Before and During

This last week we had our Cascade 36 hauled for a new paint job. To save money, we have been doing the prep work ourselves, under the supervision of the boat yard's master painter, Mark. Peter has done 99% of the work, but I have helped with work not involving the sander. A week of sanding with a compressed air sander, including removal of the old name and stripes on the hull, and she appears pristine and ready for her new look.

It took a little time for Peter to get the "touch" with the sander.  The gray that you see on the surface is a material that you put on so that you can see where you have sanded and if the work is complete for that section.

The sanding went faster than we originally anticipated - Peter was able to do the first sanding in about three days.  I did hand sanding at the join with the bottom paint, and we were done with this first stage.  Mark took over to do the final detail prep, including filling deeper defects.  He then masked off the topsides and bottom and the boat was ready for the primer coat - to be applied today!

The Name!

We bought our Cascade 36 in September 2009 and have been getting used to sailing her on the Columbia River in Portland Oregon. We are the second owners. She was built in 1988 and launched in 1990 and has been south to Mexico and north of the Gulf Islands with the prior owner. We spent quite a bit of time looking for a boat - we wanted something a bit larger for more comfort in open water and while cruising. Since September we have focused on learning systems and evaluating upgrades. However, we knew when we bought her that she needed a new paint job. Although we initially thought we would wait longer, events came together to make it possible now, so here we are - a few days away from a pristine hull!

With a new paint job comes the option - perhaps the necessity - of a new name to make her truly ours. We spent quite some time researching names, looking for something that reflects our feeling of good fortune in

having this beautiful boat in our lives. We eventually settled on Ablissian, one of the names suggested by our daughter. It means to "make glad" in old English. Peter is English, so this seems appropriate, and of course she makes us very glad, so there you go!

We worked with a sign designer to select a font and letter size - tomorrow we will pick up the template so that our painter can include the name when he adds the stripe below the toe rail. We will need to have the paperwork updated (this is a documented vessel) and of course have a ceremony to christen Ablissian properly.

A little background. I'm a girl who grew up in the land locked midwest, whose only sailing experience prior to moving west was an afternoon messing around with a Sunfish on a lake. As I recall, I spent a lot of time in the water that day. Peter, however, lived for a time with his family in Sydney, Australia, and fell in love with sailing there. So the seeds were sown and it was only a matter of time after we got together before we would become boat owners.

The first was a Lido (14'), which we co-owned with Peter's brother (Simon) and his family, and sailed on the Willamette River in Portland. As time passed we grabbed onto a Laser and then two Toppers for the kids when the local sailing club was selling them cheap. Our daughter added to the collection with a 12' wooden sailboat she built. But eventually we moved up to our 26' C&C, co-owned again with Simon's family. She was the yellow sailboat, Zenobia, moored in Harbour Marina on Bainbridge Island in Washington. What followed were 9 years of wonderful sailing experiences in Pudget Sound, the San Juans and the Gulf Islands.