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Your right I probably wouldn't spend 3 weeks on it, so 30 gallons might be excessive. For now I'd say a week onboard is the max for now. Maybe 20 gallons is more appropriate. Thanks for the input. Can always add more water containers if needed.

topcat0399 wrote:

mastreb wrote:Honestly that seems like way too much water for a boat of that size. How much time do you spend on it? I've done ten days with a family of five, including showers, and not gotten through 34 gallons on our big boat.

You don't want to have a lot of "standing" water on a small boat. It gets stale quickly. A smaller tank that matches your usage and is refilled more often is much better.

I would figure 1 gallons per person per day spent away from docks. 7..15 gallons should do the job just fine.

Depends on how you intend to use your boat I suppose.
We've done 21 days straight on ours and 25 gallons isn't out of line.

I just finished rebuilding everything on the hull side of the vberth and
I built space for a segregated 25 gallon bladder.
I'm sick of dealing with 5 gallon jugs.

For now just weekends and as long as a week.

I've removed the headliner inside the cabin and scrubbed off all the loose material throughout and am ready to paint. My question is "What type of paint should I use in inside the cabin"? Once painted I'll re-install the headliner. The wood is still in good shape and will be reused with new cover material. My wife took all the interior cushions to an upholster to have new ones made. We should have them in a few weeks. The project is coming along pretty good. Most of the non-skid decking has been painted using the interlux non-skip paint. It looks great. Still haven't painted the roof near the tabernacle since I'm still working on that area. I'll upload some progress picture in a day or two.

I used an oil based exterior paint over an oil based, cover anything type primer. It's holding up great 5 years now. I have used Rustoleum with good success also on other boat interiors, if you want to use basic colors.



How did your water tank project go? This is my "frame" to hold a 20 gal tank I put under the v-berth. The 50 lbs of sand under it, helps keep the boat level and helps pound through chop.

I've not started on the bladder yet. I've delayed that for now. I need to get everything else further along. Did you put the water bladder in the aft and the sandbag under the V-berth to counteract the water weight? Thanks for the paint tip.

The hard plstic tank fits into the frame on top of the sand bag. With 2-3 adults in the cockpit, the 9.9 outboard, and all the stuff i store in the aft locker i can use the extra weight in the front.

That's logical! Might have to consider doing the same thing. I've got a 9.9 Honda long shaft 4 stroke on the back and plenty to store under the cockpit.

I found some rot under the tabernacle between the fiberglass layers once I took the headliner down. It wasn't terrible, but bothered me enough to replace the aluminum plate inside under the tabernacle with a much larger plate and also tried a product called Get-Rot. End result is a much stronger cabin roof and is apparent from the outside. No soft spots. I'll have to re-drill all the holes to mount the tabernacle, radio cable, and power again since I filled all that in during the repair. Went with all aircraft grade hardware, so there shouldn't be any problems with rust or corrosion in the future. New cushions in and out will be ready tomorrow. That should really improve the cabin and cockpit appearance. Should be able to post some picture later this week. She's really coming along and hope to put her in the water the end of next week, so I can work on the trailer. WIll do some yard sailing early next week to make sure all the rigging is as it should be.

Mounted the tabernacle with the aluminum plate inside. Get-rot between the fiberglass layers. Last thing is to attach the wood beam to the plate and drill the new holes for radio and mast lights. Radio and power will be mounted on the deck less than an inch from the tabernacle. Once thats done I'll put the new headliner in.


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/191 ... _3876a.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/191 ... _3868a.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/191 ... _3867a.jpg

It's starting to come together. I wanted to have it ready for 4th of July weekend, but the rains have slowed me down.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/191 ... _3866a.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/191 ... _3871a.jpg

Mast up and everything seems to be coming together. Will start working on the bottom paint next.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vsoy79huuqhsq ... p.jpg?dl=0

I had a very chalky hull with years of oxidation.
Get yourself a high-speed polisher or an old angle grinder, and a wool polishing pad (flexible back that wont gouge).
I had an old can of fiberglass polish and I ended up mixing with some cheap turtlewax brand compound polish.
Wet down an few square feet and slab some compound on your disc. Its gonna get messy so wear goggles.
If you havent done this before, you wanna get the gelcoat to get hot enough to burn off oxidation and "melt" shiny again.
Move the polisher in figure 8's back and forth. Use the hose to lightly spray away dust and lubricate hull.
It will take a good days work to get top and bottom, but you should be able to get a nice glossy shine back.
When you get it right you can feel it.
Best of Luck!

Thank you for the info. I'm dreading the bottom work, but know it must be done. I'm not sure how much I need to do on this! The chalky paint is actually bottom paint thats been applied a few times over the years and it's in different levels of ware. What I mean is someone painted the bottom different colors and it's wearing blue in one spot white in another and almost looks like straight fiberglass in some spots. I'm guessing it was painted with a ablative type bottom paint the last few times it was painted. I'm guessing I should stick with that type of paint! But bottom prep would still be my big question! How much prep is required?

Finally got her in the water a few weeks ago and of course there wasn't even a breeze to sail on. We spent the night out on the water and won't plan the next trip unless we can at least get a sea breeze at night! It was crazy hot. We still had a great time and the first afternoon gave a little wind with the approach of a thunderstorm, so we did get to sail for a little while that day. The motor gave me a little headache when leaving the dock, but it to finally started purring like a kitten. With the exception of not having a sail jockey I couldn't really see anything I needed to work on. The auto-helm worked perfectly and when I did get to sail the dolphin cruised along with us. After waiting on the wind the first day we anchored up in a cove with a few other sailboats and really enjoyed the peace and quiet. Most of them were there waiting on the wind also! We're going out again the first weekend in September. Hope to sail a bit more than last time!

Looks like December before I'll get her back in the water. Shoulder replacement surgery has scuttled my repair work. Really not all that much to do except bottom paint. Still looking forward to getting out again.