...23 years ago, I figure I have earned a degree in boat maintenance.

The Able's first owner took her to the Bahamas for seven years when she was new and although I believe he tried, he essentially let her slide until she was such a mess, no one wanted her.
I came along and was just smitten enough to give her a go. 13 years later I had re-powered her, re-rigged her as a sloop (from a cat ketch), re-wired her, re-plumbed her, replaced all instruments and electronics, replaced her solid teak cabin sole (due to a soft plywood floor beneath) and I Awlgriped her.

By far the job of restoring a shine to that boat was my least favorite. I began by putting her in a heated building for one winter. Then I removed everything that could be unbolted from the exterior of the boat that I could with the exception of the toe rail and the teak eyebrow. Hatches, cleats, stantions, pushpit, bow pulpit hatches...everything came off. Then at the recommendation of the Awlgriped rep I began by long boarding the hull to fair the sides. Anyone ever sanded a 32' boat with longboards until fair? It is nothing I ever want to do again! After countless hours of prep, the hull was ready to spray. Jade mist green was pretty close to the original color and after three coats of color we sanded again and applied a clear coat. Boy was that hill beautiful!

After the hull was finished, I moved on to the decks. Sand, fill, prime, sand fill prime and finally three coats of Materhorn white. Then we rolled a sand finish non skid on until the boat looked new! Everything removed was either powder coated, polished, stripped and varnished and made to look like new again too. Ports were polished, hatches re-glazed, plexi replaced, hardware replaced etc. then it was all reinstalled.

The boat was taken back to Newport RI and splashed for sea trials before my wife and I got married. Our honeymoon was a Maine cruise for 4 weeks. It was my first. Remember when I said the boat looked new? At a brief haul out to inspect the rudder (false alarm) Joel White asked me if it was a new build!

Anyway, back to the purpose of this post...
Today I performed my annual hull cleaning and waxing. The objective with our current boat has always been to keep her from deteriorating to the point that she needs Awlgrip. To that end we keep the hull and deck clean and waxed. I figure that at 10 years old we are doing something right!
This shot is after cleaning but before wax. Waxing is easy compared to longboarding...