DSK wrote

Rebuild battery platform (already done this for the genset start
battery)... btw a great source of strong rot & rust proof material is
thick plastic cutting board. It's resistant to battery acid too and a
really big one costs $7 at Wal-Mart or the like. Much cheaper than
Star-Board!

I'm using some of this to make mast block spacers. Great stuff and
like you said cheap. I need to figure out how to secure my batteries
for a rollover. No hurry there, since I don't plan to take it on the
ocean anytime soon.

Build up spoke/hub of steering wheel to make it less wobbly. I have to
have at least one ongoing job involving WEST epoxy.

I do so much of it, I'm thinking about buying a vacuum bagger pump.
My friend Marty says a vacuum cleaner will work. Have you tried
that?

Later this year I'm going to install a new house battery bank. To show
what involved, the first step is cutting a hatch in the fore cabin sole
to get access under that space. One reason the heater project has taken
so long is that every little step has required the massive amounts of
planning, re-planning, and eons of labor.

Well, I assume you have your wife's support. My ex-girlfriend
stood in my way--no longer. Last year I had to spend 2.5 months
in California. So I'm grateful to have time this year to finish it off,
and noone standing in my way.

In the Air Force, we used to say,
"Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way!"

You are fortunate to have a wife who likes boats as much as
you do.


My report: Hull Fairing and Painting Project

Hoo-ee... now there's a LOT of labor. I've faired some boats 24' and
smaller. One thing to do that makes it easier to see what's happening is
to use different colors, just t little, in each successive batch of
fairing compound. I feel it should not take more than three passes to
get it all perfect (although on a 46' hull, each pass represents a HUGE
amount of labor) otherwise you're just plastering it on and sanding it
off. But the results are really nice... fairing the hull was the single
biggest go-fast improvement I did to the Lightning.

Huge labor is right. After I'm done, I'm going to become a
professional arm wrestler.

I had so much area to do I found I never had enough materials.
So my boat looks like a patchwork doll with difference colors
in different places, and on top of each other. I'll take a picture
if I can find my digitial camera.

Why don't you post some picture for us of your projects?

Bart