I recently purchased a beautiful Dolphin 24 sailboat. The boat was manufactured in 1968 and has a great history compiled by Ron at dolphin24.org. I'm honored to be a part of her story, and I hope to take great care of her over the next few years.

She came without a name so I plan to call her Ioni, after a Graecian sea nymph known for riding a dolphin, and the Ionian people—seafaring nation in the ancient Aegean, credited with the founding of science. It also is a reference to the origin of the word ion. Claire came up with the idea to use a particle as a nod to the wave-particle duality, which seems pretty appropriate for a sailboat.

Rigged and Ready

The boat was in decent condition for sailing when I bought it, though it does need a bit of maintenance. Most of the issues are cosmetic though fortunately.

Interior, without paneling between cabin and under-cockpit

A little messy, but I can take care of that.

The Big Worry

Supposedly, 50% of boats sink because of failure to repair equipment below the waterline. For me, the big fear comes from my old seacocks.

As you can see they have significant corrosion. I plan to replace these soon, but it's quite difficult since removal has to take place when the boat is out of the water. I'll assess them more carefully during my first bottom paint job later this summer. I don't want to turn the handle now because I've read horror stories of corroded seacocks crumbling apart during their test.

Bilge Pump Electrical

As a backup plan, in the event that one of those seacocks starts to leak, I want to make sure that the bilge pump will be able to run to keep the boat from filling. I'll link to that in an upcoming post.

Cleanup and Repaneling

In the short term, I just needed to get the boat slightly more livable since I will be staying on her a few nights per week to commute to work.

The first step was to clean up. This mostly consisted of removing the gas tanks from the interior of the boat and cleaning up a few spots, particularly the head.

I also had to add back some panels that had been removed and stored under the bilge. The wood was a bit spotty so I repaired with wood glue and bits of wood.

Next Steps

There are still tons of things to do. The next big project will be a haul out and repaint of the bottom with biocidal paint. At that time, I'll assess the seacock situation and any issues with the exterior of the hull. After that, I need to attach new pulleys to the boom for the outhaul. After that, I'll reconnect the electrical for the mast lights and radio. I also suspect that I'll need to caulk some parts of the topside of the boat and woodwork. Eventually, I'd like to get some system so I can keep the sails on the outside of the boat (just so I have more room inside). The last thing to do is rehab the wood on the interior and exterior before it deteriorates too much. Probably around the end of the year, I'll need some new lines too.

It does already start to feel like home though. There's a lot of work to do, but I'm excited (and terrified) for it.