Our Renovations
After arriving in Airlie Beach – our home port – we didn’t do much to the boat, instead we used her – a lot – after about 12 months we had a better idea of what we wanted to do and set about doing it, first thing was the galley, it sucked! and was ugly as fuck and my wife insisted we do something, so we had a local cabinet maker make up a kitchen for us we added some specialty wood pieces from a local guy, raised the skippers chair and added a foot box and revamped the head and added a shower – see photos before and after.
Before – no stove or shelves or lockable cupboards
During the rip out phase, we noticed that a lot of the cedar was very water stained, this triggered a repaint
Rachel hard at work, she literally put her blood sweat and tears into this boat.
Coming along nicely, just getting to the finishing details😉... Or so we thought, then we looked in the pointy end, shudders, yuck isn’t a strong enough word so we had to have a go down there as well
During the internal renovation process, I poked things I shouldn’t have, this resulted in a wheelhouse rebuild as well.
Roxy the boat dog inspecting the work, she came back and said she thought the deck needed a tidy up now…..sigh….ok lets do it
First Sanding and repointing the screw holes
But look pretty dam good after several coats of varnish and a decent sanding
While we were there, we added an outside cupboard with a hardwood top seen on the left, very handy for morning coffee service and outdoor storage! Then came the steering wheel saga, seriously nothing prepared us for this, we couldn’t for the life of us find a new steering wheel that fitted, let alone looked good, so we thought “why not refurbish the old one”, my very diligent, patient and soon to be driven crazy wife took the task on, the photo below shows how it looked when she started, a horrible motley grey and white with what appeared to be several coats of paint – see photo below
This was with the first 2 of 8 coats of paint removed. The best part was that each layer was a different type of paint - Oil, Enamel, Lead Based, and goodness knows what. So you'd work out how to remove a layer, and then have to test all known paint removal options again for the next layer 🤣
For over 30 hrs, yep 30 hours, Rachel sanded, scraped, heat gunned, paint stripped and picked meticulously with sharp objects in order to bring the wheel back to its former glory. Kept company and assisted by Roxy of course.
A Thing of Beauty
And Patience
To complete the internal fit out, we also trimmed windows, added curtains, a fold down dining table, cupboards above the galley and fridge and also in the shower and head, curtains for privacy in the shower area and a wet floor and drain. And then of course we sat down and had a meal to celebrate (just prior to falling in a heap).
As we all know there's no rest for the wicked and it was time to tackle below the water line, a crappy job at the best of times.
The rudder and propeller cleaned and coated in Prop Speed. Looking very nice and hopefully will glide through the water. Fully re anti-fowled and new anodes.
