Tag: sailboat projects

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DIY Projects Sailing Upgrades

Total Cost to Turn a Great Lakes Cruiser into a Live-Aboard Bluewater Sailboat

As I write this post, I’m sitting on my couch in the final months of our two-year refit that started in spring 2021. We purchased Resande, our 1976 Ericson 39B in September 2020 and got to sail her down to our home port of Muskegon before hauling out for winter. Starting with that trip, we started putting a project list together for what it would take to get her “Liveaboard Ready”. We broke this out by system, and looking back we were a little optimistic about the refit budget when we started.

We knew when we bought Resande we’d have some re-coring projects due to do. I won’t go in-depth on them here, but as DIY projects they’re time-consuming but not that expensive. only a couple hundred dollars in materials for all four areas we re-cored. Paying a professional would have been thousands since it’s all about the time it takes to make it look pretty again. Here is our entire Master Project List.

Cost of Purchasing Resande

We purchased Resande for $55,000 + 6% Michigan Sales tax for a grand total of $58,300. This was in the aftermath of COVID buying where Boats, RV’s, and most recreation was selling fast. We jumped on the listing almost right away after looking all summer. She fit almost all of our requirements and was actually more of a ‘blue water’ boat than we were even looking for. We did a partial survey where we found moisture in the foredeck, cabin top, and helm – all of which have been fixed as of this writing.

Cost of the Refit

Our initial estimate for the refit was $25,000, but we ended up replacing the (original to the boat) standing rigging for peace of mind, the electrical refit also ended up being quite a bit more than anticipated as the scope expanded. Below is a breakdown of actual vs. estimated refit costs. The total refit was about $34,400, bringing our total investment in Resande to just under $93,000.

Electrical System – $7,893

In deciding on a boat, we knew most boats purchased in the Great Lakes would need most of this list replaced or upgraded. The dated electrical system for any boat in our price range was going to need a complete overhaul especially since we planned to switch to Lithium. We ended up using the Explorist Life 200-400ah Diagram and following the videos and bill of materials almost exactly. We ended up with the following system:

  • 400 AH Battle Born Batteries
  • 2000w Victron Multiplus Charger/Inverter
  • 525 Watts of Solar
  • Victron MPPT Charge Controller
  • Victron Lynx distributor
  • DC/DC Charger for dissimilar chemistries
  • All new AC wiring
  • New AC disconnect and Panel with Rev. Polarity
  • BMV 712 Smart Battery Monitor
  • 130 Amp Balmar inverter, with Balmar charge controller and Perkins 4108 Serpentine belt kit

Standing Rigging – $7,200

This one wasn’t really on our radar when we bought the boat. Many boats in the Great Lakes never have standing rigging replaced. The previous owner told me himself you don’t need to replace standing rigging on a freshwater boat. In researching, I found all kinds of conflicting opinions on freshwater standing rigging. The common theme was that the risk is that with age stainless steel work hardens and gets brittle over time – for our boat (47 years young) you could make a good assumption that the rigging was well past its prime. Since we don’t have an exact plan for how long we’ll be cruising, the peace of mind of knowing we’ve got a brand new rig that can take us around the world if we wanted was worth the investment.

Water System – $4,400

We just ordered the 17 GPH Seawater Pro watermaker for about $4k. We also purchased an Acuva Arrowmax UV 2.0 water purifier since we’ll be drinking water out of our stainless water storage tanks.

Steering – $3,930

Our boat came with an old Raymarine X1 Wheel Pilot, which we removed (and actually sold piece by piece for about $700 on Ebay!) to install a below-deck Garmin autopilot. We went with Garmin due to a family friend who works there getting us a discount, and it’s worked great so far. We also bought a 40″ Lewmar folding steering wheel. The original wheel on Resande was only 32″ so it’s a really nice upgrade.

Liveability – $3,850

There were a few things we knew needed replacing if we were going to live on Resande. First off was the mattress – we ditched the thin old one for a big upgrade for about $750: DIY Boat V-berth Mattress: Step by step guide. We also got our cushions re-upholstered in our Saloon was $1900. Finally, a more fun one was putting Seadek in our cockpit was about $1,200

Davits – $2,200

We went back and forth on what to do about dinghy davits. Really the main contenders were between a tower (Towers in a box) or the Garhauer DD 6-2 Davits. We ended up going with the Garhauer davits since they were a lower all-in cost and I was confident we’d be able to fit them on our very narrow stern of Resande. Resande is only about 60″ wide at the stern, which is slightly lower than the minimum on the towers. We likely could have made it work with some side mounts a bit more forward, but combined with the overall cost I settled on the Davits. As of now we haven’t installed them so, we’ll still have to see how they turn out.

Ground Tackle – $1,950

The original anchor on our boat was a 35 lb CQR. Not a bad anchor by any means, but the newest generation anchors have made significant leaps in both holding power and ability to re-set. The two most important things you want in an anchor. Really the new generation of ‘digging’ anchors are essentially an inverted plow anchor. Instead of creating resistance by plowing the seabed, these anchors dig down into the seabed. We chose to go with a Mantus 55 lb M1 Anchor slightly oversized for our boat, as the calculator put us near that threshold between 45 and 55 lbs – we opted for the heavier option.

Attaching us to the anchor, we ended up with an all-chain rode – we ended up splitting a 550 ft barrel with another boat which netted about 275 ft per boat. Since this is arguably more chain than we really need in most cases (5:1 gets us to about 35 ft of depth with 175 ft) we actually keep about 100 ft (and about 100 lbs) of chain in the v-berth locker which is below the waterline and closer to the center of the boat. On the rare occasion we’re anchoring in deeper water we can always move more chain to the anchor locker, but this setup should get us through the Caribbean without issue. I’ll probably add about 50 ft of nylon rode that we can get to and cut off in an emergency.

Finally, the M1 anchor didn’t quite fit with the original bow roller. we ended up buying the Mantus Bow roller and fitting it onto the bow of the boat. to this day, we’re still trying to figure out how to get it to roll off without hitting our jib furler, but that’s a different post altogether.

Other – $1,690

This is a bit of a catch-all. Epoxy, paint, coring material, lights, fans, wires, connectors, pumps, rebuild kits, spare parts. The dozens of random projects we’ve done to get everything ready to go. This is probably much lower than the real number.

Safety – $1,070

For Safety, we added an AIS, Jack lines, and a bunch of random smaller projects to make sure we stay on the boat and upright.

Running Rigging – $400

Not a huge surprise, but we had several lines that needed replacement: Main sheet, overhaul on the reefing system, furling line, etc.

Waste – $250

Our initial plan was to buy a Composting head from Nature’s Head or C-Head. Due to dimensional constraints, we ended up making our own version for a fraction of the cost and probably ended up with something a bit better since it’s exactly what we need for the exact space. We detailed the process we went through here: DIY Composting Head.

What do you think – would you have made the same upgrades or did we miss something big that you would have done? Leave a comment below!

Categories
Sailing Upgrades

Choosing the Right Watermaker for a Cruising Sailboat

As part of our refit on S.V. Resande, we have decided we want the ability to desalinate seawater to make our own water. Our goal is to disconnect as much as possible from the resources ashore, and water, like electricity is a critical utility to achieve that.

There are a several different options when considering a Reverse Osmosis desalination system. In this post, we’re going to look at offerings from two different companies: Seawater Pro and Spectra. Most watermakers are constructed similar to the Seawater Pro, it actually isn’t even that difficult to piece together your own kit as all the components are fairly easy to source.

One of the main considerations you need to keep in mind is the energy efficiency of your system. Electricity is another finite resource when cruising, and you need a robust system to power this process. Of the options we’re looking at, two are 110V AC powered and the other three are DC powered. It’s really important to understand whether your AC or DC system will be able to provide the needed electricity to the motors. We completely refit Resande’s electrical system, so the options we’re considering below will all work with our system. I’ll be comparing the five different models for their Price, Energy Efficiency, Output, Reliability, and Overall Size

Cost is an important factor that will influence your decision. All of these options are a large investment when refitting a boat, and money is always a constraint. Cost is especially when you consider it’s inverse relationship with energy efficiency: generally speaking, the more you pay, the more efficient your system will be. Below is a table of the five units we’re looking at, pricing is as of December 2022: Winner: Seawater Pro 40 GPH

ModelPrice Gallons/ Hour (GPH)Cost per Gallon-Hour
 Seawater Pro ACC 110 20 GPH $  2,995.0020 $     149.75
 Seawater Pro DC 12 17 GPH $  3,495.0017 $     205.59
 Seawater Pro ACC 110 40 GPH $  3,495.0040 $       87.38
Spectra VT150 $  7,300.006.3 $  1,158.73
Spectra VT200 $  7,900.008.3 $     951.81

Energy Efficiency Just like money, electricity is another finite resource on a boat. Cruising is all about managing your resources. Once you’ve determined if your electrical system is capable of running each option, you need to look at the differences in efficiency. The easiest way to do this is to bring it down to a comparable metric, in this case Watts Per Gallon. I pulled the specs off these models to give rough estimates of the efficiency you can expect from each. The unique thing about the Spectra watermakers is their low energy consumption. Spectra does this by reclaiming some of the pressure with what’s called a Clark pump. It’s impressive that you can desalinate water for 120 watts or less, which should be easily handled by most unmodified electrical systems. They are by far the most efficient option, but you do pay for it in up front costs. Winner: Spectra models

BrandModelGallons/ Hour (GPH)WattsWatts/Gallon (Efficiency)
SeaWater Pro Seawater Pro ACC 110 20 GPH20970                    48.50
SeaWater Pro Seawater Pro DC 12V 17 GPH17600                    35.29
SeaWater Pro Seawater Pro ACC 110 40 GPH40970                    24.25
SpectraSpectra VT1506.3107                    17.00
SpectraSpectra VT2008.3120                    14.50

Cost Vs. Efficiency: as I mentioned before, cost and efficiency have an inverse relationship with these watermakers. The graph below helps illustrate the relationship between up front cost and watts per gallon

Output is important to understand how much time it takes to fill your tanks. The options we’re looking at here vary from 6.3 GPH to 40 GPH. Resande has 80 gallons of water, which would take anywhere from nearly 13 hours to only 2 hours to fill from completely empty. In some ways, output is irrelevant, and you should focus on efficiency since time itself isn’t typically a constraint. You likely aren’t using 80 gallons per day, and you could use the Spectra option for one hour per day to replace your daily consumption. On the other hand, I could see us running the watermaker during peak sunlight hours, where we’re putting nearly 500+ watts of solar to take some of that load off the stored energy in the battery bank. During our shakedown trip in Summer 2022 to South Manitou, we proved out our electrical system with only 350 watts of solar installed. With the weather we had, our batteries were regularly topped off from the night’s consumption by around noon each day, and any additional sunlight was just going to waste the rest of the day. It would be great to convert that to water. Winner: Neutral/Depends on tankage and usage

Reliability I will preface this by saying I have heard nothing negative about the reliability of the Spectra watermakers. That being said, the Spectra Clark pump and spare parts are proprietary and therefore not easily replaceable. If you’re in a remote island, you’re probably not getting your watermaker fixed anytime soon. The Seawater Pro, uses simple and common components that a fellow cruiser may even have. Winner: Seawater Pro models

Overall Size: On a boat, the space required for additional equipment always needs to be a consideration. The Seawater Pro 40 GPH for example has two large 40″ membranes and a high pressure pump with motor. The Spectra however uses a 20″ membrane and it’s all packaged with the Clark pump to be one compact unit. Either one will require space, and depending on the available space one option may be easier to install than the other. You will want to make sure it’s physically located near the main positive bus bar since you’ll likely be pulling heavy amperage (needing heavy gauge wiring) with the Seawater Pro options. The Spectra options would give significantly greater flexibility due to their size, shape, and lower current draw.

Deciding between Seawater Pro models: As of right now, we’re deciding between the three Seawater Pro options.

  • The 20 GPH model makes the least sense on paper, however you could easily upgrade it to 40 GPH in the future just by buying an additional membrane. It’s the cheapest option, and smaller than the 40 GPH in our space constraints
  • The 17 GPH model is more efficient than the 20 GPH option, but a bit pricier. Apples to apples with the 20 GPH it’s probably worth the additional $500. It has a lower current draw at 600W (50 Amps) and runs directly off DC, so you don’t have to worry about involving the inverter to make water.
  • The 40 GPH option is the same price as the DC 17 GPH option, but you get 2.3X the output. You do have to deal with a second membrane and it’s the highest efficiency of the three Seawater Pro options

March 2023 Update: We just received our watermaker yesterday. We ended up going with the 17 GPH DC Powered Seawater Pro model. We also added in the control panel since we wanted to do it right, do it once, and the extra cost would be offset by the countless times we’d be able to avoid ripping apart our aft to operate it in the future.

One more option: at nearly the last minute, we strongly considered going with the Sun Pure Watermaker option, which is very similarly priced and spec’d to the Seawater Pro. The nice thing about it was it’s local here in Michigan, so we’d be able to support a local business and save money on shipping. We still ended up going with Seawater Pro because the quality of the plumbing fittings and flush system looked slightly higher and more importantly the membrane housing is reinforced with the stainless steel rods (2:00 on this video) which help protect from hydraulic shock that can happen, specifically on a boat.

Please leave a comment below letting us know what you would do!

Categories
DIY Projects Sailing Upgrades

How to Measure Your Custom SeaDek Like a Pro

As part of our refit on Resande, we decided to splurge a bit and go with custom SeaDek nonskid in our cockpit. After re-coring our cockpit (see post here) we knew we wanted to put SeaDek over the cockpit floor so it would blend in better. While we were at it, we might as well do all the seating with SeaDek to complete the look and have a much more comfortable cockpit. SeaDek has some common templates on their website, but with only 18 hulls ever made Resande is a pretty rare lady -even if there was another owner that’s measured, your relying on their work. As you’ll see, it’s not that difficult just do measure it yourself.

This is right after we painted the floor where we re-cored, painters tape still in place.

SeaDek has two options if you’re looking for a custom template layout:

  • You can hire a professional to template and send in the measurements for you – finding one nearby can be tricky depending on your location. The nearest one to us was about an hour away and they’ll (rightfully) charge for mileage & time for the initial measurement and the dry fitting. When I looked into it, it was actually pretty reasonably priced – you can find a local dealer here: https://www.seadek.com/seadek-certified
  • You can do it yourself! There are some great videos online for how to do it, and they actually make the process really seamless. I was really impressed. This is the option we chose, and the subject of the rest of this post.

Step 1: Estimate the size of your templates

Your going to order a template kit from SeaDek https://www.seadek.com/template-kit.html, which they will mail to you in a tube along with the instructions, a sample pack of SeaDek swatches with all the different colors, and several sheets of Mylar. You need to know approximately the size of your templates so you know how much Mylar to order. Each Mylar sheet is 40″ by 80″, which is also the maximum size SeaDek is able to cut. we’ll keep this in mind later, if you have large pieces that will need to be cut in two – the SeaDek designers will figure out the best looking fit, but it’s something to consider. For our cockpit, I calculated that we’d need 4.5 sheets of Mylar, so I ordered 6 to be safe. They are inexpensive to add, and you’d hate to run out – so order extra

Step 2: Template kit arrives, prepare to measure!

Our template kit arrived pretty quickly – make sure you keep the packaging! They include a prepaid label to send the templates back so they can scan them. Before you get started, make sure you have the following:

  • Masking tape to hold down the Mylar
  • Mylar sheets
  • Sharp scissors
  • Fresh fine point sharpie – included with the template kit
  • An extra set of hands (optional, but it really helps!)

Step 3: Cut mylar to oversized shapes and tape into place

Once leave 1-2 inches around the desired nonskid area, and tape into place. You want it to lie as flat as possible so it’s not distorted when they scan it in.

Step 4: Start labeling, tracing and marking pieces for hardware

You can now trace the old molded nonskid on your project area. The better job you do, the better it will turn out. We messed up a few areas in the re-cored area that didn’t have non-skid to reference and we just did a squiggle line through it to cross off the error – they figured it out in the design process. SeaDek wants some pretty specific labeling on each mylar piece:

  • Name, Address, and Phone #
  • Write TOP on the top side of each part
  • Write “Bow”, “Stern”, “Port”, “Starboard” on all four sides of the template
  • Number each template piece
  • Note any hardware, hinges, latches, etc.

We had 11 different pieces in our cockpit, so it was a lot of labeling, but it also helps everything be really clear for the designer as they put your project together.

Step 5: Take pictures of everything while it’s in place

To help out the SeaDek designer put your puzzle together, you’ll send them pictures of your project traced in place – make sure they can see the template #’s and orientation. You’ll email this to endusersales@seadek.com – once emailed they’ll respond with a confirmation email detailing the designers that will be helping you with the projcet

Step 6: Fill out the SeaDek Material Information Sheet

They will include a format that looks like the image below that you need to fill out all of your information, the boat’s information, all the template #’s and descriptions, color, thickness, a sketch of your template, and other info:

This is what the template worksheet you need to fill out looks like

Step 7: Roll it up, tape it up, and ship it back to SeaDek!

The next step is that simple, mail it back with the included prepaid label and the designer will reach out to you. It was about 2 weeks between mailing my templates back and getting the initial design drawings! I know timing can vary based on the projects they have, but that was my experience.

Step 8: Review the initial designs – approve them to send the dry fit templates

You will receive the drawing design a few weeks after mailing the templates in. If you’re comfortable with the design and don’t see any glaring issues. We sent them back a minor adjustment to make the pieces in our cockpit mirror images of each other – these were done free-hand, so they fixed them up and had them print the dry fit templates.

Step 9: Receive the dry-fit templates, cut and tape in place

They will send you new mylar sheets that are laser printed with your templates on them – including grain direction and spacing. It gives you a good idea of how they will look in place. Again, cut around the templates, leaving a few inches around the entire template, and tape them into place to make sure everything lines up with the nonskid on your boat. From here, you can mark major errors and send them back to be scanned again, or email them approving the designs. We had one angle that we had slightly modified, but we just told them to make it a straight line and bump it out .25″ because the nonskid wasn’t a perfect line and we didn’t need it to be that exact to the original.

These are the dry-fit templates taped in place so we can see how the final product will look

Step 10: Order the Seadek!

Once you’re happy with the design, you can place the order. When we were ordering, they were offering a 3 year warranty that covered pretty much everything. We weighed getting it because we plan to live on the boat and give it a lot of abuse – we’re even bringing cats and it covers pet damage! We decided against it, because it ended up being about 20% of the cost to replace the SeaDek – realistically I just didn’t see us ripping out the old SeaDek within 3 years in nearly any scenario. There may be some cat scratch damage, but I don’t know if we’d actually want to spend the time ripping it all out to put in new SeaDek. Time will tell if we made the right decision.

Bonus: Design Considerations

  • Remember drainage! You do not want to interrupt the natural drainage flow of the cockpit. This was one of my biggest concerns, and if you look at the location of the drains in the cockpit, you’ll notice there is a direct path to them that’s because outboard of that channel, the cockpit floor starts sloping up. If we didn’t do something, the water would pool somewhere around here and not drain out.
  • Use a straight edge: Free hand drawing will have imperfections, especially with how our nonskid was laid out.
  • Don’t be afraid of coloring outside the lines: you can use your non-skid as the template, but you can add additional areas easily, or expand the non-skid area. Don’t be overly constrained by the existing non-skid.
This video does a really nice job of showing exactly what to do

Step 11: Installation!!!!

This is the exciting part. We are working on putting together a video with instructions and tips/tricks on how we installed our SeaDek. We are super happy with how it turned out! We will link the video once we have it completed.

To install the SeaDek:

  1. Use a glue primer to help the pieces adhere. Using a foam paint brush to brush along the edges, we applied this before placing each piece.
  2. While giving the glue a short amount of time to become somewhat tacky, use a razor blade to cut along the middle of the back paper cover of the SeaDek piece your going to place
  3. Fold over the edges on each side of your cut.
  4. Dry fit/place the piece without removing the paper backing, this way you can ensure you have to piece exactly where you want it.
  5. Use painter’s tape to secure one half and help keep it in place
  6. Slowly peel back the paper backing on the half you didn’t tape in place
  7. Press down, start in the middle and move out towards the edges to avoid bumps, bubbles
  8. Make sure to apply firm pressure to ensure you have the piece secure
  9. Remove the tape and repeat the process to stick the second half down
  10. Repeat this process for each piece of SeaDek
  11. Step back and admire your new SeaDek!!!!!!
Final product installed!

What do you think? Would you DIY or hire an expert? Let us know below!