Oxidation Blues

I started cleaning up the hull this weekend. There is more oxidation than I thought, started off using cleaner/wax, then polishing compound and now polishing compound with scotch brite. It's easy to see where I started, look on the right side of the photo.

Seats are air boxes, no deck plates, aux mount

Change in plans, I found out from the folks at The Sailboat Store in Austin that the seats are air boxes for flotation.

Plan B: I won't install deck plates in the seats, I'll drill another set of holes in the Aux bracket instead and reinforce it with an aluminum plate

The Catalina rep says the transom is reinforced with plywood. My tap test didn't find any dry rot yet.

Bottom Up!

The boats off of the trailer so the fun begins;

Clean up the hull

Replace centerboard gasket 54" long and 2 1/2" wide, each gasket is about 1 1/4" wide.

Reinforce port and starboard chain stays

Clean up or redo repair to stern gelcoat.

Fix the trailer lights

Install a winch on the trailer

Tiller Repair

Not much of the original varnish left, the wood had split around the screws. I used Gorilla glue and a c-clamp to repair the checking. Their not kidding when they say Gorilla glue expands 3-4 times its original volume. It sands easy when it's dry and is waterproof. A couple of hours with some 100 grit sandpaper cleaned up the old varnish and glue.

8/20/2006

After I filled the checks and cracks, more sanding with 120 sand paper and the 1st coat of varnish goes on. It will definitely need a 2nd and maybe a 3rd coat. I put one of the screws in the tiller and hung it from the back porch roof to apply the varnish. No runs, fingerprints etc. In this 100 degree heat it dries quickly.

Other Omegas on the net

Omega Owners Manual

Catalina Yachts included the manual. That's customer support after 20+ years!

Deck and Rigging Layout

The folks at Catalina were kind enough to send me a copy of everything they had in thier files on the Omega.

To Do List

Here's my list of projects for the Omega so far

Polish the boat

Replace the Halyards and other lines on the centerboard and rudder. All the lines on the boat are original.

Repair the gelcoat on the port side where the boom fell and cracked the gelcoat.

Repair gelcoat on the port shroud tang.

Replace rusty zinc plated screw on centerboard bracket with ss screw.

Replace tape on rigging.

Check trailer wiring, the lights don't work.

Repair fiberglass on plywood in cubby.

Repair and refinish tiller.

Reinforce transom and install motor mount for aux.

More photos

A few more photos

The harsh sun of Central Texas is hard on anything left outside. The tarp with bungees is a temporary shelter until I build my boat shed. I took these photos shortly after I brought her home.

Omega Line Drawing

Here's the basic layout of the Omega

Why this boat?

The Capri Omega is the ancestor of the Catalina 14.2 sailboat. Capri was purchased by Catalina and the name was changed for legal reasons. Built the late '70's and early 1980's the family resemblance is easy to see. Check out the Catalina/Capri 14.2 link for more details.

When I found this boat on Craigslist I had looked at several other boats. The budget was decided with a family conference so I had the OK from the significant other. I saw lots of boats that were more project than I have the resources to do. I have learned the hard way to double or triple your SWAG on the time and dollars for a project and that will be close to the actual time and expense. So far as I can tell, the boat has never been in the water at the age of 23! The boat is complete and everything is there circa 1983. Another big plus was the boat and trailer had a current title, tags and registration.

Some thing valuable lessons I learned;

Check Craigslist and EBay and websites like the Catalina 14.2 org homepage for boats for sale.

Some sellers are optimists when descrbing the condition of the boat. Everything costs more than you estimate.

There are great resources on the Internet for sailing and sailboats. Educate yourself and know what you want before you buy.