Opening the Boat

 April 9, 2011 I  made my first trip down to the boat at Lake Pepin to remove the tarps and start opening the boat with Dave. The boat was transported from New York late last year after the snow fall. So today is my first look at the boat. Dave knew last fall that there were a couple of small leaks in the upper portion of the boat so there were some wet areas inside as well as some mold and mildew. Most of this was caused by neglect by the previous owner before Dave bought the boat. Dave knew all along that replacing the seat cushions and refinishing the interior would need to be done. Overall the boat is in good condition but in preparing for the trip we plan to go through the boat from top to bottom and checking it out as thoroughly as we possibly can. This coming week the marina will be soda blasting the hull, which will remove all of the old paint and rust that has accumulated on the bottom, then repainting the entire bottom. At the same time  they will be installing a new rutter that Dave has on order. Over the next 60 days Dave and I plan to spend somewhere between 1-2 days per week prepping the boat for the water as we will need to take one of the three classes that have been scheduled this summer on Dave's boat.