Bumbo

I have learned a valuable lesson from buying everything up front and not planning the exection. Boats have a finite amount of space and putting all of that stuff on a boat you are trying to completely gut creates no workable space. I am going to spend the weekend pulling off everything but the essentials for the projects I am working on. So... without further adieu, here are the things I will leave on the boat and the projects I will complete in order.

Project 1: Gut the boat of all trim pieces, cut the galley to the new design, fibreglass over the holes that have been cut by former owners, and create fiberglass mount points for the batteries, Electro Scan, and other near hull objects. The goal is to keep anything that goes below the seating close to the hull a buffer so they never actually contact the hull. I will have to leave opening that will be closed with epoxy coated plywood so that I can access thru-hull fittings and that is it.
Project 2: Start running electric wires
This is a project I can start before the mast comes down this weekend. This will take a significant amount of time, but I have all the major parts and should be able to do this as I go along. I want to atleast wire up the boats primary systems (running lights, power for instruments, power for deck/mast/cockpit items) and all the interior primary systems (head, water pumps, bilge pumps, Navigation items). Then when I get time I can do the secondary systems (entertainment, V Berth power, work bench power inverter, galley power inverter.) I won't wire for the Solar panels or wind generator until I actually purchase those components.
Project 3: Remove the onboard motor block. I plan to accomplish this with a 3:1 pully system connected to the boom to hoist the engine block up and onto the cockpit floor. I then plan to get a couple of guys to help me lift the block out of the cockpit and on to the dock to have it removed. I will then haul it to a junk yard for disposal.
Project 4: Demast the boat: I want to take the mast down so I can replace the bulkheads, refit the mast head, and run the new running rigging. It will also give me a chance to paint the mast if I choose (probably red with rustolium spray cans) I fully intend for the mast to be down for more than a month while I am working on everything else. I haven't purchased the instruments that will be mounted to the mast head so it may take a bit of time to get the money together for all of those parts. I want a VHF antenna, Wind/weather instruments, TV antenna, and GPS antenna. In total this will probably be about $3000 for everything.
Project 5: Trim and finish the interior of the cabin: I want to install the V Berth mattress, put up the trim pieces around the cabin, drill the holes to mount the shelves and fold up tables, trim the galley correctly, and paint the entire cabin area. I then want to go through and install all of the trim pieces after the paint dries. Once this is completed I should have a very good idea of what the interior will look like for a while.
Project 6: Move onto the boat. My ultimate goal is to make the boat sailable by the end of July to haul the boat in August and do all the through hull fittings and clean/paint the bottom of the boat at that time. I anticipate all of this to cost in the 2-3 grand range again. Expensive but is probably the most critical part because I have never seen the condition of the bottom of this boat. If this project gets moved back to after I move onboard that is ok but would not be the ideal situation.
Project 7: Move onto the boat. I need to live aboard as this is becoming my primary residence. My harbor master said that he didn't think he had any live aboard available, so on the advise of some of the blogs I have read I will sneak aboard for the first while until the harbor master approaches me about live aboard status again. If none of this works out I will be looking for a small studio apartment very close to where the boat is. I don't want to.. but I'll do it if I have to. The sooner I move aboard the sooner I can get to all the little things, like finishing the galley and adding on anything else that I may be missing.


I have only 3 months and ~6 grand in my way of completing the boat to a sailable and livable condition. Outfitting it for off-shore cruising will take the better part of a year, but It will get done eventually. This is a huge challenge and I hope to accomplish it before deadline and under budget... ha.