We’re really proud of the way Splendido is turning out after going a bit crazy with the refit this past winter. For me, one of the most remarkable things is the transformation of the interior. I was actually OK with not doing anything on the interior this year, but Debbie wanted to “feather the nest” a bit and so she asked around and discovered a really talented young upholsterer from New Zealand named Chris Goodwin of Goodwin & Son Upholstery. Chris came out to the boat earlier this spring and spent more than an hour taking measurements, getting the feel for the interior, and asking questions about what we were looking for. I think the results (above) speak for themselves.

The previous interior was the standard 1993 Catalina 270 LE interior of light blue velour upholstery and the reverse-pattern sole of mostly holly and small strips of teak. As I posted elsewhere in this blog, Tracy and I built a new floor with a PlasTeak® laminate. That, in turn, made the bench seat risers look a little tired, so I re-did them. All this activity in the interior put Debbie in mind to re-do the upholstery. While I didn’t have a chance to take a photo of the interior before the project, the following is a shot of a 1993 sistership who’s interior looked virtually identical to the way ours looked only two months ago:

Both interiors have their merits, obviously, but we’re pretty stoked with the way Splendido‘s new interior turned out. Interestingly, the white buttons were an afterthought. Chris wasn’t happy with the way the Navy blue canvas was wrinkling after his first “fitting” of all the cushions, so he went back and made—by hand—all the half-dollar size white buttons you see in the first picture (above) to create “intentional” wrinkles in the cushions. Since that photo was taken, Debbie’s added a bunch of Pottery Barn accent pillows, so it’s starting to look downright homey. The look continues throughout the boat, making our 18-year old baby look in her prime once again.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB