The 2011 List From Heck – *Updates*

There is no doubt that all of my loyal readers have been sitting on the edge of their seats since February wondering “how the heck is he EVER going to finish that stuff in time to go sailing before September?”  The short answers is…he probably won’t.  At least I won’t do it all myself, some stuff I’ve gotten help with as planned.

Of course the list has gotten longer too.  For every item I scratch off I find two new ones.  So to the status updates!

Watermaker
This is done.  The only thing left to do is turn it on and test it.  To do this I need to completely flush out the fresh water system so it has clean water with no antifreeze in to flush itself in maintenance mode.  This one we can basically scratch off the list.

Wind Power
This is still on the list, to be done by Ferris Power Products now that the winter cover is off the boat.  That is a matter of scheduling them in.

Inverter/Charger
Done.  Well except for one nagging bit of weirdness, the temperature sensor that came with the unit doesn’t seem to be reading right.  This is important as changing charge voltage to adapt for battery temperature can make your battery last longer and/or charge more efficiently.  It works, but it causes a couple of LED’s to blink in a truly annoying fashion.  So I have to chase that down, as well as find a 300amp ANL style fuse with a slightly larger slot for the fuse block bolts.  Until then, don’t use the hairdryer and the waffle iron at the same time.

Life Raft
There is a very nice Switlik MD-2 life raft sitting in the shed.  It will get to the boat…someday.

Anchor
Some changes here.  We’ve not ordered a new Rocna anchor yet; that will be done once I have a chance to build a scaled mockup anchor out of plywood to see if it fits the bow roller.  In the meantime we also opted to add a 150 lb Luke Storm Anchor, also known as a Fisherman’s Anchor.  This is the Anchor of Last Resort, when you pull in someplace and no other anchors will stick to the bottom because it is something tough to anchor in, a beast like this is what you need.  It breaks down into three inconveniently large and heavy pieces for awkward storage…but it’s still easier than trying to move it assembled.  I’m the only one in the family that can pick it up when it is put together.  In fact, I’m the only one in the family that weighs more than this anchor.

Sea Anchor
The sea anchor is acquired, as well as my own personal 600 foot drum of New England Ropes 1″ Mega Braid.  This line will be cut into two sections, about 500′ and 100′.  The larger section will become the permanent rode for the secondary anchor – for when you just have to drop a hook in 80′ of water.  Probably with a 150′ fisherman’s anchor since you will be anchoring on a slap of granite.  This will also be as the rode for the sea anchor.  The 100′ section will be the bridle for the sea anchor.  The anchor itself is in a disappointingly small yellow bag, I figured for what this cost and the amount of line it requires it was going to be the size of a 55 gallon drum, instead it is about a medium sized kitchen garbage can.

Stove
Old one is off the boat, and the incredibly nasty and dirty area behind it has been cleaned out.  The new one is in the shed.  On top of the life raft.

On Board Computer
I know what I want to do and I’ve researched it darn near to death.  I just don’t have any more room in the shed if I go out and buy the thing right now.

Sail
Many earnest discussions have been held with sail makers and friends in the sail cloth industry.  We’re dithering still – it will get ordered.  No work there for me really except writing a check anyway.

Propane system
I’m getting closer to maybe actually doing this.  Really.  It does not make me afraid just because I might blow the boat up if I screw this up.  I did finally find all the parts I bought for this several years ago.

SSB (Single Sideband Radio)
The old SSB was no longer working.  It has been removed and a replacement ordered.  There is some chance it was not as dead as I thought and I might be able to fix it…but I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that.  The new installation will require an additional antenna, and maybe some carpentry.

Main bilge pump
Still looking for a suitable replacement pump.  24V pumps are a nuisance.

Hatch Lenses
Done!  The new lenses are back and look nice.  I have some bits of latch hardware to install, but the hatches are all in and  bedded.  So far, no leaks with some heavy rain.  Though we really will have to take her out in some snotty weather and dump a few thousand gallons of seawater on them to really test them out.


The following items I must shamefacedly admit have even less progress than the above items.

• Davits 
• Pumps
• Teak.
• Head valve replacement. 

New Stuff
Just yikes, it never, ever ends.  Some new things I either need to do, or forgot to mention before.

• Engine raw water intake hose.  This rubs against the steering mechanism, and in fact has almost worn through.  This needs to be done before the boat leaves the harbor, a failure here could be catastrophic with sea water gushing into the engine room, the race will be to determine if the engine is drowned before it over heats.
• Autopilot Install.  Yeah, I never finished this last year.  Still out there.
• RD-33 Installation; a new alarm display monitor for the aft cabin.
• Generator Exhaust hoses.  Some nasty looking hoses in the exhaust system for the genset need replacing.
• Battery Monitors; with the replacement of the old Freedom 25 Inverter/Charger it became obvious that the Link2000 monitor (which never worked well) needs to be replaced as it is neither accurate or useful.
• Dodger lights; there are some lights under the hard dodger which ought to be replaced.  At a minimum with LED bulbs, but preferably with some new fittings that have three way switches to allow for a red LED light after dark.  Night vision is not under rated.
• Leak fix over the tool/SSB cabinet.  Just getting the part seems to be the biggest hassle of all, some changes in the builder’s parts department seem to have caused some confusion.  I need to patch this hole before I stick a new SSB in there, and I have a new shelf to build and install to replace a weak shelf the prior owner put in.
• WiFi rewiring.  May also include moving the GPS antenna, this depends on the installation of the wind generator.  If the wind generator uses the old radar hole I will need to move the cables that now come through it; I expected this however.  Either way I used the wrong cable type for the WiFi antenna and it doesn’t work to well so I need to do up some new cables there.