# Hello from Portsmouth, VA



## BobA (Jul 26, 2016)

Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Bob, and I'm on my second sailboat though I consider myself a very novice sailor. I've been around powerboats for quite a while, but always had an appreciation for boats powered by the wind.

My first boat was a San Juan 21 that I repaired and repainted but never got much sail time on. I sold that boat several years ago but always wished I had something smaller and simpler to sail. Back in March I saw and ad on the local CL for a boat that was small but at the same time looked much larger than other 13' boats I was seeing. Plus, it looked to be a cat boat, one sail. How much easier could that be? Long story short, I got the boat and spent some time getting it ready to go back into the water.

It's a bit of an odd duck, it was made by TPI about 20 years ago, designed by Ted Hood and conceived by Gary Hoyt. It is very wide, over 6 foot compared to its length of 13.5 feet. It has a carbon fiber mast that the mainsail furls on and uses a hoyt boom. 









I had to rebuild the bearing system that the mast rests and turns in. It uses acetal rod for bearings and was missing a few. I ordered new rod and cut it to length but it all works much smoother now.




























It originally came with a built in minnkota trolling motor, a solar panel and charging system. The motor was long time shot, but the solar panel still worked. The original sail is still usable, (barely) and the hull was in pretty good shape. I've upgraded the electricals with a new solar charger, new battery and trolling motor.










I fabricated a backing plate/mount for the motor mount to spread out the weight of the motor on the fairly thin transom.










I made a new tiller for it, replaced the hatches and put an automatic bilge pump in it along with the original manual pump.



















I've had the boat out twice and have done fairly well each time. I took a US Sailing basic keelboat course a month ago and that built up my confidence. I'm looking forward to talking with other folks about this boat and sailing. Here are a couple of pics of the boat, she is now sitting on a PWC lift in my backyard.


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## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

Great pictures and welcome to SailNet!!


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## catlady (Oct 27, 2011)

Welcome aboard, Bob. Nice job on the boat! Hope you have lots of fun with it.


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## Slayer (Jul 28, 2006)

Welcome Bob.


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