I recently had a request from a reader for some information about our boat. Brilliant II is a Peterson 44, sometimes known as a Kelly-Peterson, or KP44. Below is an article about Brilliant II, which appeared in the Australian magazine Cruising Helmsman. Click on the individual pages to read more.
Since this article was written we've been slowly making some modifications - nothing too radical, as we want to preserve the original character of the boat. Mostly we've repaired existing features or added new gadgets to improve the quality of our day-to-day lives. Repairs have included having a complete new dodger made (with minor adjustments to the old design), rebedding deck fittings (responsible for leaks) and maintaining the exterior teak. These last two jobs are pretty much on-going as is keeping an eye on the canvas.
Interior projects have involved replacing headlining in the aft cabin, re-building bookshelves in the main saloon and undertaking a complete refit of the forward head. Next on the list is the V-berth, which we must now convert from a storage space for Julian's tools to the nursery for our soon-to-arrive son. I'll be posting some before, during and after shots to document how this particular project goes.
Maintaining a 30+ year-old boat is no small task. At our current pace it will take many years to complete all the jobs we would like to see done and even then the routine chores will go on. Why do we do it? Because even though boat living is often hard work, it continues to be full of rewards.
