20' Restored Mystery Sloop - LYDIA

Lydia is a 2014 Craigslist find. She had been languishing on the hard for many years and in need of complete restoration. Unknown builder, design, or build date. She was clearly hurting, but I was captivated by the sweep of her sheer, and at 20ft (without the bow sprit) she would just fit in my shop. Launched in May 2020 after a 6 year weekend and after work restoration. In the end, I replaced all the planking with ¾ inch cedar strips, with 10oz glass epoxy outside and penetrating epoxy and four coats of Bilgekote inside. I also replaced the stem, timber keel, sternpost, all frames aft of mid-ship, and all the floors in white oak. The original lead keel had been poured in three goes, making three separate layers, so I had a new keel made. She also has a new transom in African mahogany. The original deck was pine with many soft spots, and was replaced with 3/8 inch black locust over ½ inch marine plywood. The rig was missing, so I designed and built a gaff cutter rig with self-tending stays’l and roller furling yankee, Sitka spruce mast and spars, dyneema synthetic standing rigging and new sails by Stuart Hopkins at Dabbler Sails. She has a 2kW Torqeedo pod drive that I installed over the 2020-2021 winter. To open the possibility of trailer sailing, I converted the keel stepped mast to a tabernacle over the 2021-2022 winter, and had a triad trailer made. This coming season Lydia will be moored in the Benjamin River, Sedgwick, Maine.