The Boat

Our Boat

Our original boat was a 1978 Endeavour 32. This was the boat we intended on using to embark on this adventure. However life has a way of throwing curve balls, and our beloved Windsong turned out to be someone else's dream. We bought Windsong on Dec 31st 2011 and sailed her often. She was our first full size boat and the things that stout ole girl taught us will carry us through many seas. She was a pleasure to sail, comfortable to live on but she did need a lot of work. One rainy day there was a knock on the cabin top of the boat and within an hour I had a check in my hand and was rattled at the direction our lives were about to take.

When we found ourselves without a boat and home, we began our search for a replacement. We were looking for a boat that was safe, stout, and built like a tank. We knew we weren't out to win any races but we wanted to make sure we always came out the other side of a passage. What we found with the Watkins was a boat overbuilt with a hull and hardware made to take far more than we could. 

The interior of the boat had a unique layout that provided substantially more room than other boats of it's size, as well as provided the kids with their own space and doors to separate the family when privacy was needed. My goal was to not buy a "fixer upper" and although I wasn't expecting or looking for perfection, I knew we didn't want a project boat.  

 I found Madison LynScott (Now known as Kainoa) on sailboat listings, and had been looking at it months before our twist of fate and before we even thought of selling our Endeavour 32. I remember looking at boats on sailboatlistings.com and putting the price range way out of our league and just seeing what we could get if we had a huge influx of cash all of the sudden. (translation: I was dreaming) I had also visited the ad a few times in between and seen the price drop a few times. 

After selling our Endeavour that rainy Saturday morning out of the blue, I revisited the ad yet again and was blown away by the new asking price. Even though it was still way out of our league, I thought about a book I read by Capt Fatty Goodlander where he talked about finding boats that are far out of your price range and then just offering what you have. The premise was that out of 10 someone would need or be willing to accept your offer.

With that in mind, I called the broker and made an offer on the boat that was less than half of the original asking price, as well as substantially less then the current asking price. I also managed to track down the owner and was able to speak with him before he saw the offensive offer I made. I explained it wasn't meant to be a lowball offer, it was all we had. Truth be told is was actually a little more than we had. I received the call accepting the offer that afternoon and with that our chapter with this boat begins. 

1979 Watkins 36AC

SPECIFICATIONS

LOA ……….……....36’0”

DWL ……….….…...29’4”

Beam……….……..10”6”

Draft……….…..…….4’6”

Disp. ………...17,000 lbs.

Ballast ……….6,000 lbs.

Sail Area …….526 sq. ft.

Fuel ……………...40 gal.

Water …………….60 gal.

Mast Height above  —   DWL ……………….....45’

Designer……..Watkins Brothers

H U L L  &   D E C K The hull is molded as a single unit of a combination of polyester resin and fiberglass woven roving and multidirectional chopped strand fiber (MCSF). The keel is molded integrally with the hull and all ballast is contained inside. The deck and cockpit, like the hull, are molded as a single unit of a combination of polyester resin and fiberglass woven roving and MCSF. Plywood coring is incorporated between layers of fiberglass in the cabin top, deck, seat, and cockpit sole areas to give additional stiffness. The non-skid finish is molded into the deck. The exterior finish is pigmented gelcoat molded onto the fiberglass. The boot stripe is also tinted gelcoat molded permanently into the hull. The hull-to-deck joint is a 'flange' type, which during assembly, is liberally coated with a combination adhesive/sealant. The deck is then lowered onto the hull and fastened in place with stainless steel screws. The aluminum toe rail is then installed, bedded in a heavy layer of the same compound and secured in place with stainless steel through bolts which bonds the toe rail, deck and hull together as one structural member. There is an anchor well on the fore deck with haws pipe feeding the anchor rode into the v-berth locker, there are teak grab rails on the cabin top and a large aft cockpit or center cockpit  with good back rests and storage lockers. The companionway goes down to seat height, about 12" above the cockpit sole. R U D D E R  &  S T E E R I N G The rudder is made by Foss Foam, molded as two fiberglass halves, the hollow stainless steal rudder post welded to blades is placed inside and the assembly is filled with a high density foam.  The rudder is mounted to a full skeg  for strength. The Edson pedestal steering system operates with stainless steel cables rotating a quadrant bolted and keyed to the rudder post. S P A R S  &  R I G G I N G All spars (mast, boom, and spreaders) are extruded aluminum 6061-T6 alloy, with a protective coating an all external surfaces.  The masts has a single spreader, and booms with single reefing.  After 1984 the mast and boom were made by Isomat. The standing rigging is made of stainless steel wire. The forestay attaches to the stem head fitting at the bow. This is fabricated of welded stainless steel backup plates and through bolted to the hull. All other stays and shrouds are attached to chainplates at the edge of the deck and are through bolted to the hull. Additional fiberglass reinforcement is molded into the hull in all chainplate areas. The main sheet traveler is mounted on the cabin top.  Two dual speed winches control the genoa sheets. I N T E R I O R The interior is a molded fiberglass unit with bulkheads and cabinetry fastened to it with screws, bolts, and adhesives.  The interior molded assembly is bonded to the hull with woven roving and mat, that when completed, forms a single unit structure having great strength and rigidity.  The headliner is made of soft perforated vinyl with teak trim.  The interior is finished with hand rubbed teak accents and the bulkheads and cabinetry is teak veneered plywood.  Early models had a carpeted cabin sole but later models were teak and holly veneered plywood. The interior layout is typical with a V-berth forward, the head is aft and connects to both the salon and the owners stateroom. The galley is aft in the passageway to the owners state room. The galley is equipped with refrigerator, 3 or 4 burner propane stove with eye level oven and double sink. The stairs removes to allow access to the engine on the center cockpit model or tilts up on the AC model. There are ten opening ports (Gray) and two deck hatches, one in the main salon and one in the V berth.  The center cockpit model has 12 opening ports and three deck hatches, one in the rear stateroom, one in the main cabin and one in the V berth. A U X I L A R Y A 40 horse power Perkins diesel engine was standard equipment on the early models with a Perkins 50 horse power model #4108 on the later models.. E L E C T R I C A L   .S Y S T E M Standard configuration unknown