Howdy Folks,
Just a quick update on our progress to date. We're now finished with the new stern rail seats and they turned out even better than we where hoping.
The next step was finally taking Vela over to Seabrook for some much needed fiberglass repair. This was primarily to patch all the holes we made when removing the old stern hardware to make room for the arch. We removed an old wind generator, davits, stern light and various hardware to make room for the arch. We installed a new LED stern light on the arch to make it more visible, due to the added height. The new wind generator is also up on the arch, so we had several holes left in the fiberglass as a result of the moves. Getting these all fiber glassed in, means we no longer have a bunch of duct tape covered holes on Vela...so we're pretty happy about that.
Our next order of business was rigging up the davits and motor lift to get ready for our new AB lammina 10AL dinghy. To do that I finally learned to splice double braided line, thanks to our friends at Stix-n-Rig'n, who where kind enough to teach me...and then a bit of trial and error back at the marina.
Then a few days later our new dinghy showed up. The best pricing we could find, even after heading to the Annapolis boat show, was from Defender. Of course that presented some logistics challenges trying to coordinate shipping when we're 3.5 hours away from the boat.
Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned. Our next update is actually a full weekend....away from the dock....crazy!
Just a quick update on our progress to date. We're now finished with the new stern rail seats and they turned out even better than we where hoping.
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| New stern seat - 3 coats of Cetol natural and 3 coats of gloss |
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| Getting there - We've since replaced these speakers with a new pair of fully waterproof speakers from wetsounds. |
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| New seats are much more usable and orders of magnitude more comfortable than the old ones. |
The next step was finally taking Vela over to Seabrook for some much needed fiberglass repair. This was primarily to patch all the holes we made when removing the old stern hardware to make room for the arch. We removed an old wind generator, davits, stern light and various hardware to make room for the arch. We installed a new LED stern light on the arch to make it more visible, due to the added height. The new wind generator is also up on the arch, so we had several holes left in the fiberglass as a result of the moves. Getting these all fiber glassed in, means we no longer have a bunch of duct tape covered holes on Vela...so we're pretty happy about that.
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| Vela patiently waiting at the dock to patch the holes and finally remove the duct tape. |
Our next order of business was rigging up the davits and motor lift to get ready for our new AB lammina 10AL dinghy. To do that I finally learned to splice double braided line, thanks to our friends at Stix-n-Rig'n, who where kind enough to teach me...and then a bit of trial and error back at the marina.
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| Newly rigged davits with 6:1 lifting tackle. The motor lift took a little more time since I had to splice it directly onto the becket of the top block. |
Then a few days later our new dinghy showed up. The best pricing we could find, even after heading to the Annapolis boat show, was from Defender. Of course that presented some logistics challenges trying to coordinate shipping when we're 3.5 hours away from the boat.
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| Fortunately, being a Texan I drive a truck. Big thanks to our friends at JZ Custom rails (they built our arch) for letting us ship the dink to their shop and loading it into the truck with their forklift. |
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| Unpacking back at the marina |
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| Good ole Texas neighbors helping bring her down to the slip. |
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| Inflated and ready for Vela to return from the fiberglass work. No fiberglass on this boat 117lb of aluminum and Hypalon. |
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| Good looking dink, can't wait to share many cruising and diving adventures with her. |
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| And finally, my reward for a 'quick trip' down to pick-up the dinghy. |
Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned. Our next update is actually a full weekend....away from the dock....crazy!
thanks for the update. Your boat is looking awesome.
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul, as with all things boat related, it's always a work in progress but we're happy with the progress so far. At least we're back in a usable state.
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