I'm going to start with shoveling snow. Off the boat. And winter hasn't even gotten here yet. I hauled it last night, and this is what I found this morning.
Winter to-do list includes:
Replacing the nav lights on the deck. Stern light stopped working due to bad splice to the leads, and they're both badly yellowed anyway, so some new lights are on the list. The factory glued the stern light, and presumably the bow bi-color, to the deck.
*** Technical bulletin - the OEM lights are not certified for sailboats. At least not for sailing. When heeled, the intensity may drop too much. But there are plenty of others that are. Like the ones used on the M boats. ***
Retasking a spare plug-in pole, all-round white nav light to a permanent anchor light on the mast. My flag staff is a pole nav light, and I don't need the nav light portion (just the plug-in pole), so I'll make a knob for the top, and make a mount for a stub tube with light. Gonna try melting down a bunch of laundry detergent bottles (HDPE, same as Starboard), and turning a mount on my wood lathe.
Fresh water tank has fill and vent hoses to the deck. Which look horrid, looping up from the galley to the deck. But I have to pull out the galley 'cabinet' to get to the connections. And since that cabinet looks like crap, I guess I need to build a new one, that doesn't waste as much space, both under the counter, and above the hull.
This was taken before I cleaned it all up, replaced the DC panel, and added a new AC panel next to it, and stripped out the surface boxes held on with drywall screws with exposed wiring.
Those hoses look worse in real life than in pictures, and they look pretty bad in pictures. I usually fill the tank through a port in the top of the tank anyway, and rarely bother with the external fill port, so plugging the big fill line and a short vent line up under the sink (hidden) should be just fine. Then I need to find a way to disguise the holes in the deck, or outright repair them, though that will never look right (if I do it).
After most of the cleanup work, but before removing the old electrics. Holes for the hoses are easy enough to mask on the interior, but I may have to just leave the fittings on the outside (cut the barb fittings back), and cover the holes on the inside.
And lastly, the cockpit canvas needs a lot of TLC. Restitching, cleaning, and replacing the clear plastic on the dodger. But I need a sewing machine. Cheap. Maybe an old Singer 201 or something like that.
Pretty full basket of chores. Plus new bottom paint this spring.
