Valkyrie is a Westsail 32 built at the factory in 1975. I recently purchased her in St. Thomas from a gentleman who sailed her back and forth across the Atlantic several times before buying a much larger boat and settling on the island with his family.
My plan is to refit her and go sailing. Valkyrie is a proven blue water cruiser, but after many years of hard use, most of her systems need attention, the bottom needs paint, and she needs some overall TLC.
The main item taking precedence at the moment is replacing the engine shifter. The diesel engine, a 3 cylinder Yanmar, runs well, but the shifter is badly corroded, and the throttle advance is stuck at around 1500 rpms which is much to high for normal shifting. Larry the machanic is coming to look at it today.
After the shifter is working properly(hopefully by the end of this week) I'll bring the boat to Independent Boatyard in Benner Bay for a haulout and bottom job. The sling haul survey showed the bottom to be in surprisingly good condition, with only one small nick in the gellcoat, and virtually no bottom paint remaining. This should make it relatively easy to sand and apply a couple of new coats.
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