Victory 21 Restoration Project

The first item to be attended to was the bilge, which due to heavy rains in California combined with the lack of a self-bailing cockpit on older Victories, was full of water! About 35 or 40 gallons. and the sails, rigging and gear were all stuffed in a sailbag together which was soaked and starting to mildew. This was quickly remedied.

At one time, there was a bilge pump with an outlet on the starboard beam just below the toe rail, but the pump and battery were no longer aboard. Since the temperature was falling well below freeezing, the bilge was drained of water and filled with RV antifreeze and a tarp secured over the cockpit.

The intitial survey of the boat showed some repairs were in order. The bottom paint was very thin. There were about two dozen blisters scattered about the hull. Fortunately, none of them penetrated the gelcoat. Maybe they were just rock chips.

Also the preparation of the rudder was improper, and the paint was peeling in large flakes. The topside was badly oxidized on both hull and deck. There were many scratches and scrapes along the hull. The boot strap was badly faded. There were several spots in the hull which has sustained impact damage resulting in gelcoat cracks, and improper bracing of the sling during a lift had bent the toe rail inward and created gelcoat cracks.

A couple of old repairs to the hull above the water line had been painted rather than gelcoated which didn’t match the rest of the hull.

Topsides, the wooden sole and cabin bulkhead had not been maintained and were badly weathered and showing signs of dry rot.

All the deck hardware needed maintenance.

The winches and cam cleats were all stiff.

The shrouds and wire halyards were in pretty good shape, but the rope halyards and a line used to raise the mast were in very poor condition.

Also the gallows lift was missing. The mast had apparently been replaced at some point. The masthead is not standard to a Victory. I believe at some time, the original mast was probably damaged in a failure of the center chain plate eye. This mast was about the right size and shape and was used to replace it. The mast is rigged in a diamond spreader formation with the upper shroud going to the rear most chain plate and the lower shroud going to the forward chain plate.

The center chain plate has nothing attached to it, and is missing on one side which I think supports my theory.

The master was brought to One Design specifications by replacing a few parts with new parts from Catalina according to the mast diagram available on this site.

After consulting Dave Shearer of Sidsports, a local sailing technician, the bottom work began.

The bottom was stripped of two layers of bottom paint. The outer layer, a light turquoise, and the inner layer which was probably original, a dark blue over brown primer.

This was done using an electric orbital sander at 1400 RPM using a 36 grit disk. The primary sanding was stopped with about half the primer layer left on and finished with an air powered random orbit sander running on 80 psi with a 40 grit disk.

I used a 2-ton hydraulic engine hoist to lift the hull in front and back off the trailer to sand these hard to reach spots. It was at this time I realized the blistering was really minor.

Keel after Fairing and Painting

The boot strap required care to set. The original boot strap was marked fore and aft by tape at the upper edge.

The boat was leveled side to side at the scuppers by placing a 8 foot spirit level across the gunnel and raising the lower side with a floor jack under the trailer axle.

Then the boat was leveled front to rear to the original marks using a water level which is a hose with clear ends.

Finally the the hull was marked at close intervals from the original marks with the water level until the boot strap was repositioned with an equal horizontal width all around of two and one half inches.

Blue plastic fine line tape was placed to mark the edges and regular masking tape covered that. The stripe was repainted with three coats of oil-based urethane paint in black using a Purdy sash brush.

Two sheets of 12mm Akoumi marine plywood were purchased.

The old sole and bulk head were traced as patterns.

The origial sole and hatch were trimmed with oak strips which were undamaged. These were salvaged.

A lot of sanding was needed to remove carbonized tung oil and old varnish.

The boat came with two sets of jibs and mainsails.

One set with number 357 and checkered flag in black and another set with number 195 and checkered flag in gold. The 357 set was pretty rough, but the 195 set should last another season or two.