“SOLE – Cabin or saloon floor.” One thing I always wanted to do on Magnolia-S was have the cabin sole refinished. It was one of the tasks on the must do list for Magnolia-M . The pilothouse is real Teak and Holly. Many boats have Teak & Holly veneer on plywood so I was completely surprised to find that our sole was solid boards instead. Learning that was all the more reason to restore the best we could. In regards to tools see the single edge scrapers to the left. The Reverend used those and a heat gun to quickly removed the existing varnish.

Ray, also known as the Reverend Of Sole has done A LOT of work on Magnolia. He is leading the way and lets me come and get in the way. I help where and I can and really excel at step-n-fetch.

Using the heat gun and scraper got down to the raw Teak and Holly.

The raw wood was power sanded with increasing finer paper to 220 grit.

The Reverend used the AwlGrip products on the sole.

The first coat application was absorbed like a sponge.

The Reverend used a taped 3 inch chip brush to cut the edges and then a 6 inch foam roller for application.

If the Reverend did not step on the sole he was able to apply 2 coats per workday.

This was application of coat number 4.

In the end we applied 7 coats in the Pilothouse.

The rest of the sole is teak parquet . The Reverend tapes the edge to protect the teak as he is sanding.

The plan was to give the below decks sole a good sanding and not go to the time and expense of fully stripping the sole.

After three coats of varnish and hardware re-installed they look terrific! We will be putting down some rugs and the gloss finish will make the edges really pop!

If all goes to plan we will be moving aboard next week. We are very excited to say the least.

All the work done thus far was to get us here, to get hauled and the stabilizers serviced. Magnolia in the straps getting the “big chunks” removed.

Finally blocked and ready for a busy (very) week!

Pablo got right to work getting the bottom prepped for paint.

The biggest unknown of this whole refit was the condition of the stabilizer system. Stabilizers are very common on big cruise ships and mega yachts. . The system responds to movement in the vessel and counteracts any wave induced rolling motion. Generally it makes for a very comfortable ride in most all sea conditions. Magnolia is equipped with an older system built by SeaRocq/Koopnautic, which was purchased by Naiad. Though all the mechanical/hydraulics are supported, if the computer fails (monster pictured below) well thats gonna hurt. Will cross that bridge if we get there!

Mean while, the bottom actually looked pretty decent after sitting around for the last few years.

The corner of the trailing edge on the starboard side had taken a chip at one time or another. That is a VERY minor repair.

Since this system had been “under-maintained” for so long we brought in the Naiad Factory guys to do the work.

The best news we heard was “wow, everything looks really terrific.” This is the hydraulic actuator mounted on the interior hull and rotates the fin as commanded.

The fin/shaft assembly dropped out of the actuator assembly. The shaft looked terrific with no wear marks anywhere.

It may not look it but the Teflon coated sheath was perfect with no wear at all. We decided not to replace and hold the new ones as onboard spares.

Everything went better than we could have imagined, so happy to have that maintenance behind us. On the upside, the maintenance cycle on this system is 3-5 years as opposed to the Naiad every two years!

While we were out of the water we replaced two transducers so we would have a port and starboard depth finder. That will help keep us in the middle of the channel!

While the yard was working on the bottom I took the opportunity to varnish the deck plate that will go into the laundry “room.” Yes, its small but there really is one!

The whole team did a terrific job. Magnolia went from drip to splash in a short 7 days. There was a TON of work accomplished…it was a good week!