Out of the water at the Canoe Cove Marina, Sidney, British Columbia

Masts are being pulled out by the crew from Blackline Marine

The construction of Taj Mahal begins

and ends

Scraping the hull below the waterline was a hard part, but the topsides went much easier

Some of the spars were in a bit of a rough shape, but stripping and sanding got them ready for the paint job

The main salon gutted and ready for the shipwrights

With generous help form Craig Johnsen of Schooner Magic, the keel ballast had been designed and shaped using the blue insulation foam.

The concrete molds are ready for lead

My neighbour John uses his many skills to build a melting pot out of a piece of a 12” pipe

the lead slugs go in the pot, and we are ready for casting

With help from my other neighbour George, pouring lead is easy

and there you have it, with a bit of sanding the ballast is ready to be attached to the bottom of the keel

The two halves fit around the keel perfectly, drilled all the way through and ready to be bolted.

Boards of sapele are laminated into new floor boards

Keelson has been notched and new floor timbers fitted

The floor timbers are laminated in place and rebuilding of the interior begins

Four new holes have been drilled on an angle into the lead keel to accommodate additional keel bolts (I have not drilled them myself, just showing off)

Four new keel bolts installed

Floor boards and new bunk fronts installed

hull-keel transition filled and faired to accommodate glassing

The interior has been rebuilt and restored

The hull has been sealed with epoxy, washed and sanded

9 ounce fiberglass cloth has been cut at 40 ft length for the topsides, glued on with West Systems 105+206 epoxy and then painted with 105/206 mixed with 407 fairing filler

Followed by the same procedure below the waterline.

Rudder post fiberglass tube installed

Booms are sprayed with awlgrip paint

New through hull fittings sealed in place with sikaflex 291

First coat of primer goes on the topsides

First coat of Interprotect paint goes on the bottom

Rudder and propeller are installed

Bow sprit installed

Bottom paint and the boot strip are done

Patrick and Derek from Canoe Cove Marina taking the boat out of Taj Mahal

And there she is, in all it’s glory, after 23 months of work, ready to go back to the water

Copernicus is loaded on the truck and goes for a road trip to nearby Westport Marina

She is picked up by a travelift (Byron Burns who build her shows up for the occasion)

After 23 months to a day she is back in the water

After a short trip around we are back at Canoe Cove to have the masts stepped in by the crew from Blackline Marine

2.3/4 inch stock supports plywood sandwiched between Douglas Fir planks

All glued with epoxy and clamped

Eric gives it a streamlined shape

The new rudder is glassed

The trailing edge shaped

Rudder installed

After a coat of Inter Protect and antifouling paint, Copernicus is heading back to the ocean.