Rhodes more traveled

Some people try to relive their youth with a fast car. Ralph Rodheim can step on a sailboat and be a teenager again.

Not just any boat will do: It has to be a Coast Rhodes built just after World War II at South Coast Shipyard in Newport Beach.

Even given those stringent specifications, three years ago Rodheim found his boat. It happened to be a vessel he already knew.

“This is the very boat in 1959, 1960, that I learned to sail on,” Rodheim said. “I was a teenager at Newport Harbor High School.”

The 33-foot sailboat was the 41st of 41 such boats designed by marine architect Philip Rhodes and built at South Coast Shipyard. When Rodheim first encountered it, it was owned by Gavin Herbert, founder of Irvine-based biotechnology firm Allergan.

“He asked me if I’d want to race with him, and I said I’d love to but I don’t know how,” Rodheim said. So Herbert taught him to sail, and he raced the boat every weekend for five years.

Later, Herbert’s son had the boat awhile, and Herbert eventually sold it. It was kept in Long Beach until the owner decided to sell, and Rodheim got a call asking if he was interested.

He and two partners bought the boat, and Rodheim enlisted Rick Brown from Sea Spray Boat Yard in Newport Beach to restore it.

When they got started, it needed more than just love. Its ribs were cracked, the bottom was leaking, and it needed a new rudder.

“Structurally it had a lot of problems [from] being in the water since 1948,” Rodheim said.

So they fixed everything, gave it new seats, and were getting close to finishing when Rodheim decided to redo the varnish. He had it completely stripped and hired a varnish specialist who teaches at Orange Coast College.

Rodheim said the boat cost less than $10,000 when it was new, and he’s put at least four times that into restoring it. Brown said he’s spent about 850 hours rebuilding the boat.

Few of the boats in the Coast Rhodes line are around today, mainly because they weren’t meant to last more than about 10 years. Brown said he’s aware of three other Coast Rhodes that still exist ? he restored one of them.

“As fiberglass became the norm, these particular boats didn’t have a pedigree as yachts,” Brown said. “You couldn’t take them to Catalina. They were basically just for day sailing.”

But they’re also reputed to be excellent racing boats, and that’s what Rodheim intends to use it for.

“We’re planning on sailing her. This is not just a museum piece,” he said.

He expects the boat to be ready in June or July ? unless it needs more work.

“On this boat, you are never done,” he said.dpt.26-boat-CPhotoInfoPM1RB8RV20060526izudygncMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Ralph Rodheim kneels in front of his 1948 Coast Rhodes boat, the last one made at South Coast Shipyard in Newport Beach. dpt.26-boat-1-mcd-CPhotoInfoPM1RBQRV20060526izuqlvncNo Caption