Your Best Addition/Modification

[jim rosenthal]

Just make sure those Smart Pugs have some grass on the boat, so they know where to go to the doggie head.

 

[Dan Mapes]

The inverter was the single most rewarding upgrade. After that, dual voltage refrigeration. Lastly the wifi booster had us working on the aft deck during our last years at IBM. Nothing beats sitting on the aft deck watching your workmates go by on their day off while you save yours.

 

[Vincentc]

Supplementing my post in 2011 I would like to add:

wing doors
Acrylic enclosure
hinged acrylic gate to replace original slide in
snap catch vs hook catch for door
replaced ice maker with 2 cf chest freezer



Forward I added a storage chest which provides a coffee table, wind break, ice chest, and storage for tie up lines, shore power cords, and sunbrella covers

Not shown but at or near the top of the list is the
Magnum 2812 inverter with 4 GC batteries
Phifertex covers for side windows and snap off for windshield

 

[Pascal]

I m glad someone revived this old and forgotten thread.

I like that wooden ladder/stair to the FB, I was going to redo mine with fiberglass since the stbd windo is covered by the new fridge, but I think the wood will look better considering th boat vintage.

After all that time, i m going to revise my initial list...

Th new galley up is now definitely my best upgrade. While not completely finished it has been functional for a month or so and I love it. What a difference!

In my original reply, I mentioned moving the electrical panel out of the ER to overhead the companionway une the helm, between the ER. Well, it's moving again... To where I should have moved it in th first place: stbd side, by the helm, ahead of the pilot house door. I am going with blue sea panels, rotary switch, etc... Since I am rewiring everything as I go along, I figured I may as well do this right. Cabinetry is built and I ll install the new panel as soon as they get in

 

[krush]

What about best subtraction....getting rid of the nagging "admiral" lol! The salon definitely got quieter--like doing a repower with modern engines.

 

[Freeebird]

Too expensive!

 

[krush]

Too expensive!

A repower is probably cheaper...then again, might wish to keep the loud engines???

 

[Boatsb]

Did they find the body ?

 

[JLR]

I thought I would renew this discussion. As I approach retirement, I will surely be in need of additional ideas. However, in the interim, the three most recent additions I have made that I find helpful are as follows. First, I added an alarm to each of my gensets with a horn at the lower hem so I can tell if there is a generator overheat. The alarm was very simple to install and now I hope to avoid any repeat of a prior overheat that was quite expensive to repair. Second, I replaced all of the lights in my hardtop with blue/white lights, switchable at my preference to make things look a little more up to date at night up there. I thought the blue lights would not be "Hatteras like" but I was wrong. They look great. Finally, I decided to re-tube my 15' Novurania after spending countless hours and dollars chasing a leak that I never did find. Although the re-tube was expensive, it was far less expensive than replacing the dink.

 

[Cricket]

Have done a lot of projects since 1985.
The top two most rewarding, so far, was re-powering with CATs, also adding power steering at the same time, and then adding the cockpit mezzanine and bridge floor extension.
The CATs have delivered incredible reliability. The 892's almost pushed us out of boating.
The mezzanine just opens up the outdoor area in sooooo many ways for everyone, the added refrigeration and storage is just the cherry on top. The longer bridge floor adds a ton of room and provides much more shade in the cockpit.

 

[SEVEN]

Fantastic thread folks.

My favorites have to be:

1. Aft cabin modifications; from two twin beds to an athwartships queen and a bureau/settee.
2. Remote fuel/water gauges
3. Remote generator oil pressure/temperature gauges
4. Digital A/C controls
5. Replace original Detroit oil filter housings with spin-on filters
6. Replace original plastic portlights with stainless steel ones.

Is that a new boarding ladder as well?

 

[jim rosenthal]

I would add the upgrade that is going on right now, which is replacing the wooden steps on the FB ladder with SS ones. I've had them for a year or nearly so, but this is the first chance I had to get the ladder off and to the welders to have the SS treads welded in. If it comes out as planned, there will be less wood to maintain, a bigger surface to step on, and better nonskid on the treads.

 

[JLR]

I also forgot one which has made life a little easier. When I had the boat hauled last season to do the bottom and the props, I added external south bay strainers for the intakes for both of my gensets. Now, no more need to clean out the internal strainers, which I left on, every few months while using the gensets. It has made it easier for my kids, now fully grown, to use the boat when I am not aboard, without fear of an unanticipated genset strainer plugging and getting the error code indicating inadequate sea water flow.

 

[34Hatt]

Have done a lot of projects since 1985.
The top two most rewarding, so far, was re-powering with CATs, also adding power steering at the same time, and then adding the cockpit mezzanine and bridge floor extension.
The CATs have delivered incredible reliability. The 892's almost pushed us out of boating.
The mezzanine just opens up the outdoor area in sooooo many ways for everyone, the added refrigeration and storage is just the cherry on top. The longer bridge floor adds a ton of room and provides much more shade in the cockpit.

The mezzanine is just beautiful like the rest of Cricket seen a lot of your pictures but would like to see more like a nice side profile with those windows you also upgraded
Bet many people don't realize she is a 1966

 

[Cricket]

This is an older photo from before the hardtop was extended to match the longer overhang.

 

[krush]

View attachment 21655
This is an older photo from before the hardtop was extended to match the longer overhang.

Did you just add on to the existing hardtop? Looks nice, and gives me some ideas!

 

[Cricket]

Yep, just scabbed onto the old hard top. we did cheat a little though, the shop that made the top originally had cut offs stashed in his rafters so we just used one of those to get started.

 

[Buccaneer]

I'll try to get some. Seems to me I posted some not too long ago, but I will try to find them. I do have some, somewhere, that I shot after the soft goods were renewed last year.

It is a rather small space and difficult to get photos inside of it. Essentially what we did was set the door to hinge on the stbd side, not the port as it did when new. The port deck of the bed was extended out towards the middle of the boat and the side rail of the original berth space reused. The offset double is not parallel- it tapers towards the foot (bow end) but it is big enough for two people comfortably. We reused the drawers left over to make a bureau which occupies the stbd side of the Vberth. That is removeable, although it hasn't been out in years, so it could actually be used as another bunk space.

--- ---

We are revisiting the concept of conversion of the v-berth to an athwart-ship double bed, with cabinets
above / below / where ever.

Jim, you were going to dig up some photos?
Can you shoot some with your cell and PM or txt them to me?
I can shoot you a cell ## when you've got them.

 

[SEVEN]

Fantastic thread folks.

My favorites have to be:

1. Aft cabin modifications; from two twin beds to an athwartships queen and a bureau/settee.
2. Remote fuel/water gauges
3. Remote generator oil pressure/temperature gauges
4. Digital A/C controls
5. Replace original Detroit oil filter housings with spin-on filters
6. Replace original plastic portlights with stainless steel ones.

Those ports are beautiful.

 

[motoryacht lover]

Don’t know about a best but I have a top 5 or so. Sea stairs big plus when you can use them. Switching Vacuflush heads for Raritan Elegance. No more constant clicking and duckbill replacements. Replacing manual dinghy davit with fully hydraulic unit. Much easier to launch and retrieve. Replacing old Onan Genny which is no longer supported with a Northern Lights. Replacing 3 ACs with new Dometic 410 A units. No more sweating adding Freon every spring, miscellaneous sensor faults stopping operation in the middle of the night. Laser alignment of running gear. Much smoother and stuffing boxes acting right. My port shaft was occilating and box would no stop leaking. That is all solved for the present at least.