Two Boats One Yard 🛠️ | Ep.105

In the demanding environment of commercial boatyards along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, maritime restoration requires exceptional discipline, mechanical mastery, and physical stamina. For Rafael Raff Echemendia and Sascha Meyers of Spear It Animal, managing a comprehensive Boatyard Refit is an intensive operational reality. Stationed in St. Augustine near the maritime crossroads of the St. Johns River in northern Florida, United States, the experienced cruising couple faced an ambitious dual-vessel undertaking: coordinating parallel refit operations across two major sailing platforms simultaneously.

Their mission required balancing the recommissioning of their celebrated 2006 Beneteau Cyclades 50, SV Dead Dolphin, with the foundational composite reconstruction of their salvaged 2020 Lagoon 450S catamaran, SV Christina. Having logged thousands of nautical miles across the Caribbean Sea, Raff and Sascha approached the shipyard not merely as temporary haul-out storage, but as an advanced engineering workshop. Here, running gear balancing, high-load ground tackle refurbishment, and structural composite repairs had to be executed without compromise.

Dual Vessel Logistics in a Florida Working Yard

Rafael Raff Echemendia and Sascha Meyers orchestrate their comprehensive Spear It Animal Boatyard Refit operations within the maritime hub of St. Augustine along the St. Johns River corridor in Florida, United States, balancing the extreme logistical complexity of servicing two blue-water hulls simultaneously. Operating within an active commercial boatyard requires rigorous space management and operational sequencing. Daily lay-day storage fees and heavy machinery staging costs accumulate quickly, making scheduling efficiency paramount.

To maintain efficiency, the crew established distinct operational zones for dirty and clean tasks. High-dust operations—such as grinding chain links, scraping bottom paint, and fairing epoxy—were isolated from running gear work and canvas fitting. Utilizing industrial cyclonic dust separators connected to fine-filter vacuum systems, Sascha and Raff captured airborne fiberglass dust and rust scales at the tool head, protecting surrounding boats and ensuring a safe working atmosphere.

Running Gear Precision: Gori Folding Propeller Teardown

During the intense Boatyard Refit phase led by Rafael Raff Echemendia and Sascha Meyers for Spear It Animal near St. Augustine along the St. Johns River basin in Florida, United States, restoring mechanical running gear demanded surgical precision to eliminate drag and galvanic electrolysis. The Beneteau propulsion relies on a sophisticated Gori three-blade folding propeller. While folding propellers reduce underwater resistance under sail, their internal gearing and tight pivot clearances require meticulous servicing.

Sascha dressed the bronze propeller blades using a pneumatic die grinder with 600-grit abrasive paper, stripping away calcium deposits without removing base metal or disturbing the wheel balance at shaft speeds up to 3,000 RPM. After overcoming a seized hub collar with wooden blocking and pullers, Raff inspected their spare propeller. The backup bronze displayed classic signs of de-alloying, exhibiting a pink, brittle porous surface from stray-current electrolysis. To protect the primary Gori unit, the crew packed its gearing with waterproof marine grease, treated locking fasteners with medium threadlocker, and installed fresh sacrificial zincs on the hub and shaft.

Ground Tackle Forensics: Anchor Chain and Windlass Overhaul

Tackling severe ground tackle degradation during their Spear It Animal Boatyard Refit, Rafael Raff Echemendia and Sascha Meyers set up heavy staging in St. Augustine along the St. Johns River maritime zone in Florida, United States, to extract frozen, rusted galvanized chain and rebuild the primary bow windlass. Tropical salt moisture had fused hundreds of feet of half-inch chain into an unyielding pyramid of rust inside the locker, jamming the deck hawse pipe.

Raff severed the congealed chain into segments using an angle grinder and cutoff discs, replacing it with 250 feet of sound half-inch galvanized chain salvaged from the catamaran. Inspecting the foredeck below, they discovered that heavy surge loads had twisted the 1,700-watt windlass motor on its base. After dropping the motor, Raff stripped corrosion using wire wheels, applied durable Yanmar Gray marine enamel, and extracted a seized lower shaft ball bearing for replacement, while Sascha re-bedded electrical conduit with 3M 5200 adhesive.

Deck Hardware Engineering: Articulating Bow Roller and Canvas Upgrades

Precision hardware alignment represents a cornerstone of the Spear It Animal Boatyard Refit executed by Rafael Raff Echemendia and Sascha Meyers in St. Augustine along the St. Johns River fairway in Florida, United States, where custom engineering eliminated chronic anchoring snags. The monohull carried a 35-kilogram (77-pound) Ultra Marine anchor with a hollow shank and lead-weighted fluke head. Under the original bow setup, the anchor shank repeatedly hung up on pulpit stanchions and wiring during automated drops.

Fabricating a cardboard mockup jig, the crew fitted an articulating Ultra bow roller whose pivoting cradle allows the anchor to roll smoothly past pulpit obstructions. Raff chamfered the deck fastener penetrations with a stepped bit, creating an elastomeric sealant collar to prevent water intrusion. Concurrently, Sunshine Canvas delivered a refurbished dodger featuring heavy 40-gauge Strataglass eisenglass and a custom Dacron-lined mainsail stack bag equipped with oversized industrial zippers.

Structural Composite Reconstruction: Core Replacement and Secondary Bonding

Executing heavy composite reconstruction as part of their ambitious Spear It Animal Boatyard Refit program, Rafael Raff Echemendia and Sascha Meyers established strict clean-room protocols in St. Augustine along the St. Johns River waterways in Florida, United States, to address core rot and bulkhead tab bonding. On the salvaged Lagoon 450S, torsional stress and water ingress required replacing compromised sandwich core and reinforcing primary structural bulkheads.

Raff ground back fractured fiberglass skin using 36-grit ceramic abrasive discs, cutting a broad 12:1 scarf taper to optimize tensile load distribution. Rotten end-grain balsa was excavated down to the inner laminate and replaced with high-density closed-cell PVC structural foam bedded in thickened epoxy putty. Over this core, alternating layers of 1708 biaxial fiberglass were laminated with high-performance structural epoxy resin, achieving maximum secondary bond strength and complete water impermeability across the bridge-deck assembly.

Technical Refit Specifications and Boatyard Workflow Matrix

Synthesizing the core engineering milestones of the Spear It Animal Boatyard Refit directed by Rafael Raff Echemendia and Sascha Meyers in St. Augustine along the St. Johns River region in Florida, United States, the following technical matrix outlines structural laminates, propulsion tolerances, and ground tackle parameters.

Frequently Asked Questions

Addressing the technical Boatyard Refit challenges faced by Rafael Raff Echemendia and Sascha Meyers of Spear It Animal in St. Augustine along the St. Johns River corridor in Florida, United States, this FAQ details composite reconstruction, propulsion overhauls, and shipyard logistics.