Auctioned Catalina Gets Sweet Overhaul

Blanco, a pert Catalina 30, isn’t just white, as her Spanish name implies. She’s also crisply blue and mas perfecto after her detailed overhaul at Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard.

The boat was purchased at auction by professional mariner CJ Collins, a 1600-ton licensed captain in the Puget Sound area. Blanco was in great need of some TLC and service and repair inside and out, “so we’re bringing her back to life,” said Mark Lindeman, boatyard manager at Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard.

Her gleaming white freeboard and clean, new-blue bottom paint belie how the Cal pobrecito looked when she first came to the yard. Her fiberglass was grunge-streaked and her hull mottled, peeling and blemished. That was just the beginning of a long list of life-reviving overhaul tasks that faced the boatyard crew.

“Blanco” Gets Overhaul and New Life at Gig Harbor Marina

Carl Conner, fiberglass laminator and yacht rigger, played a big roll in Blanco’s makeover, starting with through-hull fittings.

“She got all new through-hull fittings and valves,” said Conner from atop the Cat 30’s deck as he worked on her. “We glassed up the through-hull fittings inside and outside. You have to grind them out and then fill them back in with fiberglass laminate.”

The crew also put in a new engine, tearing out the old and installing a rebuilt Yanmar 2GM20F inboard diesel engine. Conner and boatwright Lenny Mason fiberglassed-in the engine stringers and then fiberglassed over the top of the wooden supports to give the engine the sturdy foundation it needed, Lindeman said.

But before the new engine could go in, the resourceful crew at Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard had to solve another problem: Blanco was missing two motor mounts, so they fabricated and welded new ones, and then located three flexible Yanmar engine mounts from Lindeman’s vast connections in the business.

“I called a buddy of mine at Longship Marine in Poulsbo to see if he had any used engine mounts,” said Lindeman. “And to the glee of everyone, he did! I dispatched Blanco’s owner to pick them up and he was ecstatic.

“Lenny got the engine running, painted it and got the jelled fuel out of the fuel system,” added the boatyard manager.

“We’re bringing her back to life” — Mark Lindeman, boatyard manager

The sailboat’s overhaul also included new spreaders. Lindeman’s crew modified some used aluminum spreaders to replace the old deteriorated shroud struts.

The Cat’s rudder was cracked from a past impact incident, so the crew repaired and reinstalled the rudder.

“Carl ground out all the damaged material and relaminated it to the proper scantlings that the design thickness called for,” said Lindeman.

Last, but not least for a sailboat, the boatyard crew rerigged and stepped the mast and installed new lights. Lindeman himself spliced new halyards to be installed for raising and lowering Blanco’s sails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After her stop at Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard, Blanco is ready to sail off into the blue this summer. She has been brought back to life — and it’s a buena vida indeed.