Modifications

Most of this website is devoted to restoring - and eventually sailing - this boat. This page deals with things I'm changing or adding.

It seems like - from other web pages I've looked at - that anyone who works on thier own boat eventually modifies something. I guess I'm no differant.

Bilge Pump

I added a bilge pump in the bilge area below the forward dinette seat. This is closest to the keel bolts and a likely area to take on water. The pump mounting bracket is glued to the keel trunk with 3M 5200. Wiring for now is a long cord with a plug for the 12V power. The hose for the pump is long enough to run out of the cabin since there is no thru-hull fitting for it. For right now, the pump is set up as semi-permenant and can be disconnected from the base if I need to use it somewhere else.

Cabin ceiling

The original ceiling was two plywood panels covered in carpet. That may have been OK in 1978 when the boat was new, but over 22 years, age and leaks had taken thier toll. The carpet was stained and falling apart and I found I had to pull the panels out to re-bed all the hardware bolted through the cabin roof. So, the carpet had to go.

Instead of replacing the carpet I decided to paint the plywood white. I was a bit worried about the edges of the plywood panels since they were never cut cleanly at the factory (the carpet covered any errors). I thought I would need to provide for some type of finished edge to hide the crooked cuts, but with the painted panels back in place the edges are not that noticeable.

But, there was a noticeable gap between the two panels and the plywood was crushed (pointed to by the red arror in this picture) by the tabernacle support so a few changes were called for.

First, I glued a small piece of oak to the cabin ceiling directly under the mast tabernacle. This small piece is about the thickness of the plywood panel and carpet and the support post fits much better now.
Second, I cut out the plywood panel to fit around the support post and also cut out an area around where the electrical connections for the mast are.
Lastly, the whole area forward of the mast support will be covered with a thin box and some simple moulding will be used on the support post to cover the cutout gap.

Electrical

The original 12V DC system consisted of three fuses and three switches - for running lights, mast light and interior light. It may have also included a cigarette lighter style 12V power outlet, but I'm not sure of that. From the look of things, a previous owner added extra circuits and added indicator lights for all of the circuits and a DC voltmeter. Well, everything was a corroded mess and the only thing worth salvaging was the meter. So, I stripped it out.

I wanted to retain the original Macgregor panel and I didn't want to replace the plywood panel it was mounted on, but I needed to cover the extra holes the previous owner had made. My solution was to cover the area with a piece of smoked plexiglass I had and mounting the original panel on that. I did wind up adding a fourth fuse through the plexiglass for a bilge pump circuit, an in-line fuse behind the panel for the 12 V power outlet and a master disconnect breaker - also behind the panel. In addition, all the boat wiring is connected to terminal strips and all of the connections on the panel have been insulated. One of these days I will probably decide to redo the complete plywood panel but for now, this will do.

I've added a real battery box instead of the metal strap that was there to hold the battery in place.

Back to main page

Revised 02/07/2005

Web development by
Adirondack Consulting