We were a little nervous about having her delivered and I was more than a little jealous about not being able to bring her up here ourselves. She was in capable hands though and now she is here and all ours. Now the fun/work begins…

Anyway, Laughalot is ours now and we have already started the process of bringing her into the 21st century. There is so much to do to her. She is in great condition to sail right now, but we want to update the electronics, work on the engine, electrical systems, rigging, and plumbing. Updates on her restoration progress will be posted here.

She did come with loads of extras that we weren’t even expecting. She has a gimbaled stove/oven, hot water heater, refrigerator, brand new stereo system, wind generator, water maker, dinghy, life raft, epirb, bimini with dodger, and even an air conditioning/heating unit that works perfectly. Unbelievable!!! We were truly “laughing a lot” at our good fortune when we made the deal and she was all ours. Enjoy the photos.

The marina where she is located is at the end of a long channel that leads out to the Gulf of Mexico. There used to be a restaurant in the big building you see in the photos, but it burned on the inside and never reopened. As you can see from the photos we are in the last slip on the dock and it is so private and peaceful there. When you are looking at the building from the channel Laughalot is to the right, tucked back in the corner.

Our first weekend we spent on Laughalot was last weekend and we were surprised and excited to see all kinds of birds. We saw white herons, gray storks (or herons, not sure about that one), pelicans, seagulls, and one bird of prey who apparently is a local.

Boat at ramp dock.

Once we had the boat in place we were ready to back down the trailer, or so we thought. We backed it down once only to find out that there was a really good reason the trailer had an extension bar. The trailer was barely in the water and there was no way the boat was going on it that way. So, we hauled it out and went about extending the bar.

Trailer with bar extended.

With the trailer extended it was now time to get the boat on it and haul it out of the water. This is easier said than done, especially with a sailboat. When we purchased this boat we were told that the cable that brings the swing keel up was broken and the previous owner did not know if the keel was up or down. Since this is a difference in about 4 foot of draft this was a concern. We knew if we could get it positioned just right the keel would swing up as we pulled the boat on to the trailer if it was down. Odds were that it was. We pulled it up to the end of the trailer where it drifted just off the back edge of the runner. The keel was indeed down and we know this because the boat promptly got stuck right where it had drifted. Drawing on our past experience of being stuck on the keel of our previous boat we proceeded to rock and roll the boat in an attempt to get it unstuck. This was not working and after about 30 minutes of man-handling Scott decided that if we couldn’t get the boat on the trailer we would put the trailer under the boat. He pulled the trailer out and repositioned it under the boat where we were able to secure the wench to the eye and pull her up onto the trailer. We pulled her out and quickly learned how to put the extension bar back in.

Pulling her out.

We then began to assess the condition of the boat below the waterline. Twelve years of algae and other “stuff” had built up on her hull. We decided she needed to have a good power washing on the way home.

Don’t Touch It!!

But first we had to de-mast her. We had not done this before. We had read how to do it and now we had to do it. We loosened all the stays and then disconnected the front three. This freed the mast so that it could be lowered aft and removed from the mast step. We then strapped it down and secured all the lines, stays and anything else that might jump ship.

We’re going to do what?

Time to roll.

Once she was de-masted we took her to the closest car wash that had a truck bay. This place was aptly named “Spiffy Car Wash”. I was so amazed at how well she cleaned up. Twelve years of muck washed down the drain. Yea!!

Wow!

Spiffy!!

Now that we have her home the plan is to work on her this spring and take her out a few times to the lakes in the area and down to the gulf.

The plan is to haul her out and bring her home around the 12th of November 2006 and begin work on her restoration. There is a lot of work to be done.