DIY up-grades for seaworthiness and comfort review 2016. Up-grades to my 1975 30ft Islander sailboat that I did in 2016, more to come in 2017. Boom brake - h...

Closed Captions (CC):
[Music]

I rabies am land-bound for a little bit

here visiting family in Wisconsin for

the holidays and thought i'd give you a

little recap of some of the things i did

this year on the boat made a list

because i'll tell you what when i

started thinking about it i did a lot

more than i thought i did I broke it

down into three categories the boat

seaworthiness you know to keep that in

shape my live aboard comforts and then

some just general care I'm not going to

go into a lot of the general care but

let's start with the boat seaworthiness

I mean that's the most important thing

is is the boat seaworthy and I've got

videos on most of this stuff and the

links are in the description here I

didn't want to fill the video up here

with all these little tags and so forth

but one of the things i added real

simple was a boom break you know to keep

the boom from swinging kind of breaks it

not doesn't break the boom it slows the

boom down so you don't get slapped in

the head from an unintentional jibe that

was a nice thing to put in battery

charger major item here really nice

though I put in a new battery charger

power mania easy to install lightweight

waterproof an absolute necessity new

seacocks I did that early in the year

with groco products and I've got one

more seacock i need to replace it still

got the faucet on it I forgot about that

one when I was doing these others really

interesting on how groco manufactures

these and there's different types and

the strength of them a nap but new

seacocks

very very important wind instrument I

don't have one or I didn't have one but

I got a wireless wind instrument from

sale timer works really well now and one

of the heavy heavy winds we had that guy

I didn't have it mounted quite right and

bent over a little bit I've got to

replace the wind cups on it but that's

an easy fix now I know when I'm out

there instead of just what's the wind

doing I got an idea of what's really

happening my headliner project now that

that was really kind of twofold one of

them was for the livability another one

for the looks but a big part of that was

my port lights two of them were leaking

I needed to take them out and replace it

and all the wood that was on the side

there was all rotted from earlier I

never really replace that so I'm

replacing that and then I rebated the

port lights and I've already got that

done the whole liner project isn't

finished yet but I use and when you do

this when you do the rebating make sure

you use a good marine grade clocking on

that now I used Starbright on that great

product and we've had some really hard

hard rain since i've rebooted the port

lights no leaks good job all right Oh

another really important one a new

tiller now I got this tiller from any

tiller com I mean you know when you look

at my old tiller I mean one time I

thought it was just going to snap off I

mean it was just so old and rotted and

corroded and it just it was terrible but

look at this tiller this is fantastic it

makes

makes me feel a lot more comfortable out

there sailing and especially in heavy

winds and hard sees I mean this is this

tiller fantastic now another issue i had

was I'd be out sailing talking about

tiller sailing working with the tiller

and so you know you shut the engine off

I go to start the engine I'm pushing a

button three or four times you know

before it kicks in now I know from past

experience that that usually means the

starter is going so rather than wait

till it went totally I want the Trice I

took it out Senate the tri-state battery

they rebuilt it I put it back in no

problems since I put that back in so

that's kind of the seaworthiness parts

of the projects now some of the more

livable projects and this is really

really nice all I had before for

refrigeration was an icebox and a little

DC refrigerator didn't really keep

things cold I installed a cool blue unit

with the air compressor I know I

insulated the interior of the box that

put two inches of the foam insulation in

and then I coated it or actually before

I put it in i coated it with epoxy put a

little fairing compound in there to make

it thicker and I use the seahawk epoxy

on that I put that in then once I put

the foemen then I put fiberglass tape

you know around the corners and sealed

all that up with epoxy so it's all

waterproof I tell you what that makes it

makes cruising a lot easier to because

now I don't have to go to the grocery

store every other day I can keep food

the bottom portion of my refrigerator

now I have this set on number three of I

think

7 and the bottom portion is like a

freezer I put something even if I don't

put it in there frozen let's say like

chicken breast I individually wrap it

and stick it in the bottom of the

refrigerator it's frozen fantastic then

I have a shelf i put in there for all my

refrigerated good having a dependable

refrigerator has made living on board a

lot lot easier and so then part of that

was putting in the new sink and the

galley and my old sink you know i had

put fiberglass underneath the sink on

the outside of it to keep it from

leaking had all these little pinholes so

from ambassador marine I got a round

high polished stainless steel sink and a

new faucet nice small footprint it's got

the spray nozzle that pulls out makes

doing the dishes and cleaning up a lot

easier and the galley looks a lot lot

nicer to I put a piece of corrion down

and put the sink in look super another

thing talking about the sink i added a

fresh water inlet to the stern of the

boat so that when i'm at sure i can just

hook up the city water or the pier water

right to the boat I don't have to work

out on the holding tank I've got all the

water i need another great comfort and

makes it easier for when you're at the

pier Oh back on the headliner project

again another key thing in the boat to

make it more livable as lights so from

hell a marine I got to strip lights that

go down the center of the cabin and then

I have a chart light and I know in the

video i call it a map like but it's a

chart light and the way that works it's

got a 16 inch neck on it and so I have

that

and I can turn move that over and shines

down on my computer for my work LED

lights virtually no electricity being

used DC power being used it lights that

boat up man old man is that nice and

bright and these also have you switch

them over and you can have red lights 2

so 4 night cruising that was very good

and then now not so much for sailing but

you know guys I use the drone for a lot

of my videos and I'm registered with the

FAA as a commercial drone pilot and I've

got my private pilot licence but one of

the requirements is you have to be able

to communicate the air traffic control

if you're within five miles of an

airport so from yaizu i got a handheld

airband VHF makes life a lot easier now

on the general care you know that was

you know washing and waxing the boat

again Starbright products been using

them for years you know and here's the

thing too about washing the boat it's

not just for looks it's good for the

boat and when you're down there I'm

scrubbing around and around the stage

and I happen to notice a couple of those

little o'rings that pins were missing so

that also gives you an opportunity to

kind of inspect the boat while you're

cleaning the boat and then I did some

varnish projects I you know again I'm

using the standard or the Seahawk

Captain Jack's varnish really works nice

getting to look really nice in this boat

and let's see what else I got here on

the list well I think that pretty well

covers it you know and I think if you

sit back get a glass of wine relax a

little bit

think about some of the projects you've

done on the boat you made a list you'd

be surprised and how much work you

actually do and the improvements that

you've done on the boat you know as

you're doing them you don't really think

about it that much who put this together

guys ought to give yourselves a hand yay

good job on the bolt guys well until

next time happy and safe boating to you

your family and friends