Mystic Puffin
After getting some advice from fellow owners, Click here for the letters, I got the following letter and pictures.
I have received the following pictures of Hull 10 from Jerry & Karen Huff. We can all look forward to hearing more as their project proceeds. I also posted a letter Karen sent below the pictures.
Hi,
First, I want to tell you how much I appreciate this site! I'm still exploring, but the wealth of knowledge that people have shared is making this adventure seem much more manageable.
Jerry sent in some pictures yesterday of the Mystic Puffin as she is. She appears basically sound, but in need of TLC, and has had some pretty sloppy repairs at some point. Derin had made a good start on a lot of the work before he sold it to us. He did a lovely job of refinishing hatch covers. Most of the doors, drawer fronts, etc. are in our basement now, with most of the sanding already done, for which I am grateful. After a little routine maintenance, the Yanmar 20 purrs along like it was born yesterday.
We've found a couple of places on the upper hull with dry rot, the cabin/deck joint appears to be leaking, and we have a small leak forward that we haven't been able to pinpoint with her in the water. The mast boot was leaking water into the cabin, but that's an easy fix. The lower boards of the cabin where it meets the deck, and the two forward posts need replacing. Rewiring needs to be done, some instruments replaced. Whatever the deck was coated with (we were told, I think, Dynell)shows a lot of crazing and cracks. The cockpit decking is shot.
We are planning a haul out in late June, after school is out, to minimize time out of the water. I'm a teacher, and after the 25th I can spend all day on her, as well as Jerry getting a few days off. I just printed out Chairman Bob's concerns list.
We have, of course, had lots of our boating friends make helpful suggestions, like that we have possibly lost our minds. But I've dreamed of owning a wooden boat for decades (grew up fishing on Lake Michigan in small wooden boats with my grandfather). She's big enough to take to Mexico when we retire in a few years. She meets Jerry's bluewater cruising requirements, and he's respected my mournful squawks when we were sailing the trusty Cal 25 around the bay of "but fiberglass has no soul...." We'd love to hear from any of the other owners around.
Fair winds, Karen