Boatyard Projects

Life at the boatyard... we've been here nearly two weeks, working 7-days a week, 8-10 hours a day.

Wait... isn't this supposed to be the relaxing retirement we've been looking forward to? Well, we actually enjoy projects and love being able to check things off the to-do list. We have quite a list - a binder full of sticky notes. Some things we need to get done, some wants, and many that can happen anytime. We would like to get them all done, but aren't willing to postpone departure for the "nice to have" items. Sticky notes so we can rearrange the needs vs wants.

First on the list - any items we need to have done "on the hard", before we get back in the water. We've opted to have the yard do the sanding and painting of the under-water antifoul. We had considered doing it ourselves, but after realizing how long it would take and the other projects we would rather do, it feels like the right choice now. Maybe in future years we'll tackle that project. We did opt to do the compounding / polishing / waxing of the areas above the waterline. That turned out to be a lot of work too. Still ongoing, but we're feeling like we have the bulk of the work behind us.

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We got to do some fun stuff too, new stripes, name, and logos installed!

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... note the sweet double-glasses and nice result of head-butting (nose-butting?!) the scaffolding.. Doh!

Other projects...

Cleaning & maintaining the props and prop-shaft & seals. New seals were in order for the port side, and we realized we should replace the cutlass bearings - a project for the coming weeks.

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And a major one... removing the old emergency escape hatches and installing some new fixed ones. The original ones were great and could be opened to add some ventilation to the cabins, but there has been issues with the glass falling out and leaving a gaping hole that has been known to sink catamarans. While ours appeared to be fine, we opted for some preventative measures to ensure that wouldn't happen.

This is a major project that has taken over three full days (so far) and we are only at the point where we got the old ones out and the area prepped for the new ones. Our existing hatch frames were only screwed into the fiberglass - and glued with 3M 5200 (known as many other names by those that have to remove it). While the lack of thru-bolts was concerning, the days of trying to remove the frame ensured us that the 5200 was doing it's job. The frame came out in no less than 8 pieces - all slowly & painfully cut up with the oscillating tool.

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And more fun stuff inside... working on testing out new cockpit flooring, and in the galley - replacing the sink, stovetop, and some fancy new backsplash..

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That's it for now, but lots of projects in the works..