Under another thread, Tortuga questioned mods and improvements to prepare T37's for offshore sailing. I realize that various aspects of this discussion have already taken place within these pages, but A) it's winter here in Ohio B) I have offshore sailing on my mind and C) there's not been enough activity on this site recently to satisfy my thirst for information.
I intend to take Kinsale from Lake Erie in 2010, through the NY canals/rivers to the east coast, and in 2011 head to Bermuda and then the Caribbean. Since I won't yet be fully retired, my plan is to use the boat as a vacation home for two weeks at a time. In five years time, I hope to spend at least a month at a stretch. I'm comfortable singlehanding this boat, and expect that some of the offshore passages will be solo. My wife is only happy daysailing, and my kids don't understand the allure of sailing although I'm sure they would come visit once a year in exotic locations; if only for the free accomodations. It's for those reasons that I'm satisfied with the size of the T37. If there were always going to be in excess of two aboard, it would be too small for my sanity.
I have two winters to prep the boat. I intend to add, not in any particular order, an electric windlass, replace the ports with stainless, replace the hatches, add a mast track and storm trysail, bring main reefing to the cockpit, replace lifelines with uncoated wire and move gates to mid ship, windvane steering, high volume manual bilge pump, figure out where to keep the liferaft, upgrade the dc distribution panel, increase battery capacity and possibly relocate them from qtr berth, replace running rigging, get an AIS receiver and SSB, and upgrade the nav instruments.
I have radar (older Raytheon still works well), added wheelpilot in 2008 which would be a backup to windvane, sails are good (tempted to add another light sail option on removable furler), engine has been checked and is fine. I need to scrutinize the standing rigging.
I don't have my list in front of me so I'm probably forgetting some projects. Many of the improvements I intend to make have already been discussed and even documented on this website. I will attempt to document what I do in the event anyone is interested. I'm in the midst of rebedding my deck hardware right now. So far I've only removed the headliner.
I have prepared a budget but it's still evolving. I will share it with the group once I get it finalized, and again after I get it completed. There will likely be some casualties among the projects in order to keep the spend at a level I'm comfortable with. I paid $45k for the boat 2 years ago, and figure when I'm done with upgrades I would have been hard pressed to get as good a boat for the same money I will have invested. I have a couple acquaintances who cross oceans regularly, and I'm trying to heed one of their primary cautions, which is to resist the temptation to gold plate or bulletproof the boat before you venture out.
I'm making all the improvements with my own labor, and welcome all the free advice you care to send my way.
Finally, Doug Sterrett is a friend of mine and the link to his website chronicling his circumnavigation is on the home page of this website. It's not fully up and running, but please check it out during the next year. It should prove interesting to follow his adventure.
Warm regards,
Doug Kinsale #22
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