assembling the mast and sails. She is a sailboat again!

Random photos of the progress over the last month. Photos may be truncated, click them for full view.