Like everything else though, it is the small things that can make or break a love affair with a boat. While I will wait a year to make big changes such as opening ports and paint, there is much I can do now to make tea into a much more enjoyable boat.
While not seen on any of these pictures, she actually comes with a very nice upgrade in the form of a "high performance kick up rudder assembly" from Rudder Craft. While not as pretty as the original Monty Rudder, this promises better balanced "feel" and appears to be smoother in operation in raising or lowering. It certainly is heavy.
As we are at the rudder, I need to point out that my Monty no longer has her stock engine mount, but instead has one that can be raised or lowered. Unfortunately this has led to some serious gelcoat cracks along the hull to deck mount area. I am going to have to grind out this whole area and repair it. I might update to a better removable engine mount.
She also has a small hole in the middle of the top of her stern. Not sure what it was put in for, but it was not done on accident. Again, something to be repaired later.
I will also admit to hating the boarding ladder. I will be doing something about that, just not sure what yet. Between the Rudder, boarding ladder, and engine, tea's stern is extremely cluttered and that annoys me to no end. What is the sense of owning a pretty boat if you are going to hang shit all over it?
And of course there is this lonely little stern light. The previous owner had ripped out all the wiring and lighting off of my boat, but left this poor thing to hang on the stern and do nothing. I will be rewiring and adding navigation, anchor, and steaming lights back to tea, but I will be upgrading this poor light to something more modern and LED.
And to round off the stern: There are several outlets and mounts in the cockpit that need to be addressed. I am not planning on powering anything up back here, so all this will have to go and get cleaned up.
Moving forwards, the dropboards are made of what looks like starboard, and while functional and rot proof, not very exciting or pretty. I have a sheet of Sapale in the basement, so I will be building something more classy here. The bottom board I am going to keep though. As I am not fond of the small step over lip that separates the cockpit from the cabin, I will keep it in place while sailing and add a compass, radio, and airhorn mount to it so they fall more easily to hand when out and about on the water.
Inside the cabin looks decent enough at first glance. Plain but functional with some non-grotty velvet green cushions on the v-berth but not on the quarters. These will be going away, but it is not a pressing need as they are still quite functional at the moment.
The problem is when you look down. That big gray panel is where tea had all her electrical switches and controls. This is going to be a big repair that will make a distinct change in how the cabin looks. As I will be adding electrics and electronics back to my Monty, I will need to add switches back along with power points, and such. Watch this space.
No surprises in the storage areas of the cabin. Battery on the Port side, portapottie on the SB. Under the cushions is in really good shape and the lift off panels look almost new.
battery storage. I may put an almost new AGM battery here and move it further forwards out of the way.
Portapottie. I shudder to think of the horrors that lie within. I am not a fan of this kind of toilet, so I will be removing it and doing some surgery to install a c-head composting toilet.
Looking into the quarter berths and under the cockpit reveals no surprises. I do need to replace the cockpit drain hoses as they look to be at the end of their lives.
Under the cockpit I want to add some pull out drawers to make storage more accessible and organized. I will be borrowing from the overlanding community to design and build these.
Looking up is where the cabin space falls apart. tea has obviously had many rigging changes over the years. The underside of the cabin top is a minefield of bolts that are just waiting to scalp the balding. Some of them are only there to fill holes from equipment that was removed, others were added haphazardly as pulleys, cam cleats, and handrails were added, removed, moved, and put back. I am thinking I will have to do a lot of filling and sealing before adding something decorative to this deadly looking area.
Moving topside, I only see two things that annoy me. Not a fan of the dark gray anti-skid. The guy I bought tea from painted it and was planning on doing the same to the gunwale strip along her side. I am thinking something less harsh to look at and cooler on the feet like a light tan or sand colour.
And finally, as the previous owner was getting up in years and his older wife was positively elderly, he removed the teak toerails from the aft end of the deck to put in jibsheet guides. This allowed him to control everything from the aft end of the cockpit and not bother his wife with lines or tripping hazards as she moved from side to side with the ever changing heel. I would rather have the toerails as I usually sail alone and tend to sit further forwards.
Overall though, aside from not being able to register her in my name till the end of the month and the drainage hoses that need to be replaced before she sees water again, I do not see anything keeping me from splashing tea right now and going for a sail. I also have enough small little projects to keep me happily occupied for a while.
