The Sailboat Diaries: Setting Sail, part 1

Apologies for the long delay between posts. Things have been hectic behind the scenes at CR4 so I don’t get to blog as often as I’d like. Coupled with a computer reformat that resulted in dozens of lost images (I stupidly forgot to back them up), there hasn’t been a ton of motivation or time to wrap up what I started: blogging about my boat refit.

Well this isn’t another old boat that ended up on “the hard” forever. She floats! S.V. Harrier was launched on Lake Champlain on May 27 of this year. After a year and a half (minus winters) of rework, replacement, refreshment and cleaning, she is moored all summer along the beautiful Adirondack coast.

So let’s tack with the wind and wrap up what I started. Here is what the exterior of the boat looks like today, after all these upgrades.

• A new, colorful sail cover sewn by a friendly and local seamstress (thanks Sue!). I supplied pseudo-Sunbrella fabric and she provided the skill. Considering the retail cost of these, it was a bargain!
• The front windows are newly cut acrylic. I accidentally cracked the starboard side window in the bottom right during installation, but it’s a negligible flaw. These were positioned using a construction-grade adhesive and sealant. Unfortunately, I didn’t account for CTE and the port side window has bubbled out a little bit. Right now, this is helped by some disguised white duct tape until a more permanent fix can be completed off-season. Otherwise, they are leak-free and sturdy!
• Electrical and electronics
• New LED navigation lights: All light fixtures were actually replaced with LEDs (except the stern white nav light). Matching red and green nav lights are mounted on the side of the cabin.
• Note the small blue LED between the front windows. A second is mounted on the top deck, centerline, just before the cockpit. These are the first deck lights mounted on this boat, and were especially helpful one recent overnight trip to a nearby island.
• It is tough to see in Figure 1, but hung in the window is a set of fold-up solar panels. I ultimately went with a 50 W system after this debacle. I will chronicle this a bit better when I write the blog post covering the interior upgrades.
• o Antennas: A SiriusXM antenna is mounted centerline, just before the mast. In the port side window, an FM/AM antenna is mounted (held by the white rectangle, which are two adhesive pad mounts).
• o At the base of the mast, a white wire extends from within the mast. I spent a Saturday night wiring and installing an anchor light at the masthead (Figure 2). The fisher’s tape was getting stuck, so I ended up taping eight thin wood dowels together to run the wire. It was a huge pain.
• U.S. and New York flags were added as badges to the sides of the cabin. It just looks right!
• One of the winches was seized, but both spin perfectly as disassembly, soaking in mineral spirits, relubrication and then reassembly. This requires care as the spring-loaded parts want to fly out when taking them apart.
• Griptape on the hatch! No slick deck spots, please.
• New lines and rigging: Docklines and anchor lines have been replace. All running rigging (both sheets, both halyards, both travelers) have also been refreshed.
• New registration lettering. The number never changed, but since everything else was getting renewed, let’s do it too.
• Don’t forget all the painting…
• General cleaning. You know, sweeping, degreasing, swabbing the poop deck, that kind of stuff.
• Finally, in the cockpit, a new varnished mahogany tiller was installed. It is a beautiful piece a wood and a pleasure to show to guests!

Here is what the stern looks like (minus the camera-blocking finger).

• The wife had the patience to apply the flag decals and the name. They say it is bad luck to rename a boat. In this boat’s first 48 years she went nameless. Not anymore!
• Sonar: The pod-shaped module is a flip-down transducer. The boat is outfitted with a fishing-style chartplotter and depth sensor, but it is perfectly good enough for weekends out on the water.
• Mounted on the back rail:
• New life ring. Man overboard!
• This grill mount holds a 17 in. Magma stainless steel marine grill and stove. What’s a day on the boat without some grilled burgers or chicken? And we always need coffee in the morning.
• A pennant staff. “Hoist the black!”.
• The round tube with the no smoking decals is a DIY propane tank tube. Cut from 4 in. PVC tubing and ends caps, it perfectly holds two 1 lb. propane tanks. It is attached with ties and a bungee cord.

And now here is a few more pics of some of the summer adventures S.V. Harrier has carried us to.

(not me)

Thanks for reading and looking! I'll hope to issue part 2 in the next couple of weeks.