A lot of things have happened since my last post to this blog. I've been working on a college class so that has taken up a lot of my time. I've also received notification for a trip overseas for work that could last four to six months. My wife saw the boat for the first time and I thought I would take her for a sail, then find out the batteries were dead. The starting battery was just over 10 volts and the house battery was just under 9. From what I can tell, the shore-line charger went out on me. I was originally going to haul out in September or October to get ready for a work related move but with everything going on, I decided to haul out. So I took my car battery and a set of jumper cables and got the engine running so I could move it to the dock for haul out. Yesterday, it was hauled out, bottom pressure washed, and loaded onto the trailer and took it home, or rather to the storage lot in town.
The boat felt good during the tow. At one point, on a smooth part of the road, I didn't realize at first but I was going quite fast (75mph). No sway in the trailer at all. When I realized how fast I was going, I decided to bring it down a bit and went 60-65 on the bumpy part of the highway for the other two thirds of the trip. Drive down took an hour and now, she's tucked away in the storage lot again about 20 minutes away. Now, I plan on working on a sort of refit getting things fixed up.
Here's a list of some of the things I am looking at eventually doing:
1. Replace seacocks: Replaced one already and have 7 more. 1, maybe 2, from the head I removed I'm looking at removing and covering the hole(s) with fiberglass. The one I defiantly will remove was from the head water intake, that's located by the starting battery box. The other I'm considering is the overboard discharge. The discharge one I thought of just replacing, but not using, not sure yet.
2. Finish installation of Airhead: Need to connect electrical for the vent fan and connect vent hose.
3. Replace Fuel tank: Found out when I got the boat in the water and filled the fuel tank, that it was leaking so the boat yard pumped out the fuel. Need to eventually figure out how I'm going to remove engine to get to it. I've had some previous advice that will be helpful and of course plenty of info on the Nor'sea Group archives.
4. Hoses: Looking at replacing hoses for sink and cockpit drains and possibly those on the raw water lines on the engine.
5. Paint: Looking at repainting the stripe by the toe-rail. It's currently a worn down light blue than I'm looking at painting to a dark red. May consider painting the waterline stripe too. I thought of painting the topsides but now just thinking of going with regular compound/wax. The interior storage compartments are painted a yellow color that I want to paint with Bilgekote or maybe something else to brighten things up. When replacing the fuel tank, I want to paint the engine compartment too.
6. Exterior Wood: I'd like to refinish the wood. I know a lot of people say "leave it grey" but I like the look of varnish. I'm hoping the extra effort will turn out good results. I'm also interested in making a split door for the companion way to be able to close things up quicker, like being out on the water and a squall line shows up.
7. Canvas: Much of the canvas on the boat was worn when I bought the boat. Everything looks like Pacific Blue Sunbrella, which many boats have. I'm looking at changing the canvas to Linen color (light tan). I have thought of making a cover for the entire boat too.
8. Mast step: There are a couple times I visited the boat while it was raining and saw water at the top and bottom of the compression post. The step needs to be resealed. At the same time, I thought of replacing the mast wiring and there's a couple plugs coming through the mast step that would need looked at too.
9. Chainplates: There are other Nor'sea owners who have boats as old as mine and while removing their chainplates, they fell apart in their hands from hidden damage. With how old my boat is, I figure it would be good preventative measures to replace them so there is no doubt to their age and condition.
There's plenty of other work in mind. This list is a start of what I have planned. I'm expecting this refit period to take a few years but I'll see how it goes once things get started. This list may seem ambitious but it's not something I expect to get done quickly by next season. I'm thinking a few years but reality may end up being longer.
Only time will tell.