Started sanding the boat today, never was happy with the finish on the cabin sides, I am priming it with a nice coat of Awlgrip 545 primer, then practice building my chest muscles with everybody’s favorite longboard.
Fresh plexiglass ports just to refresh the look. The bonding the plexiglass with VHB tape has been a success (except where I didn’t get the tape ends touching and we had minor port leaks till I figured it out.
I am possibly not astute enough sailor to tell if the centerboard needs to move forward a bit, we have lots of time that the boat was balanced and we were hands off… can’t see it being any better.
Don, initially when the boat was inverted we clamped tape coved 1X4s on both sides of the keel then added epoxy with graphite thicken epoxy to about 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick. I had problems with our 2 paws with the screws working on the keel strip and allowing water into the wood. Well as some can attest, we have beached the boat both intentionally (and unintentionally ) the keel is in almost perfect condition despite my abuse. I am going to open the centerboard slot slightly and reglass the slot, it always had a tendency to stick in the up position when I add mud to the board.
When I added the solar panels the MPPT controller wasn’t readily available, and quite expensive. The plan is to replace the solar controller with a more efficient controller and a 50 amp hour lithium battery. We are totally impressed with the solar system on Kalos and going to build a miniature system on Southern Express.
Carol has made it perfectly clear to me that Southern Express is our family boat….long term!