There were a couple of things I had made note of last year that I wanted to address while on the hard this spring. The first, is the over board discharge thru-hull from the old holding tank. The ball valve on it is not really in the greatest shape; If you open the valve, there's a pinhole leak in the handle area. Closed it's fine, sure, but I'm not full of a lot of trust that something doesn't go wrong. If I had time and weather, I would likely glass over the whole hole. But I'm not sure if that'll be an option this year, based on the location of the boat in regards to power, and sanding, etc. I can run an inverter off the car and do that, but I prefer not to sand fiberglass in the yard, considering the setup and everything. So the option this year may be to just replace either just the ball valve itself, or both it and the thru-hull with something new.
The next is similar. When we launched the boat, we noticed seeping water in an existing depth transducer thru-hull on the port side. Tightening down the ring had solved that problem. However, it's a wooden backing plate on it that seems to me like it just might end up repeating this. My guess is that it first gets wet, gets soggy and then leaks until it's compressed down again. I'd like to replace that, or again if time permits, glass over it. If nothing else, I'd like to pull the old backing block off, fashion a new one down with thickened epoxy and sealed, and see if that fixes it. It's not used for anything, but if it saves me having to glass over and repaint for another year, all the better.
Next up is the outboard. I'm looking for something more reliable. This old Merc does work, when used regularly. I did find that I liked the tiller shift on it, especially for low-speed maneuvering in the marina. But when I don't get to get there every weekend, and then it starts taking a long time to pull start it, it does get old in a hurry. I had an offer for a used Tohatsu from a gent in the marina, and if he still has it, I might. If not, I'll find one on Craigslist before the boat goes in the water. I'll just get used to the lever again.
And then rounding out the plan, is just new gear in general. New Fortress anchor, new halyards including a spinnaker set, replacing the one last missing stanchion, and fixing the pulpit finally. Then, a summer of enjoyment.
Mostly the last one.
