Commander Revamp - How?

[orienter]

I have owned a Commander for 3 years. I haven't done much too it apart from varnishing the boards, painting the bottom and hull, and waxing. I have a friend interested in helping me do some minor restoration -- but where do I start? The blocks are original and probably should be retained; the lines are old, the stanchions should be replaced or retightened, etc. etc. Any suggestions? As we have winter on Long Island I have a short fall and spring for doing modest improvements.

[bill@ariel231]

where to begin.. that is an open ended and difficult question.

regardless of your restoration goals.
1. first thing to address is safety (make sure the rig stays up and the water stay outside the boat, and the rudder can control where you are going). Part B for safety is making sure stanchions and lifelines stay where they belong.
2. make the boat fun to sail. that may mean changing old blocks and line for new running gear. new blocks and lines make everything more fun and are worth every penny.

ok now for the philosophy.. there are many schools of thought.

1. pure restoration - keep her pure like she left the factory. a benchmark for future generations.
2. resto-mod - keep the boat mostly original but upgrade electrics, sail handling, many be squeeze in a galley or fancy canvas work.
3. unlimited class mod - whole new design interior, cockpit layouts, exotic methods of mounting outboards

there are many good examples of all these approaches in the Gallery pages (hint - try "view from the beginning" to see the all examples).

as for building skills and getting more ideas... my path to a resto-mod of A231 included two great books:

Don Casey's "This Old Boat"

and (because it talks about upgrading old pearsons in particular)

Dan Spurr's "Upgrading the Cruising Sailboat"

welcome aboard! good luck. you will find like minded "Vintage Pearson" crazy folks here.

cheers,
bill@ariel231 :)

[commanderpete]

I agree with Bill

Don Casey suggests that you start with safety items first. The problem is, there aren't alot of frills on a small boat. Just about everything is necessary for its safe operation. You can convince yourself that anything is a safety item.

I think you should fix whatever worries you the most. You don't want to be out there eyeing parts of the boat with suspicion. You need to have confidence in the boat.

After that, you have to decide what would make sailing more pleasurable. It might be something that makes sailhandling easier, or the boat go faster. Somebody else might prefer to install a stereo and cupholders.

Casey says that cosmetics should come last. But, you need motivation to work on a boat. If it makes you happy to pretty up the boat, that's OK too.

Your work might not follow a logical order, but it is important to prioritize. Figure out what makes you nervous.

As far as I'm concerned, the biggest threat to my boat is her captain (Me). Some stupid navigational error that brings the boat to grief. Installing a little chartplotter made me happy, especially sailing at night.