Hy Chris & Marissa! Great job on the Boat:) Made me remeber those fun days with the longboard before painting. Was fun to watch your latest videos and know prism is family:) love their projects and videos and look forward to new ones coming up hopefully soon👍🏽 hoping to meet you guys one day! After hearing of your plans of going north and visiting alaska i thought maybe we will meet because we have similar plans in the future, even though we go slow and are currently in europe😸 Fair winds and following seas Aladino
Hey Aladino! Thank you so much for watching! We LOVE your channel. Yes, Jon is my older brother. I actually just got back from spending 14 days helping him with boat projects on the east coast! Now back to our own projects lol... we are back floating but still have some work to do until we can set sail again. It would be amazing to meet up in an anchorage someday!
Outstanding . your choice , your life , don't let anybody stop you . Whatever happens, take responsibility. Never whine, never complain, never try to justify yourself. If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. If you don't like something, change it. It is good people who make good places . Good Luck . Have a nice day , Best wishes from Alberta - Canada Tom
Great video guys.Skills to rejuvinate are many and chasing that water out of the laminate is the best gift you can give an old boat.Cheers from Aus .Ross
Hey there! Thanks for watching and commenting, we love chatting! It was a tedious project but we are so glad we did it. This is our home, she takes care of us, we take care of her 💙 cheers, friend
Thank you so much! It is all a labor of love and patience is key. Chris grew up working on cars and boats so he is well versed in patience whereas I am still working on it... luckily he supports my learning experience every chance he gets. We are so proud of how far we have come... part 2 gets uploaded tonight! Excited to share!!
Ah, the casual laid back life of a sailboat owner....great details of good stewardship. Been there and done that. Wow...your osmosis problems were distressing. Never really know how deep they go until you open them up. Really proud of you and the missus for going at it and repairing back to factory quality. Great work.
Hey Alan! Ah yes, it sounds like you know the “struggle” 😉 luckily Chris grew up working on boats so Avocet is in very good hands! Bonus points because he is patient enough to teach me along the way. Unfortunately I didn’t make it in many of the shots because I was always behind the camera and Chris’s hands were too busy to film me lol! I am much more visible in part 2 and can’t wait to show off my newly acquired skills. Thank you so much for taking the time to watch and comment, as mentioned it sounds like you know the struggle.. what kind of boat do/did you have? 🥂⛵️
It was really nice to watch you put all that care and effort into your boat. No doubt in my mind that it will look absolutely beautiful in the end. Looking forward to part 2!
Thanks so much for watching and commenting! Sorry it took so long to respond. WE are so happy to be back floating... it was a long 53 days in the yard. Part 2 will be up this week, we will send you a link so you can see it with our Patrons :)
Today is respond and message day so you guys are first up! Great video, these boat work video are always fun and get great traction huh?!?! Well till our paths cross, cheers and have fun! Warren and Erica on WEsail
Wow, you guys have been BUSY, 👨🔧👩🔧 VERY cool! Avocet is 1)in good hands and 2)looking like PROPER care and work is being done for her, good on you! 🙂👌
busy busy busy! We are just happy to be floating again. We cant wait to share part 2 with you soon! thank you for watching and taking the time to comment.
Greetings from the south shore of Long Island where my 30' Grampian sloop Avocet sits out on her mooring awaiting the next sail. Good luck in all your projects.
Just subscribed I'm completely new to sailing but have been getting more and more intrigued by it through the delos videos I'll have to give yours a watch once I finish those. Your content looks great. I guess I'm going to have to learn to sail now.
Hey Michael! Welcome to the wild world of sailing. Where are you from? If you have Instagram, send us a DM we are happy to help teach you some tips and tricks ☺️ if you are ever near us, let us know! Would be happy to have you aboard. Fair winds ~
Thank you so much, that really does mean a lot to us. We hope everyone takes something away from our videos, whether they be sailors or just generally interested! :)
I note the San Francisco homeport on the stern, I learned to sail in the North Bay (which is pretty intense way to learn). Avocet, with the big keel, looks like she should deal with it pretty well (the old Naval Air Station at Alameda (now Naval Supply Center)) had a 44' Luders USNA yawl (in wood, when they replaced them with fiberglass boats) and she had 12,000 pounds of keel under her. We would go out of weekend and all the flyweight boats would make fun of us when the air was light (usually in the mornings), but when the North Bay would kick up (nearly every day they would get a small craft warning) we going put up more sail and that big honker would just GET AFTER IT (especially UP-wind), about the time the J-24s would run for home we would be having a blast!. This was as a teenager (still a USN dependent) and I later joined the USN myself. If nothing else two summers sailing on the North Bay will make nearly any weather (including the Northern Sea of Japan, and the North Atlantic) survivable..
Thats awesome! I grew up sailing in the bay on my families Mason 43’ which we actually just moved to Southern California after being in Berkeley for 28 years! When we bought Avocet I had intentions of returning to college in SF but then my work picked up and a further degree became unnecessary in my field, where my demo reel and work experience speak for themselves. We fell in love with the Channel Islands and decided to make Ventura our home base until we cast off (soon)! We are excited to sail Avocet to the bay and sail to all my favorite places (treasure island, sausalito, angel island, etc....) it sounds like you have a lot of good boat stories. Maybe we can meet up for a drink if we ever cross paths :)
@@sailingavocet Unfortunately, life kind of moves on... I got out of the USN (still miss the water and boats (of all sizes)), and somewhere along the line fell in line with an Idaho Native (who goes into withdrawal if she gets more than that 50 miles from her parents! LOL) There were four of those USNA Yawls on the bay in the late 70's-80 (NASALA (from Alameda), TREASURER (from TI (which sank about the time they closed the base, in the anchorage, (they came in on New Years for a sail and she was hanging from her mooring buoy (through-hull fitting gave up) not sure what happened to her after that)), the boat from the old Mare Island Yard (which actually rarely made it out into the bay), and SeaScouts had one (which they ripped the masts out of her in 79 due to an unplanned jibe with the running backstays set (wooden masts in all of them then)). NASALA and the Mare Island boat both had Navy blue hulls, Treasurer had powder blue, and the Sea Scout boat had white (when they finally ( it took over a year for them to come up with the money) got new masts in her they were aluminum). If you were around you probably saw us on weekends in the North Bay, we were easy to tell, for some reason a brand hew North Sails spinnaker would never fly right when flown right side out (it had been custom stitched (and partially paid for by the USN) with "GO NAVY" on it) BUT if you ever saw the Navy Blue 44 with a chute that said OG YVAN you saw us! (we all thought it was hilarious (we would tell people we would race against that it was cut that way so we could have it read WHEN WE WERE AHEAD!!) and got so much grief about that!). Go ahead and make fun of the big hog when the wind comes up we could put a whole bucket of canvas up (180% Genoa, 110% stays'le, main (maybe ONE reef) and mizzen (again probably with a reef) (her actual weakness was slightly small rudder which we could over-power with too much sail, so the mizzen trim being right was vital to sailing her upwind) and get after it!
Thanks Christian! We are so excited to share part 2 with you all soon. We are so incredibly happy with our floating home, and proud of the hard work we put into her. Cheers and fair winds!
You guys got a lot done!! Great work! When we hauled out in Greece our visas were running out along with getting stung about $20/day for living on the boat there so had to do what we could and get back in the water... The issue we have now is that we probably don't need to lift out for another 2yrs now for antifoul etc but we need to fix the rudder bearings before we cross the Atlantic... So not sure what to do now :(
Thank you guys for watching! We really appreciate the time and support. we were very thankful to be offered the industry rate for our yard fees and utilized our wholesale accounts for materials. miraculously we made it out of there UNDER budget which is unheard of!! hmmm... your rudder bearing sounds like a tricky issue for sure... keep us updated!
A lot of work there. It would have been nice to get a heated vac pad on the hull in those wet areas but like you say time and money. Looking forward to the next vid. Sail Safe Guys, Ant, Cid & the pooch crew.
Thank you Iain! We will do a boat tour when we finish varnishing the interior, rebuild our nav station, replace our galley counters, and maybe reupholster. Hopefully we will have a full tour available by the end of the year 😂
Hey! Thanks for watching and commenting. Wow! That’s awesome, what type of boat, Our Avocet came with her name... it was the original name in ‘79 and stuck ever since! We have yet to see an Avocet bird in the wild but I look forward to the day we do :)
@@sailingavocet It was very humble Leisure 17. I think my dad bought it the early seventies. We occasionally still see it sailing in the area (Zeeland in the Netherlands). Haven't seen an avocet bird for a while either. They are called Kluut in Dutch, which is the sound that they (well sort of anyway). Happy sailing!
Thank you Clay! I (Marissa) finally had a chance to put effort into the backend SEO of our channel. After this video we received 299+ subscribers! It’s mind blowing! We are so thankful to have great supporters and look forward to hopefully meeting y’all sometime. Thank you for the kind words, it really makes our day. Stay safe out there!
Just ran across your channel this evening. We have some things in common. My daughter lives in Ventura and I spent many’s days at that harbor on my first boat, which was a Catalina 36’. My second boat was a Cheoy Lee 42’ and I’m currently restoring a Mason 43’ for a circumnavigation (hopefully). I also went back to watch your Q&A and you seem like good people who are ready to take on this lifestyle. Enjoy and keep up the good work. And thanks for not pimping out the young lady as clickbait. Just sayin. ☮️ Thanks
Hey there! Marissa here (I manage all of our social media) thanks so much for watching and reaching out! Wow! We DO have a lot in common! We are actually preparing Chris’s moms Mason 43’ to move down here to Ventura from SF bay. Chris comes from a huge sailing family and he taught me when we were 15! I have been hooked ever since. I want people to see me as a dedicated sailor with a passion for adventure versus just another pretty face and thankfully my husband supports that and is very proud of that ideal. Thanks again for watching and reaching out, I hope we cross paths someday 🙌
Not many blues at all! We love boat life and wouldn’t trade it for anything. We were just “blue” about the COVID-19 pandemic and bad weather delaying our progress! Besides that it was a humbling experience to work on our boat.
Great question! We rebuilt it because our toe rail was leaking so badly, leading us to remove it completely. By glassing the deck to hull joint we remedied the holes left by the 180 through bolts and also reinforced the strength of the deck and hull.
Wow, great video you guys! when I first started watching y'all you had great video quality, and since I've been following y'all the quality has hugely increased!
Like others here I have just found your channel and like the restoration as much as the sailing. Chris seems pretty knowledgeable, what is his background tradewise ?
First: WELCOME ABOARD! Glad to have you. How did you find us? Chris grew up around boats, sailing AND fixing them. His family has a Mason 43, and his older brother Jon has a Hans Christian 33 (SV Prism) so the boatwork came naturally. Chris has a lot of talents and skills... at 15 he built his own car, a 1963 MGB from the frame up! We still have her. He is a driven guy, and I'm very thankful to be married to him. Although his hands are always busy with projects his "real" job is cinematography, so he shoots documentaries, promotions, the occasional music video and wedding. Thanks for checking us out, feel free to ask more questions!
@@sailingavocet I found you guys from other sailing channels and I love the work (essential and non) that you both have carried out. The yachts that came from British Hong Kong are so well built and similar to Ta Shings and Taiwanese Tayanas in terms of construction. I asked about Chris's background as it was clear he has some knowledge just in the way he talks regarding materials.I'm not a boatbuilder or shipwright but a carpenter that has worked in many yards from building 75 motor yachts at Aquastar in Guernsey to Perini Navi and Wally yachts in Viareggio and Fano respectively, built the first Difer 54 out of Fallonica/Punta Ala, Spanish Americas Cup 70' mono Iberdrolla (false bow redesign) and Trans Pac 52's out of Tarragona, Lutra 30's (sprint resin infusion) in Dubai and ended up a yard on the River Hamble just down the road, looking after classics, I regret leaving the Elephant boatyard and just being on or next the water. Instead I thought I'd get a proper job and now work as a building supervisor for the NHS (health service) running a team of carpenters/builders and ground staff across two hospitals.......I can't stand it......so you two give me my fix and that's a very good thing :)
To make it worse: we thought for a few days our ballast was iron instead of lead because of the rust that was weeping out of the hole. WE used a magnet to confirm our ballast was Lead, despite what our specs say. The rust was from metal bits in the sand! it was a roller coaster of a discovery.
Great question! We didn't really explain our process in this video, but part 2 covers our repair more extensively. We left a heat lamp on the hole for 30+ days to dry, then filled it with closed cell foam before fiber glassing over :) Chris is a boatright and has repaired many blisters, we were mostly concerned with the make of our ballast, since the bit of weeping rust made us think we could have a compromised iron ballast. Luckily we tested the ballast's integrity with a high powered magnet, confirming it is lead. THAT is what most of Chris's concern was when he was discussing the hole, even though he failed to explain ;) Thank you for watching! We appreciate you taking the time to comment as well. Fair winds~
that piting is why bronze is far superior to stainless for rudder shafts..unfortunately the manufacturing sector has lost their appreciation for marine bronze.... Good luck with the refit nice work and your are marvellously thorough
During an ocean passage , squalls with lightning do occur , are there procedures to protect electronic nav equipment in the event of a lightning strike ?
great question! in an anchorage you can just turn off/unplug your electronics... while sailing... well you better hope you aren't sailing in a storm like that lol!
If only the "easy" ways had the same results... cant get much better than hand sanded, and we will touch upon that in the next video where Chris sanded for 32 hours straight- not kidding, he pulled an ALL NIGHTER hand sanding! Cheers!
did you guys look into sand blasting instead of sanding the hull? I know that can be pretty costly to do, so I was curious as to why you chose the hard way :)
Hey there! There are a couple reasons why we chose not to sandblast: 1. it is expensive! 2. Sandblasting introduces a lot of foreign contaminates into the fiberglass. We have Sandblasted most of the aluminum pieces on our boat though! Loved the result.
wow i never thought i would watch a full 20 min video on a boat lol but the editing, music, B roll, story telling everything was perfect. really enjoyed it . Also what mic do you guys use for clips like the one @ 12:30
Wow! Thank you so much for watching and commenting. We are so happy to hear you enjoyed the camera work and editing... we hope you enjoy part 2 that’s coming soon! I’ve seen you in that youtuber Facebook group before, you have a great channel! When we aren’t using lav mics we are using a azden mic on our cameras. You can pick one up on Amazon amzn.to/3cZQPsV
Thank you! Yes, a LOT of work has gone into Avocet to ensure she is the safest she can be for our voyages. Luckily, we will never have to repeat the extent of this job every again. The resins used in the 70's were not the same quality that we have now which is why many boats of that era are found with severe blister issues (like ours and worse!) using proper techniques to repair and prevent blisters will keep Avocet's bottom ship shape for years to come. Next time we haul out we will just have to scuff up the bottom then repaint... not sand all the way down to glass like what was done here. Her topsides hadn't been painted since she was originally splashed in 79' and although they were a little rough she was still in surprisingly good shape! We anticipate having to repaint maybe in 5 years maybe more, all dependent on the environments we take her to. Great question! Can't wait to share more in the next upload. Cheers!
I intend to sail some blue water in the future , and realistically my budget would restrict me to a boat that needs work , before setting out. Your video was an inspiration and in my humble opinion your handy work was and is , top drawer. Keep safe and travel well. Keep the wind at your back and the sun in your face .
I am thinking of removing my toe rail and doing basically way you did. Are you happy with how it turned out? Do you miss being able to attach and move blocks on the toe rail? Do you feel less secure on deck without the toe rail?
Hey Dan! We are so stoked and can’t wait to show the outcome in the next video. We still have our stanchions that snap blocks connect to, the track on our toe rail was never used because it was never truly functional, so it was not missed 😉 we have a bulwark, which is 1” off the deck, and 12 inches high, much more effective than the prior design :)
Sailing Avocet thanks for the reply. We use our toe rail a lot and move a snatch block when sailing on a reach to change the sheeting angle on the headsail. So we would loose that. We also use it to secure blocks for twings so we can use a single line as a sheet or a guy with a kite. But it leaks just a bit from time to time and if we get the rail over a bit to far it caused a lot of drag. So everything is a trade off. Still am not decided on what to do. Best wishes. Just watched your video where you sprayed on varnish! I didn’t know you could do that. I may try that.
You gotta be careful in the slings I watched another channel where they bout a boat at scrap prices the boat had been hung in the slings and the former owner was trying to get the rudder off it was up about 16 ft and slipped out of the slings and shattered the stern clean off and cracked the haul in several places up past the 2nd bulkhead the worked on it for a year and a half and are currently about half way around the world from where they started
If you are referring to sailing magic carpet: We love watching their videos and have been following them for years! I actually remember seeing the boat up for sale right after it had fallen. Although it was a tragedy for them, or maybe a blessing.. being in the slings is relatively safe. Sure, it’s scary to have our home up above the hard ground but it is our only option, and done every day by thousands of yards across the world. The slings that magic carpet was being lifted was a bit different, it was being transported from a shipping container and was being lifted not by travel lifts like we use but by a crane which is much more risky. Haul outs like ours are a routine practice done by professionals trained to handle boats (not just “cargo”) and were diligent in their practice. Of course make sure you research ANY boatyard and make sure your boat is in good hands 🤙
I know there are many factors involved , including equipment , good maintenance record etc , but from your experience what would be the minimum length of vessel to go blue water cruising ?
Great question, it sounds like you already know a bit regarding maintenance and equipment! Although those are two crucial factors, there are many blue water cruisers as small as 20’! It really depends on the vessel design, as well as your comfort level. I suggest looking into the books by Lin and Larry Pardy who coined the term “go small, go simple, go now”.... they cruised the world multiple times aboard their Lyle Hess Bristol Channel Cutter 24’ followed by their 28’. My brother is cruising on a Hans Christian 33, which is small in length but more comfortable and capable than any 33’ mass production boat. There are a lot of excellent resources online regarding blue water cruisers, as mentioned it really depends on YOUR comfort level. Design trumps, build quality. Make sure the boat you are looking at has a proven hull design I.e.: full keel, fin keel with skeg hung rudder, and encapsulated keels. You want to trust your vessel! :) in our opinion the 2 biggest things you want underwater are a rudder far aft and an encapsulated keel. Thanks for asking! Happy to answer any more questions
Ha! Trust me, there are a lot of "sailor mouth" moments in part 2... im just not sure if we filmed them or not! Hope you are doing well. Fair winds, friend!
Same here. Seems as soon as everything tried to head in the direction of semi normal, the carona cooties strike once more. When will this all be over. I can’t stand being land locked 🔒
It generally is never free, even the first time. The initial haul and block was $400, every lift after that was $200 each time. Every yard is different but I have never heard of a yard doing a lift for free. Nothing in a yard is ever free 🤷🏻♀️
Not to our knowledge, we are the 3rd owners and know the previous owner’s name was John. The original owner would have owned Avocet in ‘79-mid 80’s. Do you know something we don’t? 😉
IM SO GLAD YOU CAUGHT THAT! When we were editing we were thinking someone would think that it was a sound we added... nope! Natural noises from the yard 😂 yabba dabba doo!
its these boat maintenance vids that bring the credibility and admiration ..
thank you so much
Hy Chris & Marissa!
Great job on the Boat:) Made me remeber those fun days with the longboard before painting.
Was fun to watch your latest videos and know prism is family:) love their projects and videos and look forward to new ones coming up hopefully soon👍🏽 hoping to meet you guys one day! After hearing of your plans of going north and visiting alaska i thought maybe we will meet because we have similar plans in the future, even though we go slow and are currently in europe😸
Fair winds and following seas
Aladino
Hey Aladino! Thank you so much for watching! We LOVE your channel. Yes, Jon is my older brother. I actually just got back from spending 14 days helping him with boat projects on the east coast! Now back to our own projects lol... we are back floating but still have some work to do until we can set sail again. It would be amazing to meet up in an anchorage someday!
Outstanding .
your choice , your life , don't let anybody stop you .
Whatever happens, take responsibility.
Never whine, never complain, never try to justify yourself.
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
If you don't like something, change it.
It is good people who make good places .
Good Luck .
Have a nice day , Best wishes from Alberta - Canada
Tom
Your username says it all 💕 life is short, we definitely work hard to make everyday the best day ever!
Great cinematography and good job on all the intense work on the boat!
Thanks! It was a wild time
The yacht is super! You did well! Girl 🔥🔥🔥! Good luck!
cheers!!
Brilliantly done. I always enjoy working on yachts. Loving boats helps. Enjoy your time and journey!
Thank you! Fair winds!
Great video guys.Skills to rejuvinate are many and chasing that water out of the laminate is the best gift you can give an old boat.Cheers from Aus .Ross
Hey there! Thanks for watching and commenting, we love chatting! It was a tedious project but we are so glad we did it. This is our home, she takes care of us, we take care of her 💙 cheers, friend
Wow! Nice work. This is really interesting to watch how you’ve handled all these projects.
Thank you so much! Chris grew up working on boats so im just thankful he is patient enough to teach me along the way!
Work hard, play hard! It all goes hand in hand, love to see things being done correct and with a degree of craftsmanship! Nice work.
Thank you so much! It is all a labor of love and patience is key. Chris grew up working on cars and boats so he is well versed in patience whereas I am still working on it... luckily he supports my learning experience every chance he gets. We are so proud of how far we have come... part 2 gets uploaded tonight! Excited to share!!
Lived in Ventura for many years. Really miss it. Especially seeing all these familiar scenes in this video!
Awesome! It has been a great home for us as we prepare for our journey.
Ah, the casual laid back life of a sailboat owner....great details of good stewardship. Been there and done that. Wow...your osmosis problems were distressing. Never really know how deep they go until you open them up. Really proud of you and the missus for going at it and repairing back to factory quality. Great work.
Hey Alan! Ah yes, it sounds like you know the “struggle” 😉 luckily Chris grew up working on boats so Avocet is in very good hands! Bonus points because he is patient enough to teach me along the way. Unfortunately I didn’t make it in many of the shots because I was always behind the camera and Chris’s hands were too busy to film me lol! I am much more visible in part 2 and can’t wait to show off my newly acquired skills. Thank you so much for taking the time to watch and comment, as mentioned it sounds like you know the struggle.. what kind of boat do/did you have? 🥂⛵️
It was really nice to watch you put all that care and effort into your boat. No doubt in my mind that it will look absolutely beautiful in the end. Looking forward to part 2!
Thank you so much!!
Pretty awesome vid. Lots of hardwork and dedication.
Thank you so much!
Wow, guys...you really went for it! Good luck with your future plans!
Thanks so much for watching and commenting! Sorry it took so long to respond. WE are so happy to be back floating... it was a long 53 days in the yard. Part 2 will be up this week, we will send you a link so you can see it with our Patrons :)
nice vid. great production, esp the fast motion combined with music.
Cheers!
Today is respond and message day so you guys are first up! Great video, these boat work video are always fun and get great traction huh?!?! Well till our paths cross, cheers and have fun! Warren and Erica on WEsail
Hey Warren and Erica! Thanks for watching and commenting, we greatly appreciate the support :) fair winds!
Oh glorious sanding!
Glorious, glorious sanding! ;)
Bob_the_Bomb sail life/Mads 🤣👍🏻
Diver Jim who else :)
@@diverjim2069 one of the absolute best! We love watching Mads.
Brilliant! Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much!
Well done with the success of this video, well deserved.
Thank you! We appreciate the support. Very excited to wrap up filming for part 2 and have it uploaded by next weekend!
Wow, you guys have been BUSY, 👨🔧👩🔧 VERY cool!
Avocet is 1)in good hands and 2)looking like PROPER care and work is being done for her, good on you! 🙂👌
busy busy busy! We are just happy to be floating again. We cant wait to share part 2 with you soon! thank you for watching and taking the time to comment.
@@sailingavocet Welcome and I look forward to p.2,...
G day guys, that is an awesome propeller you have bought 👍👍 Bruntons tops, stay safe have fun
We love our autoprop! Thanks for watching and commenting?!
Greetings from the south shore of Long Island where my 30' Grampian sloop Avocet sits out on her mooring awaiting the next sail. Good luck in all your projects.
Excellent name :) cheers, new friend
High quality video coming from high quality people! Thanks for sharing this process with us, super cool to watch. Love you guys! Stay healthy!
Thank you Amber! Your kind words mean so much to us. Have a great night! Stay safe
Lotta work, good job you two👍 you seem to know a Lot for your age 😎✅
cheers
Just subscribed I'm completely new to sailing but have been getting more and more intrigued by it through the delos videos I'll have to give yours a watch once I finish those. Your content looks great. I guess I'm going to have to learn to sail now.
Hey Michael! Welcome to the wild world of sailing. Where are you from? If you have Instagram, send us a DM we are happy to help teach you some tips and tricks ☺️ if you are ever near us, let us know! Would be happy to have you aboard. Fair winds ~
Wow! Very Interesting! Thanks for sharing!
Oh hey! Wow thank you for checking out our channel!
Keep up the amazing content, I've never really paid much attention to boats or life on a boat. You've made it interesting!
Thank you so much, that really does mean a lot to us. We hope everyone takes something away from our videos, whether they be sailors or just generally interested! :)
Just love how these videos are shot and edited 💚
Thank you so much!
I note the San Francisco homeport on the stern, I learned to sail in the North Bay (which is pretty intense way to learn). Avocet, with the big keel, looks like she should deal with it pretty well (the old Naval Air Station at Alameda (now Naval Supply Center)) had a 44' Luders USNA yawl (in wood, when they replaced them with fiberglass boats) and she had 12,000 pounds of keel under her. We would go out of weekend and all the flyweight boats would make fun of us when the air was light (usually in the mornings), but when the North Bay would kick up (nearly every day they would get a small craft warning) we going put up more sail and that big honker would just GET AFTER IT (especially UP-wind), about the time the J-24s would run for home we would be having a blast!. This was as a teenager (still a USN dependent) and I later joined the USN myself. If nothing else two summers sailing on the North Bay will make nearly any weather (including the Northern Sea of Japan, and the North Atlantic) survivable..
Thats awesome! I grew up sailing in the bay on my families Mason 43’ which we actually just moved to Southern California after being in Berkeley for 28 years! When we bought Avocet I had intentions of returning to college in SF but then my work picked up and a further degree became unnecessary in my field, where my demo reel and work experience speak for themselves. We fell in love with the Channel Islands and decided to make Ventura our home base until we cast off (soon)! We are excited to sail Avocet to the bay and sail to all my favorite places (treasure island, sausalito, angel island, etc....) it sounds like you have a lot of good boat stories. Maybe we can meet up for a drink if we ever cross paths :)
@@sailingavocet Unfortunately, life kind of moves on... I got out of the USN (still miss the water and boats (of all sizes)), and somewhere along the line fell in line with an Idaho Native (who goes into withdrawal if she gets more than that 50 miles from her parents! LOL) There were four of those USNA Yawls on the bay in the late 70's-80 (NASALA (from Alameda), TREASURER (from TI (which sank about the time they closed the base, in the anchorage, (they came in on New Years for a sail and she was hanging from her mooring buoy (through-hull fitting gave up) not sure what happened to her after that)), the boat from the old Mare Island Yard (which actually rarely made it out into the bay), and SeaScouts had one (which they ripped the masts out of her in 79 due to an unplanned jibe with the running backstays set (wooden masts in all of them then)). NASALA and the Mare Island boat both had Navy blue hulls, Treasurer had powder blue, and the Sea Scout boat had white (when they finally ( it took over a year for them to come up with the money) got new masts in her they were aluminum). If you were around you probably saw us on weekends in the North Bay, we were easy to tell, for some reason a brand hew North Sails spinnaker would never fly right when flown right side out (it had been custom stitched (and partially paid for by the USN) with "GO NAVY" on it) BUT if you ever saw the Navy Blue 44 with a chute that said OG YVAN you saw us! (we all thought it was hilarious (we would tell people we would race against that it was cut that way so we could have it read WHEN WE WERE AHEAD!!) and got so much grief about that!). Go ahead and make fun of the big hog when the wind comes up we could put a whole bucket of canvas up (180% Genoa, 110% stays'le, main (maybe ONE reef) and mizzen (again probably with a reef) (her actual weakness was slightly small rudder which we could over-power with too much sail, so the mizzen trim being right was vital to sailing her upwind) and get after it!
Eager to see the end result, it will really give him a facelift, to be able to leave serenely and sail on the sea. Kisses to you. Christian
Thanks Christian! We are so excited to share part 2 with you all soon. We are so incredibly happy with our floating home, and proud of the hard work we put into her. Cheers and fair winds!
You guys got a lot done!! Great work! When we hauled out in Greece our visas were running out along with getting stung about $20/day for living on the boat there so had to do what we could and get back in the water... The issue we have now is that we probably don't need to lift out for another 2yrs now for antifoul etc but we need to fix the rudder bearings before we cross the Atlantic... So not sure what to do now :(
Thank you guys for watching! We really appreciate the time and support. we were very thankful to be offered the industry rate for our yard fees and utilized our wholesale accounts for materials. miraculously we made it out of there UNDER budget which is unheard of!! hmmm... your rudder bearing sounds like a tricky issue for sure... keep us updated!
Awesome video guys. Love it. Keep it up, sending love here. Stay safe.
Thanks so much for checking our channel out 🤗💞 how are you? Staying safe I hope. Cheers!
Ty for the awesome videos. I wish you safe journeys. Keep the updates coming. And live your Dreams!! :)
thank YOU for watching and taking the time to write us! Stay safe out there. Fair winds!
Just found you guys an love your videos. Your so down to earth an i love that.
Hi Susan! Thank you so much for watching and commenting, that means so much to us ❤️ maybe we will cross paths someday! Stay safe out there
A lot of work there. It would have been nice to get a heated vac pad on the hull in those wet areas but like you say time and money. Looking forward to the next vid. Sail Safe Guys, Ant, Cid & the pooch crew.
The heat lamps did just fine :) can't wait to show how we patched it up! New video coming soon... thank for your support
Nice...love the C.L...Beautiful boat.
Thank you Peter! She has been so good to us.
Cool video guys!! Pro edit!! Killed it!! loved the music choices!
Thank you so much, hope you are doing well out there in the world! Cheers~
i went back and viewed your reno vids and can only say, good job(s), well done. when do we get a tour of the boat?
Thank you Iain! We will do a boat tour when we finish varnishing the interior, rebuild our nav station, replace our galley counters, and maybe reupholster. Hopefully we will have a full tour available by the end of the year 😂
@@sailingavocet this year or 2 yrs from now? :-) no need to reply :-))
This year :)
Well done guys, you are doing a very good job. Cheers
Thank you! That means a lot coming from you. Cheers 🤙
Thanks for taking us on your adventure!
Thank you for watching, we are so excited to share more
That was a great video! I'm excited to see it all painted
Thank you so much Darin! Paint is coming soon
Just discovered your chanel, very good quality videos thank you! 🙏
Keep the good work, and nice boat by the way 🙂.
Well thank you! We appreciate the kind words
Lotta hard work, enjoy
Hard work pays off ☺️ work like a captain to play like a pirate! Cheers
G10 is great for backing plates as well.
It sure is!
Nice videos guys. My parents had a boat called avocette. Never saw another boat with that name. It was my dad's favourite bird.
Hey! Thanks for watching and commenting. Wow! That’s awesome, what type of boat, Our Avocet came with her name... it was the original name in ‘79 and stuck ever since! We have yet to see an Avocet bird in the wild but I look forward to the day we do :)
@@sailingavocet It was very humble Leisure 17. I think my dad bought it the early seventies. We occasionally still see it sailing in the area (Zeeland in the Netherlands). Haven't seen an avocet bird for a while either. They are called Kluut in Dutch, which is the sound that they (well sort of anyway). Happy sailing!
That’s awesome! Thanks for the little lesson, the more you know :) cheers!
You guys are going a great job on the boat and the video. I think you have what it takes to really growing your audience.
Thank you Clay! I (Marissa) finally had a chance to put effort into the backend SEO of our channel. After this video we received 299+ subscribers! It’s mind blowing! We are so thankful to have great supporters and look forward to hopefully meeting y’all sometime. Thank you for the kind words, it really makes our day. Stay safe out there!
Amazing
Thanks!
Great video thanks for sharing
thank you!
Just ran across your channel this evening. We have some things in common. My daughter lives in Ventura and I spent many’s days at that harbor on my first boat, which was a Catalina 36’. My second boat was a Cheoy Lee 42’ and I’m currently restoring a Mason 43’ for a circumnavigation (hopefully). I also went back to watch your Q&A and you seem like good people who are ready to take on this lifestyle. Enjoy and keep up the good work. And thanks for not pimping out the young lady as clickbait. Just sayin. ☮️ Thanks
Hey there! Marissa here (I manage all of our social media) thanks so much for watching and reaching out! Wow! We DO have a lot in common! We are actually preparing Chris’s moms Mason 43’ to move down here to Ventura from SF bay. Chris comes from a huge sailing family and he taught me when we were 15! I have been hooked ever since. I want people to see me as a dedicated sailor with a passion for adventure versus just another pretty face and thankfully my husband supports that and is very proud of that ideal. Thanks again for watching and reaching out, I hope we cross paths someday 🙌
That is great, hope when we move to a boat there aren't too many blues.
Not many blues at all! We love boat life and wouldn’t trade it for anything. We were just “blue” about the COVID-19 pandemic and bad weather delaying our progress! Besides that it was a humbling experience to work on our boat.
Awesome video and LOVE your boat!!! New subscriber here!!
Hey! Thank you so much ❤️
Wow fantastic video❣️watching here nice and interesting vlog☺️👐
Thanks for watching and commenting! We appreciate it ❤️
Footage is impressive, great cam work
Thank you! We appreciate you taking the time to watch and comment. Hope you are safe, and doing well. Cheers!
Really well put together Vlog. Subscribed .Cheers
Thanks Chris! Excited to share part 2.
great work guys. it looks awesome. what made you guys decide to rebuild you hull to deck joint?
Great question! We rebuilt it because our toe rail was leaking so badly, leading us to remove it completely. By glassing the deck to hull joint we remedied the holes left by the 180 through bolts and also reinforced the strength of the deck and hull.
@@sailingavocet oh right on. we have some leaky spots here and there as well. maybe that will be something we can look into in the future
I’ve always loved Cheoy Lees!
They are very unique! Avocet has such a personality, we have thoroughly enjoyed uncovering it while living aboard
wow you guys did all the boat renovating by yourselves?? amazing!
We sure did :) thanks for watching and commenting, we are excited to share part 2!
"I feel your pain." Looks like you're doing a great job!
thank you so much! We can't wait to share part 2 with you
Wow! Hard work right here!
Work like a captain, play like a pirate!
Damn, I have trouble getting my drink holder out - seems like too much work until I need it during a sail.
Lol
Wow, great video you guys! when I first started watching y'all you had great video quality, and since I've been following y'all the quality has hugely increased!
Thank you! This is what happens when Chris treats our personal videos like one of his paid shoots 😂
Like others here I have just found your channel and like the restoration as much as the sailing. Chris seems pretty knowledgeable, what is his background tradewise ?
First: WELCOME ABOARD! Glad to have you. How did you find us? Chris grew up around boats, sailing AND fixing them. His family has a Mason 43, and his older brother Jon has a Hans Christian 33 (SV Prism) so the boatwork came naturally. Chris has a lot of talents and skills... at 15 he built his own car, a 1963 MGB from the frame up! We still have her. He is a driven guy, and I'm very thankful to be married to him. Although his hands are always busy with projects his "real" job is cinematography, so he shoots documentaries, promotions, the occasional music video and wedding. Thanks for checking us out, feel free to ask more questions!
@@sailingavocet I found you guys from other sailing channels and I love the work (essential and non) that you both have carried out. The yachts that came from British Hong Kong are so well built and similar to Ta Shings and Taiwanese Tayanas in terms of construction.
I asked about Chris's background as it was clear he has some knowledge just in the way he talks regarding materials.I'm not a boatbuilder or shipwright but a carpenter that has worked in many yards from building 75 motor yachts at Aquastar in Guernsey to Perini Navi and Wally yachts in Viareggio and Fano respectively, built the first Difer 54 out of Fallonica/Punta Ala, Spanish Americas Cup 70' mono Iberdrolla (false bow redesign) and Trans Pac 52's out of Tarragona, Lutra 30's (sprint resin infusion) in Dubai and ended up a yard on the River Hamble just down the road, looking after classics, I regret leaving the Elephant boatyard and just being on or next the water. Instead I thought I'd get a proper job and now work as a building supervisor for the NHS (health service) running a team of carpenters/builders and ground staff across two hospitals.......I can't stand it......so you two give me my fix and that's a very good thing :)
Wow smooth
cheers!
Man, that hole!!! I can imagine that you "panicked" for a moment.
Happy greetingz, Wim
To make it worse: we thought for a few days our ballast was iron instead of lead because of the rust that was weeping out of the hole. WE used a magnet to confirm our ballast was Lead, despite what our specs say. The rust was from metal bits in the sand! it was a roller coaster of a discovery.
@@sailingavocet Haha, the instantly sweating profoundly and feeling your heart racing in a nauseating way kind of discovery :D
Great video guys, exactly what we're going through on the hard right now!
Thanks for watching guys! Best of luck to yuh. Sending love and strength your way!
Leaving us on a cliff hanger!!! Can't wait for the next one! ❤
I know, i know! Part 2 coming soon, REALLY soon!
It’s about time for another video
funny you mention that, we are releasing the next video for our Patrons this week and will be making it public next week!! :)
Could you bag the hole and attach a vacuum pump to pull any moisture out?
Great question! We didn't really explain our process in this video, but part 2 covers our repair more extensively. We left a heat lamp on the hole for 30+ days to dry, then filled it with closed cell foam before fiber glassing over :) Chris is a boatright and has repaired many blisters, we were mostly concerned with the make of our ballast, since the bit of weeping rust made us think we could have a compromised iron ballast. Luckily we tested the ballast's integrity with a high powered magnet, confirming it is lead. THAT is what most of Chris's concern was when he was discussing the hole, even though he failed to explain ;) Thank you for watching! We appreciate you taking the time to comment as well. Fair winds~
Putting this down time to good use 👌
Heck yah! We are happy to be back afloat though. Can’t wait to share part 2 soon
Dat Mon, got Skills !!
🤙
Great video
Thank you for watching Paul! Can’t wait to get part 2 your way soon
that piting is why bronze is far superior to stainless for rudder shafts..unfortunately the manufacturing sector has lost their appreciation for marine bronze.... Good luck with the refit nice work and your are marvellously thorough
We looooove bronze! If only it were kinder on our wallets. Thanks for watching and commenting! Fair winds
Very nice! Great work and it’s very informative .. so happy I checked out your channel ✨ where are you in California??
Thank you so much! We are currently in Ventura, CA 💙
You are working smart by wearing a anti fall harness.👍
Safety first :)
During an ocean passage , squalls with lightning do occur , are there procedures to protect electronic nav equipment in the event of a lightning strike ?
great question! in an anchorage you can just turn off/unplug your electronics... while sailing... well you better hope you aren't sailing in a storm like that lol!
There must be a 'milder' form of sandblasting to replace all this sanding by hand. Or there should be anyway ;)
If only the "easy" ways had the same results... cant get much better than hand sanded, and we will touch upon that in the next video where Chris sanded for 32 hours straight- not kidding, he pulled an ALL NIGHTER hand sanding! Cheers!
@@sailingavocet Look forward to seeing it. Did you guys have any experience before getting this boat? Sailed before?
Yes! Chris has sailed his whole life, his older brother is actually Jon from SV Prism... Chris taught me how to sail when we were 16 :)
did you guys look into sand blasting instead of sanding the hull? I know that can be pretty costly to do, so I was curious as to why you chose the hard way :)
just realized that would be hard to do during a lockdown anyway.. Great job guys!
Hey there! There are a couple reasons why we chose not to sandblast: 1. it is expensive! 2. Sandblasting introduces a lot of foreign contaminates into the fiberglass. We have Sandblasted most of the aluminum pieces on our boat though! Loved the result.
wow i never thought i would watch a full 20 min video on a boat lol but the editing, music, B roll, story telling everything was perfect. really enjoyed it . Also what mic do you guys use for clips like the one @ 12:30
Wow! Thank you so much for watching and commenting. We are so happy to hear you enjoyed the camera work and editing... we hope you enjoy part 2 that’s coming soon! I’ve seen you in that youtuber Facebook group before, you have a great channel! When we aren’t using lav mics we are using a azden mic on our cameras. You can pick one up on Amazon amzn.to/3cZQPsV
A lot of work done here ..how long do you anticipate the repairs will last , before having to repeat this job ?
Thank you! Yes, a LOT of work has gone into Avocet to ensure she is the safest she can be for our voyages. Luckily, we will never have to repeat the extent of this job every again. The resins used in the 70's were not the same quality that we have now which is why many boats of that era are found with severe blister issues (like ours and worse!) using proper techniques to repair and prevent blisters will keep Avocet's bottom ship shape for years to come. Next time we haul out we will just have to scuff up the bottom then repaint... not sand all the way down to glass like what was done here. Her topsides hadn't been painted since she was originally splashed in 79' and although they were a little rough she was still in surprisingly good shape! We anticipate having to repaint maybe in 5 years maybe more, all dependent on the environments we take her to. Great question! Can't wait to share more in the next upload. Cheers!
I intend to sail some blue water in the future , and realistically my budget would restrict me to a boat that needs work , before setting out. Your video was an inspiration and in my humble opinion your handy work was and is , top drawer. Keep safe and travel well. Keep the wind at your back and the sun in your face .
@@bowpilot55 Thank you so much. Best of luck with your boat search! Maybe we will share an anchorage someday!
I am thinking of removing my toe rail and doing basically way you did. Are you happy with how it turned out? Do you miss being able to attach and move blocks on the toe rail? Do you feel less secure on deck without the toe rail?
Hey Dan! We are so stoked and can’t wait to show the outcome in the next video. We still have our stanchions that snap blocks connect to, the track on our toe rail was never used because it was never truly functional, so it was not missed 😉 we have a bulwark, which is 1” off the deck, and 12 inches high, much more effective than the prior design :)
Sailing Avocet thanks for the reply. We use our toe rail a lot and move a snatch block when sailing on a reach to change the sheeting angle on the headsail. So we would loose that. We also use it to secure blocks for twings so we can use a single line as a sheet or a guy with a kite. But it leaks just a bit from time to time and if we get the rail over a bit to far it caused a lot of drag. So everything is a trade off. Still am not decided on what to do. Best wishes. Just watched your video where you sprayed on varnish! I didn’t know you could do that. I may try that.
Omg your channel is great, i Just saw 2min but already in love with it 😘
Hi Daniel! Wow! Thank you so much for the kind words and support, you made our day! We can't wait to share part 2 soon
I knew this was Ventura right away!! U guys still there? I live there as well!
Heck yah! We will be here until spring 2021 at least 🤙 we will have to get together sometime!
@@sailingavocet sent ya a message on IG! 🤙🤙
That's really something.
sure is! A lot of somethings! lol :)
Boats are so much work.
They sure are, good thing we like working on ‘em 🤙
somis keeping your house and car going.....
Nice one ❤️
thank you so much! We will be uploading a new video tomorrow! :)
You gotta be careful in the slings I watched another channel where they bout a boat at scrap prices the boat had been hung in the slings and the former owner was trying to get the rudder off it was up about 16 ft and slipped out of the slings and shattered the stern clean off and cracked the haul in several places up past the 2nd bulkhead the worked on it for a year and a half and are currently about half way around the world from where they started
If you are referring to sailing magic carpet: We love watching their videos and have been following them for years! I actually remember seeing the boat up for sale right after it had fallen. Although it was a tragedy for them, or maybe a blessing.. being in the slings is relatively safe. Sure, it’s scary to have our home up above the hard ground but it is our only option, and done every day by thousands of yards across the world. The slings that magic carpet was being lifted was a bit different, it was being transported from a shipping container and was being lifted not by travel lifts like we use but by a crane which is much more risky. Haul outs like ours are a routine practice done by professionals trained to handle boats (not just “cargo”) and were diligent in their practice. Of course make sure you research ANY boatyard and make sure your boat is in good hands 🤙
I know there are many factors involved , including equipment , good maintenance record etc , but from your experience what would be the minimum length of vessel to go blue water cruising ?
Great question, it sounds like you already know a bit regarding maintenance and equipment! Although those are two crucial factors, there are many blue water cruisers as small as 20’! It really depends on the vessel design, as well as your comfort level. I suggest looking into the books by Lin and Larry Pardy who coined the term “go small, go simple, go now”.... they cruised the world multiple times aboard their Lyle Hess Bristol Channel Cutter 24’ followed by their 28’. My brother is cruising on a Hans Christian 33, which is small in length but more comfortable and capable than any 33’ mass production boat. There are a lot of excellent resources online regarding blue water cruisers, as mentioned it really depends on YOUR comfort level. Design trumps, build quality. Make sure the boat you are looking at has a proven hull design I.e.: full keel, fin keel with skeg hung rudder, and encapsulated keels. You want to trust your vessel! :) in our opinion the 2 biggest things you want underwater are a rudder far aft and an encapsulated keel.
Thanks for asking! Happy to answer any more questions
nice, calm, and relaxed on all of these projects. I would have a hard time bleeping out the profanities for any of my project videos.
Ha! Trust me, there are a lot of "sailor mouth" moments in part 2... im just not sure if we filmed them or not! Hope you are doing well. Fair winds, friend!
Lots of hard work and research!
👍👍👏👏⛵⚓⛵
Thank you Marie! Hope you are doing well
Hello am the doggo on reddit
Hey reddit friend!
What is the brand of that 22 inch vacuum sander
That is a Flexisander! The superstar tool of this whole project. amzn.to/2DnNAQd
KEEP MAKING VIDEOS!
Hi Josh! That’s the plan! Part 2 coming soon 😊
This is the Yard where Charles finished off Susannah - right?
Sure is! We love Susanna, an absolute gem of a boat... but... so... much... varnishing....
Same here. Seems as soon as everything tried to head in the direction of semi normal, the carona cooties strike once more. When will this all be over. I can’t stand being land locked 🔒
We are now back afloat ;) more coming in part 2! Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment
When your in the work yard you can get the boat lifted as many times as you need but they only do it one time for free you have to pay for the rest
It generally is never free, even the first time. The initial haul and block was $400, every lift after that was $200 each time. Every yard is different but I have never heard of a yard doing a lift for free. Nothing in a yard is ever free 🤷🏻♀️
@@sailingavocet I was just saying that the lift is included in the original price to haul out and then splash any other lifts will be extra
Ah
That's my brother... that's my boat...
mama said...
Wow! Can I also sail with you guys? You're amazing!
Heck yah! Welcome aboard new friend!
Did that boat used to belong to Jeff Zircko
Not to our knowledge, we are the 3rd owners and know the previous owner’s name was John. The original owner would have owned Avocet in ‘79-mid 80’s. Do you know something we don’t? 😉
From 9:04 to 9:10 Fred Flintstone was driving by in the background. 😂
IM SO GLAD YOU CAUGHT THAT! When we were editing we were thinking someone would think that it was a sound we added... nope! Natural noises from the yard 😂 yabba dabba doo!
Subbed from India
Thanks! Welcome aboard