May 17, 2013 - back in the water!

Late last week our boat was finally launched again.  It's been a much longer project that I ever imagined.  We still aren't done, but there is no longer a need to be in the boat yard.

Here we go, after almost 6 months "on the hard"

Heading into the water.  See the new stabilizer fins?

We did a lot of stuff to the boat while it was in the boatyard.  Here's a list of things we did:

• Naiad active stabilizer fins, complete with a new hydraulic system including 1 pump per motor
• New larger swimstep with new brackets for added strength
• two new boarding ladders on the swimstep.  They mount to the bottom side so no more trip hazard
• New mount for a rowboat/sailboat on the new swimstep
• 3 new pop-up cleats on the swimstep for tying dinghies to.
• Big dinghy up on the boat deck repositioned to give us much more open space
• New electric motor for the davit (crane) that lifts the big dinghy
• Davit base modified to provide much larger surface area at friction/pivot point so it will turn with ease
• All 3 exterior wood sliding doors repainted
• All decks repainted with non-skid surface
• Flybridge completely repainted
• Salon side walls repainted
• cockpit ceiling "cleaned up".  Old light holes filled.  Ladder hole filled.  New texture.  New paint.
• Cockpit interior and top surface repainted
• Stainless steel rub rail polished and buffed, and resealed
• Hull polished and waxed
• new bottom paint
• props and shafts painted with Pettit Barnacle Guard paint
• new zincs
• Anchor roller modified to fit our Rocna anchor
• New settee in salon, U-shaped with hi/lo table that will convert into a spare bed
• Completely reconfigured the master stateroom.  New walk around queen bed and bunk bed
• new NMEA 2000 depth sounder transducer
• Moved two existing depth sounder transducers due to stabilizer installation
• Moved the two generator raw water intakes and installed new thru-hulls and sea strainers
• In total, there are 11 new/moved raw water thru-hulls
• Removed the generator exhausts, filled the holes, and painted them.  Exhausts re-routed to main engine exhausts.
• New custom built chest style freezer in corner galley cabinet.  Sea water cooled.  VERY efficient.
• New master toilet.  It's a manual flush toilet using seawater.  It will work if we run out of water, or if we lose electrical power.  It can even be routed directly overboard (where legal).  We will ALWAYS have a working toilet even if we take a direct lighting strike that takes out all electrical.
• New stern LED nav light, 3NM in custom build "pod"
• Modified the galley Corian countertop by straightening the long edge and adding a sea rail.
• Repaired several areas on the boat deck where water seeped in through screws and ruined the coring.
• Repaired the broken door frame for the rear sliding door.  It was damaged in the trip from San Francisco.
• Insulated the port and aft walls of the salon
• Added drain holes to the forward end of the boat deck.  Water used to pool up at the top of the steps
• Installed 4 new portlights (portholes that are also windows) to replace failing old ones.
• Fixed mounts for all 4 portlights to make them vitually watertight.  We should have no more leaks in rough water when the waves slam against the portlights.
• Black rubber dot flooring installed under settee.  No damage from spilled drinks or dropped food.
• Installed about 40 square feet of copper foil to inside of hull for SSB radio counterpoise, per NMEA.

Our new settee in the salon.  A HUGE improvement in livability.  Rubber dot flooring.

New bunks in master stateroom.  Top bunk folds down convert into a comfy couch!

New "walk-around" queen bed in master stateroom.  Almost like home!

New master toilet.  Manual and uses sea water.  It will ALWAYS work.

Dinghies ready for use.  New swimstep.  Davit base modified with
more surface area.  Custom built rear nav light mount just under big dinghy.  

Fresh paint almost everywhere in this picture.  Look at all the space on the
"boat deck" in front of the dinghy.  We gained a lot of space here.

Modified davit base.  This used to pivot on only 1/8" contact area and was
quite literally metal grinding on metal.  Now it glides on super hard and slippery
UHMW plastic with 1.5" surface area.  It is so easy to pull the dinghy around now.

Building the mount for the rear nav light out of fiberglass.

Lots of brackets for the swimstep.  Dinghy mount by Steve; it's super easy to use.
You can see three new zincs too.  Also some blue LED underwater lights.

Dinghy tips down and floats on the tube.  A gentle push from the top and it
slides into the water ready to use.  Retrieval is quite easy too.  This rowboat
is also a great little sailboat.  We look forward to much sailing in the future.

An example of the difference some machine polishing can make on stainless steel.
From dull and lifeless on the left, to shiny and new on the right.

Modified Corian countertop with custom "sea-rail"

Removing wet coring material from boat deck.  Yuck!

New custom built chest freezer sliding under countertop.
Super insulated and very efficient.

Hole cut in Corian to access freezer.

New lid for freezer.  You can hardly tell it's there.  Still needs hinges and a pull handle.

There are even more projects going on along the way.  But these are the highlights.  Needless to say, all this work has consumed an unbelievable amount of my time.  But, the good news is that the boat is once again usable!!!!  We intend to start using the heck out of it too  :-)