I am a sailor for 45+ years (among a variety of other things) and am using Flickr to document and display progress of the complete refit/restoration of our Hinckley Bermuda 40, "Bluebonnet." She was a victim of Huricane Rita in September 2005. and I have been working on restoring her with as much "new" as possible. It is easier to say what won't be new: Spars, cabinet work, deck hardware, and water tanks are original. EVERYTHING else is new, and the very few exceptions are powder-coated, or re-chromed, or re-varnished.

It would certainly have been easier to take the insurance money and re-buy, but since we had cruised and lived aboard "Bluebonnet" for four years in addition to ownership since 1996, money could not possibly replace the meaning and memories found in "Bluebonnet." She is ours, like no other boat could be.