History 1st time

When I finally closed on the purchase of hull #153, I had never owned a big boat before. I had
sailed and raced a Hobie 16 on a lake for over 10 years, so I knew how to sail but the ocean
was bigger than a lake. Anyway first things first. I had just purchased my first big boat. It had
a bent rudder, needed a lot of cleaning and who knew if the engine was good for anything
other than a mooring. On a cold blustery early spring saturday morning I got to work
removing everything I could. All the gear , cushions, sails, lines and other crap that had been
sitting in the boat for years.

As I emptied the boat, I could start to see what I had....a mess. I removed all the
drawers, lazrette hatches, doors. then I started unscrewing eveything. All the trim
came out. As I looked at the avacado green formica, I decided it had to go, off came
the engine hatch, galley counter and head bulkhead and dinette table.

The next order of business was to clean and vacuum everthing, after I got that done,
I wiped every surface down. I finally reached the last item which no one likes, the
bilge. The boat had been sitting for 3 years God only knows what was in the bilge
and suprisingly even though the boat had been uncovered there was onle about a
foot and a half of water in the bilge. I proceeded to empty it the best I could. until I
got to the bottom, where I found the treasure's including if I remember correctly,
one sparkplug, two screwdrivers, one open ended wrench, two or three sockets, a
socket wrench and of course at least a dozen screws, bolts and nuts. Finally the bilge
had been clean again after 25 years.

The next order of business was to paint every locker in the boat I could, this took
time and paint. As I painted the interior became more and more inviting. Very
important, so my wife would come sailing with me. (She never sailed before)

I finally scheduled the boatyard to remove the Atomic 4 and load it into my
pickup (I had no idea how I was going to get it out, and I don't remember how I
did. I cleaned up the engine compart and gave it a coat paint (or three or four).

I then proceeded to take the A4 completely apart, again I had NO idea what I
was doing, but lets say my boatyard put it back together. I did replace all the
minor components and cleaned each piece, degreased as best I could primed
with chromate primer and repainted each piece individually. I chose catepillar
yellow over the A4 color as I liked yellow better, and boy did a yellow A4 look
cool.

Back at home I sanded all the woodwork and refinished each piece with 6 yes 6
coats of epifanes. I bought a piece of formica and learned how to install and
trim it. While this was going on I had all my cushions recovered and had a set
of cockpit cushions made.

While everything was out I also tried my hand at wiring, putting in a new
stereo, VHF, Loran, bilge pumps, depth and speed and interior and navigation
lighting. This of course called for adding two more 6 breaker fuse panels and a
second battery.

I also had my sails looked at by my buddies who own SPERRY SAILS in Marion MA. The sailes were checked
mended and washed. My friends advised me that the sailes were getting close to retirement and I might think of
replacing them. They gave me a price and decided to hold off. I did replace all the halyards and two masthead
sheaves as well as the mast wiring.

By mid July I had the boat back together minus an engine, as I was on the back burner with the boatyard.
Determined to go sailing I attached one of those small adjustaable motor mount to the transom and attached a
old evinrude I had laying aound on the boat, It didn't look pretty but I just had to do it.