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Previous Refit work – 2021, 2022, 2023

2024 will be another big year for working on the boat as it is a haul-out year.

Plans:

Bottom Paint – Copper Coat this time

Our AntiFoul needs to be refreshed. We are going to try some a hard multi-year solution this time. The boat has had Trinidad on it for many years. It works pretty well but if you have to scrape it because of sitting too long – which we are prone to do – you rapidly loose its effectiveness because it’s an ablative solution.

We started a conversation with CopperCoat USA and they recommended we try their solution which is supposed to give us 10 years of use. Sounds good to us. It’s not cheap and requires about a week to prep, apply and then give it time to cure.

We also stumbled onto 2 additional products from PropSpeed – LightSpeed and for Transducers – FoulFree. We have heard great things about these so we will try them out for $50 each.

Check back in the future to see what we found.

Keel Cooler replacement – Freezer

We don’t know how old our existing Freezer Keel Cooler is but the covering has degraded enough that I poked a putty knife through it and punctured a cooling line cleaning it late Summer of 2023. Fortunately our Combo Engles Frig/Freezer is working great so we didn’t end up without a freezer. This should be a straightforward replacement other than needing to evac the system three times to ensure it’s dried out.

Lower Rudder Bearing

This one I am not pleased about. This is another carry-over from the issues that Fairhaven Marine left me with. Apparently the painted too close to the bearing when they applied the Antifouling and setup Galvanic Corrosion between the copper and the AL parts of the bearing causing it to swell and prevent the rudder stock from turning freely.

This is going to involve dropping the rudder out of the boat and then cutting out the old bearing and bonding a new one to the hull. I think we are looking at several days worth of work….

Fiberglass work in the cockpit

We have a bunch of different issues we need to address here. I don’t know how to do Fiberglass and wanted someone to help me/ mentor me the first time out. We are retiring a bunch of the original instruments (holes to fill), the Dodger is badly cracked along one edge and there are numerous other holes

Carpentry work in the interior

• Starboard AFT berth – convert to storage
• Navigation Station – convert to Engles pull-out slider, Tool chest and work area, update electronics and electrical systems there
• Salon table – reconfigure for storage, love seat and table, recover cushions
• V-Berth “couch” – reconfigure for storage & work space

Electrical work

• Rebuild 12VDC patch panel
• Move 120VAC patch panel

Electronics Work

• New Master Alarm Panel and associated feeds
• Rehome Cerbo GX

Outboard for Dinghy maintenance

We definitely have a love/hate relationship with our outboard – it’s really back to not behaving itself (not idling, vaper locking when restarting etc) Hopefully the mechanic at Tyrell bay will have better luck restoring functionality.

Galley conversion from Propane to Electric

• Remove old Force 10 Propane Range – sold it!
• New Induction Cooktop (x2 1 is a spare/ 2nd burner if we need it)
• New Microwave/ Convection/ Airfryer combo oven
• Remove old 700W microwave – sold it!
• New Gimbling mounting frame
• Uninstall and dispose of 30lb Propane Forklift tank and cradle on the deck. This was our spare supply of propane should we be somewhere where we couldn’t get the 10lb bottles refilled.

Re-upholstery the salon cushions

This is a big project and we are using the sail loft “In Stitches” on Carriacou to do the work. We are going to have them make microfiber seat covers to make sitting on the vinyl more comfortable. The fabric is heavy/ bulky enough that we have to freight it to St Thomas.

Scuba Compressor – swap to gas power

We thought we were being smart – one less gasoline motor to deal with on the boat. Yup we have (had) a 3kvw genset – that’s plenty to power a small compressor. There we go thinking again. Well that didn’t work – get rid of the GenSet – it’s not working right anyway. A 5KVW Inverter/ Charger, lots of Lithium and a big honking Alternator on the main engine – that should be plenty – NOPE. The starting load on this thing exceeds 65A 120VAC. OK we’ve spent way too much money trying to make this thing work – time to repower with a Gasoline motor. When all was said and done, we spent more to ship (freight) the motor to STT than we paid for it. Now to install it….. stay tuned.

Some get-aheads prior to leaving St Thomas

• Swap old analog oil pressure gauge (think tube that carries oil to back of gauge) with a new electronic one. Includes spot for coolant temp also. —- some notes on this before going on – We replaced the old senders with discrete value senders to then bring that info onto the chart plotters and into the monitoring system that exists there. Well that is proving to be too complicated and with the new master alarm panel, maybe it’s easier just to bring the multifunction electronic gauge to the helm station and not have that info being reported via the MFDs.
• New monitor for ship’s PC
• Signal K for offboarding NMEA 2000 data to the cloud for remote monitoring. This one is proving to be a challenge, but it appears that by using the NordVPN MeshNet function a remote device can use a product like OpenCPN to access a Signal K server on a virtual local network. it’s a bit complex right now, so not quite ready for prime time.
• Galley deconstruction – did this as a get ahead prior to leaving. We really like the easier galley access.
• Galley electrical conversion – prototype. Yup decided not to wait. The basics of the gimble appear to work, but will have the carpenter in Tyrell Bay do the final version.
• Overhead helm station lights
• Get ahead wiring for the master alarm panel
• Replace stern propane grill
• Some unplanned items related to a boat sitting too long
  • Helm switch panel – didn’t expect this to corrode and short that quickly
  • Air Intake Hose from Transom to Engine Compartment. There is much more to this one than meets the eyes… stay tuned for more details here.
  • Wind instrument died – stay tuned there’s much more coming on this one
  • The 48VDC Selden Winch developed a fault – still researching this one
  • We should have scraped the bottom of the boat again – especially the running gear – we have a slow boat right now and an articulating prop that isn’t going through it’s full range front to back and front again