Hello Jason,

We just went through this repair with TAHANAN two summers ago. Todd, Larry and Jason at the Cape George yard took care of most of the work and I have only good things to say. I got involved in some of the work just to economize on the amount of money we were putting out for labor. If you have the time and the inclination I would reccomend doing the same- it's a great education if you don't mind getting dirty.

The scary thing about a project like this is that there is no way of knowing how far it might have to go once you open it up. We were fortunate in that water damage had not made it's way past the bulwarks. As you mention it is an expensive proposition even in the best case. That said I am certain that if we had put off the repairs we would have had a much bigger project to tackle.

In our case TAHANAN's deck and bulwarks were overlaid with 'glass during construction. Water was coming in where some of the hardware bedding had failed, and where the bond failed where the glass coming over the bulwarks met the hull. There was a section of the wood bulwark in the bow on both sides that was rotten, but everywhere else it was in good shape. Our repair to the rails was to replace the wood where it was rotten and to completely encase the bulwarks with a fiberglass layup that went completely over the bulwarks from the waterways over and down into the sheer stripe. All of the hardware and stanchion bases were re-bedded and the cap rails (which we had carefully removed at the beginning) were cleaned up and re-installed.

The Cape george yard is a great small shop. Todd is very easy to work with and very knowledgeable. Jason's woodwork is excellent, Larry is a top notch fiberglass guy. Todd's broth Tim is on sight with Meridian Stainless if you have andy metal fabrication needs. (he made us some really cool, simple and beautiful anchor chain fairleads) The quality of the work all the way around is very good both structurally and cosmetically. If you stick around the yard at lunch time you will find they are very patient hacky sack instructors as well. On top of all that Port Townsend in general is a great place to work on a boat

Since the repair we have not had any more leaks. We specialize in wet weather sailing. Not having to bail out our lockers has made us very happy sailors! Unfortunately there is no way around this being a costly project, either in time, money or both, but it is far less costly than dealing with the damage done if it is put off for too long. Good luck. I would be happy to discuss this further if you have any more specific questions.

Richard Jacoby S/V TAHANAN