My First Boat

Spirit Dancer is a 1980 Tanzer 7.5 (25 foot) sailboat that I purchased in late August 2014 through a charity auction for a $200 donation and a $350 dollar "documentation" fee. The boat had a different name then which I have subsequently changed. (shh, don't tell Neptune) The boat was bought from North River Power Squadron which used it for training. It was donated to them by a person from NJ that used to sail it along the east coast.

The boat was in decent shape for it's age and price but it was in need of some TLC and an outboard motor. Luckily, it was in a marina that is very close to me so I arranged to keep it there, on the hard, for the winter so I can fix it up. I had the marina fix the broken lower shroud line that it had and sand blast the bottom down to the gel coat. Then had them apply 2 epoxy barrier coats a primer and 2 coats of Ablative paint. I took the cushions and the companionway door home for winter restoration projects and then spent several nice weekends scrubbing the boat down with toilet bowl cleaner and applying a coat of wax.

I also located a Mercury 9.9hp outboard motor with electric start on Craig's List for 1200.  It is a 2004 but it looks and runs like new. When I went to purchase it the previous owner explained to me that he bought it from a crabbing boat that had it as a back-up motor. So it was maintained every year but hardly ever used. He then told me that he only got to use it 3 times on his boat before his swing keel fell off.