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  • in Sailing
  • 10 min read

Solar panel install, winch rebuild saga, vinyl name and poliglow application

It was a long four day weekend. Sara left Thursday afternoon for Colorado for a week with her family, leaving me behind to do glorious wonderful boat work. Ahh, joy!

Before Sara left we picked up two additional anchors: a 35lb high-tensile danforth and a 45lb CQR-knockoff. Both are awesome hooks, and the price was right. We got them from a boat part re-seller who we've met before at swap meets. He's always running over and asking how much the part you're looking at costs - he'll try to buy it out from under you if he thinks he can resell it for more later. Crazy dude, but he gave us a deal this time, so all is forgiven!

Our anchor collection

Chain locker

  • in Sailing
  • 9 min read

Stainless steel rail and exhaust hose installation!

We're regulars at West Marine Sausalito. They know us by name. They know about our boat. We go there so much we've started helping other customers looking for parts. Compasses? Over there by the charts. Hose clamps? End of aisle 10.

Saturday morning we went back to check in. Everyone is doing well, Michael is not quite finished our chain-to-rope splice, but Jay had our Forespar MOB flasher. This is the last component in our MOB system, which now includes pole, horseshoe, flasher, mirror, whistle, drogue, water dye marker, etc. It still needs to be assembled.

  • in Sailing
  • 9 min read

Exhaust system replacement and safety equipment installation!

We got a lot done. In the week previous, we visited West Marine no less than four times. We spent money like crazy mad people. On one trip we bought so much stuff the salespeople said we had "made their day".

I thought they were happy to see us or something. No. They meant that we had pushed West Marine Sausalito into profitability for that one day. Hey, we're just happy to help. Thanks again go out to Amy and Wyn, who generously let us use their Port Supply card for huge discounts.

  • in Sailing
  • 4 min read

Sirius radio installation and West Marine shopping!

Sara and I did CPR and first aid training on Saturday morning. Mike, I can't wait for you to have further choking problems. I now know all the right moves to deal you a death blow. I mean.. uh.. help you. We still should do a general first-aid course, but we're looking for something during the week; these weekend events kill our productivity.

We went down to the boat after lunch and did some prep work for the Sirius satellite radio installation into the cabin bulkhead, I drilled and mounted the antenna on the flat space behind the cockpit wall, just above the transom, and Sara went and found some exotic connectors to mount everything. We got the radio install mostly figured out.

  • in Sailing
  • 4 min read

SS safety rails and our new dinghy!

Sara and I drove to a swapmeet super early on Saturday and picked up a few essentials: a radar reflector for install high on the mast, a huge chartbook of San Diego to Panama, and a couple of other bits and pieces.

We mocked, measured, cut, and assembled the new stainless steel tubing around the cockpit. It looks good, but isn't very strong - it needs more work. We put together the SS stanchions and caps, and Sara and Mike attached two supporting tubes solidly back to the deck. Of course we ran into broken screws, crappy hardware, and all sorts of other dramatic setbacks along the way.

  • in Sailing
  • 5 min read

LED lights, boat cleaning, and rigging

Sara and I stayed over on the boat Friday night, checking out the new interior lights and lanterns she's found and installed. Since the boat is a construction zone, we spent a good amount of time cleaning off a flat surface we could sleep on! Both lanterns smoke, even though we're using non-smoking fuel, and neither work very well. It's fine right now because the 40W 12V lights we found are REALLY bright. I guess the only downside is they suck 3.5A each.

Sleeping on the boat for the first time was cool. We used an inflatable matress and tons of blankets and snuggled up in the V-berth. The matress didn't fit well and slowly deflated over the night, so my side got lower and lower, and I woke up on the wood. Sara's side was still inflated, of course. It'll be so much better when we get the new foam and cushions made and installed.

  • in Sailing
  • 3 min read

Flea markets & anchor system mockup

It was hot this weekend! It got over 100F both days, even on the water!

Saturday started early with a trip to a swap meet in Napa. To get good deals you really need to be there an hour before it officially opens, which meant we were up and driving at 6AM. Urgh.

It paid off though, we bought a super heavy-duty manual anchor windlass: the famed Simpson-Lawrence "SeaTiger" SL-555. Everyone at our marina is jealous! The thing is a monster, perfect for our over-the-top anchor system.

  • in Sailing
  • 3 min read

Interior lighting & propane system

We've been spending every second working on the boat and we're starting to see some progress. It's not easy to shun our friends and disappear into boat-land each weekend, especially when they're having fun or doing something cool. Still, we must soldier on. Err, sailor on?

Sara has been casting her designer eye at the interior of the boat, and this weekend we made some cool changes. We replaced all the interior lights with higher-wattage bulbs, which makes a big difference! I guess we're going to need more solar panels than we thought.

  • in Sailing
  • 1 min read

Brightwork + instrument wiring

long weekend

prev week traveled to boat to paint several coats

finish painting

mockup chartplotter/gps install

mike buffing the hull from the halyard

will running radome sensor wire from binnacle into cabin

final coat of painting on brightwork

running wire through cabin to mast

sara removing the masking tape

more wiring fun

pulling wiring up mast

sara up mast to pull 2nd attempt

sara succeeds 3rd attempt

  • in Sailing
  • 4 min read

Brightwork

It was five and a half weeks after we bought the boat before we could actually start to work on her. We had been brainstorming, making list after list, buying materials, and planning everything, of course, but this weekend was the start.

When my parents were in town for our engagement party in the last week of May, they volunteered to spend almost a week working on the boat: scraping away the varnish on the cockpit. It's too bad I don't have any pictures in-progress, because you can see from the before and after shots it was a lot of work!

Old ugly wood varnish

Scraped and sanded clean