Is your boat "completely finished"?

[jeepbluetj]

Has anybody ever had a boat where everything works?

That must be quite an exhilarating 10-15 minutes in a boat owners life.

[fabricator-ken]

I hope you're sailing meanwhile.

Sent from my C6903 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[liveaboard60]

With a big grin, it appears only JOHNMARDALL and Lokiyawl had the same thoughts I had.. And personally, I do hope my boat is never finished <grin>..


From the dictionary (edited for space):

Finished (adj.)
____a. Doomed to death or destruction.
____b. Having no more use, value, or potential; washed-up.
____c. (predicative) without further hope of success or continuation.


Have fun ya'll.. I am going to go play on my boat this evening and see if I can't get some work done on it so it isn't finished <LOL>.. flk k

[Rhapsody-NS27]

I get a smile when I'm asked if my boat is "finished" as in to say "is it ready to sail yet?" but, no. Not yet. The refit continues.

I expect I'll be finished working on the boat when I'm long and buried. Until then, there's always something to do. My current refit will hopefully get this boat going for another 30-40 years. Gotta do it right the first time.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by jeepbluetj

Has anybody ever had a boat where everything works?

That must be quite an exhilarating 10-15 minutes in a boat owners life.

Yes I have , and it is not exhilarating, it's scary, cause you know something bad is fixing to happen.
Sailing and helicopter flying are really very similar, read this an excerpt of Harry Reasoners quote on Helicopter Pilots


"That's why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why in generality airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant, extroverts. And helicopter pilots are brooders, introspective anticipators of trouble.

They know if something bad has not happened it is about to".

[model 10]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

"That's why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why in generality airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant, extroverts. And helicopter pilots are brooders, introspective anticipators of trouble.
They know if something bad has not happened it is about to".

I guess we have had a different experience. In the civilian world, I've met very few "brooding" helicopter pilots. Hard drinking helicopter pilots sure, but clear eyed in the morning.

[sailorboy1]

My boat is completely finished. By that I mean there is nothing that would prevent me from sailing away. There are of course little maintenance things to get around to doing, but then I never expect a day to go by that this isn't true.

[Schooner Chandlery]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Yes I have , and it is not exhilarating, it's scary, cause you know something bad is fixing to happen.
Sailing and helicopter flying are really very similar, read this an excerpt of Harry Reasoners quote on Helicopter Pilots


"That's why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why in generality airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant, extroverts. And helicopter pilots are brooders, introspective anticipators of trouble.

They know if something bad has not happened it is about to".

After our major rebuild of the boat, we were constantly breaking things. We decided we would celebrate when we made it through 12 hours underway without anything breaking. We relaunched in April 2009. Started really sailing in the fall of 2009. We didn't pass our 12 hours with nothing breaking, chafing, or misbehaving...until sometime in 2011. Two years of getting the kinks out. Now we can go for long periods without something really breaking but I can say for certain that on any 72 hour or greater passage there WILL be something fail that was unexpected.

[bruce v]

Anachtonym for BOAT - break out another thousand.
Definition for boat - a hole in the water where you deposit your monies.
That being said, most of us who own a boat not only know that this is so, we do not mind. If you are putting monies into it, you are enjoying the benefits of doing so. I try to be frugal w/o being cheap and after fifty years of doing so, I feel I have a decent handle on it. Now, that being said, why is it the greatest moments in a boat owners life are when he buys it and when he sells it?

[anacapaisland42]

The only time she is completely finished is when she takes the last bow before disappearing beneath the waves....then she is completely finished..... just like life :-)

[zedpassway]

Boats are like houses. Yeah you can use them but something always needs to be done.

We bought a small 19 foot sailboat Pocket cruiser in late 2012. Due to a wedding, ad broken ribs we did get her into the water in the summer until 2015. After the summer of 2015, we discovered that she needed lots of upgrades for use to feel safe sailing her. Was she dangerous? Hail no. But where we sail there is no one to come to our aid and its near ocean saltwater. So except for the USCG we are entirely on our own. So if the OB dies in dead air, for example, we will have no support, and will need to have back ups.

Our whole summer now has been spent in putting in upgrades to cover back up circumstances. We have to be prepared for the fact that a day sail may turn out to actually be an overnight and into the next day, or the following day.

[Sandero]

Shiva is "finished" but she is in maintenance phase and that is never done and the older she gets the longer her fix up list becomes. Occasionally I go for some sort of new "thing" like AIS... or a cockpit plotter... a new tender... Everything works well except the speed transducer that the yard installed incorrectly. Head needs a rebuild.... but that happens every few years... as well as new upholstery and canvas. And the varinish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hard to get to if I want to sail!

[Sandero]

Originally Posted by Schooner Chandlery

After our major rebuild of the boat, we were constantly breaking things. We decided we would celebrate when we made it through 12 hours underway without anything breaking. We relaunched in April 2009. Started really sailing in the fall of 2009. We didn't pass our 12 hours with nothing breaking, chafing, or misbehaving...until sometime in 2011. Two years of getting the kinks out. Now we can go for long periods without something really breaking but I can say for certain that on any 72 hour or greater passage there WILL be something fail that was unexpected.

This is hysterical... On two or three long cruise vacations to Newport stuff happened. Wife though sailing to Newport was a jinx... we lost a pump to cool the engine one trip, had the dink stolen on another and on a third we needed to get the starter motor repaired or replaced. And there is always that ethanol to foul the OB. That's a yearly constant!

[Hobie_ind]

Having played with homebuilt airplanes and boats for a lot of my adult life, my view is that the definition of 'finished' or probably more appropriately 'ready to go' is a pretty big spectrum depending on the individual.

My strategy with both has been to spend some upfront time getting the critical systems in shape so I can hopefully spend as much time just 'hopping in and turning the key' with minimal breakdown maintenance. Then I try to schedule most of the cosmetic & systems upgrades, and major maintenance into a focused annual downtime.

Before we left on this trip, we bought the boats a bit over a year before leaving so I could have some time to assess and do what I felt necessary. We found a 20 year old boat, with a pretty clean survey, that had been regularly used and well maintained with recently replaced standing rigging, excellent sails & running rigging, one newer fridge/freezer & stove, electronics upgraded in previous 5 years, engine and generator previously replaced/upgraded with <1000 hrs on the engine and 2000 hrs on the generator. As we were spending the first year just in the Caribbean, the main items in that list ended up being:
- Overhaul and inspection of all of the furling systems
- Overhaul of the windlass, replacement of the anchor chain
- Additional Fortress anchor and 300' of rode as another backup/stern anchor
- Installed new VHF with AIS receiver tied into chartplotter
- Sat phone antenna wired to chart table and wifi booster
- Good engine tuneup/inspection, new exhaust elbow on main engine, replaced a number of tired-looking hoses & clamps, repaired some pinhole leaks on a stainless muffler, and replaced all of the apparently original exhaust hoses
- Repaced the other fridge
- Replaced two original looking above waterline thru-hulls
- Replaced watermaker membrane and a couple of tired looking PV end caps
- LED lights
- Overhauled one of the wind gens that had a noisy bearing
- Storm jib & misc small safety equipment upgrades
- Replaced all head hoses & flexible propane hoses

We then sailed for about a year in the Caribbean with minimal maintenance (oil changes, replaced brushes in one of the furling motors, collecting spare parts in handy locations like St Martin & Martinique, a few corroded switches, access port cut installation, replaced two engine mounts & fuel tank cleaning (should have done those last two before as I thought about them but didn't as it was the only time we had to delay for a week or change our plans in that year!). As we had then decided to prep the boat for the South Pacific, we took about two months of focused work periods to prep the boat (two week haul in Grenada, some dock work in Grenada and two weeks in Panama).

That list included:
- Replaced all below-waterline thru-hulls
- Stripped bottom to gel coat, new barrier coat and anti-fouling
- Overhauled bowthruster
- Engine & generator tuneup, seals on drive, replaced remaining engine mounts and re-aligned, repaired pinhole leaks on stainless muffler and few stainless exhaust fittings
- Backup autopilot installation
- New Liferaft/custom rail mount
- Replaced/relocated small European butane tanks with larger F/G US tanks and replaced regulator
- Removed failing fake teak vinyl decking and redid non-skid on decks (big job known future issue at purchase and factored into price, and wanted to address before it became an issue)
- Rudder packing
- Overhauled spare HP watermaker pump that was already onboard when replaced with new one by previous owner
- Overhauled headsail furler as the one bearing we didn't replace in Martinique because it wasn't available on-island and was deemed 'serviceable' started getting noisy (lesson learned)
- Redesigned new cockpit table
- Arch and solar installation (at anchor in Panama!)
- Emergency storm drogue

This have us about 14 months of pretty routine maintenance got us from the Caribbean to New Zealand. This included oil changes, an alternator rebuild in Fiji, a few chafed lines, a failed 110v inverter that we limped along without for a few months until a friend brought one from home, a flaky battery charger (that didn't matter since we generally had enough solar), and a few corroded switches & electrical connections. The only maintenance related delay we had during that time was a week in Fiji to replace one of steering racks that had a broken tooth with a new one shipped in from France. I could have limped it along for a while while having the parts shipped to our next destination, but we really liked the spot anyway and didn't mind waiting.

A month of focused work in New Zealand to set up for the next 18 or so month stretch then included:
- Sandblast and recoating of cast iron keel (couldn't do in Grenada)
- Injectors on main engine (I hadn't done them previously at 1000 hrs as recommended as the engine was running very well, it was still running well, but decided to do at 1500 hrs anyway!)
- Replaced forestay and greased foil (it wasn't clear on the re-rigging invoice from the previous owners that it had been done and since removing it to grease the foil was half the job I just decided to do it)
- Installed Vesper Marine AIS transceiver
- Got newer Raymarine autopilot finally talking to B&G wind instruments and older generation Raymarine chart plotter
- Replaced stainless muffler with fiberglass unit and had new stainkess exhaust elbow and fitting fabricated for generator (tired of fixing pinholes every year on old one)
- Replaced corroded chain hawser with new stainless one
- Addressed a couple small standing rigging items I'd been watching, pulled forestay chainplate and inspected
- Removed wind gen's from mizzen mast
- Seals on drive and bowthruster
- Replaced flaky battery charger with new charger/inverter

So is it 'finished'? Yep, for now, we're back out and trying to focus on our snorkelling and hiking rather than boat maintenance.......

[jagpfd]

Yes my boat is completely finished ..... For today!!!!