Our affection for Wayfarers, especially wooden Wayfarers, is due entirely to our owning W275 "Possum", pictured above anchored in the Oosterschelde in The Netherlands. Below, Renee sorts out the gear with the Possum hooked up to the Bay Em Way for the trip home to Tervuren (outside Brussels) after a weekend of sailing.
We bought W275 in 1993 from Moores of Wroxham, located in the Broads of England, just to the north of Norwich. We took the ferry over from Oostende, Belgium to Hull and drove north, bought the boat, did some sailing on the Broads and took it home to Tervuren.
Mostly, we sailed in The Netherlands. Below we rig our new boom tent that allows for camp cruising.
When we moved back to Denver, CO in June 1994, I shipped the Wayfarer to Galveston, TX on a RO-RO ship and put it in storage there (photo below) until we could drive down and pick it up, which we did over Christmas holidays in 1994.
In Denver we decided to refinish W275 and started stripping off the finish and fixing the aft frame damage caused by the bad trailer, just like the damage our new Wayfarer had.
Takes a long time to strip all this varnish off.
Above - new keelson, replacing the old rotted one.
Above - all stripped, frame joints repaired, epoxied and filleted, bilges sealed with epoxy.
I turn the Possum over to refinish the hull, first down to the wood and then a coat of epoxy over 2 oz. crowfoot cloth.
Below - with the hull repainted, it's time to varnish the deck.
Above - deck varnished. Below - we loaned the Possum to the UK Junior Champions Sarah and Rosie for the Wayfarer World Championships in Toronto in 1995.
Above - the Possum and me at Lake McConaughy in Nebraska on the way back from the Worlds in Toronto.
Above - Possum on the way to new owners Tom and Diane Erickson in Gardner MA, 1998. Below - Tom and Diane still sail Possum in the Northeast.
