Here’s the nice thing about fiberglass: It doesn’t rot. It doesn’t tarnish. As the saying goes, it doesn’t rust, bust, explode, corrode or wrinkle around the edges. In short, barring forest fires, volcanic eruptions and other gnarly acts of Nature, it pretty much lasts forever. So if you were to find something like — oh, let’s just say an old boat — in a barn somewhere, all it would take to “restore” the fiberglass parts would be the proper cleaning products, a sunny afternoon and little elbow grease.
Which brings us to a new-for-2013 feature of Summer Sailstice: the Second Wind Project. The mission: get an old boat sailing again.
What kind of boat? Really, anything qualifies. But to keep things simple, we were thinking less of larger boats, or wooden craft, and more of the plentiful supply of older dinghies and beach cats.
Few people recall the ‘60s and ‘70s for the sailing. But the fact is, the Age of Aquarius was also a golden age for recreational boating. In the background, behind all the long hair, crazy clothes and loud music, an actual revolution took place. It hinged on a newfangled way to build boats out of resin and fiberglass. Where a wooden craft might take weeks to put together, you could build the fiberglass equivalent in a single day.
Story of 'rescued sailboat' during a Texas Sailstice sail: http://www.summersailstice.com/articles/viewarticle/593/
The hundreds of thousands small craft built that way made sailing suddenly accessible to millions of people around the world who might otherwise have never been exposed to it. No longer did you have to order a boat from a builder months in advance, or go through the long and painstaking process of building your own. For the first time, you could drive down to a dealer in the morning, purchase your spiffy new Sunfish, Hobie Cat, Flying Scot, Lido 14, Laser — or countless other small, simple, affordable designs — and be out sailing by afternoon.
Memories of those times and boats can run deep. Ask any of the luminaries of sailing what got them hooked, and it may surprise you how many will cite a simple sail on an early ‘glass dinghy with a father or uncle or friend as igniting that first spark. So it is with countless others who never went on to win an America’s Cup or Round-The World Race, but who still enjoy sailing and making memories for the next generation.
The good news is, many of those boats are still out there. They might be covered by tarps behind someone’s garage or by pigeon droppings in an old barn. We’ve seen them hung from rafters, half-buried under bushes and leaves, or so completely buried under boxes in a dark corner that it might take a two-day archeological dig just to find out what kind of boat it is. Many are home to mice, overgrown by blackberry bushes, full of leaves or covered by a thousand generations of spider webs.
Almost all of them are restorable, and we hope you’ll become a founding member of the Second Wind Project by doing just that.
Here’s how it works: restore an old boat to sailing condition (or promise to — we trust you), tell us the story, and take a few before-and-after photos. We’ll publish your photos and the short version of your story here on the website, and you’ll automatically qualify for special giveaways from our sponsors. If you actually take your reincarnated boat sailing on Summer Sailstice, which is June 22 this year, you will be entered in a contest for special prizes.
There are Golden Oldies all over the place these days: restored cars, classic music stations, even battle reenactments. (Hey, we just heard the Rolling Stones are going on tour again!) We hope you’ll join us in expanding that trend to include great old boats from the golden age of recreational sailing.
Need a little more inspiration? Check out the following before and after photos of some beautiful restorations...
Before, two Hobie 16s awaiting rescue pledged to be sailing this summer!
After:
Send your photos and we'll add them here.
Now if you really get into it and curious about fiberglass and all those boats that were built you could read a great book on the subject:
It's amazing how fiberglass changed the world - especially the world of sailing.
Browsing the web we found these before and after shots of an old Sunfish:
Sunfish after:
Who said there isn't life after death? Proof that anyone can help an orphan - great job on this one! You can see the whole story here.
Here's another nice site from folks restoring small boats: http://smallboatrestoration.blogspot.com/2013/11/sunfish-class-association.html
And, people who send pics in like this have a chance to win some Prizm Polish just to keep it all looking fab!
Comments from 2013 sailboat restorations: http://www.summersailstice.com/contest/restore-small-boat
More Small Boat Restorations: http://smallboatrestoration.blogspot.com/p/o.html