Jim: About the boat

We bought Helios in September of 2003 in Annapolis. She is a 1977 47' Olympic Adventure Ketch, Hull number 29. Helios was the Greek god of the sun, so we thought it would be a good name for our vessel. She is a Ted Brewer designed boat that was built at the Olympic ship yard in Greece. After Ted designed the Whitby 42, he wanted a little bigger boat that was roughly the same design, except this one had a third cabin for paid crew. I haven't found any "paid crew" yet, but I am beginning to suspect it might be me and the pay will be in rum. She really is a bigger example of a Whitby 42. She was shipped to the Great Lakes region of the US where she had two owners and sailed there for 26 years. Her owner shipped her from Cleveland to Annapolis via truck to sell her.

Just 21 days after we bought the boat, Hurricane Isabel came up the Chesapeake Bay and visited. We rode it out at our slip in the marina. We had winds of up to 65 knots. We didn't get a scratch. Pat even had a conference call during the storm and the folks on the other end kept asking what that noise was in the background.

We are currently at Herrington Harbour South in Friendship, MD. We keep the boat in the water from April to October and store it at Herrington Harbour North in the winter. Since 2003, we have done a lot of work to include:
- All new standing rigging.
- New Quantum sails.
- Leisure furl boom on the main mast.
- Two new 40 gallon poly fuel tanks to replace the 162 gallon iron tank that was leaking.
- New 12 gallon Raritan water heater.
- Fiber-glassed over 4 thru-hulls that were not being used.
- Removed the entire fresh water system (including two 50 gallon aluminum tanks).
- Removed A/C power refrigeration system.
- Fixed damage to the aft section of the keel (no, it was already there).
- Had custom cushions made for the cockpit by "Bottom Siders" (best money we have spent so far).
- Removed all varnish from all topside wood and applied "Tea-Que" oil to the wood. With roughly 300 feet of wood on the top deck, we didn't want to spend all our time varnishing.
- Chased down 4 leaks in the forward and main cabins and killed them with much prejudice.
- Added a custom-made deck box on the aft coach roof to use as a propane locker and deck storage.
- Right now the navigation and radar systems are being installed along with a new inverter to change our D/C battery current to A/C. This will allow us to use A/C power without starting the generator or plugging into shore power. Four new 8d gel cell batteries are also being installed. At 168 pounds each, I needed a little help with that one.

We still have a little ways to go. New water system, fridge, propane line from the bottles to the oven, forward cabin cushions to sew, some diesel engine work to do...
There will always be something. But come late October, we are heading south.

So that is all for now. I will try to drop a line every few days as the work progresses.
No sign of Elvis yet, but there is a little light on at the end of the tunnel.

Cheers,