1.1.1
Decide on Selection Criteria
Determine the price, condition, location, optional equipment, and trade-offs between them that you want and/or can live with, for hull, spars, rigging, sails, accessories, and trailer. Put them on a checklist, for easy reference.
For
my project, I didn’t want to spend very much money, and I wanted a boat that
could be put back into working order in one summer, using tools from my own
basement workshop and my own, relatively inexperienced labor.
My
entire prior experience with Lightning sailboats consisted only of a two-year
tour of duty as foredeck crew on Lightning 14627, sailed on the Potomac River
with Fleet 50 skippers Jim Dillard and Nelson Pemberton. So I knew what a well-tuned and
well-equipped relatively recent Lightning sailboat looked like, and how her
rigging worked. And I also had, through
Fleet 50, a network I could call on for help, a network of other skippers and
crew who had acquired and done refurbishing work on Lightnings, including Jim
Dillard, Nelson Pemberton, Jeff Stork, and Frank Gallagher. Still, I recognized that there were limits
to what I could accomplish in one summer, and kept that in mind when shopping.
I
did have other experience with refurbishing sailboats, but that was a very long
time ago. During my high-school years
in Minneapolis I had acquired a used boat – an Inland Lakes Scow – that needed
some refurbishing work and maintenance to get and keep it in working order. My memories of that work guided me also when
deciding on selection criteria for a Lightning.
So I
wanted an inexpensive boat whose hull required mostly cosmetic, rather than
structural work; a boat that didn’t necessarily need to be ready for racing,
but that did have sails, spars, rigging and equipment that could be put into
service for cruising.