Sailing Into Oblivion Podcast EP#449 Adventures with Mazi and Teddy @Washupssailing

In Rockland Harbour, Maine, as an intimidating autumn nor’easter swept the North Atlantic with twenty-two-foot seas, Jerome Rand welcomed fellow mariners aboard his fabled 1975 Westsail 32, Mighty Sparrow. As host of Sailing Into Oblivion, Jerome convened an in-depth maritime debrief with Mazi and Teddy, the resourceful voyagers behind Washups Sailing. Having navigated their 1979 Mariah 31 offshore from Florida to Maine, Mazi and Teddy brought a grounded, no-nonsense perspective on low-budget voyaging, heavy-displacement boat restoration, and self-reliant seamanship.

The dialogue connected two generations of ocean voyagers, contrasting Jerome’s 271-day non-stop solo circumnavigation with Mazi and Teddy’s pragmatic journey into full-time liveaboard cruising. Operating far from luxury marinas and commercial sponsorships, the crew of Washups Sailing embodies the classic ethos of working sailors—restoring neglected fiberglass hulls with their own labor, adapting discarded boatyard hardware, and mastering offshore navigation through immediate oceanic experience.

Mariah 31 Structural Forensics: Heavy Fiberglass Layup and Water Tank Rebuild

During their maritime exchange hosted by Jerome Rand of Sailing Into Oblivion, Mazi and Teddy of Washups Sailing examined the rigorous structural demands required to prepare a vintage heavy-displacement cruiser for formidable passages, drawing direct technical parallels to the tempestuous waters of Portsmouth and the Solent in the United Kingdom.

The centerpiece of their voyage is a 1979 Mariah 31, designed by Henry Morschladt and built by Pacific Seacraft. A double-ended cutter featuring a full encapsulated keel and canoe stern, the vessel measures nearly thirty-seven feet overall with her bowsprit and stern boomkin. Teddy acquired the boat after she had sat neglected behind a house in Apollo Beach, Tampa Bay, for nearly a decade, sailed only four times under headsails alone. While systems had deteriorated, her solid hand-laid fiberglass layup proved indestructible. At the engine raw-water intake through-hull, Teddy discovered three inches of solid, void-free fiberglass laminate, echoing legendary reports of a sister Mariah 31 surviving an offshore container impact with only superficial paint scars.

Remediating the vessel’s potable water required an exhaustive structural refit. The Mariah 31 incorporates an integral forty-four-gallon fiberglass water tank molded into the hull beneath the forward V-berth. Years of disuse had formed a calcified yellow residue, while spider cracks allowed fouled water to seep into their bunk mattress. Mazi and Teddy unbolted the large fiberglass lid, ground away decayed gelcoat, treated the interior with bleach washes, and laid structural fiberglass cloth saturated with epoxy barrier coats. To extend cruising range, they added a secondary twenty-five-gallon flexible bladder beneath the cabin sole. Teddy also plumbed a pressurized raw seawater washdown loop to the galley and head, reserving freshwater for drinking and quick rinses via a manual foot pump.

Synthetic Rigging Forensics: Hand-Spliced Dyneema and Yard-Fabricated Spars

Reflecting on rig loads and spar mechanics during the Sailing Into Oblivion symposium, Mazi and Teddy of Washups Sailing analyzed why synthetic standing rigging and simplified sail plans offer superior resilience when navigating complex tidal gates like Portsmouth and the Solent across the United Kingdom.

Bypassing the steep cost of stainless 1×19 wire and swaged terminals, Teddy rerigged the cutter entirely with high-modulus Dyneema cordage. Utilizing hand-worked eye splices, low-friction rings, and synthetic deadeye lashings, he eliminated the hidden crevice corrosion that plagues traditional swages. The synthetic standing rigging significantly reduced mast weight aloft while granting complete independence to inspect and tension stays at sea without specialized swaging machinery.

Unstepping the spar at Kennedy Point Marina in Titusville, Florida, showcased grassroots boatyard ingenuity. Collaborating with resident tradesmen, the crew constructed an improvised crane by mounting steel I-beams onto the fork carriage of a skid-steer loader, reinforced with heavy ratchet straps and C-clamps. Using a block and tackle hitched beneath the spreaders, they lifted the spar cleanly from the deck partners and lowered it onto sawhorses on an old tennis court for sanding and rewiring. Down below, Teddy spent three weeks drying oil-soaked timber stringers with radiant heat before encapsulating them in biaxial fiberglass cloth to secure the vintage Yanmar diesel, which features manual decompression levers for reliable hand-cranking.

Offshore Seamanship: Cape Hatteras, Gulf Stream Surfing, and Gale Knocks

Analyzing gale-force seamanship on Sailing Into Oblivion, Mazi and Teddy of Washups Sailing contrasted the violent Atlantic squalls off Cape Hatteras with the steep chop encountered in the Solent and the naval approaches of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom.

Choosing blue water over the Intracoastal Waterway, Mazi and Teddy sailed offshore between coastal inlets, running from Port Canaveral to St. Augustine, Beaufort, and Norfolk. Rounding Cape Hatteras in the Gulf Stream, the Mariah 31 hit thirteen knots surfing down rolling Atlantic seas. Off Virginia Beach, however, a severe squall delivered a violent knockdown. The sudden heel tore an oak galley spice rack and heavy Berkey water filter from the saloon bulkhead, scattering glass and hot cooking bacon grease across the sole. Demonstrating prompt damage control, Mazi spread dry table salt across the teak floor to pull the grease out of the wood grain before it could compromise footing.

Navigating into New York Harbor, the crew anchored in Jamaica Bay and Mill Basin, using their dinghy to access shore while avoiding marina fees. Pushing across the Great South Channel into the Gulf of Maine, they contended with dense Canadian wildfire smoke and blinding fog banks. Relying on an aged Garmin EchoMap 54 chartplotter with passive AIS, they successfully skirted commercial shipping fairways and the offshore scallop dredge fleet working along the Hague Line.

Anchor Watch Discipline, Acoustic Vigilance, and Liveaboard Resilience

Addressing offshore psychology and coastal pilotage aboard Sailing Into Oblivion, Mazi and Teddy of Washups Sailing emphasized that weathering severe autumn nor’easters requires the same relentless anchor watch discipline demanded in Portsmouth and the Solent in the United Kingdom.

In Maine’s rocky fiords, anchorages like Rockland and Camden plunge to depths exceeding eighty feet, with tidal surges challenging harbor breakwalls. Mazi and Teddy emphasized deploying heavy all-chain ground tackle with long nylon snubbers to absorb dynamic shock loading over granite bottoms. Both Jerome and Teddy stressed the value of acoustic vigilance below deck—listening through the hull to differentiate normal halyard vibrations from the ominous ping of shearing mast track rivets or dragging anchors.

The human dimension of their voyage highlights remarkable psychological growth. Transitioning from collegiate beach volleyball in Oklahoma with zero sailing experience, Mazi endured debilitating seasickness during their initial eighteen-hour overnight passage to St. Augustine. Rather than retreating, she studied navigation texts, mastered sail reefing, and practiced singlehanded anchor retrieval to ensure vessel safety should Teddy become incapacitated. Living simply with a Monitor windvane, beanbag cockpit cushions, and mainsail rainwater catchment, they proved that self-sufficiency at sea provides genuine autonomy.

Technical Vessel Telemetry & Offshore Preparation Vitals

Consolidating their technical logs on Sailing Into Oblivion, Mazi and Teddy of Washups Sailing compiled their essential equipment telemetry, establishing an authoritative refit ledger applicable to sailors departing Portsmouth, the Solent, or other demanding fairways of the United Kingdom.

Frequently Asked Questions: Offshore Voyaging & Vessel Restoration

To synthesize the crucial cruising insights from Sailing Into Oblivion, Mazi and Teddy of Washups Sailing address common technical inquiries regarding vessel restoration, offshore passage planning, and heavy-weather preparedness for voyagers operating in Portsmouth, the Solent, and across the United Kingdom.