Fall/winter means restoration and refurbishment – marking a busy and interesting time of year for C.W. Hood Yachts
October and November are always a busy time at C.W. Hood Yachts, located in Marblehead, Mass., as this is the time of year where many of our customers’ boats come "home" either for refurbishment, restoration work or standard "winter work."
Each day since mid-September and through the end of the month, we manage a fleet of incoming C.W. Hood 32s, Wasques and Katamas among others that will be stored in Marblehead. Looking at the names of some of the boats that return in the fall, and their homeports is something we enjoy as we see Wasques who have been in Cape Cod harbors, Katamas and C.W. Hood 32s who hail from Maine to name a few.
Whether or not they stay with us all winter, we are always grateful when our customers trust and depend on us to take care of their vessels in the off season. This ongoing, off-season customer relationship remains one of the things we are most proud of at C.W. Hood Yachts.
With fall in full swing, a lot of the boats are hauled and stored using the skills of our marine mechanic Will Parker and crew from Norman Street along with Chris Hood and Chris Stirling who are at the Norman Street shop throughout each day. Anytime this month, if local residents pass by the Norman Street shop you may see a different configuration of boats as the crew may be on site as we bring them in and out of the yard - some will stay inside for the season as a larger, restoration project may be underway but most will come inside and then eventually settle in the yard covered up and protected from the elements all winter.
The season where boats come back to hibernate can be one of the more interesting ones as a lot of C.W. Hood Yachts projects in winter go on behind closed doors because of the cold. We have had many interesting projects involving winter restorations and refurbishments (see our restorations page). While this winter we will be working on a larger project or two (stay tuned!!).
We have had three wonderful restoration projects ongoing that are featured on our website. One was the restoration of Hull #0 - Katama 30 "TIMBERLINE" formally "ANTOINETTE" – originally built for C.W. Hood Yachts to use as a demo boat in 2001. At that time, she won high praise from all the top yachting magazines at the time and was the talk at boat shows from Newport to Palm Beach that year.
Over the years since then, she had caring and not so caring owners. Her new owner found her for sale in Rhode Island and had the goal of bringing her back to life. She is dear to Chris Hood’s heart as he spent many a late night working to develop and build her in the Gdansk shipyard in Poland where the Katamas were built.
The C.W. Hood Yachts team started first by giving her a thorough cleaning and degreasing, removing the engine and vital jet parts, batteries, etc. The team stripped all the brightwork and recoated her with 12 or more coats, buffed and compounded deck areas, repaired topsides, and polished (they look like new). They also rebedded rails and deck hardware after 20 years of weathering. As the team worked through the existing engine issues, it became apparent a rebuild from Yanmar was in order but looking at the cost to rebuild a 20-year-old motor versus a new, up-to-date engine made it clear that a new engine could benefit the owner with a smooth running, quieter, cleaner burning diesel which includes all the latest bits of information about the engine on the Garmin GPS screen. We received the engine in spring 2021 and finished her up for her new family in Marblehead. We are delighted that “Timberline” is now enjoying her second season based here in Marblehead. Please read https://www.cwhoodyachts.com/restoration to learn about our 2021 restoration of two Wasque “Blue Heaven” and “Better Together.”
Once again, fall is always one of our favorite seasons in our industry as new boats are under construction and some of our favorites are back for exciting refurbishment and restoration work. It is a time of year where we can reflect on the decades of work and relationships with boats and our customers.