Maintaining a Boat's Original Style

--Blog post written by Bob

C&C has always had a style all their own and the Landfall series, like our Landfall 38, has its own unique stylistic elements.  I have made a lot of modifications to S/V Rainy Days over the 28 years I have owned her.  Throughout all my modifications I have tried to maintain her original "style."   The following photographs are intended to show how I've done this.

The C&C Landfall 38 came with four very large white PVC dorade vents and
they were originally mounted on teak dorade boxes.  Many years ago
in my effort to reduce my boat maintenance, I constructed new dorade
boxes (from oyster gray Starboard) and maintained the original
configuration but changed the dorade vents to stainless steel.

When I purchased my boat in 1986 the previous owner had mounted round instruments
in the cockpit bulkhead.  When these round instruments failed and the style changed,
I installed square instruments in the same location.  Later, as it became more feasible to
have the instruments at the helm, I had to come up with a solution for the holes in
the cockpit bulkhead.  Why not make a window?  I maintained the original style in
the way I used the same corner radius and the same shade of
plexiglass as all the other windows.

As described in a previous post, I made a big change to the windows on S/V Rainy Days.
converting from the original installation using simply a structural adhesive to one that
sandwiches the window between new stainless steel frames and the recessed cabin top.
This change was made to prevent leakage once and for all but it didn't stray
far from the original style of the windows.

The liquor cabinet on the port side of the cabin is standard C&C design.  The stereo cabinet on the
starboard side is a modification I made.  As best I could, I matched the style of the
liquor cabinet, particularly the radius end corners and the teak trim.

These sliding cabinet doors were originally very dark translucent plexiglass like the larger ones in the
main salon.  I thought it would make the boat a little classier if they were made from teak.  So, all
the sliding cabinet doors in the galley and the head are now constructed from teak--I like to
think that this made a visual enhancement of the original design.  Should I change the eight
larger sliding doors in the main salon to teak as well?  It would take me all next winter!

A few years ago, I made this spice rack for the galley--it matches the tone of the other teak in the boat.

While I have been adding some teak to the interior, I have been subtracting it from the
exterior where maintenance can be saved.  I designed stainless steel handrails
around the original hole locations and height above deck.  Atlantic Spars 
and Rigging in Annapolis made them to my drawings.

Another view of the stainless steel handrails--this one from deck level.

I have added a lot of shelves throughout S/V Rainy Days while I lived aboard for 10
years.  I converted both hanging lockers to shelves (and just recently converted
one back to a hanging locker) and added a shelf in lockers in the navigation
station and the head--they all use a teak fid like the original design.

I installed these handy bins in the cockpit coaming soon after buying the boat--it's been so long that
I tend to think of them as original equipment.  I changed the fid (the lip on the edge of a shelf or table) 
to one made of Starboard (as shown) more recently to save maintenance.

Of course, not everything works out the first time--in some cases I have redone projects that just didn't look right to me or didn't work as well as planned but whenever possible I consider the boat's original "style" as an important design parameter.

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