Rebuilding and sailing Copy Cat

Category: Restoration

  • Everything that’s wrong with Copycat

    As a 1978 model-year boat, Copycat is due for a deep refresh. Thankfully the polyester resin of yesterday has well resisted the stress of time. Some may call this survivorship bias: if it made it this far, it can only be well built. Yet, the perspective of restoring an almost 50 years old boat to an adequate level of seaworthiness and esthetic can seem foolish. Most importantly, the relatively small size of Copycat makes it an appropriate size project to my liking.

    This list will certainly get longer as any boat owner knows. Theseus committed the original sin and ever since the life of a boat owner consists of yearly maintenance where it is unclear how much of the original boat remains.

    The first elephant in the room is the hull itself: the bottom paint is peeling and likely in need of a full stripping and refresh. The old paint will be stripped, the hull sanded, faired and a barrier coat of epoxy will be installed. But while only visible when stored on her trailer, this problem doesn’t affect the structure of the boat in the short term, however resolving it will ensure a long life in the future.

    The bottom paint exhibits rough texture, a sign of pealing under layer.

    A next low hanging fruit that will be dealt with the bottom paint, is the obvious wear observed on the gudgeon, as shown on the photo above: gudgeons are hole-shaped hardware that receive a cylinder mounted on the rudder — a pintle. The pintles mounted on the rudder is also worn out. Probably the tiller wasn’t properly secured while the boat was on her mooring. The bottom of the tiller shows indeed some wear consistent with rubbing on the transom.

    The top pintle mounted on the transom exhibiting excessive wear, the rudder and the worn out pintles, the bottom of the tiller is also worn out from excessive rubbing on the transom.

    The gel coat on the top sides are certainly a bit oxidized and exhibit some spider cracks here and there. The deck has a couple of small chips and cracks which will need to be addressed as well. The teak rub rails are in good shape, but most of brightwork has very faded varnish as shown on the pictures below. The cabin doors, the cabin side trim, the hand rail will have to be striped, cleaned and varnished.

    Small chips on the deck sides, worn out varnish on the brightwork.

    There are however some more substantial and structural issues: one that is very common is that water has intruded behind the main bulkhead plywood (this is the vertical surface that separates the inside of the cabin from the outside). This water leak is likely caused by a leak around the seat cleat, but also where the coaming meets the outside of the bulkhead. The first step will be to remove enough wood to find and fix the leak source, then replace the bulk head: remove all the old Douglas fir plywood, bond another piece of fresh plywood, and tab it along the edges of the hull with epoxy and biaxial fiberglass tape.

    The bulkhead is the vertical surface that separates the cabin from the outside. The corners show some wood rot, the rot is more substantial once one starts digging under the paint.

    The most significant damage may be the floor of the cockpit itself. While the boat is made of fiberglass, the floor of the cockpit is a plywood sole mounted on plywood stringers. In the middle of the floor, there is a teak trim and some sailing hardware mounted. Unfortunately, water is known to seep through the mounting holes of the trim, soaking the plywood like a sponge and turning it into rot. This is definitely the case here as evidenced by soft and bouncy spot. I won’t know how bad until I dig deeper under that layer.

    Under this floor, a potential all rotten mess is awaiting me.

    All in all, this should keep me busy for quite a bit of time!

  • The trailer: a first project

    In order to relocate the boat from Mystic, CT on Long Island sound to the eastern coast of Massachusetts, a trailer in working order was necessary. Mystic is a beautiful place rich in naval history, however it is almost 120 miles from home, and Cape Ann is much closer. Ever since her acquisition, I had planned that the maiden voyage of Copycat would consist of about 150 miles at sustained highway speed so it was important to have a sound and sturdy trailer with an axle, bearings, tires, coupler and safety chains in working order. It was important also to have working lights and to replace the most questionable u-bolts securing the frame

    Mechanical work

    A first part of a working trailer is a sound and sturdy coupler to connect to the pulling vehicle. The coupler that was installed had a 1992 date code and was covered with rust. While the rust didn’t seem to impair the structural integrity it is a simple part to replace. As shown in the photo below, an electric impact gets the job done to remove the rusted bolts. In a couple of minute, a new coupler and safety chains can be secured to the trailer frame.

    While not strictly necessary for this first trip, I chose to replace the axle. Mainly because the old one had rusted brake flanges and I had planned to install some eventually. Since I was replacing the bearings, I  might as well do the work properly and only once.

    The old axle is shown below, in the first view: an electric ratchet easily removes the u-bolts securing the axle to the spring. Once removed and the axle out of the way, the spring can be removed. The old springs were rated for a much larger load than necessary which provided a much rougher ride than it should have been, I downsized by one notch. Once the spring was removed, the mounting points were reinforced with new u-bolts, and the spring bushing was lubricated with bearing grease. The new spring is then installed and the new axle is dropped on the spring perches.

    Axle and spring removal and replacement in 6 steps

    The new axle comes without the wheel hubs installed. New galvanized hubs were purchased separately and installed. The different steps are shown below: starting from a hub with bearing races installed, a pre-greased bearing in put in place, the rear seal in hammered in place with a rubber mallet, the axle spindle is greased and the hub is installed. The second bearing is then put in place and a thrust washer and castellated nut secures the assembly together. After tightening the nut fully and backing it off to be only finger tight, the nut is secured with a cotter pin. After that, grease was packed in the entire assembly by using the very convenient zerk fitting at the tip of the axle and the bearing area was closed off with a cover.

    Bearing and hub installation on the newly installed axle in 8 steps.

    The trailer frame is assembled using u-bolts. Most of them were in correct shape, however some them have started to rust — in particular near the tip. The nuts were sometimes so rusted that they barely secured anything together: this is bad for a road trip where the bump of the road can cause the small remaining amount of metal to yield and cause the frame to fall apart. It is impossible to remove those un destructively because the nut is basically gone and cannot be grabbed by a socket. The only way is to use a sawzall after clamping the pieces together: it is messy and noisy, but using the proper blades it works well. I tried using a bolt cutter, but in most cases there is not enough room for the jaws to make proper contact with the bolt shank.

    How to remove a u-bolt where the nuts have rusted out? First secure the parts together with a clamp, then cut the bolt with a sawzall.

    Electrical

    The only electrical part of the trailer is a set of lights that need to be illuminated when the towing vehicle says so. I chose to install a 7-pins wiring harness connected to a junction box a shown below. A new set of wires was fished through the frame rails because some of the previously used wires that had been chewed up by rodent and were mostly gone. The wires were protected using a plastic wire looms in the vicinity of the frame to prevent the insulation from being worn through any rubbing action. After fiddling with the waterproof crimp connectors and ensuring proper ground continuity through the trailer frame, the lights turned on.

    The tail lights were already the submersible LED kind but the side markers were missing. The wires for the side market were spliced from the tail light harness and brought forward. The mounting hole of the old side markers were enlarged to ¾ in diameter with a step drill bit and these grommet style front and rear side markers to be installed. 

    Finally because the trailer is more than 80 in wide, an ID light consisting off three separated LEDs was installed and spliced to the tail light harness.

    Light installation: a 7 pins wiring harness to connect to the car, protective wire looms around frame entry point for the wiring. Fully operational tail lights and side markers.

    Some cosmetic items still need to be addressed: the fenders are rusty, some bolts are rusted – but still solid. This will be dealt with later, the trailer is good to take the road!

  • Introduction: Copycat

    Introduction: Copycat

    The purpose of this blog is for me to narrate my journey through the restoration of Copy Cat, a 1978 Marshall Sanderling – a 18ft catboat manufactured by the Marshall Marine Corporation in South Dartmouth, MA. Cat boats are the traditional boat design found on Cape Cod, south east of Boston and were typically work boats where their large beam provided stability and their single sail mounted on a forward positioned mast provided a simple rig; both features allowing for fishing tasks to be performed under sail power only with minimal crew. The skeg hung, barn door rudder is another typical feature of this type of boat.

    Copycat, seen under two different angles, before and after removing the shrink wrap.

    Based on the hull number, Copycat was built in September 1977, making her a 1978 model year. Almost 50 years later, I met her in a marina in Mystic, CT. Copycat became my project after a long and cold winter. It may sound like wanderlust, but after two months where the outside temperature never went above freezing, a blizzard and almost 40 in of snow cumulated over the season, dreaming is what keeps one hopeful. While wandering along the Massachusetts coast, from Plum Island near Newburyport to Logan Airport to the Cape: the salt marshes with shallow water, and the coast studded with traditional New England houses have a certain power of attraction. All of the above and beyond is within reach of Copycat.

    The sand dunes of plum island near the new home of Copycat, and an actual Sanderling. Pictures taken in December 2025.

    As I later learned from the previous owner, this boat had been in their family since it was bought new in 1978. Unfortunately, it became too much of a project to make sense. However, I am game for challenge, and it is my honor to become the new steward of Copycat, hopefully for 50 more years.

    Copycat finally made it to her new location in Cape Ann, MA.

    Thanks to her trailer and after a couple hours up on I-95 North with a 70 mph headwind, Copycat now calls Cape Ann in Massachusetts as its new home. The only mildly eventful part of the trip was running into rush hour traffic along route 128. IYKYK. The name Copycat will remain to prevent any bad luck down the road.

    Some may consider that it is a very old boat, but these cat boats seem to be well known for their durability. The brightwork on this boat is made of teak still in good shape aside from faded varnish – I will choose to keep all of it varnished and  will unlikely need to replace any of it. With that said, many parts are due for a refresh, there will be some details in a subsequent post about what needs to be done.

    Left: the cockpit of copycat. Right: the inside cabin.

    As shown above the Marshall Sanderling offers a large roomy cockpit that can sit perhaps 6 people and a cozy cabin that sleeps two with a spot for a self contained toilet. This is certainly perfect for short adventures all while being trailerable.