January 2018 Happy Birthday, AmzerZo. We are honored to be the ones giving AmzerZo her 20th birthday present. The make-over begins.  Removal of the mast revealed a gold 20 centimes coin from 1914. It belonged to AmerZo's first Admiral's grandmother and reflects an old Breton tradition. It has worked so far. One of the best things about our French escapade has been making contact with AmzerZo's first owners, who had her built and sailed her around the world. We also had lunch with her delightful designer, Christophe Lesueur, and plan to keep in touch.
January 18, 2018
Still outside while
Metal Marine puts the finishing touches on the
boat in their shed.
Having seen their beautiful work firsthand, not to mention the bad-ass metal boat they built for themselves, we are very excited.   The mast and rudder were removed while we were home for the holidays.   Goodbye teak. We took a liking to the look and feel, but made an effort not to get too attached. We want nothing screwed to AmzerZo. The
swim platform area and aft crash box are
where most of the time and effort will be
spent in terms of metal work. It's one of
AmzerZo's best features and we want to make
sure it's in tip-top shape for long distance
voyaging.
 
January
22, 2018
In the shed.
At the beginning of the week, AmzerZo was
moved inside. Now the real work begins.
 
AmzerZo was originally yellow. Even after 20 years and going around the world, it's still under there.   We found our rudder in Metal Marine's welding workshop and took one last look at all the dents. (See below for details.) The ingenious overhaul plan they devised will save us a lot of money while making AmzerZo's beefy rudder even stronger and like new. These guys are real pros. We're constantly saying how glad we are to have chosen them. Vive la France! January 25, 2018  We collected a last few forgotten belongings. In a few days AmzerZo will be hermetically sealed.  The "demontage" on deck reaches its final stages. To save money, we did all the "demontage" and "remontage" ourselves when we refit our previous aluminum boat. Each process took us a month. These guys put us to shame.  
  
 AmzerZo sustained some damage below the water line in Thailand 17ish years ago. Luckily, AmzerZo was built like a tank. Still, it was a bit nerve-wrecking, the anticipation of what would be under all that fairing. Yes, we know, AmzerZo has been floating around like that for 17 years and no one else thought it necessary to go there, but that's how we roll. We tore through the guts of our last boat and knew her insides like the back of our hands, and it won't be any different with AmzerZo. When you're out there, you must know your boat. 
 Work on the rudder begins. The rudder was also heavily dented 17ish years ago. Prior owners had removed all the fairing. But...with the fairing gone, it made the job a lot easier for Metal Marine. No more wobbling or doing random 360s for us. (Details on our Summer 2017 Cruising page.) 
We carefully inspected the mast and pointed out all areas in need of repair. Here, the top of the top track section. In terms of mast work, we're doing a lot of updates. Originally all halyards were external, and we're moving them inside the mast. Actually, we're installing halyards. Here's a flashback to what Da Captain found the first time he went up the mast.  Continue to February
|