Stereo speaker upgrade time suck...rant

Jan 12, 2016
268
Hunter 410 Ladysmith, BC
Ever have a job that should take 60-120 minutes and takes all day and then some?

Decided to replace all six original square seaworthy speakers in the boat. Main cabin needs top shelf of teak cabinets below the speaker removed to be able to fit new speakers in. Roughly 16 screws per cabinet to remove. Of course all screws are not the same size so extreme care needed to avoid putting a long screw in the wrong hole when re-assembling.

We bought two higher powered 6.5" pairs with 3.06" depth, and one shallow 2.6" depth pair of 6.5" speakers with slightly less power handling just in case of fitment issues. Local store offers no questions asked return policy or trade. Unfortunately during dry fitting I learn I need to swap one high powered set for another shallow depth set as each cabin has one cavity out of two that can't accept the deeper speaker, and they should be paired left/right at the same rating.

First night, four hours, three out of six speakers dry fitted for space, only one mounted.

Day two, four hours. The high power speakers easily fit in the cockpit, BUT...discover prior owner/manufacturer drilled 5.4" hole where the rest in the cabin were 5". Each speaker in the cockpit only able to be mounted with 3 of 4 screws because no glass behind one spot due to the larger mounting holes for the magnet.. Will eventually have to fabricate a back plate, epoxy it in, and re-attach at a later date. Four of six speakers in now, but one set has to go back to exchange for the slimmer depth model. None of the previous screw holes were common from the seaworthy to the new speakers.

Tools away, things cleaned up, eight hours personal labour later, and still two speakers to mount once I get back to the shop to swap for the shallow depth models. Nothing is ever a fast and simple job on a boat. On the plus side, no teak scratched, no parts missing, nothing broken. Also, sound has been improved substantially. Was it worth the effort, ask me at the end of the summer.
 
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Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
Ever have a job that should take 60-120 minutes and takes all day and then some?....
To calculate the time it takes, start with when you start gathering parts/tools/beers. Then add the actual time (60 to 120 minutes in your case). Then add the cleanup time and the time to put parts and tools away. Then multiply by Pi... 3.14
 
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Jun 21, 2004
2,532
Beneteau 343 Slidell, LA
Ever have a job that should take 60-120 minutes and takes all day and then some?
I have become so proficient working on boats that any job that I undertake is going to take a few days. Even the admiral knows that when I tell her I am going to work on the boat for a couple hours, she knows that I'm not going to be home until dark!
 
Jan 22, 2008
1,654
Hunter 34 Alameda CA
Every job takes all the available time. I had a relatively easy job to do once and a day set aside. It took all day. Later I had a spare weekend and needed to do the same job. It took all weekend to finish.
 
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Jul 12, 2011
1,165
Leopard 40 Jupiter, Florida
Oh, how I can relate, Lurker! In my calculations, I have to add in travel time. Although my boat is only 1/2 hour from home, the way is past two hardware and one marine store. I have spend the entire morning getting to the boat, and been poorer for the drive! Invariably, I am halfway into a project when I figure out that the xxx-inch screw is not long / short enough and back out I go! God help the skippers that drive in for hours to work on the boat.
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,995
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
God help the skippers that drive in for hours to work on the boat.
Thank you for your prayer PARSONs... 250 miles one way means the it will be a day or so... once I get to the boat to start the process of parts acquisition tool layout etc.. The good part.. I am on my boat and the refit is progressing. So yes a project takes a little longer, but that's the point, isn't it. Where are the marina friends with the beer and boat talk... Whoops there goes a bit more time on the project. YEA!
 
Jul 12, 2011
1,165
Leopard 40 Jupiter, Florida
The other delay and cost is tools, for which I am thankful to those boatyard friends. Unless you're a professional, who needs to own a through hull step wrench? I wish my friends would post their supplies on-line, however, so I knew what I could scam.
 
May 28, 2015
29
hunter 460 Stuart
Sorry, this calls for a hijack cause we have found it only gets worse in the grand scheme of things...

We took off for the Caribbean once upon a time, figured a year, right? It turned into three years! Then since we didn't get the whole job done, we had to go back a second time and that time it took five years!

Darn our bad luck and poor planning.:banghead:

And still, like Billy Joel, I could use a new set of speakers.:biggrin:
 

Kermit

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Jul 31, 2010
5,657
AquaCat 12.5 17342 Wateree Lake, SC
I figure it all mathematically. Decide how many hours the job should take. Add 20%. Multiply that by 4. The calculated hours are then transformed to days. Adjusted to days.
Ex. 5 hour job x 20% = 6 hours
6x4=24 hours
24 hours becomes 24 days.
It's all simple math.
 
Nov 30, 2015
1,337
Hunter 1978 H30 Cherubini, Treman Marina, Ithaca, NY
Two things I hate most to do on my boat. Cut/drill additional or bigger holes and any wiring projects. I too needed speakers, only had two crappy waterproof portables hardwired in the cabin to a marine grade AM-FM radio/CD combo. Turns out that I have a better selection of tunes on my iPhone than in the CD collection gathered over the last 20-25 years. Besides all I do these days is plug my iPhone into the jack on the radio. Therefore we're employing technology to eliminate the need for wiring, holes, screws, butt splices, crimpers, and all that other tooling that exacerbates the installation process. So how do you use technology for that...easy, you take your iPhone and DC charging hardware, get on Amazon and order two of the UE Roll wireless (Bluetooth) Speakers which are rechargeable and waterproof. You hang the speakers anywhere on the boat, turn the volume up and rock out like never before. The sound is loud and magically distortion free. Seriously...check these out: http://www.ultimateears.com/en-us/ueroll.
 
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Apr 4, 2016
201
Newport 28 Richardson Marina
This is an encouraging thread, my speakers were delivered today :yikes:
Since there are 24 beers in a case I figure the install should take 24 hours.
 
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Jun 8, 2004
265
Hunter 49 60803 Lake Erie
READING YOUR POST MADE ME LAUGH

I started a project this winter to upgrade all my reading lights to LED (13 in total). The old ones were sealed ccf lights so I needed new fixtures. I shopped to find reasonably priced LED fixtures that had the same mounting foot print hoping to save drilling a bunch of new holes. After two months of web surfing SUCCESS .. I was excited. I ordered 13 and they arrived in two days. Along comes Saturday surely after all my research this was going to be a breeze no more than two beers and say three hours..... (two screws out, cut two wires, connect 2 new wires, two screws in) ... a breeze. right! ... so my as you might guess my three hour tour turned into three weekends . Running into many of the same issues you encountered including:
- old fixture foot prints were not the same (even though the fixtures were)
- wire runs varied some had 2 feet of extra wire to connect to others had millimeters
- turns out some of the fixture placements didn't work for my size body not enough head room to sit up and work but to much to reach while lying on my back
- one fixture was defective and I had to mail it back and order a new one
- screw depths varied so screws sizes had to vary (old screws with the fixtures were mostly to long) so off to the store
- despite attempting to buy screws similar in length as the old ones (couldn't use the old ones because the old base was thicker) I ended up with two many short ones and not enough longer ones back to the store
- on and on but you all get the picture
- oh yea and my boat is two hours away covered in snow and ice so the whole project was done with gloves on
Good news is they are now all in and the change in light is phoenominal
 
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Oct 22, 2014
20,995
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Since there are 24 beers in a case I figure the install should take 24 hours.
That is ambitious thinking Ned. Your have not accounted for the Marina friends that may stop and offer to help... If you are lucky they may bring more beer... But do not count on it.