What $190k Gets You: Updating a Lagoon 440

[Sardean]

Thanks for sharing your story, very inspirational, I think I'll have a boat maintenance day today... , also very nice to see a positive happy group of cruiser forum responses

[Ellisonae]

Super impressed by documenting your experience and allowing us to learn through you. Thanks for posting! Also ... thanks for sharing costs. We'll currently in active research mode for buying a cat and finding those that are willing to post prices is ... difficult. Super grateful to the Wynns for 'helping open our eyes to actually financially budget for buying a DIYing/Just Cats labor/ etc. I can DIY just about anything in my home ... just not so sure about DIY in a boat!

Thanks! Hope to see you in the water!

[Kajali]

Awesome job, well done. Your detailing of everything is really appreciated too. As for any critics, if you want to make financial sense then don't buy a yacht. Enjoy Steve.

[solecollector]

Thanks all for the amazing comments! I know not everyone agrees with what I did - and if I had every penny laid out in front of me before I did this - I might have done things differently. But we all know how that works... once you are in the thick of it - it is hard to see too far past what you are dealing with.

I have a few more projects almost completed as well as Custom Pipes making some changes on the boat as I write this. One of the updates will be how much work it is to keep up the paint. Here is a photo of the paint at sunset on the way back from the Abacos a few weeks ago.

[Catmandu]

DUUUUUUUDE!!!!

Best post ever I have read on this forum.

"You are a better man than I am Gunga'Din"

Every person contemplating buying a boat and sailing off into the sunset needs to read your post especially the parts about the storm that trashes the awning and paint job or the engine failure that forced you into the bridge fenders and trashes the paint job and then ask themselves ... would I, could I pick up the pieces and keep on "trudging" ...

Trudging: To trudge: "The slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on."

My trials and challenges which seemed insurmountable at the time pale in comparison and I think now l consider my self "blessed"

I mean all I've had to do is:

- Rebuild repair the steering which broke not once but on two different occasions in 6' seas when we were crossing the gulf stream.

- Fabricate a crane to lift the portside engine in order to repair it in place
- Replace an expensive folding prop that fell off (on way to Bahamas)
- Replace all the heads that seized at the start of a family xmas vacation (yup, didn't make it to the Bahamas that time either)
- Sail to and from the Bahamas using my iPhone after a lightening strike took out everything except one electric head (thank heavens for small favors - right!)
- Replace all electronics and interior lights (lightening ... the gift that keeps on giving ...)
- Repair a daggerboard after smacking a rock in an emergency anchor drag in the middle of the night - why is it always pitch black, 40 kts, driving rain in the middle of the night?
- Rebed all of the windows - they don't leak anymore and I only broke three in the process
- Put float bags under boat to float the portside hull out of the water at the dock to fix a broken and leaking propshaft strut through-hull after wrapping a dock line

.... and so on and so on ... I got off easy ...

I have learned this, that sailing/boat ownership can bring out the best or the worst in anyone. I guess it is up to us to decide who we will be ... and "taking that road less traveled" makes all the difference.

[Sawbonz]

I stumbled upon this thread sometime around midnight last night. Thanks a lot for the loss of sleep! lol

It kind of reminds me of a house I once owned. I needed new windows which, when cut out, required new siding. In the process I cut through the kitchen backsplash and replacing it meant a new counter top. And so on, and so on, and so on. I think that project took me 7 years and then we sold the house!

Some of your ideas are now STOLEN! The lights video I have already sent to our prospective boat builder as the perfect example of what I was trying to describe to him in a conversation. The bullfrog I also sent, though I think it will be too heavy. Also, I asked about painting a new boat metallic silver....I will let you know what he says. Has it done anything to trap heat in the boat? Someone else told us that that navy blue was a bad idea because the extra heat it trapped meant the refrigerator couldn't keep up.

Love the new bimini and all of the solar. What's the chances you have some output numbers on the solar coupled with your batteries and usage, particularly A/C?

[Bohemian Marine]

Great Job, i got 3 charter boats myself and one of them is a lagoon 440. admire your stamina mate. like the alternators your using, went through 3 altenators on my Lagoon the last 12 month. can you post more details which one you chose? cheers

[solecollector]

Originally Posted by Sawbonz

I stumbled upon this thread sometime around midnight last night. Thanks a lot for the loss of sleep! lol

Love the new bimini and all of the solar. What's the chances you have some output numbers on the solar coupled with your batteries and usage, particularly A/C?

The solar panels as they are setup right now (I haven't added the solar panels to the hardtop yet) won't keep up with the power usage of the Dometic 6k.... but when I add the rest it will.

Right now I'm seeing a max of 60 12v amps inbound - and that holds for a lot of the day. It does go higher at optimum angles. I have to say - the Solara panels are beasts.

The air conditioner I have setup is the smallest unit I could find from Dometic and I have a curtain setup so it keeps a lot of the coolness near the bed (on the 440 there is actually a perfect place to do this - LUCKILY...!). When the compressor runs it isn't a terrible amount out - around 60a 12v (I'll double check for you when I get back on the boat). And with the curtain up it doesn't have to run all that much. To be honest - we rarely use the air con as we are from Key Largo and kind of used to the crucible. But man.... when it is raining - it is the difference between sleeping and not sleeping!

[solecollector]

Originally Posted by Bohemian Marine

Great Job, i got 3 charter boats myself and one of them is a lagoon 440. admire your stamina mate. like the alternators your using, went through 3 altenators on my Lagoon the last 12 month. can you post more details which one you chose? cheers

Sorry for the delay - !

I think you'll be very impressed with the alternators - they are way better than the Balmars at a greatly reduced price. When we get these in I replace all the hardware I can with SS as well as put in anti corrosion gel.




They are Mechman alternators - I'll get you the special ones we order as there are some changes we did to them to make it easier to mount.

[Bohemian Marine]

Great thank you, i was just about to order 2 more Balmars, but will go for the Mechman instead. i will have another Lagoon 440 coming by the end of the year to use in my charter company. i will still follow up your post, many more things to learn.cheers

[solecollector]

Here are a few items I've added.

For those with a 440 I found a perfect (for me) place to put a TV screen. It is funny - when I first started sailing I thought there is NO WAY we were going to have a TV screen. I mean we are out sailing - reading books - not watching iPads or TV.... well I was plotting my course on paper charts as well with no air con / no autopilot / no a lot of things. Times change and it is kind of fun to change with them!

I went through four projectors before I landed on a laser projector. The first two I purchased were fairly high end Epson projectors - but I returned them (thanks Amazon Prime) because they were too big and too loud... not to mention HOT. I then picked up a Viewsonic Pro 9000. It worked pretty darn well - draw was hardly anything.... but it was kind of big and it stopped working when it fell (my fault). It only dropped a half foot - but that was enough. Bummer.

BUT.... now I get to look for a new projector and I found a great one for the size! The LG HF80JA.

Here are the positives - Small - Quite - Nice Interface - Bluetooth Sound or Video - really good picture quality.

The negatives are only one - the picture quality is really good - but not AMAZING like a 4k TV. BUT.... what I found is just like drinking your favorite rum... you are super happy with it until some dickhead visits the boat and says "I just found the most amazing rum" and when you drink them side by side.... yours isn't nearly as good. So the key - don't put another projector next to this and you'll never know it is just a good picture! Oh... and a second one - it doesn't come with a case or bag so you have to find your own. Mildly sucky.

The one item that made me SUPER happy was finally figuring out the screen. I bought a roll of screen and was half-assing putting it up.... it had wrinkles in it aft awhile and made movies look 3D when they weren't... but then I found this collapsible screen on Amazon - PURE GOLD!



The screen is just awesome because we can watch movies in the cockpit or in the saloon - both easily! This is a photo in the cockpit.



And the unit really is pretty small:



And the quality - really I can't complain too much. I would rather have this that I can place in the cockpit / saloon / trampolines without a problem..!


Where are my testicles Summer?

One big upgrade to this projector system had nothing to do with the video but had everything to do with it. The most important part of video is the sound. If the sound is terrible then it doesn't matter if you have a beast of a projector / TV... it won't look as good. So one thing I was missing was some bass. Behind the couch in the saloon I installed a Pioneer 10 in sub and wow - HUGE DIFFERENCE!



I'm driving the sub with a very efficient 300 watt amp from Rockford Fozgate Punch BRT 300.

[solecollector]

I purchased a few fans for the saloon and I wasn't sure where I wanted their permanent home to be so I bought the ones with the suction cups on them as well as a 12v box fan. Of course the all came with the 12v cigarette lighter plug - but there is no way I'm putting a bunch of those connections on the boat. I have one - that is all I need.

So I decided to go with the a/c plugs the use in Argentina which is similar to a 110v plug - but not really... it has thicker poles as well as angled (I think they use these in Australia and China as well). The boat is outfitted with Idea electric plugs so I purchased the new plugs and went to town. Real happy with them so far.

[PhiSig1071]

I have a question, you had some setbacks that ended up costing you some extra money, right? Is that included in the "$190k"? What do you think the total would have been without the setbacks?

[solecollector]

Originally Posted by PhiSig1071

I have a question, you had some setbacks that ended up costing you some extra money, right? Is that included in the "$190k"? What do you think the total would have been without the setbacks?

If all went to plan the boat would have been painted in three months - and correctly the first time. That would have saved me $30k in yard fees / supplies / time - and not to mention my aspirin bill. Especially is I didn't put that scratch on it...

If I had to do it again I would have tried harder to get someone who has done Awlcraft SE before. Or - I wish I could have went to the SE class.

Now I do have a pretty serious knowledge of spraying metallic.... let's see if I can use it again....!

[PhiSig1071]

Ok, thank you for your answer. It was a little tricky to get a grasp on the total without separating out some of the do-overs.