Another Year - Refit Continues

Not much of an update. Cold weather, rainy weather, it all slows things down.

I recently finished installing the second solar panel and associated wiring. I really like how it all turned out. I like that I can now keep the batteries happy even while I'm not there. I'm glad I decided to do this now than wait until the boat was closer to launching.

These combine the two 100W panels

Setting up the MC4 connectors on those wires were pretty straight forward. A couple times I had to watch out that I had all parts in place before fastening everything together. Once, I almost forgot to run the wire through one of the cable pass-through fittings.

Recently got a couple junction boxes for the boat. One will be used for the trailer. I'll need to rewire it whenever I get around to replacing the brakes.

The other junction box was setup for the wiring that will go to the mast. When the mast goes up, I'll be able to hook up the wires to the junction box. Should be easy enough to do when the time comes. I got connectors on the wires, then started flipping breakers to see what the wires went to. I also got connectors on the wires on the mast itself. There's no connector on the RF line yet and may wait for the mast to be up. Not sure when that'll happen.

sorting connectors for trailer plug

Little Solar Update

I've been using a 50 watt solar panel to keep the batteries topped up. This weekend I decided to put up one of the 100 watt panels on the side.

I first drilled a couple holes for the little kick stand that helps keep the panel positioned. I first setup the panel to the outside of the stanchion as it normally would but since I'll still be in the yard awhile, I turned it around so the panel would mainly be over the boat.

Normal setup

Still well inside of the hull side

While set for charging normally

This is where I turned it around

View from the cockpit

So far I really like how this is looking. I'm happy I chose this position for a solar setup. I'll still have to put up one on the port side. This would do well for a cruising setup.

Still At It.

Been four months and no posts, what gives?

Well, "life" is what happened.

Not to worry, I've still been plugging away on the boat when I can, so maybe I can say a little about what I've been up to. (and, no Matt, this isn't a 12 part mini-series)

The main reason I haven't posted any updates is that there's little progress going on at any one time. I mean, how many times can I really post "still working to scrape off bottom paint" before that gets old... believe me, it's getting old for me too. Since progress is slow on paint removal, I'm looking to hire someone to finish that part, then I'll do repairs of deep pitting/holes before applying a barrier coat and bottom paint.

Back in December, I signed off on the last paperwork I needed to retire from the military, only my actual retirement date was April. You'd think that now I'm retired, I'd have plenty of free time to work on the boat, right? Nope, wrong. So. Very. Wrong. I'd say now, I have less free time than I did before. Mainly because I have a 1yr old. Wife still works so I'm at the house most of the time watching the little one. She is getting to be quite the handful and SUCH A DADDY'S GIRL. I can't do much without her right beside me wanting to be picked up.

So, I still only get one day a week, Saturdays, to visit the boat. Most Saturday's anyway. Because of my retirement, I had to get a new drivers license and re-register my vehicles in Virginia since I can now no longer keep Tennessee. That ate up a couple weekends getting vehicles inspected & emissions testing. Then another weekend was my daughers first birthday. Basically, it ended up being about a month I couldn't get to the boat. Other weekends it was just slow progress in some part because of the weather (RAIN) but worked on other smaller things instead.

While I was going to wait until the boat launched, I decided to go ahead and get solar on the boat. Nothing setup just yet. Since I can get to the boat only one day a week, which is the only time I can charge the batteries, I figured solar woud be good to use to keep the batteries topped up the rest of the week. I'll post more on that later.

I also got an AIS transponder. I've been testing it the last few visits to the boat using one of the antennas on the truck. Works pretty good and hope to install that in the boat soon as well. I plan to post more on that later as well.

Not much else to it. Just wanted to show that I'm still at it, when I can. Soon, wife and I are going out of town for a couple weeks to Vancouver, BC, so that'll eat into the boat work too. Wife has plans on visiting other places too.

At this point, I'm not sure if I'll launch this year but I'll keep at it.

It'll launch one of these days.