About Sophia

Sophia is a Davidson 35, designed in 1981 by Laurie Davidon, a New Zealand yacht designer, most famous for being one of the designers for New Zealand's America's Cup boats, which successfully challenged and defended the Cup in 1995 and 2000.

The Davidson 35 is a New Zealand built production boat, designed as a fast cruising yacht with no concession to rating rules. It is thought that it was the first production yacht built with a walk through transom. Dave Blundell (builder of the Davidson 28) built the first 10 in solid GRP, and then Export Yachts Ltd brought the moulds and built the next 30 or so in GRP Balsa Core.

LOA: 10.66 m (or 35 feet)

LWL: 9.14 m

BOA: 3.31 m

Draft: 1.8 m

Displacement: 4727 kg

Ballast: 1955 kg

Sail Area Upwind: 54 m2

Sophia is one of the later ones, built in 1986. She was commissioned by an Auckland architect who named her Sophia, the explanation being something about beautiful Italian curves. The SY means sailing yacht. Also commonly used is SV for sailing vessel. We actually bought Sophia directly off that first owner, but she had been owned by someone else for a few years, before he bought her back again.

We bought Sophia in late October 2010. We had been looking for a cruising boat for over half a year (and fallen in love with a fantastic Swan S&S 36, which unfortunately turned out to be a total dud, so we had to let her go). After that experience we (well, mainly Astrid) tried to keep much lower expectations and feelings for boats. It actually even took some convincing by Phil to get Astrid into the Davidson 35’s. She has totally come around to liking them now though, especially Sophia.

The furthest Sophia had ever sailed was to the Bay of Islands and her set-up was very basic (the architect would probably say minimalistic), so it took a bit of work getting her ready for the trip to Christchurch. Some of the bigger jobs were cleaning diesel bug out of the tank, fitting an auto-pilot, changing engine mounts and adding a spray dodger. Phil sailed Sophia from Auckland down the east coast of the North Island to Picton with a couple of mates, as Astrid couldn’t get off work. The combination of the boy trip and Sophia being very light with not much gear, meant that she achieved her so far unbeaten record speed of 16 knots surfing downwind.

Sophia stayed in the Marlborough Sounds until February 2011. Phil’s parents live in Waikawa, so almost each weekend we did the four hours drive up to Picton. We did more work to her, but also just enjoyed cruising the Sounds.

It was when she came to Christchurch that the real work started! She spent 4-5 months on the hard over the winter and we worked non-stop! Overall she was in good condition, but as already mentioned quite basic. Below is a massive list of all the work we have done in roughly a year’s time. We did all the work ourselves, with the exception of very few things such as stainless steel jobs and difficult wood work.

But first a bunch of photos. When I read boat blogs I usually miss photos of boats, especially the interior. Not sure if people either forget it, or don't want to show their 'personal home' (which is what cruising boats really are).  Here is Sophia, of course very tidy for the occasion.

Sophia during one of the races in the winter series before she got all the work done to her, looking very bare...

Above deck:

Replace halyards

New rigging

Bigger wire lifelines

Install roller furler

Fix bent stanchion

Service winches

Wires for open transom

Make new washboard and teak surrounds for it

Make new teak hand hold rails

Make teak handholds for cockpit lockers

New anchors and chain

Rearrange nav lights

Fix gas locker

Bigger gas bottles

New Sophia graphic

New red stripe

Install hand bilge pump

Fix mast leak

Anchor locker modify floor level

Make bimini

Make spray hood

Make arch for radar, solar and wind

Below deck:

Add engine insulation

Change engine mounts

Change engine rubber couplings

Replace alternator

Replace thermostat

Replace fuel pump

Add hatch to saloon

Add solar went to head

New vinyl floor instead of carpet

Rail in front of stove

Make insert for double v-berth

Organise port quarter storage

Make book shelf & lockers in saloon

Make shelf in v-berth

Make shelf in quarter berth

Make extra shelves in galley

Teak skirting on bottom around saloon for old water damage

Make new instruments box

Change mast drainage system

Change to LED lights

Close off locker opening to cockpit

Painting all interior and lockers

Replace all hoses, add water filter

New water tanks

Install holding tank

New toilet seal and change pump location

New bathroom faucet

Electronics:

Install anchor windlass

Install water maker

Install wind instruments

Install depth/speed transducers

Install electric fridge

Install radar

Install VHF

Install AIS

Install solar panels

Install wind turbine

Install float switch for bilge

Set up sat phone

Out of the water jobs

Soda blast anti-foul to vinylester coating and build up new layers

New anodes

Take off rudder

All new through-hulls and sea cocks

Cut & polish

Sand and varnish tiller

Sewing jobs:

Main sail

No 1 head sail

No 2 head sail

No 3 head sail

Code Zero

Try sail

Storm jib

Squab covers

Bimini

Spray dodger
Sail cover (lazy cradle)

Stove bum strap

Cockpit squabs

Rain catcher/deck shades

Wind scoop

Fitted sheets for mattresses

Curtains

Harnesses

Covers for horseshoe buoys

Winch covers

Mosquito netting
Grab bag