Ex Mariposa rebuilt

[ozzie]

Just to give the people and (PO) Norris Johnson who are familiar with the story of the C34 Mariposa an update.
Mariposa was a Hurricane Ike victim and has now been completely restored and now rests happily in her slip in Kelowna BC Canada.
It was a huge undertaking including building a trailer and towing the boat up to Canada from Texas. Then with the help of my crew (one is a Kiwi shipwright) will pulled the boat apart and put it back together again. Luckily for Mariposa Norris went down after the hurricane and put heaters on the boat to dry it out. From what I can tell not a lot of water got into the boat. So the interior, electrical, mechanical were in great shape. Most of the stainless rails and stanchions were gone. There was a large piece of deck on the starboard side rubbed off and after the tempory patch came off we found that the boat hull was not damaged. We rebuilt the the deck in that area and repaired many scratches and gouges to the topsides. Under the waterline there was no damage except some minor scrapes and we removed all of the the antifouling back to the bare hull to inspect for damage. Then applied of many layers of epoxy barrier coat and new antifouling. We towed the boat to a local body shop that has a huge paint booth that is designed for RV's and they primed and painted the topsides. We also made up new standing rigging and rigged the boat with a spinnaker pole.
As for the future of ex-Marriposa now renamed (by the proper ceremony) Aussie Rules II we will be cruising on Lake Okanagan then hope to follow in a few years the track of Steve Dowling's Black Dragon and head to down the west coast to Mexico and beyond.

Dave.

[Ralph Masters]

That is a very good story.  Congratulations on your efforts, she looks great in the photo.  My wish for you a fair winds and following seas.

Ralph
Ciao Bella

[waterdog]

Dave,

Very nice looking boat!  Well done.      We are down in Zihuatanejo at the moment aboard our friends' cat Gato Go reliving a little of last year's adventure.   Can't wait to go cruising again.   

Small question.   How do you get from Lake Okanagan to the Pacific?    Seems like it might be a rough ride...


Steve

[Roger Blake]

Magnificent! Congrats! Job well done. Fair sailing.

[lazybone]

Would love to see pics of the project in progress if you have any.

Looks great on and you should be proud.

[Norris Johnson]

Dave,

She looks fantastic. I'm really glad you got her. She's found a good home. I really hated to give her up, but the insurance money was much more than I could have gotten anywhere else. I hope you enjoy her as much as I did. I have a 36 now and it is a very nice boat, but I still miss my 34.

That is one tough boat. All of the boats around her after the storm were either sunk or totaled on the spot. It took 6 mos. for the insurance to declare the boat totaled and that was determined by the fiberglass people that the insurance folks had picked. I knew she was still a solid boat.

Good Luck ,
Norris Johnson

[Stu Jackson]

Here's an earlier post by Dave with pictures

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5313.0.html

[pablosgirl]

Here are the "before pictures" from the USAuctions web site where Dave bought the boat from.
http://usauctions.com/ItemDetails.aspx?ID=8604

[ozzie]

Thank you everyone. It has been allot of work, but defiantly worth it. If we had not done the work ourselves then the restoration would not have been viable.
Yes Steve it would be a rough ride to the coast from the Okanagan. Luckily I have the trailer Not to many people can say that their C34 can do 100km/h.
Norris we really enjoy your old boat and it gets used almost every weekend April to September.
We also have a partnership in a Santana 525 race boat and use the C34 as a mothership to tow it around to regatta's.

I will add some pictures but due to file size I will post them separately.

Dave.

[ozzie]

Trailering to the body shop

[Kevin Henderson]

Absolutely inspiring
Also glad to hear you gave her a 'proper' renaming ceremony.  One never wants to tempt the Gods.
Plus, you now have what is the only C-34 'Trailer Sailor" around.  Really expands those cruising grounds.

[ozzie]

Thanks Kevin,

It was not an exercise for the faint of heart. The next time when I tow the boat over the mountains to the coast I will rent a bigger truck. My diesel did the job but it only just did it. After the boat was loaded we scaled it minus the trailer at 14500lbs (not the 12500lbs that Catalina Yachts told me when I talked to their tech department) That extra 2000lb made a big difference when you are at or above your towing limits. The boat was completely empty, no gear or water and a small amount of fuel.
I know this is an old thread, but it is about a year since the relaunch so it is a good time to update things. We are still using the boat allot. We are out most weekends sailing and overnighting. When it gets too hot at home we head down to the boat and stay overnight. We have tried to race the C34 in our local light airs with some frustration and now tow a small race boat around to regatta's and use the Catalina as the mothership. 

Dave.

[Stu Jackson]

Dave, where do you anchor out?  Isn't there a bridge on the lake?

[ozzie]

Stu, about 4 years ago the old bridge was replaced with new bridge that has a 60ft clear span to let us yachties and tour boats pass thru a anytime. This opened up the lake especially for sailing. There is approx. 60 mooring buoys scattered around the Okanagan Lake that everyone can use so we tie up to them mostly if they are available. Sometime we will go to other yacht clubs on the lake and get reciprocal moorage. We do anchor out but we have to be selective as it is a very deep lake (600ft+ in places) with a rocky shore line.

Dave