When I bought my '88 Nordic 40 in the year 2000 she was beautifully kept up: Woodwork, floors and topsides gleaming. I did my best to keep it up (and the woodwork below still looks tremendous) but my priorities have shifted and I'm now much more focused on keeping the systems working, and the boat looking just 'good enough.' Bumping up against a stone pier in Greece hastened this attitude change There's a certain amount of freedom that comes with it; if we sail to challenging places and get the boat beat up a bit, who cares. John Harries (Morgan's Cloud) says all the hours spent maintaining the gleam don't count in the maintenance bucket. I respect folks who keep their boats looking Bristol, I just don't have the ability (or time or money) to do that and use her as I want to.