Refit

Knowing where to work

For a long time, we have wanted to switch our only non-self tailing winch to one that is self tailing. This winch is on our boom and is very important while you are reefing in a blow. Having a self tailer would literally free up a hand!

The problem is new winches are expensive, so the project got put onto the back burner until we happened across an affordable winch. For 3 years, we have searched every consignment shop in 5 states, and 8 countries, all looking for the right winch.
One day in Almerimar, Spain, a fellow cruiser was having a yard sale on the back of his boat. He was changing gear and systems and selling the unused components. They had winches, but they were much too large or not self tailing, so once again, we had no winch to complete our project.
The night before they left, he came by our boat with one more winch that he was selling: an Andersen 12ST.

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The family was doing some questionable modifications to their boat, such as removing all the booms from their ketch and replacing all the sails with Genoas. I know, it sounds strange and I personally don’t think it would work out too well, but he was selling the winch that was on the boom he had just removed!

Best of all was the price! They were heading towards the Americas and wanted to sell it for US Dollars, so we paid him $60 for this used but very functional winch.
Now we had the last of the components to install the winch on the boom!

I began removing the boom in the morning to mount the new winch on the side of the boom when I ran into a small problem. The screws at the front of the boom were rather seized on there. I tried to force them off and started to strip the head of the screw. I could cut the head off and replace the screw after but I needed to secure a replacement screw first.
This was the next roadblock. We are in Spain and our boat uses imperial sizes fasteners. The closest machine screw to what I need is an M6, but an M6 does not fit because the thread count is different. I stopped the project and put everything back where it was, and all the bits and pieces of the winch project will be stowed in a bag for when we arrive in a country that sells imperial fasteners.

Head Refit: Complete

The head refit took significantly longer than I expected. Part of my underestimation was my belief that I could accomplish more in a given day than was possible, the other part was due to the fact that I ignored the fact that “curing time” is a thing.

The project started with a simple plan to change out our head cabinet to “open” the space up further. After some light demolition, serious rot was discovered in the bulkhead and further demolition needed to take place to accomplish the task.

The project was planned to take about 2 weeks, but in reality, it elapsed over 6 months.

Victory Break

The head is done!
The galley is done!
The topsides are done!
The deck is done! *almost

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It’s time for a relaxing lunch to celebrate the progress we have made. In town, there is a quaint restaurant that serves the most delicious cheese on toast. This is a wonderful way to celebrate our little victory on the projects list!

Galley Refit: Completion

The galley is done! The wood working and counter top making ended a while ago, but the stove and oven were somewhere in the mail. Without them, I could not “finish” the galley refit, as a galley without a stove is nothing more than a sink.

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Our new stove and oven are an older Origo 6000 alcohol system that fit nicely into the space provided. One of my friends has this same stove in his boat and he highly recommended this unit for our new stove. The best part of the unit is that the entire system is gimballed which will allow us to cook much more comfortably while making a passage.

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With the stove and oven installed, our galley is finished! This project proceeded much faster than the head refit partly because I was working exclusively in wood, instead of a combination of fiberglass and wood, and because the final design was well thought out before the project began.

The head refit was a nebulous idea that morphed along as the project evolved. Every time I went to attach something permanent, we would look at the proposal and wonder how it would affect everything down the line. I always worried that what I built today would be removed tomorrow due to a change of plans. This led to a much more cautious approach which was also a much slower process.

The galley was anything from an evolving concept. We had the sink, all the wood, and the stove; though the stove was in the mail. The plan was well thought out and the goal was to finish as soon as possible because our end date was fast approaching and this wasn’t the final project for the boat.

With sure thought and a sound plan, the galley came to be in a very short amount of time which also allowed us to get our boat back into living condition with a relatively minor upset in the timeline.

Galley Refit: Polishing Hardwood

All the glue sanded off and the entire counter fit in place. The plastic has been removed and everything is looking ready to go!

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Before the wood can be finished, the wood first needs to be prepared! I initially sanded the wood with 60 grit paper to take off the glue lines and fair up any imperfections. Then I graduated to 320 grit paper, then 500 grit paper.

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At 500, the wood felt smooth and looked great, but I knew I could do better! To take it the extra mile, I sanded the entire counter with 2000 grit paper, the same kind you use to polish porcelain.

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The result was wood that not only felt smooth, but also looked smooth too. Being a very hard wood, the wood itself could be “polished” on it’s own to have an amazing luster where it was “almost” reflective.

With the wood dry and “thirsty” I then caulked the seam between the sink and the counter top. Once that was cured, the counter itself was oiled with linseed oil.