What a Crazy amount of Parts and Boat Preparation at the beginning of the season |
Those that know me know that I am the ultimate
do-it-yourself person. I truly believe that there is not a single thing that I
cannot fix. I have rebuilt my Mercedes, completely restored our sailboat
Scarlet, replaced the ball-joints on our F250, rebuilt Rhett’s engine twice, as
well as laid floor, built bathrooms, electrical systems … you name it I can do
it.
That said, I do have a fairly low threshold for some types
of work and I have developed a very low threshold of tolerance for equipment
that is not reliable.
Glad I didn't need to lug this tonne of chain to the boat! |
This year the two big things we replaced on the boat were the
batteries (they were 4 years old and not charging fast anymore), and our anchor
chain that had become very rusty and littered the deck with rust every time we
retrieved it.
Nearly there, on the travelift at Cleopatra |
The best thing about buying stuff at Cleopatra – let me
assure that it is not the price, is that they deliver it to you at the boat.
Each of Tara’s batteries weigh about 100#. The guys from Cleopatra showed up
with a forklift that was tall enough to lift the batteries to the side of the
boat. This saved us a huge amount of pain and suffering .. easily worth the
60-100Euros I could have saved by lugging the batteries from a store … across
the street into the dinghy … into the dinghy … out of the dinghy onto the back
of the boat … and then removing the old ones.
Here is a list of things that I will and will not do on the
boat:
Will Do
|
Won’t Do
|
Anything on the engine
|
Polish the hull (takes 3 days with poor results) and is
poisonous to breathe
|
Anything electrical
|
Paint the bottom (Poison)
|
Anything fiberglass
|
Fix anything to do with a Toilet – we just replace this
stuff (Poison)
|
Varnish or woodwork
|
Fix anything with Gas (Ka-Boom). This is new
|
Canvas or Sails – (Poor results)
|
So Great when you're finally in the water |
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