"Roger Long" wrote in
:

to dodge around it at your peril.



I think the title of the thread needs to be changed:

"True cost of PERFECTIONIST'S boats"

is more appropriate.

Plastic fittings above the waterline don't need replacing with bronze and
amazingly-priced bronze ball valves. There's lots of other niggling
examples of nonsense in your list. But, it had to be a perfectionist's
boat, not just a pleasure boat. Everything had to be perfect, not just
functional and safe.

I bet the yard owner was smiling from ear to ear every time you found some
other niggling little defect for him to tear it all apart for....(c;

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
Plastic fittings above the waterline don't need replacing with
bronze and
amazingly-priced bronze ball valves.

They do here in the northeast if they are very close as these were and
you plan to sail late in the season. I'm perfectly happy with plastic
farther up and left several but these only needed an inch of sinkage
to be right in the zone where freezing and cracking is most likely.
It's sunk a number of boats. If I was farther south, I would have
left them.

As for the valves, it's a sailboat and these fittings are located
under seat lockers where it would be very hard to drive in a plug. If
the hose lets go, I'd still like to be able to sail on either tack.
By the time you realized that the boat was getting heavy, these would
be underwater fittings anyway. I can just reach the lever on the valve
to close it. Anything else would be tough.

Believe me, this boat is far from perfect.

--

Roger Long

"Larry W4CSC" wrote
I think the title of the thread needs to be changed:

"True cost of PERFECTIONIST'S boats"

Gee, I just went through the list again myself. If you toss out the
optional things like the engine water alarm and if I'd just slapped in
a single bilge pump it still wouldn't change the bottom line very
much. If the boat had a stronger keel bottom and didn't have a
flexible stuffing box, I would have just put in a basic bilge system.
The water's pretty damn cold up here and you really want to stay
afloat.


I bet the yard owner was smiling from ear to ear every time you
found some other niggling little defect for him to tear it all
apart for....(c;

No, aside from normal commissioning things like painting the bottom, I
only owe the yard for about six hours work. I did all this myself so
the yard isn't smiling. My point was that, if you are not in a
position to do it yourself, it's going to add up fast. It is true
that I bill out $15 more than the yard but my work is project based
and this came at a good time. I also wanted to do it myself because I
enjoyed it and I now know my boat in a way I never would otherwise.

I originally thought I was pretty clever exchanging a $75 sump system
for several $125 through hulls and the labor of replacing them. I
misjudged how much modifying all the plumbing would be in just
material cost. OTOH, the old hose was carrying water but was all crap
that would need replacing soon anyway. Everything was rough and
plugged from years of use and I was going to be unplugging it
constantly. Ending up with only two seacocks to open and close when
getting on and off the boat is a nice plus.

Changing out the gate valves was required by survey and insurance.
When I took them apart, they looked perfectly good but this is a fresh
water boat that spent very little time in electrically active marinas.
Looking at the design, I can see why they are vulnerable. BTW these
gate valves are in great conditions. Maybe we can work out a deal


--

Roger Long