May, 2012 -The Final Push

As usual, each time I want to blog the software has changed slightly and I'm not sure how this will all look!   Anyway, it's now May of 2012 and the seven year mark is fast approaching for the boat restoration.   We made our move from Fort Wayne, IN to Melbourne, FL back in September of 2011 and moved into the new home on February 17th and had a steady stream of visitors for a month or so. 

With the Erie Canal opening in May, I decided to load up and drive back up to Port Clinton, OH on May 5th and spend the month getting the final preps and launching completed.  It turned out to be three weeks of 12 hour work days, installing and rigging the new Cape Horn wind vane, reattaching all the standing and running rigging to the mast, pulling new VHF cable, installing the new Force 10 propane stove, and a multitude of other small but time-consuming chores.  

The wind vane was too difficult to install onto the new stainless steel boomkin when the boat was on the cradle, so my old Crown Lift Truck boss, Ted Wente, suggested we remove the boomkin and take the whole shebang to his house near Toledo for the weekend where we could work on it in the comfort of his pole barn where he had all the tools we would need.   It was a great idea and after returning to Port Clinton we had it mounted in ten minutes.   Rigging the control lines was not quite so easy, but within another day I had it rigged and working.  

Launch day was set for May 17 and I spent the previous night and all morning finishing attaching the rigging to the mast.   To keep the spreader light wires quiet inside the mast I sleeved them through the smaller swim noodles (it took four).   That in itself is a story - Ted and I thought that for sure Wal-Mart would have them, but all they had were the fat ones.   Dollar General had just one.   I stopped at Kroger's Redbox to return a movie and Ted stuck his head into the lobby and voila' - there was an entire display of skinny noodles!

The launch went fine and after spending one night in the launch slip I was towed to a regular slip (no batteries in the boat yet) and proceeded to get the rest of the rigging and plumbing sorted out.   The head gave me some trouble.  I had totally overhauled the old Groco EB toilet back in 2009 but I couldn't get it to pull a suction to operate the flush.  After pulling it out of the boat onto the dock, putting a hose into a bucket of water and pumping vigorously the toilet operated beautifully.  I put it back in and still no suction.  After repeated calls to Groco I commented that it seemed as though there was an air lead in the suction line.  I commented to the tech support guy that maybe the vented loop was a problem.   Vented loop???  The EB head won't work with a vented loop on the supply side!   I took the loop out, installed a secondary ball valve for safety, and it worked fine.    I'm not totally comfortable with the setup, but it will be okay for now.   We'll just have to open and close the line each time we use the head. 


The stove was back ordered for several weeks and finally showed up on the 23rd.   I wasted no time in unpacking and installing it but I've yet to actually use it.   We'll try it before departure, but not until shortly before then.  It's a beautiful unit and fits perfectly.   I had decided to go back to Melbourne for the Memorial Day weekend and took the opportunity to fabricate small spacers for the gimbal locks, as well as having Barbara sew up a set of lee cloths for the pilot and transom berths. 



Stuart Brand, the son of the marina owner, gave the standing rigging a once-over for tuning.  They own a Westsail 32 and he showed me the proper sequence of adjusting the rig and the tensioning of stays and shrouds.  

With that done, I mounted the teak navigation light boxes in the shrouds using the custom fabricated stainless steel brackets that my son-in-law, Jeff Bissonnette, made for me.   They worked beautifully and really gave the boat a finishing touch!




Installing the cheek blocks on the boom for the reefing system and the final electrical work (heavy battery cables) is all that remains before the shakedown cruise to Put 'n Bay, hopefully on Sunday June 4th.   Our goal is to ship out for Florida on Monday, June 5th.   We'll see if we can make the scheduled departure.

During the weekend that I was gone from Lake Erie the marina moved Second Wind out to the center of the floor so that they could lift her off the cradle and put her on stands in preparation for finishing the bottom under the spots left by the cradle stand pads and the keel blocks.

The five coats of barrier on the lower hull took a full five gallons of the two-part epoxy barrier coat (alternating between gray and white coats), so it was necessary to purchase a sixth kit and divide it into five small batches. Of course, until the pad spots were exposed I had no idea what blisters or other damage I would find underneath.

As luck would have it there were six untreated blisters and four that Fred Nelson, the original owner, had ground out and partially filled. With the experience in doing the rest of the hull, these took just a few hours to remedy. Naturally, once the job was done I discovered another web site on blister repair that cautioned against using the "high density" epoxy filler since it cured extremely hard and was difficult to sand - now they tell me!! Oh well, if that's the biggest mistake I've made it's nothing to be concerned about. But using the "low density" filler would have cut my sanding time in half and probably yielded a slightly smoother, more faired finish.

I had plenty of antifouling paint left over, so I quickly rolled on the final coats and had enough left over to put a third coat on almost all of the hull. The thickness of the seven coats is amazing - about as thick as three playing cards - and is hard as a rock. In between coats I finished reinstalling the mast lights and sorted out all of the standing and running rigging. The final chore was storing everything aboard for the spring launching and then packing up all the tools, extraneous parts, etc. to take home. By the time I was done the only available space in my SUV was the driver's seat!

Brands' Marina wasted no time in moving the mast to the storage rack and putting Second Wind back on her cradle, and within 24 hours she was shrink-wrapped and stored outdoors until next April's launch. Stay tuned for the final chapter in the saga - launch and the shake down!

The clock is ticking towards our departure for Florida! Our home in Indiana is sold and we have to move out on September 21st, but we'll be in Connecticut from the 10th to the 18th, which means I have just over two weeks to wrap up the boat work for the year. We'll be renting in FL so that we can watch the progress on the house.

During the past two weeks I've filled and sanded the osmotic blisters on the underwater hull and painted the black boot top stripe (the four inch wide stripe just at the waterline). You can see the rolled up plastic tarps used to "tent" the hull to control the sanding dust. The filling and sanding took more than 50 hours and was a dirty, hot job, wearing a respirator and long sleeves/jeans under an unventilated tarp in 80+ degree weather, but the results will be worth it - just so I never have to do it again!

The dust, which drifts everywhere, especially where you walk around, required me to scrub down the decks, coach roof, etc., but the scrubbed deck is looking good.

The lazarette is amazingly roomy and holds cleaning equipment, mooring lines, shore power cables, the dinghy anchor and line, and a myriad of other small items. It always surprised me that I was actually able to scrunch myself into the lazarette to pull cables and hoses. Speaking of that, I also finished running the LPG line from the cockpit to the galley and had to be a contortionist to secure the hose to the fuel tank strap to prevent chafing.

I've installed all the final deck fittings, waterproof light sockets for the side navigation lights (note the connecting wire coiled next to the light boxes on the coach roof), connected the diesel tank deck fills, the brackets to hold the LPG tank on the caprail, and the holding tank pump out fitting. I've designed a dismountable rack to hold the light boxes on top of the coachroof when the mast is down (like when transiting the Erie Canal), as races to hold the lowered mast itself at three poinwell as bts: bow pulpit, mast pulpit and boom gallows.

The bowsprit still needs to have the wisker stays attached, and I think I'll need to install two knee braces at each inboard corner of the platform to give it more stability, but I can do that in Florida. Meanwhile, Brands' Marina has painted the mast, boom and spreader after I stripped all the old paint. On the recommendation of other sailors, I had them use a tan shade of Dupont Imron matched to a Krylon khaki so that I can touch up the mast as needed.

Since our new home in Viera, FL, won't be completed until late January 2012 I'm getting pressure to have the boat transported to the Indian River, rather than sailing her down in the Spring (a Fall transit was ruled out due to the time constraints and the need to still finish up the engine room wiring of the charger, inverter, and house battery bank. It might make sense to go with a late October transport because I can work on the wiring when the boat is in the water. No decision yet, but I'll be thinking about it. For now, it will take all of the remaining weeks to finish the barrier coating and painting of the bottom and the refitting of the mast hardware.

It's hard to believe that it's been ten months since I last updated this blog, but it's been a very busy year: searching for the place to which we want to retire out of snow country; visiting friends and family; pinch hitting for our children with the grandchildren (and we added number 9 this past March); selling our home in Indiana (and of course, there are always things to fix and projects to finish); and then trying to wrap up the boat restoration. I've spent an average of thee days per week living and working on the boat in the marina workshop since April.



Last Fall, "Second Wind" was squeezed into the Brands' Marina workshop along with two 40+foot wooden Chris Craft cabin cruisers - one built in the 40's and a veteran of WWII coast patrols, and the other a classic 50's design. Since I didn't plan to work on her during the cold months I had no problem with the arrangement, and being next to the shop loft stairs I could easily step from the landing onto the deck, much as I had in the old barn. I had ample room in the loft area to collect all the items yet to be installed as well as my collection of tools, paints, and odds n' ends.


The deck was the biggest single project still to be completed, and it took nearly 200 hours to do. The teak, which was largely in good condition, although the caulking was shot, needed to be completely regrooved and recaulked. After experimenting with several tools to cut out the grooving, including routers, 4-1/2 inch circular saws, and thin chisels, the best tool for the job was the Fein Multimaster, a reciprocating saw that was both controllable and easy to use (but not cheap). The quick, vibrating blade cut cleanly and with some practice I was able to open the grooves to take the Teak Deck Systems SIS440 caulking. Since depth control with the Fein was problematic, TDS recommended that I just cut the grooves down to the fiberglass deck level. The downside was that the deep grooves gobbled up the SIS440 caulk at a prodigious rate. I had originally been told to expect to use about 40 tubes of caulk, but when I was finished I had used 70 tubes!
















It may be worth passing on a few lessons learned: first, taping the edges of the grooves yields a much cleaner job, although at the cost of extra time to lay the tape down, and second, allowing the caulk to set up for at least 30 minutes (but up to an hour) will minimize the mess when the tape is peeled up and leave a crisp, clean edge. Sanding took several hours, being careful not to take up too much wood. I had to do a careful inspection of all the screw bungs and found that over 200 needed to be cleaned out, the screws removed (using an impact driver to get the screws started), the holes redrilled and new screws and bungs fitted. I have no doubt but that this will be an ongoing project and eventually, over the next few years, almost all of the 1000-odd bungs will be replaced. I don't EVER want to redo the entire deck again and I was so tired some evenings, after spending all day on my hands and knees, that I was ready to cry! Still, it came out nicely and I do love teak decks.

After living for several weeks in the boat cabin, working in the marina, it soon became apparent that the two oil lamps that I originally installed on the bulkhead in the main cabin and V-berth were very vulnerable to damage, not to mention a fire hazard. I removed both for now and replaced the one in the main cabin with a wine rack that will hold six bottles securely. It was an exercise in recycling old teak and some scraps of plywood and I'm pleased with the results. There is sufficient clearance to lift the bottles out individually and yet they are securely stowed with the necks down. I'm looking forward to a glass of wine as the sun goes down over the water! As long as the boat lives in warmer climates and I don't need a cabin heater the rack will get regular use. (Now, where do I stash the Scotch and Vodka?)

The project list is dwindling rapidly. I installed the antique stern light with a teak bracket attached to the boom gallows. The wiring is connected via a waterproof plug socket using the original wiring run inside the teak gallows beam. The side lights, matching antique Perkos, will be mounted in teak boxes clamped to the lower shrouds and connected to similar sockets on the caprail.

The two bow anchor rodes are installed (250 feet of 5/8 three-strand with an additional 50 feet of 5/16 galvanized chain shackled to the anchors - a CQR to starboard and a Danforth to port), and I have a stern rode of 200 feet of 1/2 inch line and a 19 pound Danforth. I plan to add a Bruce to replace the port bow anchor.

Stripping the mast of hardware and paint prior to the repainting was a messy chore. To keep the chemical stripper from drying before it had time to work I had the mast and boom moved indoors. The boom took almost 8 hours to get totally bare and scrubbed clean and the mast took another 14 hours - 44 feet is a lot longer than it first looks! I used a 3M Scotchbrite pad to rub the remnants of the zinc chromate primer off after the paint was lifted. I have Brands' scheduled to prime and repaint the mast and boom the first week in August.

The blisters on the underwater hull have been ground out and the hull is ready for filling, sanding and five coats of barrier and two coats of anti-fouling paint. The plan is to do this while the mast is being refinished so that we can get "Second Wind" in the water by mid-August. It's hard to believe that it will be nearly six years since I first found the boat and began the restoration process. We can hardly wait for that first sail!

Moving Day - Part 3

Brands' Marina, our final destination, is one of the largest, best equipped marinas in the Port Clinton area. They have over a hundred slips, from 25 to 40 foot and more, both indoor and outdoor storage, cold and heated, workshops, locker room facilities and a ship's store for parts and accessories.

This will be "Second Wind's" home for the next year while I put the finishing touches on her, coat the bottom with barrier and anti-fouling paint, and rig her for sailing in the Spring.

For now, she will be moved into an unheated, indoor workshop for the Winter. I can live aboard in the marina while I work and use the locker room facilities, ship's store, and tap the expertise of their boatbuilders. With only about 200 more hours of work to do, I can work at my own pace, stopping work when the really cold weather sets in. Brands' is mostly a sailing marina, and the owners, Darryl and Connie Brand, are fellow Westsail 32 owners - a key factor in my choice of a marina.

We parked the boat temporarily outside the shop until they can get the space cleared. By the end of the month she should be indoors. The move went very well, no scuffs, scratches, or breakage. As far as I could find, the only change was that one of the locker doors came open (it was empty). Jerry, of Nautic Marine, did an excellent job of rigging and moving the boat and I highly recommend them. Not only was he careful, but he was the most reasonably priced of the professional transporter firms.

Stay tuned to the blog for further entries later this Fall and Spring. We expect to relaunch the boat by the end of April 2011.

Moving Day - Part 2

With the boat secure on the hydraulic trailer, the boat was slowly pulled backwards out of the barn. Unlike the installation five years ago, when the transporter was able to drive in the East door and out the West door, a large pond was now blocking the access to the West door, so now "Second Wind" would travel backwards to Lake Erie.

We were apprehensive about the clearance of the mast beneath the door, but it worked out fine.

Half way out, we halted for final adjustments and strapping to the trailer, and then the boat was rolled out onto the East pasture, much to the annoyance of the goats!










It's easy to see the door clearance in this shot. The boat sits down by the bow to keep the mast level for transporting. Our road height was just about 11' 8", well below the legal limit of 13' 6".

Funny how the boat looks smaller once it's out of the confines of the barn stall.







With great care the driver nursed the rig across the pasture and onto Troy's driveway, then with a wide swing to the left, he pulled onto the narrow two-lane road - on our way at last!

We planned to follow the transporter all the way to Brands' Marina, in Port Clinton, OH, but just as we passed through downtown Warren, IN, just three miles from the barn, the truck blew out his AC compressor. Continuing on to Lake Erie was not an option due to the design of the truck systems, so it was into the truck stop at I-69 and SR 5 for him.

The mechanics at the stop had the parts, but it would take most of the afternoon to change out the AC unit, so I went on home. We would meet up with the truck on Thursday morning at the intersection of I-469 and US-24, East of Fort Wayne.

I was just satisfied to be out of the barn and on our way. The boat seemed to ride well and we were confident that the trip would go smoothly.

Part 3 will show the arrival at Brands' Marina.

Moving Day, Part 1

After the milestone of the Christening Day, moving day was the next hurdle to overcome. Words cannot express how nervous I was and sleep the night before was not easy to come by. I kept worrying that I had forgotten something critical or that something unforseen would complicate the move.

The transporter was scheduled for 9 am and after we secured the mast and boom on top and I took time to pose with my heroes - Troy and Amanda Boyer. Not only did they give me a safe haven in which to work the magic on the boat, but they gave me moral support and helped out when I needed an extra pair of hands. I truly owe them a great debt of gratitude and look forward to taking them both sailing.

Just before the marine transporter (Nautic Marine, of St. Clair Shores, MI) arrived I took one last photo of the boat in her home of five years. She almost seemed reluctant to leave the barn, but looked shiny, refreshed, and ready for new adventures.

It's easy to see the tight clearance between the hull sides and the loft and barn wall. It was both a blessing and a challenge. On the one hand I could easily step from the loft onto the boat, but on the other hand, the working space for painting was cramped. The clearance from the tip of the bowsprit to the door was only six inches, and from the back edge of the rudder to the rear door was more like four inches! This was the cleanest the barn floor has been for over five years.

This is a good shot of the transporter's hydraulic trailer backing into position. The two rails straddle the boat cradle and transverse steel beams slid beneath the cradle allow the operator to lift the entire load into the travel position. After strapping the boat and the cradle to the trailer she was ready to move. The upper clearance to the top of the door lintel was about eighteen inches.

Part 2 will show the extraction from the barn!

FINALLY, Christening Day

September 4th was a beautiful day, albeit a bit windy, which forced us to keep the windward barn doors closed. We had a great turnout, about 40 people who came to see the finished product and watch as I smashed a bottle of champagne on the bow and rename the boat "Second Wind".

We spend a couple of days just "staging" the boat for her first public viewing. I installed the cabin-top fittings, mast pulpits, dinghy, etc., and set the navigation light boxes on the cabin top so folks could get a good feeling for what she'll look like in the water. The only major projects that we didn't get to were the recaulking of the teak decks and the finishing of the underwater hull.

The boat is going into "cold storage" at Brands' Marina in Port Clinton, Ohio, and they assure me that I'll be able to work on those items indoors. I also have some electrical connections to make in the engine room, but that's just the finishing touches.

The AC and DC breaker panels and the nav light control panel are wired and work properly (but I did need Troy's expert assistance in a bit of trouble-shooting).

The GPS works, showing us in the middle of a cornfield, but of course I couldn't check out the depth sounder function yet.

The VHF antenna cable now runs up the starboard side just below the pilot berth headliner and passes through the dresser cabinet and then up through a teak conduit, into the doorway lintel and then up into the mast junction box. It took some imagination and careful fitting, but it worked out okay.

The dome lighting puts off more than enough light for most nighttime functions, and the reading lights are remarkably bright. The fans are Hella "Bora" 3-speed fans and they do a pretty good job of circulating air in the cabins. The real proof will be on a hot summer day at anchor in the Caribbean! We can hardly wait for that magic day!

Barb couldn't resist "staging" the dinette with two sets of dinner ware (forgot the knives, forks and spoons) but the custom cabinet that our son, Michael built, won't be installed until this winter.

The sliding doors of the galley cupboards are just clear plexiglass. I spray painted a compass rose stencil on the back in dark blue and then oversprayed the back with a pale yellow. In retrospect, I think I should have used white instead, but perhaps next time we need to replace them I'll do that. For now it'll do just fine.

The stove is in my garage, in pieces, being converted to propane. We'll install it in the Spring.


This photo shows off the teak "conduit" for the VHF antenna cable and the door to the head on the right (actually it on the portside, since this photo is looking aft from the V-berth) and the dresser on the left.

We chose to keep the cabin floor, or sole as it is properly called, simple. For now it's just painted in an ivory one-part epoxy (Interlux "Toplac") and the plywood access hatches are just painted with the same non-skid paint we used on top of the cabin. The deck sole needs at least one more coat, plus the molded-in non-skid portions will get two coats of ivory non-skid. The plywood hatches will get teak and holly strips of decking. Another Winter project in my garage.

As I look at these photos I can already visualize some minor upgrades to improve both habitability and durability. It will give me something to do in Port Clinton.

We're really happy that we did the dinette table top with the Bermuda chart. We think it gives the right "tone" to the whole cabin and finishes it off much nicer than just a laminated top.

I learned very quickly that the dinette seating is snug . . . with four people seated the outboard diner has to be careful not to whack their head on the grabrail. It smarts!

The cushions that came with the boat fit fine, but we have four small cushions left over that we can't figure out what to do with.

The pilot berth was a big hit with the small children. They loved to climb up into the bunk and it took me a lot of vacuuming to get the cookie crumbs off the cushions.

This was a huge milestone. The champagne exploded (I'm glad I wrapped it up in a large piece of cotton fabric) just like in the movies and now it's time to move the boat to Port Clinton. The marine transporter is scheduled to pick it up on September 8th.

Coming into the home stretch, the final month of boat work, I really turned up the heat and things began to come together quickly.

Painting the exterior was an interesting experience with new types of paint: both one and two-part polyurethane paints, stupidly expensive, but worth the price. We had rolled and tipped the top of the cabin with one-part Interlux "Brightside" and it took three coats, sanding between each coat, to get a fairly satisfactory finish. It still showed a few brush marks, but it is a good "3-foot" paintjob (i.e., it looks good from 3 feet away. I would have used the two-part "Perfection" paint, but frankly I was a bit afraid of it, having heard horror stories about sags, runs, and humidity issues. I finally decided to use it on the hull and with the help of Troy, Amanda and Garrett, their neighbor, we rolled and tipped the first coat. It went on nicely, but we still saw brush marks and after much discussion, we decided to just roll the second coat with the foam rollers. It worked out great, except that the paint is chemically very aggressive and the rollers needed to be changed every ten feet of hull due to disintegration! It took a third coat to get it right, but it looks almost as good as a sprayed finish. I did the boot top stripe and the accent stripe in the same paint, also rolling, and we're all very pleased with the finish.

I had stalled a bit on the icebox installation, having been unable to locate the high R-value urethane foam but finally located a source in Indy that manufactures it and they cut it to the exact thickness (3") that I wanted and I was able to do the cutting out of the shapes on my table saw (the dust was nasty and I needed the respirator, like with a lot of the boat work). The box top and lid are fully insulated and the top is removable for later installation of refrigeration if I decide to go that route. For now there is an ice well and drain into the bilges for the melt water. It holds about 5 cubic feet of groceries.

The engine room lid, which is the cockpit floor, now has a lexan hatch installed to allow easy access into the engine room when at sea and I replaced the shortened teak strips. The cut-offs will be used beneath the galley stove.









The sliding hatch was in terrible shape, with a rotted plywood core on the sides. I dug out the old wood and slid in new plywood, epoxying it in place. The stainless steel side runners were also misaligned and they had to be carefully reinstalled. Finally, the inside surface got a coat of the light blue paint like we have on the cabin overhead and the top got a couple of coats of non-skid paint. The bedlog, the rails that the hatch slides on, were also misaligned and I adjusted that and opened up the grooves for the stainless sliders a bit to compensate for the slight curvature of the bedlog.

With the formal christening in sight, scheduled for Saturday, September 4th, I'm burning the midnight oil at the barn. 9 or 10 pm quitting time is normal now and on at least one night I worked until 2 am. I was tempted to just sleep in the boat, but I would have had to drag a cushion out of storage!

This has been a long, hot, humid summer and the barn has been like a sauna, but I've made a lot of progress and the end of the project is now in sight!

As you can see, the cabin top is now painted out, non-skid has been applied, the hardware, rails, hatches and tracks for the sheet blocks have all been installed. The portholes are back in and properly bedded, the screens are in again, and the deck is just about ready for final caulking and sanding.

To answer the obvious question, the mast pulpits (the tall stainless rails flanking the mast base) are not caulked, just loosely bolted in place so I can remove them when we take the boat out of the barn. With any luck, that will be sometime around Labor Day.

Just today I put the repaired hatch framing back in, but the sliding hatch rails need some more fine tuning.

The interior is just about finished, except for painting the cabin sole (floor) and putting the teak decking on the hatches. That will be almost the last thing I do to minimize the wear and tear while in the barn.

As you can see, the pilot berth is the hold-all for my electrical tools and parts until I finish connecting all the breakers (about half finished now). I have 110VAC to the boat outlets so I no longer have to drag extensions in the hatch.

I hope you can see the teak trim flanking the coach roof beams. It trims out the overhead and helps to secure the headliner panels.

The v-berth is totally finished now, and all that is needed are the cushions and throw pillows. I still have to access the chain locker to bolt in the sampson posts and the locker divider for the two separate anchor lines, but that should be a pretty simple chore. With luck I'll only sweat one bucket! I'm glad that I put hand holds in the hatch framing - it makes it easier to get in and out of the berth.

I'm hoping that I can get Barb to sew up some ditty bags for toiletries, reading material, etc., that we can hang up along the side of the hull on hooks, but if that doesn't get done for awhile we can cope easily.

The navigation station is looking pretty good and only the VHF radio is awaiting installation (it goes in the side panel where the cardboard template is) and the breaker panel is now hinged at the bottom with catches at the top so I can easily access the back of the panel and wiring.

The crappy temporary ladder is still in use, but the rest is finished. The GPS swing arm is mounted, but I'm still trying to figure out a graceful way to latch it in the stowed position and also in the open hatchway. The hatch still needs the safety handles on either side, but they'll be install within a day or two.

The dinette has turned out just about the way I visualized it five years ago, but the real proof will come when we eat our first meal on the water. The amount of storage on the Westsails never fails to amaze me: under the seats, behind every panel, and even under the dinette floor panels. When I look back at the "before" photos I can hardly recognize the same space.

Now I need to figure out where to mount the small flat-panel TV so kids can watch a movie in the evening.

The next push is to mount the newly resurfaced rudder, the bowsprit and manual anchor windlass, the new stainless steel boomkin, install the battery banks, charger and voltage inverter, paint the upper hull, and prep the underwater hull for the anti-fouling paint which we'll wait to apply just before it splashes in the water. Stay tuned for the grand finale!