sprout

13 June 2014

This is the story of our boat Sprout.

We bought our boat for very small monies (£95) in May (or April? I can't remember!), we searched far and wide for a nice little dinghy but we only found one for sale! Sadly it needed quite a bit of tlc, we knew we'd have to repaint it, but after chipping away some nasty looking filler, we found...

a nasty big hole.

thinking that this dinghy was doomed to be a flower planter, we thought about looking for a different boat. BUT not much gets in the way of my mister and his dreams, so he found out how to repair fibreglass, and low and behold, he fixed it!



back to the cosmetic stuff...lots and lots of sanding. We loved the original colour of the boat and after discovering that boat paints basically come in red blue or white, we were tipped off by my brother that we could get some floor paint mixed to the same colour and should do the job ok (he is knowledgable about all things boat). Yay! only we had to buy a massive tub of the stuff, anyone want green floors??

the woodwork was covered in some yuck brown varnish which was a bugger to get off.

we painted also painted the inside white.

mister Nao also replaced a metal strip underneath

a bit dull but...the boat has integral buoyancy which are like voids within the boat shell. They were packed with some weird foam which was all damp and gross (worring!) so he cut out some circles and gouged out all of that stuff which took forever.

he replaced the holes with little boat hatches so we can make future repairs easier and use it for storage.

bottom of the garden workshop!

I got to work on the manky oars which we found for a few quid. They had about a hundred years of varnish and were all cracked. You could just about make out a little hand painted emblem, probably of some sailing/rowing club? The copper bands had completely corroded.

after lots of careful varnish removing (i could actually peel it off in places so managed to keep the emblems just about) I replaced the copper bands (these will tarnish very quickly once in the water) and Nao attached some leather grips to hold them in the rowlocks.



we liked the look of this rope we found which looks and feels natural but is actually synthetic so it wont rot. Nao attached it around the boat.

I painted on the new name we chose...and after some new metal rowlocks were attached, we were ready for launch day!

possibly one of the most exciting days of our lives.

we only just realised its nearly the same colour as our camper van!

we managed to find a little trailer for £40 yay!


we had a quick row out in the river near our house. It was quite late for little tot by this time and she was not happy about wearing her lifejacket (she turns into a Weretot past 6.30pm).






It was such a beautiful evening with just the sound of the water lapping against the boat. It was funny to see the town from a different view. You feel so small when you are in a boat, like the sea is so huge and could take you anywhere. In this case it would only take us to the harbour ; )


back to our van for takeaway curry and watch the sunset...



 can't wait to see you again Sprout!


34 comments

  1. What an amazing makeover job you have done, it looks so pretty. Love the colour and the name....everything. I am very jealous :)

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  2. Anonymous13.6.14

    So so so sweet, what a lovely post to read on a Friday night :o) Hoping you have lots more boat trips! Jenna, islandbluebird.com

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  3. gah i am in l.o.v.e with your life and sprout - happy, happy days xxx

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  4. Happy sailing, so perfect for your island life. I love the lettering xo

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  5. You literally have the most perfect days! You must be so proud of everything you've done, sprout is splendid! x

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  6. Awwww, what a lovely boat, im sure you will have many a fun time on dear Sprout!

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  7. That is just so great. You always have such wonderful adventures.

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  8. You guys are such a brilliant power couple!! Yowza!

    Rowena

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  9. You are very lucky people. ��

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  10. You guys are unstoppable! Wee clever clogs!

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  11. Looks idyllic, you have done an excellent job restoring sprout love reading your posts your little one will have some wonderful childhood memories

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  12. Those pictures of Pehr wearing her life jacket are too funny! Your boat is just perfect, including the name. I can't wait to hear more about your adventures with Sprout!

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  13. wow! wow! wow! you got a boat!!! looks good after all the cleaning up. :D

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  14. Incredible job guys! Contrats for SPROUT... Looks like a lot of new adventures are coming and also great blog posts about them... Can't wait! xx

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  15. You guys are SO cool!! Here I am fretting over how to fix a broken closet hinge and you guys ... fixed up a boat?! Wow. And I love the name of the boat!

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  16. Reminds me of many happy hours spent in my grandads shed watching him make and repair boats like the one you have.

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  17. It's perfect. You had to get a boat. And it had to be green! Weretot is a cute sailor.

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  18. You always fix things up so beautifully! Love Sprout Can't wait to see more boat trips x

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  19. love your little Sprout, your photographs are always so inspiring and full of love for life! x

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  20. You are all so clever, such wonderful photos. X

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  21. What a beautiful restoration job, is there anything you & your Mr can't do? I love that you got everything for very little monies, Sprout is now stunning.

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  22. beautiful lovestory... n♥

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  23. Magical! What a lovely little sprout indeed, already one of the family! :)

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  24. So clever and creative, as always.

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  25. Brilliant.... that is all. :)

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  26. A gorgeous post. Little sprout is so cute.

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  27. This is the most wonderful post! Your job on the boat and those oars is magnificent. Most creative couple ever - I'm so inspired to upcycle, if only I had an ounce of your artistic talent! Love the name too.

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  28. a little heaven on earth... ;) is what i could mutter after reading and seeing your posts of these kind...

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  29. Everything about this post made me so happy.

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  30. All that hard work has paid off, you have a beautiful little boat. Wishing you many happy adventures in her. CJ xx

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  31. I love this story from start to finish.. I love sailing and have a dinghy similar to yours. We finally sold our 26 foot sailboat named Stargazer - after owning it for 30 years. But we still have our Sunfish sailboats are will be sailing them soon at our family campout at Waldo Lake here in Oregon. Nice to meet you! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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