Sailboat

Home /
Tags /
Sailboat

Sunsets on the Boat

I haven’t posted a sunset from the boat in a while. Nice evening on the bow reading a book.

s/v Ten Year Plan received it’s official number plate today. U.S. Coast Guard documented boats are assigned a lifetime documentation number. The requirements are the number be affixed to the interior of the boat in such a way as altering them would damage the numbers or the hull. Folks solve this problem in a varieties of ways, including wooden plaques, plastic or metal carved plates.

A friend of mine, Al, owns the AutoMetalSkin company, and offered to make a number plate for me. Using a jewelers saw, he cut out the numbers from a sheet of metal, then using his unique finishing process, coated the number plate with brass. He left it exposed, without a clear coat, so we can watch the metal patina over time. See the video below to see more of the reveal process.

Comfort Without the Bulk

When I was looking to redo the V-Berth on my boat, I researched mattress options, and ran across several ‘under-mattress’ systems and ended up going with the Froli Modular SleepSystems.

The big challenge is ventilation under the mattress.

Affordable and well made
Easy to follow instructions
Easy to assemble and use
Comfortable and adjustable
Great ventilation.

As others have noted, it can be a wrestling match with the Froli to get to the lockers under the cushions in the V-Berth. What has worked for me so far is keeping the overall pieces small enough to handle, instead of creating one large connected piece, I have three smaller pieces: One on port, one for the bench starboard locker cushion, and one for the center key piece.

Boat Renovations

Since purchasing the boat, I’ve been focusing on internal renovations and minor updates.

The first big change was getting the v-berth updated. I took out a couple of small shelves, refinished the drawers, and made a key board and mounting rails. The biggest job was making the cushions.

The next big project was ripping out the cabinets on the starboard side of the main cabin and creating a pilot berth.

Ten Year Plan Boat Cards

Thank you to Lindsay S. Powell Designs for the great boat cards. Another item checked off the list on the Ten Year Plan 🙂 I’m very happy with how they turned out.

Ten Year Plan: Annapolis Boat Show 2015

What a great way to spend a few days of vacation! Annapolis in October is beautiful, and the boat show is amazing.

I learned a lot, and will plan to go again in the future. Someday, I’ll get to attend on my own boat.

Here are all the pictures I took during the event in one gallery.

Enjoy!

Ten Year Plan: Annapolis Boat Show Day 1

I’m using my vacation time this year to check out the Annapolis BoatShow. I drove up yesterday, 10/8/15, and hit the show early this morning.

To be honest, I was almost as excited for the long drive as I was for the boat show. I love long road trips, and this was a great opportunity to chill and listen to podcasts. It was a nice drive with little drama. The only challenge was I-95 closure in South Carolina. But Waze routed me around it without any issue.