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Final Touches on Sugar Shack

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There were just a few more final touches that we wanted to make on our boat.  We still had a lot of canvas projects and we needed to replace our bathroom accessories in our two heads (bathrooms for my landlubber friends).  The bathroom accessory update is on the second half of this blog post – scroll all the way down.

Matt and I were so excited to buy a second hand LSZ1 Sailrite machine from our friend Chris.  But then fifty million projects took priority over our sewing projects and it sat for several months unused.  We finally broke it out to learn how to use it.  We decided to start with a vinyl cockpit table cover (to better protect the teak) and it was a good first attempt.  Then the sailrite sat for several more months as we focused on more important boat repairs and upgrades.  That was the final straw. We decided to ask Kim from Masterpieces in Canvas for some help with our canvas creations.

Here is a list of “final” projects:

  • (2) Cockpit table covers (1-vinyl for Matt’s work bench & 1-Salueda for guests)
  • (2) Aft cushions to go over line the bins and around the wenches on the transom
  • Redo our exterior cushion covers in a darker, vinyl fabric
  • (2) Sets of 3 pockets (mounted on the aft of the boat for storage)
  • (2) Recycle bags
  • (1) Remote wench control bag
  • Cover for our Man Over Board Horseshoe

These projects are not urgent and are not necessarily needed.  However, all of the pieces are old, ratty, and in need of a refresh or make over.

Transom Seating

Our transom spans across the back of the boat.  This is where we store our lines and where we have our working winches.  However, inevitably, we have people over and they always sit on the hard, uncomfortable fiberglass.  And if you sit over the line holders your rear end sinks into the holes.  We have wanted to add seat cushions here since we bought the boat – 13 years ago!

When we bought Sugar Shack in Turkey, we replaced all of the interior and exterior cushions.  We saved the outside foam (from the cushions) because we thought one day we might use them for the transom seating.  I will be honest, I thought we would use them a lot sooner than 13 years!  But here we are doing them now.

Matt cut the foam around the wenches, pad eyes, and stanchions.

Then we handed them off to Kim to cover.  This is more than a “final touch” and we are so excited to finally have this project done!

Cockpit Pockets

The boat came with these nifty pockets in the cockpit which collect all sorts of junk and treasures.  Spare lines, small tools, cleaning supplies, bungee, SUP fins, etc…

The stitching is coming out, the bungee is dead and they are just looking tired overall. Matt has wanted to design them a little differently so that the bungee can be more easily replaced.  

Additional Bags

We have several recycling bags where we put glass, plastic, aluminum, and cardboard.  In addition, we put smelly things that might stink up the house.  We also have a small bag that holds the main wench remote holder.  All functional, but need replacing.

The new recycle bags are just as big and wonderful.

Line Bags

We keep our main sheets inside two bags that hang off the life line off the transom.  They came with the boat, so they are at least 13+ years old.  The bags are functional, but too big for the space and we are often fidgeting with them.  Plus the fabric is torn and they are just ready to be replaced. 

We were going to ask Kim to remake them, but we ended up finding store bought ones Ronstan Line Tail Bags (large-RF3912) for a very reasonable price.  The final price with tax and shipping was $68 per bag.

The new line bags are smaller and far more functional.

Table Cloth Covers

We currently have a gray vinyl cover over our beautiful teak table.  It is our work cover that Matt uses when he works on projects and it gets super dirty.  We decided to make a dark vinyl cover and a nice salueda cover for when guests come over.  So, one will be a working cover and one an every day cover.  Kim made this awesome velcro piece underneath to keep the cover on during high winds.

Exterior Cushion Covers

We really do love the new light gray salueda exterior cushions.  However, they show dirt so easy and they do not clean as well as we had expected.  As people sit down, the back of their legs rub against the side panel and crease (seam where the top and side panel are sewn) leaving dirty marks that just don’t come out.  This just after a few months of use.  So, we decided to recover them in a dark gray vinyl that does not look or feel like vinyl!  We are hoping this will be our final recover project.

The new cushion covers turned our really nicely.  We are hoping we have better luck with these without “sticking” too much.  This is a nice touch to the boat and really looks classy.

More Sun Shades

We love, love, love our new cockpit enclosure.  However, we noticed that our sunshades needed to be expanded to cover the corner areas.  We have a giant sunshade off the transom and one for each side.  But there is a giant triangle of space between the side and the back that needed to be covered so we had Kim make us corner sun shades.  This should be the final “shade” project for the cockpit.

Man Over Board Cover

Our man over board cover was looking incredibly bad.  So bad that I did not even take a photo of it before it was tossed.  But we have a new one and it looks bright and bold!

Rail Protectors

As you know, I painstakingly varnished 90% of the exterior wood while we were on the hard.  So, when I saw our jib sheets rubbing on the cabin top hand rails I about flipped my lid.  I immediately went about making rail protectors so the jib sheets won’t ruin my varnish!

Just when you think you are done, you find more things to update and beautify.  Man we need to get out of New Zealand as it is costing us a fortune.  Well can’t really blame NZ as we’ve needed to do these updates for some time now.  We add a few more final touches to our beautiful home.

Bathroom Accessories

We have two heads (bathrooms).  In each head we have hooks, cup holders, toilet paper holders, dish holders, and towel racks.  None of these pieces were stainless steel and they have since turned green, spotted, pitted, and turned icky in general.

Matt and I searched all over New Zealand and the U.S. for 316 stainless bath accessories.  It is a lot harder than you think!  We found 304 and stainless plated but nothing else in NZ or the US.  Until we stumbled across Drench in the U.K.  We found all of the pieces we needed in 316 Stainless Steel. Hopefully these beauties will last us a life time!

And the new bath accessories in the port bathroom:

It appears starboard bath accessories are worse off than port which could be because we leave our escape hatch open and the salt air gets to these pieces more frequently.  Perhaps, maybe they are just 23 years old and tired?

And Starboard bath accessories:

These updates make me so very happy!  

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog took place during the the months of March and April.  We remove part of our standing rigging to do repairs – check it out here.

Fine Tuning the Rig

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Last season (2023) we purchased brand new North 3Di sails Tour Ultra X Sails.  However, we were having a few issues with our Genoa so we we had Roger at North Whangarei do an inspection and repair. During this repair we noticed some marks on the luff of the Genoa which indicates there might be a problem with our forestay, part of our standing rig.

See “Back in the Boatyard” for the reason why we had North do an inspection on the Genoa.  During the inspection, Roger pointed out several areas of concern.  There are black marks on the luff which indicate a potential problem with the forestay.

So, we contact Matthew at Whangarei Spars and Rigging and ask him to come inspect our rig, forestay, and furler. (For convenience, I refer to Matthew at Spars Rigging as Matthew and my Matt as Matt).

First, Matt ties our two spin halyards to each bow to secure the mast.  Then Matthew uses a ginormous 24″ wrench to loosen our side stays which will allow us to remove the forestay. Then Matthew removes the furler and secures it to the bow so it doesn’t flap around.

We send Matthew up the mast to loosen the top of the forestay.

Matt slowly releases the halyard holding the top of the forestay as I direct it away from the boat and Matthew gently places it on the grass.  It is really long at 16-17m and surprisingly heavy.

Disassembly and Evaluation

We have 9 foils, 8 joiners, and 12mm rod making up the forestay which holds our Genoa sail (or jib) and tensions the front of the mast.  A joiner is used when two foils meet and each joiner has 4 tiny screws.

Some of the screws are stripped and the men have to use a heat gun to loosen them enough for removal.  At each junction of the foils are joiners which are part aluminum and plastic.  Four of our joiners will need to be replaced as they are worn out.

While we had everything down and easily accessible, I take the opportunity to clean the stainless, remaining foils, and 12mm rod.

Repairs

Matthew replaces two of the foils and 4 joiners.  He also replaced the bearing in the furler.  Putting the forestay back together took both Matt and Matthew several hours.  You have to line up the foil just right to get it on the rod, then the screw holes of the foil have to align with the screw holes of the joiners.  

Matthew uses 4000UV glue to ensure the older joiners do not slip or move. He is able to just tighten the new joiners so that they won’t move.  Each screw has loctite applied before being inserted (this will prevent them from shaking out).

The top bearing was fine and did not need to be replaced.  The bottom bear was replaced.

Installing the Rig

Once the forestay was back together, they tested it to make sure the sail could be raised and lowered smoothly.   Everything  worked well!  Next, we slowly raise the forestay to the top of the mast and fit it back to the boat.  It took a lot of effort to get it set.  We even had to use a dynema line and ratchet attached to Matthew’s truck to pull it down and tension it.  

After it was all set, Matthew tensioned the side stays.  I asked him about a rigging survey and he said our rig is in really good condition. Despite it being 8 years old.  Plus we have 4 rods which don’t show wear unless there is a broken strand and we certainly don’t have any of those!

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  The events from this blog post occurred at Norsand Boatyard in early May.  Did you read about the Boatyard Projects we did before leave?

Boatyard Boat Projects Before We leave

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Were you wondering what Matt and I do while the Norsand boatyard crew was working hard on our repairs?  Well, you know we can’t just be idle so we finished up a few more boat projects which honestly seems like an endless list.

The cover photo is Sugar Shack at Norsand Boatyard.  Photo courtesy of Yum Yum who took it as they passed by heading up river.

Boatyard Boat Projects on the List

  • Replace Dinghy non-skid (under warranty, Aakron Express to repair)
  • Repair Anchor Chain Caddy
  • Replace (2) anchor chain rollers and several bolts at caddy (RH Precision)
  • Repair genoa North sail (random strings showing)
  • Re-Certify Life raft and (4) PFDs (Personal Floatation Device)
  • Clean and polish exterior stainless steel
  • Apply anti-foul to old/spare rudder and stow in forward bow
  • Get the Bauer Dive Compressor Working
  • Install bathroom accessories (see next blog post “Final Touches on Sugar Shack”
  • Installed a MeLE Mini PC
  • Service, Test, and Fill Propane Tank

Repairing the Non-Skid on Sweetie

The non-skid came off the floor, again, so we reached out to Aakron Express / Highfield to come out and fix it, again.  Luckily they were pretty responsive and willing to do the repairs.  I am glad this is not one of my boat projects (lots of glue/adhesive removal).

Last time they just pulled up the pieces that were coming lose and reglued them.  And surprise, surprise, they did not stick and came unglued again.  So, this time they completely removed all of the non-skid pieces, cleaned the bottom flooring and adhered new non-skid.  Let’s hope this sticks better.

I’m trying not to be annoyed that they did not replace the non-skid on the step.  As you can see it is still a little dirty which I can live with but it is a different color!  Ugh!

Bow Rollers for Anchor Chain

We took in two of our 5 bow rollers to RH Precision with the hopes of having new ones fabricated.  Rob, is truly the coolest dude ever!   He put in the specs into his CNC machine (bottom left) and showed us how they will look (purple lines).  As you can see, the bolts are way overdue for replacement so we replaced those as well.  The black will be our new roller (top left).

Rob surprised Matt by allowing him to come into the shop to assist in fabricating the rollers !  He showed him how to program the machine, figure out the math and then hit “go.”  Matt was thrilled which was so darn cute to see.

While the anchor chain caddy was taken apart, Matt decided to fix a few more things.  He added strong plastic to the inside panels which were indented from the chain, and he added chivs/spacers to prevent the bolts from rattling.

North Sail Genoa Repair

Our brand new North Sail Genoa had a few random strings (top right photo below) that worried us and it was not furling properly.  Roger from North Sails came by and collected it and we all took it to the large North Sail Loft in Auckland for repairs.

You can see how wrinkled the sail is when it is unfurled and it shouldn’t be that way (top left).  Guy at North Sails showed us what the 3Di fabric looks like when it comes apart (middle photo with black fabric and white strings) and that does not look like ours so they are “not concerned” with the random string we found.

The North sails engineers added more foam guides at the luff to help it roll better.  However, we discovered another potential problem with our forestay.  There were black marks on the luff of the genoa which usually indicates something is amiss with the forestay.  So, we bring in a rigger…more to come on this in an upcoming blog titled “Fine Tuning the Rig.”

Liferaft and PFDs

Our Viking Liferaft was due for service (every 3 years) so we took it to Denray Marine.  They inflated it, checked all seams and connection points, replaced the canister, and added some emergency supplies.  I know it looks like the liferaft is locked down, but it can easily be deployed with a single push of a button.

We also serviced 3 of our PFD’s and bought Matt a new one.

Cleaning up the Stainless

We have lots and lots of stainless on the boat.  It is one of my many jobs to keep it shiny and clean.  So, every 3 months I use super toxic chemicals such as Opsho, CLR, or Grunt to clean up the stainless.  However, our friends at Absolute Stainless turned me on to Chemico Paste Cleaner for our stainless counter tops. I thought I’d give it a try on our stainless exterior pieces and HOLY COW it worked amazing!  This will make this particular boat project a lot easier in the future.

We have stainless stanchions, turn buckles, line guards, pad eyes, and railings.  Each piece has to be meticulously cleaned and polished.  Most of the stainless just looks like it has a brown stain or spots which drives me crazy.  It’s hard to see in the sun, but trust me it looks bad.

The gates (upper left) get so corroded that they don’t easily open (this is after 3 months).

The pad eyes seem to get the worst corrosion, but they clean up nicely.

Spare Rudder

As you might recall, we replaced both of our rudders in November 2023 (as we lost one rudder).  We decided to keep the other “old” rudder as a spare (just in case), but it needed to be painted with anti-foul.   Matt sanded it down and I applied 4 coats of anti-foul paint so she is ready to go back into storage.

The spare rudder will be stowed in our forward port bow locked.  We stow a lot of stuff in here including: 15 fenders, 2 SUPs, passerelle, 2 folding chairs, 8 PFDs (personal flotation vests), 2 inflatable animals, SUP pump, ladder, and now a spare rudder.

Bauer Dive Compressor

Matt and I love to dive.  However, we have not had a dive compressor onboard to re-fill our dive tanks.  So, we either have had to find a local company or a friendly cruiser to fill our tanks or we just didn’t go diving (which was always a shame). 

We were able to buy a used Bauer Jr. Dive Compressor a few months ago despite the fact that we knew it would be a challenge to get it started.

The Bauer Jr. requires a lot of power to start up.  We purchased a soft start (an electrical device designed to gradually and smoothly control the starting and stopping of a compressor motor) to aid our Mastervolt inverter/charger (MASS COMBI 12/3000W-160A 220v) and our Honda EU20i portable generator.  Unfortunately, this did not start the dive compressor.  

We did verify that it started by plugging it into shore power.  So that is good news.  We talked at length to Mastervolt, the dive shop that sold us the soft start, and our electrician and they all said it should work – but it did not.

So, we purchased a new Honda EU32i portable Generator and a parallel cable.  Using the inverter/charger, the two generators, and the soft start the compressor finally started!  Yeah.  But we really did not want to have 2 Honda generators onboard – (imagine me smacking my face)!

Small Projects

As you might recall, we sort of blew up our Mastervolt inverter charger when we tried to start our “new to us” Bauer Jr. II dive compressor.  The good news, it was still under warranty as it was only a few months old!  So, Matt installed this new baby to give us 220 power!

We also finally received our brand new ITSEC 175m2 parasail.  I am so excited about this sail!  I cannot wait to fly her!  We love our new ISTEC Parasail (175m2) – she is gorgeous!

Bathroom Accessories

We also worked on our new bathroom accessory upgrades which are coming up in the next blog post titled “Final Touches on Sugar Shack.”  They are the prettiest toilets on the sea!

Programming

We use Synology Diskstation for a number of things including storage of our files, movies, books, and music.  But it is also used to monitor our electronics and run our music.  The problem is that Diskstation can be a bit of a power hog running at 3+ amps per hour.  When you are plugged into shore power or at a home it is not a big deal.  However, when you are making your own electricity and you have other power hungry sources, 3 amps can be huge.

So, Matt decided to try out a MeLE Mini-PC which is no bigger than a deck of cards.  It has no monitor and no keyboard.  But that is not a problem as we already have those.  It took Matt several days to program it, but it is working like a charm and only draws 1amp per hour!  Big Win.

The mini-PC will not be on the navigation table with all of those wires.  The photo was taken as Matt was programming it.  It will go below the nav station with diskstation.

Propane Tank

We have several propane tanks on the boat, for cooking and for the bbq. Our main propane tank is aluminum.  These tanks are supposed to be tested every 10 years but it is often difficult to find a place that will test them.  We had been filling this tank at El Gas for two seasons and they never said anything, until this time.  He refused to fill it until we got it tested at Firewatch.  it did not take long, but it did cost is $120NZ (we got a new valve as well).  The problem was she accidently stamped the tank as a 10lb instead of  20lb.  We did not realize it until we took it to El Gas and he had us take it back.  So she hammered out the incorrect info and restamped it.  Gesh what a pain.

There are two large boat projects that will get their own blog: Caulking the Sugar Scoop Teaks and Caulking the Sugar Scoop Teak.

As you can see we made the most of this haul out in the boatyard.  We completed a few more boat projects and are feeling good about our NZ departure.  We were anxious to get back in the water as we prepare to head to a new country, Vanuatu.

Best Seat in the House

We got the best spot in the yard!  We were parked right by the river on the corner which gave us great views and a beautiful breeze. The top photo is out our bedroom cabin window at dawn and the bottom is a shot from the bow.  It is not terrible to do boat projects when you have this view.

Our blog posts run several weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post on boat projects occurred April-May 2024.  In our last blog post we show you how to repair your teak deck – did you catch it?