Well, I spent my entire week of vacation working on Hoosier Daddy. Tomorrow we take her back to Panama City. I plan on spending Saturday and Sunday night aboard. Sail during the days and anchor out at night.
The following sums up how the week went. I started by converting my exterior lights to LED. Followed that up with pulling a new VHF coax through the mast and inside the cabin. I ran it through the compression post for a very professional looking installation. It was a tight fit in the compression post.
Next I removed all the exterior graphics and letting with a heat gun. Last weekend my wife and I had painted the bottom. This week I sanded the trim stripes which were blue. I shot them with polyurethane in silver. It looks very sharp. I also replaced all the logos and vinyl trim.
Next I removed the outboard bracket because while back in the transom area I noticed the interior fiberglass was dimpling behind the bracket nuts. I fabricated and installed two aluminum plates for reinforcement. With a fresh rebedding this stiffened the bracket up.
While back there I also replaced the hard 1" bilge pump hose with a new hose and new clamps. Ever since I bought the boat I had been searching for a container to fit the trash can receptacle. I finally found a file box at Walmart that fits just fine. Finally I can put that dead space to use. While in that area I replaced the fresh water hose. While performing that project I moved the outlet for the fresh water hose up a few inches. Now I can remove the water jug more easily.
I also installed a tiller tamer. I hope this proves to be a great mod.
I also modified my new mast crutch after cussing it too many times. It tended to twist so the roller was about 80 degrees to the mast. It was a bound up mess and poorly designed. I modified it by welding a cross member with pads installed. Now it remains oriented correctly.
I hope all these mods make sailing even more enjoyable. The real test will be tomorrow when my wife helps step the mast for the first time. We will also be installing our new head sail. The things I did not get around to are installing the plastic trim around the hull joint on the transom, installing new exit pulleys at the mast bottom and replacing my wrong sail number on my new Hyde main. Hyde sent the wrong color replacement numbers and I did not realize it until I removed them from the package today. I also planned on installing new transom scuppers but Catalina Direct does not have the 1 5/8" scuppers any longer. I can not find them on the web either. If anyone has a lead let me know.
Whew, I hope I can enjoy the last three days of my vacation by sailing and not tinkering. If and when we get our 40 footer someones going to get a nice boat with Hoosier Daddy. By the way, when removing the old logo I could make out the previous name by reading the shadow in the get coat. Seems that before "Hoosier Daddy" she was "Swinging It". I would have liked to known the first owner. He must have been quite the guy!
Lane