Over the course of about 1.5 years after purchasing the boat, we embarked on refitting her to meet our needs. Below are the highlights from this refit.
The Bilge Redesign
The bilge was in terrible condition when we first bought the boat. Mark stripped down the whole bilge to bare fiberglass, faired it with Interlux Watertite epoxy fairing, and applied 5 coats of Interlux InterProtect 2000 to ensure a waterproof epoxy layer prevents any water damage to the fiberglass laminate. All new bilge pumps, alarms, monitoring, and some new hoses were installed, including: Rule 2000 gph (gallons per hour) primary bilge pump with USS Ultra Bilge Pumpswitch Senior (the gold standard in bilge switches), Rule 3800 gph high water/crash bilge pump with USS Ultra Bilge Pumpswitch Junior, and a DIY dry bilge pump setup on a daily timer. New LED lights were added to the companionway to display whenever each of the bilge pumps is running, as well as a bilge counter at the navigation station that indicates each time the primary bilge pump runs. Two bilge alarms exist – one will trigger if the primary bilge pump is not able to keep up with the incoming water flow and continues to rise, and the other will trigger if the primary bilge pump is running for more than 2 minutes.
After:
Fuel System
One of the things you will learn when planning an extended voyage is the importance of clean diesel for your engine (or really just boating in general). When inspecting the 2 tanks we discovered a little bit of diesel ‘bug’ in the starboard tank (not a huge issue, but it required cleaning). It was apparent that the port tank had been cleaned in the past and only had a bit of water that needed removal. The gaskets for the tank inspection ports were also in poor condition as diesel over time softens the nitrile rubber. The gaskets for the pickup/return tubes in the starboard tank were also in need of repair as the rubber was melting down the tank sides. We had new inspection port gaskets manufactured, and Mark made new gaskets for the pickup tubes out of Viton (a type of rubber that is even more chemically-resistant than nitrile). We transferred the diesel out of the starboard tank by running our Webasto diesel-fired hydronic heater and directing the fuel return to the port tank. We gave the starboard tank a good scrub down, and replaced the pickup tube gaskets. Lastly, during our first fill up at the fuel dock, we learned that the tanks could not be filled very fast since the tank vents would shoot diesel up. To prevent this from happening again, we installed Racor Lifeguard LG100s (fuel/air separator) on each tank vent line, which have been working great.
Sails and Rigging
When we bought the boat we assumed the rigging was mostly original, as we had no documentation or history that it ever was replaced. Going offshore and being able to obtain boat insurance typically requires the rigging to be no older than 8 years. The impact from 24/7 sailing can put a year’s worth of stress loads on the standing rigging in 2 weeks as compared to a boat that leisure cruises intercoastal waters. We worked with Puget Sound Rigging in Seattle to remove the mast from the boat, replace all the standing rigging and some of the running rigging, inspect the mast for corrosion and replace parts as needed (new spreader tips, new masthead sheaves), install a new Tides Marine Strong Track mainsail track, install a new Wichard mechanical ratchet backstay adjuster, replace the VHF cable in the mast and add a new Morad VHF/AIS antenna (custom tuned to 159MHz), add new Lumitec Caprera 3 red/white LED spreader lights to illuminate the whole deck at night, install new lazy jacks for the mainsail, and lastly replace the chainplates (we had new ones made by the Outbound yard). We later discovered we made the right move in replacing the standing rigging as one of the shrouds was cracked at the masthead! The chainplates were not in terrible condition, but we’re glad we replaced them since they were about 20 years old. Regardless, they needed to be removed as we suspected only one side had the deck balsa coring protected with epoxy (which ended up being the case).
We made several other upgrades to the running rigging and supporting deck gear, such as: repairing the genoa cars (rubber standup replacements), installing new stanchion blocks, installing new triple deck clutches and blocks by the primary winches, building a new boom preventer system with frictionless rings on dyneema loops, installing new blocks at the mast base, installing new sheaves from Zephrwerks for the original deck organizers, adding new checkstay blocks with cam cleats, having the bowsprit freshly powder-coated and adding a new Antal dyneema snatch block to it, and probably a handful of other things we can’t remember now.
We had a new mainsail made by Zoom Sails, which has been great. It’s pretty fancy with all the bells and whistles: Hydranet Tri-radial, 3 reef points, RBS battens, double tapes on the edges, hand sewn leather corners for UV/chafe protection, and all sewn with Tenara UV resistant thread. We liked it enough (and for their very competitive pricing) to purchase a new 100% jib with 6-foot high clew from them. It is also Hydranet tri-radial construction, sewn with Tenara, double taped, leather corners, foam luff, and Sunbrella cover.
Electric Refit
Over the course of about 6 months, Mark redesigned the electrical system on the boat from a basic 12v DC / 120v AC system with AGM batteries, to a high-tech Victron lithium battery, 48v/12v DC and 120v/240v AC service, with 1300w of solar. In March 2024 he worked with Justin at Hullux Marine (ABYC certified electrician) to review/update/finalize the design, and install the new system. One of the primary goals of this system was to be able to support the operation of an electric SCUBA compressor via the 48v battery bank and inverter AC power.
A more detailed writeup of this major undertaking will be posted later.
Steering Pedestal Refit
In a previous owner’s blog post (2 owners ago), it was noted there was an autopilot failure during their Pacific ocean crossing to the Marquesas Islands from Mexico. We believe it was this event (or at least partially due to this) that the steering pedestal had suffered a high powered, uncontrolled rudder hard-over event that sheered off the internal steering stops in the pedestal bowl, and sheared off one of the rudder stops and warped the steel assembly on the bottom of the pedestal. The ‘cruiser’ fix of the sheered off rudder stop was a through-bolt, which works, but wasn’t ideal. Another very important driver for rebuilding the steering pedestal was to replace the internal bearings on the vertical shaft, since every time the steering was quickly turned, there was a loud thunk of the shaft/bearing slapping the down tube from all the excess play. Each time we’d go out sailing there would be a pile of rust dust below the pedestal from the bearing rusting out (caused from water leaking into the pedestal). Having a robust and reliable steering system is vital to an offshore cruising boat, so we couldn’t ignore this project as much as we wanted to (you can’t just buy a new one of these).
Disassembly of the pedestal was the hardest part of the whole project, as welds had to be ground off, and bearings had to be forcefully pressed, hammered, and cut off. Every machine shop I took the assembly too to assist with disassembly couldn’t figure out how to get it all disassembled (and were at least 2-3 weeks lead time). Finally, the 4th shop gave Mark the idea to reverse some bolts to help push the bearing housing off the shaft. Even getting the engine control box off of the pedestal proved problematic as the shifter handle was so badly corroded on the assembly it had to be cut off, forcing us to buy a whole new shifter assembly (minus the outside cover). Eventually, Mark was able to get the main problem child, the bottom bearing, removed and verified it was the culprit to the shaft movement. The top bearing was in pretty decent condition, so we left it as is (the top quadrant/rack was near impossible to press/pull off to access the bearing). Once the new bearing was pressed on, a local fabricator (Ballard Marine Fabricators) added buildup of aluminum weld for the internal pedestal bowl travel stop, and the tiller arm that was previously ground off to disassemble.
Since we had gone this far with this pedestal rebuild, why reinstall a warped and broken rudder stop piece? But we couldn’t swallow paying the marine tax to Lewmar for such a basic piece. Mark was able to recreate the piece in CAD, sent the cut files to a local waterjet facility to cut the pieces out of mild steel stock, and the same fabrication shop (Ballard Metal Fabricators) welded the pieces together and drilled the bolt holes.
Why stop there? The compass backlight on the pedestal was nonfunctioning. So we were able to find a shop on the East Coast, specializing in Ritchie compass restorations, that sold us a new green LED backlight. Additionally, corrosion over the years of the top compass plate had caused all the original paint to bubble and flake off, so we had the plate sand blasted and repowdercoated by Seattle Powdercoat (along with the bowsprit). The transmission control cable was also corroded fairly badly on the engine side, so we replaced it as well. Lastly the primary rudder stops bolted to the rudder post housing had no gussets for the tall rudder stop bars like newer Outbounds have from the factory, so we had Ballard Metal Fabricators retrofit those gussets to ours for some additional security.
2 months later the project from hell was complete. Lots of butyl tape was used in the pedestal reassembly to prevent water from getting back in and causing such a mess in the future.
Miscellaneous Projects
And just when you thought we had done enough to take her offshore, here’s a brief list of a ton of other little projects: rebuilt liferaft locker, rebuilt helm seat, installed new mast pulpits, new anchor locker plumbing, reinstalled anchor chain locker drain and scupper drain, installed new window blinds, put in new LED bulbs below deck, replaced all head plumbing, rebuilt aft black water tank inspection port, rebuilt manual head, replaced all below the waterline hoses, rebuilt the watermaker, redesigned the hydronic heater system, new bottom paint, new Viking liferaft mounted on deck, VHF radio repair, new Lumitec Caprera 3 red/white LED stern light, installed Starlink, service and new battery for the EPIRB, installed Iridium Go, installed exhaust temperature alarm, installed Fireboy alarm, mounted the SCUBA compressor…..and probably a few other things.
