I know you’re not supposed to discuss a lady’s age, but the simple fact is, Splendido is an 18-year old boat, and while she has had many, many lovely sailing days on Tahoe, both cruising and racing, she was beginning to show her age when we bought her at the end of the 2010 season. So, partly because I had to (for boat insurance) and partly because I wanted to (just so I would know), I had Splendido surveyed last fall by a wonderful marine surveyor named Vince DiLeo, AMS, of Admiralty Marine Services, LLC in Truckee, California.

Vince spent fully eight hours crawling around Splendido, checking every inch of her inside and out. His 37-page report spelled out news both expected (she had more than a few cosmetic dings all around the hull, including a pretty good hit on the port rub rail) and unexpected (she only has 386 hours on the Perkins Perama M20 engine; she needed a gel coat repair at the hull/keel joint; and the manual bilge pump needed to be completely rebuilt). Vince also noted that Splendido needed three port stanchions straightened, a number of cotter-rings replaced, a new head cap for the engine, and a few new hoses for the engine. As we walked around the boat, he pointed out that the knot-meter was out of alignment with the centerline, thereby giving a false speed reading. All pretty minor stuff, thankfully.

So, armed with Vince’s report and an internet connnection, I quickly sourced a head cap, Whale® Gusher™ bilge pump rebuild kit, and a new Ritchie compass, as Splendido‘s Danforth original had given up the ghost and was missing when we bought the boat. I also had a sneaking suspicion about the Jabsco raw-water impeller, and upon inspection, found that five of its six blades were split about half-way through.

But all that could wait. Debbie was quick to point out that Splendido needed to live up to her “beautiful” name (the first thing she noticed upon seeing her was her faded striping), so I called up Ted Thurston of TNT Auto & Marine Painting in Sparks, Nevada to have them make her all pretty again after 17 years of nicks, dings, and rough emergency MarineTex repairs made by previous owners. Ted and Kevin Thurston went to town on Splendido, creating a like-new appearance on the freeboard and transom, which had seen the heaviest wear over the years. They did expert fiberglass repairs where necessary, and finished everything with exact-match gel coat (I had contacted an engineer at Catalina who still had the factory gel coat codes, which he had forwarded to Spectrum Color). They even went the extra mile, painting perfectly-matched bottom paint over the “Catalina smile” repair where the hull and keel meet. The real kicker for me was how well they buffed her out and polished her hull after they made all the gel coat repairs. Now, she shines like the sun, replete with new Navy blue striping.

On the inside, Splendido looked pretty great, but I did notice a few water-stained pieces of trim and flooring that needed a little work. So, armed with my shop-worn Makita drill, I backed out the screws and removed five or six pieces to take home. After a bit of research, I picked up some Minwax pre-stain conditioner, natural stain, and Helmsman varnish. For the water-stained teak-and-holly sole, I decided to pick up some oxalic acid to bleach a football-sized area of dark water stain. This didn’t work, so I abandoned the idea of trying to repair this and decided to just make a new sole.

As I mentioned earlier, I noticed that one of the “seat risers” was so badly water-stained, I took it out and started to sand it down. At first I didn’t realize it was a teak veneer overlaying the plywood core until I accidentally sanded all the way through the veneer! So, I did my web search and found a great outfit back east that had quarter-sawn teak veneer that seemed to match what I already had in Splendido. I ordered a roll, prepped the original piece, and laid it down. It looked great. I hit it with five or six coats of Minwax Helmsman varnish with light sanding between coats, and it turned out great. After fabricating and installing a new PlasTeak™ floor (a big job, but a very satisfying one), the rest of the teak trim was looking a little shopworn, to put it mildly. Naturally, I had to pull out all the easier-to-remove teak trim pieces on the boat and go through the same process with them. (The rest can wait until next winter!)

I’m not gonna lie; from haul-out to winter storage to parts and repairs, everything costs more than I thought it would, and the big ticket item of the year—mooring—is due to be paid later this month. But, it has been an opportunity to part with toys we no longer use, like his-and-her golf clubs, a telescope, and my snowboard and boots. Still, we’ve already got a list of family and friends who want to soak up an afternoon of sailing Tahoe when the weather warms, and for that alone, the sacrifice is worth every penny.