One of the things we’ve been fairly conscientious about is the level of repairs and upgrades we do to the boat. Nothing has been done “half way” and quite frankly, whoever buys this boat down the road from us is going to get a great boat, in much better condition than when we bought it.
Some of the repairs/upgrades/replacements we do ourselves, some we hire professionals to do and sometimes it’s a combination of the two. And that’s where we are today.
We decided a while ago that the carpeting had to be replaced. On a boat you have the option to tack it down with furring strips as you would in a house, or binding the edges so the carpet can be moved. Earlier owners had chosen to tack it down. Unfortunately they covered over a couple hatches and the hatches that they left access to didn’t have any grab rings to open them necessitating using a large screwdriver to get under the edge and lift up. Not a great thing in an emergency and it ultimately frays the carpeting at the edge of the hatch cover.
So we opted to bind the edges of the new carpet. Advantages are that 1) you can just lift the carpet to get to ALL the hatch openings quickly, 2) dirt will not get in the crevices of the hatch covers and the carpet will not get frayed from repeated opening with a screwdriver and 3) if you have a massive water leak as we did the first year of ownership, the carpets can be moved to the bow to dry out instead of having to set up box fans for days on end and “hoping” everything dries out. Sounds reasonable, right?
Once we started pulling up the old carpet and all the furring strips (such fun!) we discovered that in the several carpet changes over the eighteen year lifespan of the Laa-Dee-Dah someone had the bright idea to glue the padding to the floor. What a mess. In addition, to make the hatch covers fit with carpeting around them, they shaved the edges of the covers so now without carpeting they rattle and do not fit snugly.
So, while the carpeting is out at the binders we will sand down the floors and paint them so they are back to their pristine “new” look. We will also attach foam around the edges of the hatches that need it.
Another thing that Gary is doing is refinishing the anti-skid on the bow, flybridge and companionways. This involves sanding down the existing paint and then taping off and painting with a special skid resistant paint with fine sand particles in it.
It’s a lot of work but the end result will be worth it. Besides, with Covid what else are we going to do with our time? After playing golf a couple times a week and going to the grocery store that leaves many, many days for boat projects.
Next up are replacing the two salon chairs and installing privacy blinds in the bedrooms. But that’s just a matter of picking out the stuff and having someone else do the work. Yeah!
