Saturday, June 11, 2016

Boat Maintenance – nothing the liberal application of money cannot fix


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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