Another Update

The teak master continues making the exterior wood look beautiful as systems continue on the to-do list. The teak work seems never ending and overwhelming sometimes, but with each section that gets done the boat looks better and better. We tried to convince ourselves that when we bought the next boat after our sailboat was sold that we would buy one with no teak on the outside. So what we did was buy one with even more teak than the sailboat had and not in very good shape. The weather this time of year also slows the process and we are expecting a couple of days of rain so the going will be slow. In addition to the refinishing, we have to be careful to not leave holes from the hardware for the rain to leak in. But since we have been doing this for many years we have it down to a science. The holes from the hardware are caulked to keep water out but not so that the hardware can't be re-bedded when it goes back on. With the Sikkens Cetol we use there is no need to sand between each coat, which helps a lot, and the coat that went on in the morning is dry enough by afternoon so that if it rains, it won't hurt the finish. The usual approach is three coats of the base, we now use the "natural teak" coating, and three coats of the gloss. With the new natural color, it does not change the color of the teak and give it that brown or orange coloring as the older bases did. Once the gloss goes on, it is difficult to tell from the usual types of varnish. After these six coats, all that is needed is a yearly maintenance coat afterwards. That is why we switched from traditional varnish several years ago.



The interior is not getting neglected. Some new faucets to replace the originals give the galley a more modern look. Replacing the galley faucet required the spacers between the drawers to be removed to get access and after the faucet was replaced the spacers had to be epoxied back in place. Underway latches have been added to doors to keep them from opening and spilling their contents in a seaway when the conditions get boisterous. And the controls and power for the satellite dish are now in the main cabin so there is no need to go up in the flybridge to make fine tune adjustments.

We finally have a complete house bank of batteries. A second set of 6 volt golf cart wet cells have been added and we now have a total of about 440 amp hours on the bank. The decision as to whether we will add an additional bank will be made after we have a chance to cruise her a bit and see what our requirements will be. With the sailboat we spent lot of time underway with electronics and equipment running without the engine charging. With the trawler we will be running the engine much more and the batteries will get plenty of charge. So we will need some time at anchor to determine if more battery power is warranted. An additional charger will be installed as soon as it arrives so each house bank will now have its own charger which will be 45 amps each for a total of 90 amps for the house bank. The Xantrex echo charger is doing a great job of keeping the starting battery charged from the house bank and the house bank is charged by the Iota chargers from shore power and the alternator under way. We are very pleased with this set up at this point and still have some old wiring to replace. The project list is coming along nicely albeit slower than we would like. But that is just the nature of the beast. we will continue to post updates as we complete them.