Hi all,
I just wanted to talk a bit on some of the mods I've done to my 84 Hunter 31 Nadesico which I bought in 2007. I've been living on her since then, and I take the boat out at least every weekend if the weather is good. I've maintained 95% operational availability. The boat always functions. When the motor was down for a month I just sailed in and out of the slip on weekends. As such the boat has had many upgrades and fixes, I'll try to list in chrono order...
First, ripped out carpet on hull of V-berth. I cut off the inner fg liner covering the anchor locker to get 4" more of foot space. I covered the walls with 5/8" blue foam then stained marine ply, and covered up the anchor locker with the same. It looks nice and is good in the winter.
I re-rigged the boat and re-wired the mast. The major improvement was in a technical design. Factory had simple eye swages at each spreader, meaning there was a twisting on the spreaders. Also in a spreader-end failure the rigging would come apart. This was replaced with a fork meeting an eye. All done through riggingonly.
I replaced the water heater with a force 10 boxy-looking 6 gallon thing. I have a plastimo 2500 lpg stove with oven which is very nice. It has the grill option which is worthless and I've never used.
I went through multiple used sails, and finally got a main in decent shape. I was given a RF unit from another H31 owner for free!! It works fine, and I got a 110RF jib for it. I like the 110 as I frequently fly it w/o the main and can go upwind if there isn't much chop. The boat is tender and I'd rather go slow in light winds than always be on my ear in stiff winds.
I ripped out and replaced the floors with 3/4" thk white pine planks. No teak and holly you say, I must be mad! Everybody in the marina told me it was a mistake! I'm told they used to build boats out of wood long before plastic fantastics, well at least I read about such things, and it seemed like a good idea. I treated the pine with boiled linseed oil. Yearly cleaning is a scrub with comet followed by application of linseed oil. I put brown silicone caulk in the seams to stop dirt from filling the cracks. For 100$ on the whole job I'm terrifically happy, and the white pine hasn't rotted. It also brightens up the cabin, and dings in the light pine don't show. Also dirt in the grain tends to 'stain' the wood making it more pretty, and it always has that hand/foot rubbed finish. I've recommended this to others but it hasn't caught on.
The head was rotten, so I ripped it out. I also removed the bulkhead and door that enclosed the head forward, making it much more open. I rebuilt the cabinets with 1/2" PVC board, put in an electric gulper shower sump, and replumbed everything. The shower is now fantastic and the best it can be on this boat. I can use the head w/o my knees hitting the door. The ladies don't like that the shower curtain is the only privacy, but it's a 31' boat! I think this is the best livability upgrade on this boat.
I made some more white pine grates for the v-berth and the port quarter. The v-berth acts like a headboard and keeps pillows from flying onto the floor. There's a rope and cleat that keeps it up. The port quarter is our 'drunk bed' when we are too lazy to drop the settee for guests. It also acts as a solid lee board when offshore. I've used it, and it's nicer(with pillows) than the lee cloths I rigged up.
Of course we have a flat screen, PS2, sound system. The sound can be all interior or the rear channel goes to 2 in the cockpit.
I decided the whole aft berth was worthless, and the water tank ALWAYS leaked. A sawzall removed the tank. Now I have a good bit of dirty storage where the tank used to be. I replaced the tank with a 45gl poly tank, and all hoses. I had to build a support to the hull underneath the tank, and a way to keep it from sliding. And I had to cover it and the quadrant for aesthetics. However I can access the quadrant in 2 minutes if necessary, a plus. Also no more fresh water leaks, and you can stick the hose in the fill and let er rip and the boat won't sink anymore.
Every hose that goes to the waterline was replaced. I added a saltwater foot pump teed off the engine intake. Works except when motoring. We carry 15 gls of extra water, this is plenty for a whole week on the hook.
The shower has a separate mixer and is attached to an on-demand sink-type sprayer. However we also use an insecticide sprayer when we want to be frugal with water. If we boil a pot of water and fill the rest with ambient it's perfect, and I don't have to start the motor.
The boat came with a built in AC unit but it was awful! Loud, leaky, drawing lots of power, always needing the strainer cleaned, took up a whole under-settee storage space. Caused 2 electrical fires, and failed 2 summers in a row. Got rid of it and instead I use a 8000btu window unit (200$) with a doghouse I built over the mid-ships hatch. This is quiet, drains condensation outside, can't sink the boat, has totally new wiring, it's just ugly as sin. However, it runs off the Honda 2000 generator which is priceless, and when it fails it's 200$! I keep it tied to the handrails, and the boat's been knocked down offshore and it hasn't come flying off.
In the aft berth and main cabin every bit of hull carpet was stripped, and man was it foul! Anybody with this era boat needs to do this! Anyway after bleaching and soapscrubbing the fg we glued on 5/8 foam and covered with outdoor carpet. This was pretty easy, looks nice and provides great insulation.
All the ports are aged, so they got replaced with newfoundmetals tri-matrix ports. They look really slick and aren't leaking yet, so I'm happy.
I installed an Icom 7200 Ham HF radio with the AH4 autotuner. This is a really great setup and works well. The tuner is grounded with a strip to the rudder post. The antenna is 14g copper running directly from the ATU up through the aft lazaret, through the deck near the backstay U-bolts, and up to a secondary halyard made of parachute cord. This is not permanent, but it works so well why not? No reason to spend hundreds on backstay insulators when this works so well. I highly recommend this setup to anyone with a split backstay. I expect it to fail in high winds one day, or due to the parachute cord disintegrating.
All the interior lights are those 10W dome lights. The PO installed all fluorescent fixtures which became known as 'depression lights' on the dock, and they all failed very soon from so much use. I did not like these dome fluorescent lights and would not recommend them.
Man I wish I had a windlass, anybody successfully installed one? There just isn't much room.
We put the dinghy, Walker bay 8, upside down on the foredeck. This works well, even if it clutters the foredeck and makes anchor handling tough. We had a bigger 9'4" cathedral hull dinghy off the stern but it makes the boat too stern heavy, and it bounces badly in waves.
I installed a super simple to use stern anchor with a hawse. Underneath the hawse is a plastic bin to collect the wet rode. This makes stern anchoring a snap. The anchor sits in a PVC pipe hose clamped to the stern railing. There's the 3.3 outboard on the other side.
I have a big problem with stern-heaviness. I have extra water, fuel, and tools all stored aft. But I don't have much chain up front.
The boat sails well when it isn't fully loaded. Unfortunately it's almost always full of water, fuel, tools, etc.
The boat sail on flat bay water great, if it is a bit tender. Sadly it's not the offshore machine I want it to be. I want to buy another boat, and am always shopping, but alas it's hard. So until I can afford that Pacific seacraft, or Cabo Rico, I'll just have to very carefully consider my offshore exposure. At the top of the gulf we can have some nasty conditions for ANY boat, and I've been dumb enough on several occasions to get stuck out in them. The boat didn't come apart, but it certainly bounced and lurched in such a manner to make such travel uncomfortable. I'm talking of 5-7' washing machine chop that we have so frequently. I try not to go out anymore if it's even 3-5' waves, as those make steering difficult. It's 10 hours in either direction to a protected bay, so when I go offshore I make certain it won't get too bad. Good advice for anybody with a coastal cruiser I suppose.
Anyway that was just a rant, but I'm putting it out there in case anybody else is considering similar projects.
Mike
S/V Nadesico
I just wanted to talk a bit on some of the mods I've done to my 84 Hunter 31 Nadesico which I bought in 2007. I've been living on her since then, and I take the boat out at least every weekend if the weather is good. I've maintained 95% operational availability. The boat always functions. When the motor was down for a month I just sailed in and out of the slip on weekends. As such the boat has had many upgrades and fixes, I'll try to list in chrono order...
First, ripped out carpet on hull of V-berth. I cut off the inner fg liner covering the anchor locker to get 4" more of foot space. I covered the walls with 5/8" blue foam then stained marine ply, and covered up the anchor locker with the same. It looks nice and is good in the winter.
I re-rigged the boat and re-wired the mast. The major improvement was in a technical design. Factory had simple eye swages at each spreader, meaning there was a twisting on the spreaders. Also in a spreader-end failure the rigging would come apart. This was replaced with a fork meeting an eye. All done through riggingonly.
I replaced the water heater with a force 10 boxy-looking 6 gallon thing. I have a plastimo 2500 lpg stove with oven which is very nice. It has the grill option which is worthless and I've never used.
I went through multiple used sails, and finally got a main in decent shape. I was given a RF unit from another H31 owner for free!! It works fine, and I got a 110RF jib for it. I like the 110 as I frequently fly it w/o the main and can go upwind if there isn't much chop. The boat is tender and I'd rather go slow in light winds than always be on my ear in stiff winds.
I ripped out and replaced the floors with 3/4" thk white pine planks. No teak and holly you say, I must be mad! Everybody in the marina told me it was a mistake! I'm told they used to build boats out of wood long before plastic fantastics, well at least I read about such things, and it seemed like a good idea. I treated the pine with boiled linseed oil. Yearly cleaning is a scrub with comet followed by application of linseed oil. I put brown silicone caulk in the seams to stop dirt from filling the cracks. For 100$ on the whole job I'm terrifically happy, and the white pine hasn't rotted. It also brightens up the cabin, and dings in the light pine don't show. Also dirt in the grain tends to 'stain' the wood making it more pretty, and it always has that hand/foot rubbed finish. I've recommended this to others but it hasn't caught on.
The head was rotten, so I ripped it out. I also removed the bulkhead and door that enclosed the head forward, making it much more open. I rebuilt the cabinets with 1/2" PVC board, put in an electric gulper shower sump, and replumbed everything. The shower is now fantastic and the best it can be on this boat. I can use the head w/o my knees hitting the door. The ladies don't like that the shower curtain is the only privacy, but it's a 31' boat! I think this is the best livability upgrade on this boat.
I made some more white pine grates for the v-berth and the port quarter. The v-berth acts like a headboard and keeps pillows from flying onto the floor. There's a rope and cleat that keeps it up. The port quarter is our 'drunk bed' when we are too lazy to drop the settee for guests. It also acts as a solid lee board when offshore. I've used it, and it's nicer(with pillows) than the lee cloths I rigged up.
Of course we have a flat screen, PS2, sound system. The sound can be all interior or the rear channel goes to 2 in the cockpit.
I decided the whole aft berth was worthless, and the water tank ALWAYS leaked. A sawzall removed the tank. Now I have a good bit of dirty storage where the tank used to be. I replaced the tank with a 45gl poly tank, and all hoses. I had to build a support to the hull underneath the tank, and a way to keep it from sliding. And I had to cover it and the quadrant for aesthetics. However I can access the quadrant in 2 minutes if necessary, a plus. Also no more fresh water leaks, and you can stick the hose in the fill and let er rip and the boat won't sink anymore.
Every hose that goes to the waterline was replaced. I added a saltwater foot pump teed off the engine intake. Works except when motoring. We carry 15 gls of extra water, this is plenty for a whole week on the hook.
The shower has a separate mixer and is attached to an on-demand sink-type sprayer. However we also use an insecticide sprayer when we want to be frugal with water. If we boil a pot of water and fill the rest with ambient it's perfect, and I don't have to start the motor.
The boat came with a built in AC unit but it was awful! Loud, leaky, drawing lots of power, always needing the strainer cleaned, took up a whole under-settee storage space. Caused 2 electrical fires, and failed 2 summers in a row. Got rid of it and instead I use a 8000btu window unit (200$) with a doghouse I built over the mid-ships hatch. This is quiet, drains condensation outside, can't sink the boat, has totally new wiring, it's just ugly as sin. However, it runs off the Honda 2000 generator which is priceless, and when it fails it's 200$! I keep it tied to the handrails, and the boat's been knocked down offshore and it hasn't come flying off.
In the aft berth and main cabin every bit of hull carpet was stripped, and man was it foul! Anybody with this era boat needs to do this! Anyway after bleaching and soapscrubbing the fg we glued on 5/8 foam and covered with outdoor carpet. This was pretty easy, looks nice and provides great insulation.
All the ports are aged, so they got replaced with newfoundmetals tri-matrix ports. They look really slick and aren't leaking yet, so I'm happy.
I installed an Icom 7200 Ham HF radio with the AH4 autotuner. This is a really great setup and works well. The tuner is grounded with a strip to the rudder post. The antenna is 14g copper running directly from the ATU up through the aft lazaret, through the deck near the backstay U-bolts, and up to a secondary halyard made of parachute cord. This is not permanent, but it works so well why not? No reason to spend hundreds on backstay insulators when this works so well. I highly recommend this setup to anyone with a split backstay. I expect it to fail in high winds one day, or due to the parachute cord disintegrating.
All the interior lights are those 10W dome lights. The PO installed all fluorescent fixtures which became known as 'depression lights' on the dock, and they all failed very soon from so much use. I did not like these dome fluorescent lights and would not recommend them.
Man I wish I had a windlass, anybody successfully installed one? There just isn't much room.
We put the dinghy, Walker bay 8, upside down on the foredeck. This works well, even if it clutters the foredeck and makes anchor handling tough. We had a bigger 9'4" cathedral hull dinghy off the stern but it makes the boat too stern heavy, and it bounces badly in waves.
I installed a super simple to use stern anchor with a hawse. Underneath the hawse is a plastic bin to collect the wet rode. This makes stern anchoring a snap. The anchor sits in a PVC pipe hose clamped to the stern railing. There's the 3.3 outboard on the other side.
I have a big problem with stern-heaviness. I have extra water, fuel, and tools all stored aft. But I don't have much chain up front.
The boat sails well when it isn't fully loaded. Unfortunately it's almost always full of water, fuel, tools, etc.
The boat sail on flat bay water great, if it is a bit tender. Sadly it's not the offshore machine I want it to be. I want to buy another boat, and am always shopping, but alas it's hard. So until I can afford that Pacific seacraft, or Cabo Rico, I'll just have to very carefully consider my offshore exposure. At the top of the gulf we can have some nasty conditions for ANY boat, and I've been dumb enough on several occasions to get stuck out in them. The boat didn't come apart, but it certainly bounced and lurched in such a manner to make such travel uncomfortable. I'm talking of 5-7' washing machine chop that we have so frequently. I try not to go out anymore if it's even 3-5' waves, as those make steering difficult. It's 10 hours in either direction to a protected bay, so when I go offshore I make certain it won't get too bad. Good advice for anybody with a coastal cruiser I suppose.
Anyway that was just a rant, but I'm putting it out there in case anybody else is considering similar projects.
Mike
S/V Nadesico
