2011 Sailing – So Many Projects, So Little Time!

As 2010 is about to wrap up in a few hours, and I was going through the calendar to plan some vacations, etc in 2011, I realized that I have a ton of work to do on the boat before we start using it again in the Spring.  That’s the funny thing about boats, they are a source of constant projects, and expenses.

Most of the projects are hold-overs from 2009.  My wife and I got married in April 2009 and we took quite a bit of time off work for the wedding and honeymoon.  As a result, we took our sailboat out only once or twice for a few hours that’s about all of the time it spent out on the water.  For pretty much the entire summer of 2010 my wife was pretty pregnant and combined with work and preparing our house for a tiny human, we again did pretty much zero sailing, with one exception.

We decided that it would be fun to have a guys trip a few weeks before my wife’s due date.  This trip would be a way to get some use out of the boat, and for me to bond with friends and family.  My wife and I worked on the boat for a couple weeks to get it ready for the trip and we finalized the crew of myself, my good friend Jason, and my dad.  This trip ended up very memorable and you can read about the calamities at sea we endured in this post as well as this follow up.

Last month as our lives seemed to settle down a little, getting more used to being parents, I started to think about all of the boat projects that needed progress and decided that I should find a way to dedicate time to that.  So I decided to pick one day a week (Wednesday was the chosen day) to head up to the boat after work and stay the night.  I could use these weekly visits to start tackling interior projects (engine, electrical, trim, cleaning, etc).  I’ve spent one night up there so far and accomplished nothing.

Actually, that night was particularly rainy and windy and when I got there I found out that the deck was leaking water into the boat.  A quick trip to West Marine to pick up a tarp and bungies stopped the leak for now.  Unfortunately that problem has now re-prioritized my project list and added another item, replace the hand-rails on deck and re-seal the through-bolt holes.

For 2011, we definitely want to use the boat more than we have the past two years, so we are planning another 8-9 day trip in the summer as well as a few day sails and overnights.  But before those trips I have a ton of work to do.

1. Replace teak hand rails on deck
2. Replace forward stanchions
3. Install new middle stanchions
4. Replace all lifelines and fittings
5. Install solar vent fan in forward hatch
6. Completely rewire and re-plumb bilge pumps, installing a second electric pump
7. Replace engine alternator and regulator and rewire engine-electrical
8. Build an electronics panel for the VHF, Stereo, and iPod out of starboard or teak
9. Finish making teak trim rings for the interior lights and install new interior lights
10. Replace running lights and anchor light with new LED lights
11. Add new task lighting for galley
12. Haul out and refresh bottom paint

There are several other things I’d like to do but they aren’t necessarily required for now, and most of them cost money so they may have to wait.  Now if I could just find time to work on these things…