Latest on Yacht Monty B - progress on works

Aha! it is a year later and I've just read my previous post. So, progress:

This is the list of things we had to do a year ago - so how has it gone:

Repair fridge and get large fridge working
Repaired 20 year old fridge (regassed for 50 euros). Freezer motor has died.

Rebuild of scoop
Completely rebuilt by fantastic man called Miko (the only true craftsman we've found in Montenegro and a great bloke who charged us next to nowt and was a joy to work with). Sanded and painted by Katie.

Replace all canvas work; sprayhood, sailbags, bimini.
New bimini made by Katie. Materials bought for the rest, to be made winter 2009.

Valet sails inc new sacrificial strip on genoa.
Service and strip on genoa replaced by North Sails in Dubrovnik - great people.

Varnish work, inside and out.
Some done, some cheated by using teak oil (exterior woodwork). I love the smell. More varnishing to be done this winter.

Replacement of worn deck caulking.
did some. Now have a stupid new dog that likes to pick it and pull it up in strips. Loads more to be donee.

Rebed deck fittings where possible.
Yawn, yes, got to do, mammouth task, not done yet.

Strengthening of insides of hull.
Aha! This is what took up much of last winter's better weather weekends for us and our mate Tony. Full info on our blog.

Service winches.
Nope! Still haven't done this. Another job for another day.

Check all piping and replace where necessary.
Yep, did that.

Replace anodes and seacocks.
Yep, did that too.

Antifouling.
Not only antifouled, but stripped off all paint back to gel coat, 2 coats of epoxy primer, 2 antifoul.

Refurbish heads.
Not done, hope to do this winter.

Build a bed big enough to fit a Tim in.
Yep, done with our mate Nat who we flew over from UK for a week. It's amazing.

Replace gypsy on windlass.
Yep, done and now works perfectly.

Fit new fore-hatch.
Done - got our mate Ziggy to fly it over from UK when he visited. Still bloody leaks though.

Fit new portlights in hull.
Re-thought this one. Want to fit portholes if possible - expensive, not very practical - but desirable - more thought, money and creativity required before doing this one.

Revamp hull - repair scratches, gelcoat renewal where necessary, sand and polish.
Hah! Well, did the first one with epoxy filler/gel coat filler - now looks even worse. Basically need to completely revamp the hull, new paintjob, proper job - we were hoping this winter but realistically it will be winter 10/11.

Paint boot stripe.
Yep, done, nice dark red, used spray car paint, worked pretty well and matches black anti-foul in true anarchist styleee.

Possibly add new stripe detail to hull.
Not until hull is repainted - but maybe seeing as we won't, we should just stick the damned stripe on.

Replace windscreen.
Seems so simple - and after 2 years, it is finally finally DONE! We can't believe it! Cost in the region on £1500 for the new screens, managed to blag it back in taxi/National Express bus/aeroplane/through Monte customs/Monte taxi - for only £128 excess luggage and yesterday finished fitting it. Bloody hell!

And that, really was that. Not bad progress all in all - especially as we worked our asses off from mid May until early September then planned and had a wedding. Wow, I deserve a holiday!

Monty's overhaul Winter 2008/09

Continually updated.
This is the list of things we have to do to Monty B this winter:

Repair fridge and get large fridge working.
Rebuild of scoop.
Replace all canvas work; sprayhood, sailbags, bimini.
Valet sails inc new sacrificial strip on genoa.
Varnish work, inside and out.
Replacement of worn deck caulking.
Rebed deck fittings where possible.
Strengthening of insides of hull.
Service winches.
Check all piping and replace where necessary.
Replace anodes and seacocks.
Antifouling.
Refurbish heads.
Build a bed big enough to fit a Tim in.
Replace gypsy on windlass.
Fit new fore-hatch.
Fit new portlights in hull.
Revamp hull - repair scratches, gelcoat renewal where necessary, sand and polish.
Paint boot stripe.
Possibly add new stripe detail to hull.
Replace windscreen.

And that, is that!

Building a bed big enough to put a Tim in

One of the reasons we chose this boat was the decent sized aft cabin and bed. The bed appeared to be almost a double when we first tried it and was infinitely preferable to the forepeak doubles we had seen in many other boats. However, we have since discovered that the bed would be perfectly proportioned if Tim trimmed his feet, or the top of his head. But at the moment, the man cannot lie flat without his head or feet touching a bulkhead.

This is not the best bed-state for an insomniac who searches for any reason to justify his nocturnal brain wanderings. It doesn't do much for the person who shares the same bed space either.

The other bed issue is the incredibly uncomfortable "mattress". I say "mattress" as it is, in reality, a lump of slightly damp foam through which the airing slats can be felt. This is not a good enough replacement for the princess-like pocket-sprung king sized (costly but worth it) divine affair I invested in at home. Comfort aside, my lower back is in a permanent state of spasm resulting in me walking like a duck for much of the time. A fantastic chiropractor had rid me of pain for the last two years and it is annoying to be in this state again.

So, we are going to get a proper mattress (most probably memory foam stuff cut to size - you can get the foam here but we would have to cut it ourselves - any tips?). But before that, we are going to extend the bed. My original idea was turning the entire cabin into a huge bed. This is fine for someone so suited to snoozing but I suspect that most people would see this as a terrible waste of space. We cannot extend it lengthways as there are bulkheads at either end. We have looked at all possibilities but the most straightforward (and best way of keeping the accommodation desirable to a future buyer) is to extend the bed widthways so at least Tim can bugger off to his own side of the bed and do what he will (ie. lie horizontally).

Since neither of us are experts on the carpentery front, we have engaged a Brummie called Barrie and his pal, Gojko, in the task. So far, they have come to look at it and had coffee. Progress will depend on their quote.

Installing a stereo system - UPDATE 5th February 08

Update - Tuesday 5th February
Yesterday morning I attempted to fit the stereo again. I was on it by 8am and by 9.30am I was dancing around the boat with the dogs. It was the first time I've felt the cabin floor vibrate with a pounding bass since I've been on the boat - it made me cry with joy! Really - I did cry.

Only one speaker working unfortunately - I gave it another 2 hours of my time before moving on to more important jobs. The remaining speakers need some work. But to the acoustically deprived ear, it sounds amazing. Hooray for me!

My original plea
Left: Monty's electrics - badly in need of an overhaul.

Right: Can anyone tell me what this is? All the speaker cables run via this.

There are only two material possessions that I owned on land that I miss. My bed and my stereo. I had a beautiful Marantz amp and KI Signature CD player rigged up to four great speakers via wiring that I had hand/ear picked for perfection. The sound quality used to make me cry with pleasure.

Now, all I have is my laptop with some shite portable speakers. It doesn't do my music justice, I'm driving Tim mad by playing breakbeat with no bass and it's about time I did something about it.

So, before leaving Greece, I took my fairly decent CD/MP3 player out of my car hoping to be able to wire it up in here. The problems started when I looked at the wiring that had been used for the old CD player in here - bloody appalling mess and I haven't a clue where to start. So I took the simple route and started again - the previous simple route was replicating exactly what the previous owner had done - but I tell you, that wasn't simple. I am struggling - the email to the Yachting and Boating World liveaboard forum tells the tale - can anyone help me please?

(Mum - please don't worry - I am not about to electrocute myself or set the boat on fire (I hope))

My post to the YBW Liveaboard Forum
Right then - on a related thread - in desperation I turned to the forum last night as I struggled to install my Pioneer CD/MP3 player car stereo on my boat. It just won't work. I am a complete novice at this but it seemed a relatively straightforward task (ha - is anything straightforward on a 25 year old, badly wired boat). I don't want it to do anything fancy - I don't have a remote etc - I just want the damned thing to play CDs and be able to plug my laptop into it via the aux cable. So, the way I see it at the most basic level, if I wire the yellow (positive) to a positive and the black (ground/negative) to a negative wire, it should work - yes? The circuits at the boat end are all good - I've tested them. I know there are no speakers connected at this point but the unit should surely turn on if there is power going to it?Anyway, it didn't work so then I thought that the red ACC cable, which is usually connected via the car ignition, should also have power going through it to fool the stereo into thinking the ignition is on. So I took the second yellow positive (splits off the main positive before it goes into the block that plugs into the stereo) and connected it to the red ACC cable which then goes into the block that plugs into the stereo. So, theoretically, there should be 12v going through both cables now. It still won't work.Am I missing something?There are some additional cables which I do not know whether they need to be connected up or not. An orange cable which says Illumination/dash light and a blue one Power Antenna. I'm yet to get to the speaker bit. There is a horrible cat's nest of wires wired through wires wired through wires, old and new, some redundant, some not, some should be - a result of 20 years of people fitting stereos into the same spot. i just want to make sure I can get the unit working before I attempt to sort that bit out.

HELP!

Renovating Monty's hull