It's a love/hate relationship when the author commits to a major restoration of a classic 65-foot Drake. Story and Photos By Michael Fowlkes.

On a mooring at Avalon, Catalina Island, California, the Vintage reflects the dedicated restoration that brought her back from years of neglect.

As the afternoon sun slips behind the bluffs at Point Loma, the synchro-lift at Driscoll Ship Yard begins to lift 86 tons of wood, fiberglass, machinery and running gear from the waters of San Diego Bay. Dripping wet, the massive 65-foot hull slowly rises above us and becomes more impressive with every foot. Looking up, I am beyond words. When they finally slide her alongside the 92x25-foot Royal Star, and she isn't completely dwarfed, I realize I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

Little do I know that this is the beginning of an 18-month ordeal that will test my emotional, physical and financial endurance. It's an adventure that will take me to heights I've rarely known, and through some of the most intense challenges I've ever faced.

Once settled and blocked, we climb an 18-foot ladder to her swimstep, and then up to the wheelhouse deck. Looking directly across at the Royal Star's Capt. Randy Toussaint, who is working on his famous long-range sportfisher, I am again amazed by the size of my new boat, which I've named the Vintage. Having started as a teenager with a 16-foot center console, I'd worked my way up through a 24-foot Skipjack, 26-foot Livesay, 38-foot Cruizon, 42-foot Luhrs, and finally into a beautiful old 46-foot Hawthorne. Now this, a 65-foot Drake.

Toussaint calls over to ask what the heck I'm doing. I hold out my hands and shrug my shoulders. "You didn't buy that thing, did you?" he says with a laugh.

As I nod yes, Toussaint breaks out in a big grin, and teases: "I thought you were smarter than that."

There's just something about owning a boat that can't be put into words. It can't be explained, and I feel sorry for those who aren't addicted. They're missing out on one of life's most precious gifts. It's just a feeling inside one's soul that only those insane enough to own boats understand.

As I stand there shaking my head, Toussaint nods knowingly, smiles that Cheshire Cat grin of his, then slips below deck to go back to work.

LADY IN DISTRESS

A few months prior, I had located her on the Web: a classic lady with beautiful lines, but one obviously in distress. After spending the past 10 years exposed to the harsh storms of the Pacific Northwest, and then laid up in Florida, her 2-inch-thick teak decks were rotting from the inside out. Walking along her topsides was like stepping on soft grass; from about halfway up the house to the pulpit, her decks were so spongy that I was afraid of falling through.

Since the seller was unwilling to negotiate any deal predicated upon a marine survey, and also unwilling to pay for any repairs, I was left with two choices: Either walk away from the deal; or negotiate to a good price, and hope I'd have enough money left to get her back in shape. Almost everyone told me to walk, including some of the best shipwrights and marine surveyors in the business. Everyone that is, except my wife, Kimberly.

The biggest fear was that the water damage had compromised the vessel's structural integrity. Designed and built in San Diego in 1966 by Larry Drake, the boat is glass over wood. She's 65 feet at the waterline, and boasts a wide and comfortable 20-foot beam. I asked Drake to have a look, but even he wasn't able to determine the extent of the damage - no one could, until we started pulling up the decks. The risks were immense, but Kimberly looked me in the eye and said as long as we could make the house payments, to go for it.

What had happened is that the rain of the Pacific Northwest had penetrated the decking and soaked under the teak planks. The boat had then made the trip through the Panama Canal, and after a season in the Caribbean, was berthed in Fort Lauderdale and put up for sale. With the moisture trapped between decks in the humid Florida weather, the water continued to seep into the marine plywood subdeck, and the wood had started to rot - not only the marine ply, but the stingers and support beams, as well. Fortunately, the chines were undamaged, and that's what ultimately saved the boat. If the chines had been compromised there would have been nothing anyone could have done, short of rebuilding the entire hull.

Hull delamination called for serious bottom work on the "glass-over-wood" Vintage, while her water-rotted decks meant rebuilding the foredeck and walkways. Note the new oak beams going into place. Below, the salon after work was complete.

MAMMOTH UNDERTAKING

The job was massive. Every sliver of wood on Vintage's topsides, from the cockpit forward, had to be taken up, removed and replaced. The demolition was dirty, grueling and back-breaking work. We spent days bent over with breaker bars, claw hammers and sawzals, yet we were able to keep costs down by doing 95 percent of the job ourselves.

Due to insurance reasons, we had to turn over all the below-the-waterline work to the yard. After 14 days of bottom work, we splashed the boat. Owing to our commercial status as a six-pack charterboat, plus having contracted extensively with the yard on previous projects, we were able to negotiate a day rate that allowed us to do the topside work while the boat was side-tied to the syncro-lift dock.

There were a few very hairy days, but with the protection tarps in place, scoop nets standing by and our trusty Achilles inflatable ready to chase down any errant scraps of wood that flew overboard, we managed to keep moving forward. Fortunately, during the initial stages we weren't dealing with a lot with chemicals and paint. With the stringent, zero-discharge, zero-tolerance Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards being enforced at the ship yard, pulling of this job while she was in the water was nothing short of a miracle.

IN TOO DEEP

In truth, no one had any idea what we were getting ourselves into. If the yard had, most likely it never would have let us get started. I really think that Chuck Driscoll, the yard manager, felt sorry for us and turned a blind eye more than once. He said that as long as we weren't doing anything that would get the EPA involved, we could keep working. Without the yard's support, we would not have been able to keep the work in-house, and costs would have soared out of control.

After installing two layers of 3/4-inch marine plywood decking, the crew faced a major challenge in floating fiberglass evenly across the curved, 20-foot-wide foredeck.

After filling 24 dumpsters with rotted teak, timbers and deck, we were in so far over our heads that I actually considered Kimberly's suggestion of renaming the boat Bad Idea. Still, we persevered, and brought in solid oak planks to cut new beams, stringers and ribs. The cockpit was turned into a woodshop, and from scratch we started putting her back together, inch by inch, and plank by plank. We covered the new deck framework with two laminated layers of 3/4-inch marine plywood that fit and overlapped both port and starboard walkways, as well as across the entire bow area.

Next, multiple layers of fiberglass were applied to seal the subdeck. Floating fiberglass evenly across the 20-foot curved beam of the foredeck was one of the biggest challenges we faced. Once all the radiuses were seamless, she received three coats of LP primer, and two coats of silicone non-skid. Today, Vintage is tighter and stronger than the day she was built.

REFITTING AND UPDATING

In addition to the exterior work, Vintage also needed a freshening and refitting of most systems, including her outdated electronics. After tracing down and pulling out enough dead wire to fill the back of a pick-up truck - twice - we installed an all-furuno bridge. Vintage now bristles with a new 96-mile S-Band "bird radar", two color sounders, two DGPS chartplotters, interfaced autopilot, weatherfax, two digital sea-temp guages, two single-sideband radios, and two VHFs. We also installed a SEA-TEL digital DVD/TV satellite system that allows us to receive more than 500 channels anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

The original 365 hp D343 turbocharged Caterpillars are still in the boat and purring like kittens. Since we have 2700 gallons of diesel feeding from six individual tanks, we wanted to ensure clean fuel. Our solution was to install an Alfa Laval centrifuge system (Model No. M1B303S-13/33). Without question, this is the single most important element we've added to the boat. Until recently, only the big boys had engine rooms large enough to install a centrifuge system, but with this new, lightweight, compact model, sportfishers 40 feet and over can easily accommodate the system, which provides 99.9% contaminate-free fuel. As anyone who's spent time belowdecks in any kind of weather can attest, replacing clogged filters while rolling around in the trough is not a pleasant task. With the Alpha Laval system on line, we haven't had a single problem, and if you could see some of the raw crud it's kicked out, you'd be amazed.

Nothing is harder on a boat than not running, and after her stint in Florida and 18 months of dockside work, many of Vintage's systems were shot. Even though we regularly fired up the mains and gensets, it isn't the same as being underway. Systems that aren't used regularly tend to develop problems, and as we brought her up to speed on shakedown runs, we found we had to rework or replace nearly every system on board, from the Hynautic steering to the heads.

We had to haul-out again, this time to replace the rudder and shaft beddings through-hull fittings and valves, as well as 15 percent of the fiberglass below the waterline. The bad news about a glass-over-wood boat is that it eventually delaminates. The good news is that it's easy to fix: just cut away the delaminated areas, and grind back until you find good wood, let dry and re-glass.

We installed a new Village Marine watermaker, and Quantum Electronics air purifiers for the salon, staterooms and bilge. These eliminate odors instead of just covering them up. Of course, getting rid of the old saltwater-jet heads also helped. By replumbing Vintage's heads with a SeaLand VacuFlush system, we were able to eliminate the bad smells that go along with salt-water-based heads. Whenever saltwater sits in the lines, especially in warm climates, the bacteria build-up starts reeking, no matter how much treatment you add. I never thought I'd get off talking about a toilet, but the VacuFlush system is awesome. It only uses 6 ounces of freshwater per flush, and the vacuum suction keeps the bowls and lines clean and bacteria-free.

FULL SPEED AHEAD

The boat is now up and running full speed. All systems are go, and that makes it all seem worthwhile. As all boats are, Vintage is a work in progress, and we are currently fabricating a cluster of 46 rocket launchers to trick out the cockpit. We' even have a new 16-foot Achilles inflatable and Suzuki outboard up on the bow, along with a pair of Ocean Kayaks for fishing kelp beds. To top it off, we splurged and installed a state-of-the-art Stidd Systems helmseat in the wheelhouse. That chair is so comfortable that I'm putting in a bridge alarm to keep people from falling asleep while on watch.

The other day, an old friend asked if I would do it again.

My mind flooded with memories of heartaches and back pains, and the seemingly endless days of work, covered with grease or fiberglass dust, itching that wouldn't stop and muscles aching so bad I couldn't sleep. Yet last night as I looked at this proud lady - gently pulling on her mooring lines, and with the harbor lights shining off her freshly varnished rails - a sense of accomplishment welled up inside me. At that moment I knew, without a doubt, that we had made the right decision in bringing her back to life.

Success can't always be measured with logic, or in dollars and cents. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, and I'm sure I'll make more before it's through ... but one thing is certain, I'll never look back and wonder what might have been, if only I'd had the courage to try.

Refitting Sources

The following is a list of major suppliers used in the refitting of the 65-foot Drake Vintage