<I wrote this last week>
I met with two yards and a third failed to get back to me at all after I
sent them my then 4 page (now 7) word doc about my plans. Both yards had
essentially the same bill rates and yard rules, I chose to go with the
one who got back to me when they said they would and followed my
directions more precisely in providing the quote. I’ll divulge the yard
and all those details after the work is over and I have a better feel
for their work. But the choice has been made and I’m excited to get
going.
In meeting with both yards (and when you meet with your yard manager) I
think it pays for you to have an opinion about everything and let them
try to influence you. For every item in my list, where I had a good idea
(wrong or right) about what I wanted done, I could have an intelligent
conversation about the plan and they could provide real feedback and
cost projections. For every item where I was still very open ended the
conversation was really poor. I didn’t really know what I wanted, they
don’t know me yet so didn’t really know which way to direct me. Unless I
(or you) are willing to just let them do the work how they want with
little input I think it behooves you to have your own plan and ask them
to review and correct or modify the plan based on their experience. Be
organized is the mantra. I have the word doc I mentioned and a
spreadsheet of a 160+ items listing all the major parts I’ll need.
Another thing that has been helpful is to be open minded, put in the
wish list have a decent ideas of your priorities and then let the costs
drive the cuts. Also think about what you have to do now (like while the
boat is out of the water or while the rig is down) and what can wait or
be added later on your own dime at the slip.So, given all of that I
think you see a bit more about how I go about things.
In today’s meeting with the yard we discussed the windlass installation
a bit more and they are recommending not doing a big fiberglass project,
but instead using a 1/2” stainless steel plate to mount the windlass to
the deck. He penciled up a drawing of the plate being bolted through the
deck joint, but I’m not sure now as I write this how that would work on
my bow where the deck joint is the toe rail. That big stainless plate
might look great though and I’m sure there’s a way to mount it securely.
The real next step on that project is to get the windlass here, set it
on the deck and figure it out. We’ve decided to go with a Lofrans
Tigres windlass
based on the good SSCA reviews, but it’s not
ordered yet. The yard is going to dig up some pics of similar installs
for me to review.
In addition to making a little progress on the windlass the big thing
I've done today is work on the parts spreadsheet. I’ve been going
through an finalizing items so I have a make and model for every item
that needs one and I'm looking for prices online. I’m comparing
Fisheries Supply, West
Marine and
Defender. Fisheries doesn’t carry
Maretron so that is limiting their
usefulness quite a bit and their prics are coming out roughly the same
as West Marine; Defender’s prices are coming out cheaper almost across
the board. There are some tricks to use at Fisheries I’ve not tried yet,
but it might not be worth it if they carry very few of the items I want.
On the boat I pulled down all the sails, running rigging and the booms.
The booms are in the workshop and I’m removing all the hardware from
them in preparation for them to be refinished. I was using a lot of hand
power tools, but last night I bought a Ryobi 12” Drill
Press
and it has been awesome. It’s way more powerful and doesn’t tire me out
as fast as using a hand drill. For all the screws that aren’t coming out
after an overnight soak in PB Blaster (99% of them) I use the drill
press to remove the head of the screw. Once that is off I pry the piece
of hadware off the mast and then use a pair of vie grips to unscrew the
screw from the mast. This works 95% of the time. The the other 5% the
screw snaps off flush with the mast. For those I need to go back and
drill out the screws.
