We started talking about the possibility of buying M/V Infinity (f/k/a M/V Dolphin) in mid-September 2003. As with all improvement projects run amuck, it started innocently enough (although it is likely no accident that it was one of the stops on our first formal date). After all, we both had good jobs, a steady source of income and good credit. A “no brainer” – right?
We started by meeting with Tom Smith and Chuck Albertson of Delta Marine. They came to the boat and gave us an appraisal of whether some of our ideas for refitting the interior were feasible and offered a few suggestions, including Tom’s suggestion that we move the galley to the forward compartment. In late October we traveled to the International Boat Show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with the idea that we could get ideas from other boats and talk to different yards about rates and schedules. We did all of that, and on the flight back to Seattle, we used as much eraser as we did lead to try to design the interior that matched the vision we had of the perfect boat.
Finally, in mid-November, we were finally satisfied that we had the perfect floor plan. That, coincidentally, had the galley in the forward compartment. It was time to take our pencil and graph paper plan on the road, and look for financing. We encountered obstacles at every turn: no loans for steel hulls, no loans to unmarried co-owners, no loans to "cash out" one of the current owners, no loans to perform a refit, no loans for live-aboards, etc. In mid-December, on a lark (and coincidentally dressed in formal business attire), we paid a visit to First Technology Credit Union. After three months of repeated rejections, it took FirstTech only three hours to approve our loan application.
Since she had not been away from dock for over three years, we and the credit union wanted a professional survey. On January 10, 2004 we hired a captain and said “good-bye” to Tillicum Marina and Lake Union. The trip through the locks, across Elliott Bay and up the Duwamish to Delta Marine gave us confidence that she was still seaworthy. Although the survey disclosed that we had a problem with poor zincs, a pair of failing galvanic isolators, and a number of interior and exterior issues, the survey was sufficient to satisfy both us and the credit union.
The loan closed on Friday the 13th of February. We had dinner at Daniel’s – the same restaurant where we had our first formal date the preceding August 1st and I first saw the boat. Just before dessert, Gail presented Dwight with the most romantic gift she could find – a wrecking bar! We spent Valentines' Day weekend tearing out the main level interior. We stripped the interior down to bare walls, floors and ceilings, filling three dumpsters to overflowing. We turned the boat over to Delta Marine on Monday, February 16th with no blueprints, and little more than the pencil and graph paper plan we had drawn.
Early in the continuing demolition of the main deck level, the workers found an aluminum room right smack in the middle of the boat where our “open” floor plan dictated no walls. If the walls were structural, we would be headed back to the drawing board to start Version #3.8. Fortunately, we were able to remove most of the walls, the remainder of which now form three sides of the wiring/plumbing closet.
Our next surprise was finding that the original sub-floor was almost two inches higher on the starboard side than on the port side. But once the decision was made to rebuild the sub-floor, we looked forward once again. Because we brought such minimalist plans to work from, one of the first things the yard did was to make door-skin veneer cut-outs of all the cabinets, furniture and new walls. Good thing, too, as we made a number of changes as a result. As we moved even further into the process and things got 3-dimensional, they built cardboard mock-ups of cabinets. Which led to another one of many excellent suggestions: upper corner cabinets to transition from the flat cabinet fronts to the curve of the house.
Tear-out continued through April: tearing the crew quarters down to the hull so construction of the new laundry room/master walk-in closet can begin; pulling out old electrical wires so new wires can be installed; tearing out old closet cabinets in the master stateroom so an opening can be cut into the bulkhead and a watertight door installed to access the old crew quarters compartment; and tearing out old wall and ceiling panels – some destined for the dumpster and some for recovering.
By the first week of May, we began to feel that we had turned the corner. Instead of looking around and seeing only destruction, signs of progress abounded. On the morning of May 7th we visited the boat, and crown molding was going up in the salon and dining area. While we had spent many hours selecting the router blades used to cut the molding, approved cabinet designs and construction, varnish, hardware, ceilings, lights, switches, speakers, and more, it was amazing to see those decisions start to become a reality. Not to mention that, the fact that the crown molding was going up meant that the mahogany wall panels were also in place, even if not varnished.
By this time, too, the galley cabinets were almost done and we were just one upper cabinet away from having all the cabinet boxes built for the entire boat. The pantry closet is done, incorporating a louvered door from the old crew quarters. After weeks of scaling, chipping, and sand blasting, we were finally able to start painting in the bilges where the new bow thruster will be installed. We have the granite selected for the galley countertops and salon cabinet tops, the marble is on hand for the galley floor (heated, of course), and many other decisions have been made.
We also began working toward living on board, as our lease ended May 31st. We rented a storage unit and have started packing up those things that will not go on the boat (either right away, or ever). We took the wall panels down in the master stateroom for the purpose of recovering them and putting them back up. Gail's friend Brigitte was instrumental in selecting the new fabric for the panels, which turned out to be an absolutely perfect choice.
At the end of May, the plumbing on the boat was still not far enough along to enable us to even brush our teeth, the ceilings in the state rooms were open, and interior lights were not working. We temporarily moved into a condo owned by Melinda and Dave Bryan. The condo had been on the market for some time, but as soon as we took refuge there it promptly sold. We finally moved on board June 25th. By this time, the most important part of the work had been done: our new 42” HDTV plasma television has been installed onto the plasma lift (which allows it to rise from the cabinet where it is stored), and DirectTV service had been activated.
The welders finished the 35 HP bow thruster tube and the mounting for a new depth sounder transponder, and supports for the bow thruster motor and controls were completed. The carpentry/cabinet crew installed the wall veneers in the galley and continued working on cabinets. The marble shop began working on the galley countertops as we patiently awaited delivery of an "O" bit to form the edge of the bar countertop. We completed insulating the ceiling on the main deck level to allow work to go forward on headliners and varnish.
July was not, however, without drama. On July 14th Dwight arrived at the boat in the early afternoon and was greeted with the news that our refrigerator, placed next to the dayhead wall, was not a “zero clearance model, and so the freezer door would not open fully. After evaluating our choices, we decided to move the island aft about four inches, move the dishwasher forward of the sink, move the trash compacter aft of the sink, permitting the refrigerator to move forward about nine inches, and we'll put a narrow floor-to-ceiling cabinet aft of the refrigerator. The price we pay for not hiring an interior designer….
On July 16th we moved into a work bay with another boat. We didn’t mind having neighbors, but grinding fiberglass at 6:00 a.m. every morning and cleaning up fiberglass dust every evening got old fast.
By late July, the granite cabinet tops were in place in the dining room, awaiting wood trim. The granite hearth in front of the fireplace is also done. The woodwork in the galley was ready to be varnished, including our new cabinet to the left of the refrigerator (and the freezer opens!). The headliners were done in the master stateroom.
By the time Infinity was “christened” on August 1st – replete with denaming, renaming, and serving large quantities of cheap champagne – we had managed to overwork several yard employees in a frenzied push to get as much done as we could before the party. We were able to get the headliner up in the salon/dining room, the light fixtures were all in place, and everyone made sure things were as clean as they could be for a shipyard. Gail's daughter, Sarah, stood in for us on early hostess duty and helped with final details while we changed out of our work clothes. Patty LaFontaine also graciously came to our aid with table set-up, Tom Caspell accepted our on-the-spot request to tend bar, Janet Kalney (now Luhn) literally “pitched in” at the end to help with cleanup, and Melinda Solly-Bryan made fortune cookie soaps to memorialize the event. Most importantly, the guys at Delta Marine did an amazing job hanging a protective barrier between Infinity and our neighboring boat, cleaned the work bay, and did everything possible to ensure that we were ready to entertain.
By mid-August, we had a finished bar top, and it looked fabulous. At an overall height of 43-1/2" Gail decided the bar was too tall. So, the top came off and the cabinet went down. Somehow, between setting it on edge to work on the bar and the crew's return the following morning, the granite fell over and cracked all the way through. Fortunately, we had left over granite, and a second one was started.
The galley ceiling/lights was finished, the tile for the day head was cut and awaiting installation (as soon as the sub-floor dried out from the drenching it took when the galley sink drained through an un-capped pipe), the medicine chest for the dayhead was built and varnishing begun. The carpenters began dry-fitting all the cabinet doors and started fitting the drawers. The bow thruster installation was completed, and the crew started enclosing the old crew quarters to begin construction of the new closet and laundry room.
Dwight finished two weeks of quality time (i.e., vacation), prepping exterior doors, sanding the hull and helping the crew in any way he could. We spent a full day sanding more of the hull in anticipation of a new paint job (white).
By the end of August all the cabinet doors and drawers in the galley were finally done. Gail happily began cleaning galley cabinets and unpacking boxes of pans, canned goods, and miscellaneous kitchen stuff. Although the marble floor was not in, we had a more-or-less functional galley. The guys are starting to move their tools and supplies off the boat, and as we began to reclaim more and more or our living space, the better we felt.
All of a sudden, it felt as though we were spinning our wheels again. By early September we received word that our second granite bar top had cracked, even before it made it out of the shop. There had been enough granite for the second one, but the yard had to go buy a whole new slab for the third. The ceiling headliners were all done (except the laundry room/closet). The light fixtures were in place on the main deck level and in the staterooms (but not in the new laundry room/closet). The sink basin was mounted in the corner of the day head (but the pedestal was still in its box). The day head lights and exhaust fan were installed (but the mirror on the medicine cabinet was still AWOL). Almost all of the sanding is done on the hull and the painting guy was back at work (but painting had not yet started). The day head door is in place (but not the door handle). The mahogany trim is in place on the port and starboard buffet cabinets (but we were now waiting on the third bar top). But the galley is completely done (except for the marble floor and the tile behind the cooktop). By September 22nd we had working laundry appliances and a (heated!) marble floor in the galley.
By September 28th most everything was done in the master stateroom except for installing the carpet and the wood trim around the watertight door to the closet/laundry room. Dwight wired in the wall sconce light fixtures on either side of the bed, we finished installing the wall panels and put on the switch/outlet cover plates. The bed was a mess because it was used as tool storage area by the workers who continued to finish the laundry room walls and work on the ceiling headliners. Dwight and I ultimately installed the lights and ceiling headliner in the master stateroom.
By the end of the September, the hull painting was complete, but the bottom still had a few patches to be painted before we could go in the water.
Almost unexpectedly, we launched Infinity October 5th. We received mixed messages from Delta management on Monday, and believed we were to launch on Wednesday, October 6th. After arriving home, we worked on removing plastic, paper, and lots of masking tape, and re-installed the swim platform. We decided to work only until 11:00pm, so we didn't do the four patches of bottom paint, exposed when they moved her onto new supports. Dwight got up at 6:00am on Tuesday to grind and paint those areas, only to return at 7:30am to report that we would be in the water by noon.
We splashed at 11:00am and spent the rest of the day hooking up power and water, cleaning, troubleshooting, etc. The good news was that after six months out of the water the engines started easily and ran smoothly. The bad news was that (in an effort to increase water pressure to clean the decks and house) we attached the water supply without the regulator, and apparently blew a seal on the water pump. Not fatal, but it kept the bilge pump in the engine room cycling throughout the night. We remained at Delta Marine in order to complete necessary, unfinished work. And, for the first time since moving into the work bay, we were once again able to get satellite television reception (just in time for the VP debate). More importantly, we were able to sleep with a window open and we weren’t awakened by the sounds of fiberglass being ground on the fish boat next door!
By the time we were ready to move to our first “permanent” moorage on South Lake Union on November 1st, most of the work had been completed. The third bar top had been safely installed, the carpeting was laid throughout the boat, and we managed to load 2000# of lead shot ballast into the bow (sealing it with 30 gallons of fiberglass resin). In all, we had totally gutted and rebuilt the main deck level, updated systems, created a useful laundry facility, replaced all stateroom ceilings, walls and carpets. Finally, we spent the best 5 million pennies ever – on the bow thruster.