I Heart My Boat – Sapphire 

Apr 11, 2017

An account by David West

• Born and raised in Bedford NS – father was a life long sailor and got me involved in sailing at an early age.

• Spent a lot of time at the Bedford Basin Yacht club growing up – in the junior sailing program, racing and working summers as the club tender operator/groundsman. It was during those years that I developed a love of classic yachts generally and Hinckley’s in particular.

• Dropped sailing (too boring) In my mid teens for golf – I was 33 when I got back into sailing – had moved from Ontario to Fredericton, NB and bought a cottage near Douglas Harbor on Grand Lake – my father moved his boat (a Hullmaster 27) there from Bedford – he had grown up in Saint John and loved the river.

• Our entire family (myself, parents, wife and four kids) had a lot of fun sailing father’s boat on Grand Lake and the river during the 1990’s and early 2000’s.

• Father loved to take his boat to Gagetown, stay on a mooring at the Steamer Stop Inn and join the Stewart’s (the owners) and patrons for coffee and chats on the Inn’s balcony overlooking the creek

• At that time I also bought my first ‘yacht’ – a Sunfish for the cottage – hoping the kids would catch the sailing bug but it never developed into a full blown fever. I on the other hand was enjoying sailing so much again that I decided when the kids lost interest in the cottage I’d exchange it for a cruising boat.

• In 2002 my wife and I did a flotilla sailing trip in Greece – that was and remains our all time favorite vacation

• In 2003 my father offered to give me his boat (it was becoming too much for him to look after) but I declined, as my son was still keen on the cottage. So father’s boat was sold. As luck would have it, the very next year my son stopped wanting to go to the cottage – thus it was sold and the search for a boat began.

• In 2005 we bought a1985 Pearson 36-2 in Mystic Connecticut – quite a step up from the Sunfish – especially for someone who knew very little about maintaining marine systems.

• My cousin, his son and a sailing friend of my cousin (all very experienced blue water sailors) led the delivery trip home with me and my son following their orders – an amazing time – especially one overnight sail from Cape Cod to Rockland Maine in a beautiful wind with the glow of the Boston in the distance – and a great learning experience

• I was so taken by the beautiful Maine coast on that trip that my wife and I did month long cruises there in 2006 and 2007.

• Though the Pearson was in very good condition, I did a lot of work on her over the next few years – including removing and replacing the old orange colored Cetol with Cetol Natural Teal and a high gloss top coat and refreshing the interior satin varnish – my introduction to varnishing that was to become my life with the Hinckley! In addition to the cosmetic work I undertook numerous upgrades and repairs – a very steep learning curve given my lack of knowledge and aptitude for all things mechanical and electrical!

• By 2012 or so all the work and upgrades on the Pearson had been completed – she was fitted out and in the exact condition I wanted – so obviously it was time to sell – had my heart set on a Hinckley (my wife and many of my friends thought I was completely nuts)

• In November 2014 the stars finally aligned – I had an opportunity to sell my boat to a good friend and fellow member of the Fredericton Yacht Club, a Pilot I’d been watching on Yachtworld.com which had gone ‘sale pending’ was once again available, and I had managed to buy some USD when the CAD was relatively strong!


• My wife and I drove to Harpswell, Maine to see ‘Sapphire’ – a 1966 Hinckley Pilot 36 – I saw ‘great bones’, a lot of relatively new gear and upgrades, and loads of ‘potential’ – my wife had a little more trouble visualizing the potential and reconciling this older and far less spacious project with the Pearson she loved – however she did agree to making an offer and it was accepted.

• I made several trips to Harpswell that winter and spring to work on the boat – removed and carted home a lot of wood pieces for stripping and varnishing – arranged to have a boatyard fix a few survey issues, Awlgrip the decks and paint the coach ceiling – then in early June she was launched and with the help of a friend we brought Sapphire home – another great delivery trip.

• In the past three years I have spent a lot of time and effort restoring Sapphire – stripping, sanding and varnishing (ten coats) virtually every piece of solid wood, patching, sanding and epoxy painting all the veneer wood, building and installing new galley counter tops, painting the mast and boom and replacing/upgrading a multitude of parts/systems

• When I removed the cover after the first winter I discovered the black Awlgrip topsides had been badly scuffed/dulled by the cover – a very sad day – however I was able to find a 3M product that can be used to buff Awlgrip and was able to bring it back to 80% or so of what it was before the damage – however repainting the topsides is the final big project that I am planning to have done next winter at a yard in Nova Scotia

• In addition to sailing my own boat, I am part of the race crew on the Pearson I previously owned.

In 1984 a couple by the name of Jane and Don Danilek from Port Washington New York produced a book with historical information they were able to collect on each Hinckley Pilot – the section on Sapphire (Huntress at the time) follows:

Pilot 3556 (HRH Hull #1158)

Huntress

Owner: Rev. Parkman D. Howe, Jr.

RFD 5, Timber Hill Farm

Laconia, New Hampshire 03246

At the time he first wrote in November 1983, Reverend Howe had just given up being the owner of two Pilots, one wood and one fiberglass. His “new” Pilot was originally built in 1966 for her first owner in Camden, New Jersey. Later, she was kept by subsequent owners in New Orleans, Louisiana and West Palm Beach, Florida. She made several trips between Maine and Florida before she was chartered in New York and Maine. She came to her present owner with such items as dockside converter, air conditioning and electrical refrigeration that are useless when the vessel is kept on a mooring. Reverend Howe likes her diesel engine and Ideal anchor windlass. This winter (1983-84) he plans to get all the instrumentation in good working order in anticipation of a cruise to Newfoundland next summer “hoping to be able to circumnavigate that province”. Huntress now has a headstay double track foil and new racing sails.

Cheers,
David West
New Brunswick