What Would You Change About Your Boat ?

[ztviper17]

Sorry if this is a double post, I tried searching but nothing came up.

The title says it all, what would you change about your boat? Or what do you wish it had.

[nhschneider]

Fortunately, there's very few things I would change on Rutea. I'm working through my 'To Do' list but there's a few things that I'll probably never get completed:

1. Bow Thruster. Sometimes she backs up like a drunken pig and sometimes she behaves like a lady. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason.

2. New spars. The original Selden masts are massive and very heavy. Her twin downwind poles are almost too big for me to lift and they're certainly unwieldy on a pitching foredeck.

3. Cosmetics. At 25 years old, she has reached middle age and it's starting to show in places. Since we cruise her pretty hard, it's difficult to be attentive to all her warts and blemishes. I call her a 200-foot boat: She looks great from 200 feet.

Of course, there are other details that I come across on a daily basis that I think I'd like to change but I most often forget and continue on with the tasks at hand. Regardless, my wife and I are extremely fond of her and we consider her a part of our family.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[maxingout]

I would change the location of my boat.

I would move my boat to the Sea of Cortez so that I could fly down to Mexico and go sailing on the weekend.

I would like to have a real crow's nest on the mast. It would also be nice to have a second headstay with a roller fuler for the second genoa for sailing downwind in the trade winds.

I don't actually have much else that I would change about Exit Only. It's an honest and unpretentious design that is a good offshore sailing yacht. I could not ask for more.

[Marksman]

I would, and am, remodel the interior. The v berth was not user friendly so it turned into a catchall and we converted the dinnete everyday. I am in process of remodeling it into a "forward cabin" with a double to starboard and locker space to port. The main saloon cabin sole needs replacing which requires a remodel of the dinnete and galley. The propane locker is not up to code and I need to cut hatches in the cockpit benches to get to all the unused space there. The cockpit drains bellow the waterline with no seacocks on the thru hull fittings and the engine raw water intake is just a mysterious pipe nipple dissapering into the hull with a ball valve screwed on. The prop only has .5" clearance to the hull so the strut needs to be extended 6" to get proper clearance. The holding tank is a rubber bladder that smells in short order when used so needs to be replaced with a proper holding tank that can only go in the compartment where the red dot heat and propane forced air are currently residing so they need to be moved. The pottable water tank is only 45 gallons so I need to add another in the unused forward most compartment under what will be the new master double berth. The wireing is antique and very poorly thought out and routed not to mention the DC panels which are also no longer up to code, we won't even get into the ac system. This is just to mention the stuff I can think of off the cuff. But we love her.

[Pelagic]

I think boats are an evolution… especially as a live aboard where things wear out or a new product comes on the market… and you are always looking for multifunctional design improvements to incorporate within your own layout.

What do I need to change? … nothing as she has great ergonomics and is well maintained

What do I want to change? … always open to ideas…

[rebel heart]

I'd pull the engine out, cut the fuel tank out and replace it with a water tank, trim out another thousand pounds from here and there, and use a sculling oar.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by maxingout

I would change the location of my boat.

.

ROTFL

You funny man, Dave!


Only thing we would change is adding a water maker.

Mark

[Dockhead]

She would be magically transformed into an Oyster 485.

Oops, sorry darling, didn't mean it. But seriously:

1. Fewer through-hulls, and located behind watertight bulkheads like a Sundeer.

2. A big crude slow-turning naturally-aspirated Perkins lump of iron engine, instead of the high-strung, fast-turning, turbocharged, smoky Yanmar I have.

3. Missing gear would be provided (watermaker, ssb, inverter/charger, a/c, backstay adjuster).

4. A little smaller but with the same accomodation (like the Moody 49).

5. Walk-in engine room cum workshop (which contradicts Point 4 above, I know).

6. Much better deck storage (also contradicts Point 4), capable of holding sails, bicycles, and swallowing our motley collection of fenders.

7. A tender garage (yet again, contradicting Point 4) instead of davits.

8. Better ventilation. Much better ventilation. Larger opening forward-facing salon windows, like on the Oysters.

9. Much heavier ground tackle and gear. Horizontal, hydraulic windlass, instead of the pretty but delicate low-profile vertical Lewmar thing. Chain counter at the helm.

10. Third chart plotter in the master cabin, for anchor watch.

11. An inboard powered tender.

12. All LED lighting.

13. Lithium Ion batteries.

The list is potentially endless.

Well, I can dream, can't I?

[NYCSavage]

The only change I would make is to make mine real! These dreams are getting a little repetitive!

[sailorboy1]

Asssuming it is still the same boat; I would change the auto-pilot to one that works when I DON"T want to steer.

[Jetexas]

Being only a 27' monohull, my table folds down off of a bulkhead and when extended blocks the entrance to the head and V-berth. This is very irritating to me. Unfortunately, I really don't have enough space to install a fixed table with wings. The depth of the port bench can't be reduced because it has a water tank inside it. The depth of the starboard bench can't be reduced without losing it as a pull-out sleeping area.

I'm just stuck with the fold-down table until the next boat, but I will avoid this interior design again.

[Ken on Satori]

Originally Posted by Jetexas

Being only a 27' monohull, my table folds down off of a bulkhead and when extended blocks the entrance to the head and V-berth. This is very irritating to me. Unfortunately, I really don't have enough space to install a fixed table with wings. The depth of the port bench can't be reduced because it has a water tank inside it. The depth of the starboard bench can't be reduced without losing it as a pull-out sleeping area.

I'm just stuck with the fold-down table until the next boat, but I will avoid this interior design again.

Funny, after whacking my knees and shins on a fixed table 2000 times I hoped for a bulkhead mounted table. Go figure. Ken

[David_Old_Jersey]

A bathroom I can play baseball in.

And a king size tub big enough for ten plus me

A Playboy bunny with bleach blond hair

And a Speed Dial........on the VHF


How? the plan is..............to cut my hair and change my name........

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Ken on Satori

Funny, after whacking my knees and shins on a fixed table 2000 times I hoped for a bulkhead mounted table. Go figure. Ken

LOL! yeah, I am mulling over moving my fold down table to a different bulkhead - even though when used fully it would then block access to the forepeak. Why? I could use the space for a good sized fridge / cum seat next to the Galley.

Next owner would probably move it back

[DaveOnCudjoe]

Oddly, I would remove the roller furling headsail and go back to hank on. Dave