Owner Improvements
When we bought Milestone it was clear she’d had a lot of love, time and effort bestowed upon her. There was no doubt that she had been well looked after. However, living on a boat full-time changes a few priorities, and we immediately recognised a few jobs that needed to be done as soon as we moved aboard - for instance, we ended up sitting under torchlight one evening as the batteries finally gave up the ghost. The marine electrical shop opened especially for us during the New Year holiday so we could buy two new AGM batteries!
We’ve tried not to spare any expense in the work we do to Milestone, and doing/fitting most of it ourselves helps keeps our costs down so we can afford to do this. Thanks to James’ contacts in the marine industry, and from the kind help of some of our friends who also live aboard in our marina (Steve and Kath you know who you are!) we’ve bagged some great bargains and have benefited from lots of advice.
Miley has been our home for just over a year now and we’ve managed to tick a lot off our to-do list. She’s getting the attention she deserves, but is keeping us on our toes!
Work we’ve done to Milestone:
- Ve haff vorking Schneberdyschnobard (again)
- Removed the unused Yeoman antenna and loom
- Fitted a light under the cockpit floor space
- Fixed the thermometer for Schneberdyschnobard
- Stripped, filled and painted three back panels in the cockpit
- Completely polished every single bit of blue gelcoat on the boat - twice!
- James’ mum Michelle is an amazing seamstress, and has made us beautiful new curtains
- Sanded 87.5% of the gunwhales back to beautiful teak (need to take a new banner photo!)
- Pilot Gas Alarm with two sensors - one in the engine bilge and one in the galley
- Installed Icom M505 DSC VHF super-duper marine radio
- James rewired the deck connections from the base of the mast to the electric box inside
- …and took the plugs out of the deck and replaced them with a neat box, so we only have one hole through the deck
- Carpeted the lockers in the saloon so we can finally use it as storage
- Deck lights on mizzen and main
- Brand new standing rigging. Her masts came down at the beginning of January 09 and we put them up again at the end of Feb 09
- Installed the anemometer’s masthead unit with our new rigging
- Two sexy Lewmar 16 chrome self-tailers on the mast. One for the main halyard and the second will eventually be for reefing
- Ve haff Schneberdyschnobard!
- Ikea bed slats beneath our berth mattress to keep away the condensation. It’s working so far
- Installed a super-dooper battery charger so we can plug into the electric on the pontoons and run off her batteries
- Fitted new batteries - x2 110Ah AGM beasts!
- Full sail service and wash (main, mizzen and genoa)
- Sewn a new UV strip on our genoa
- Carpeted the floors in the mid-cabin (galley and bunks) and forepeak (our huge double berth)
- Carpeted the inside of the lockers and wardrobes in the forepeak so we can put our clothes in and they don’t get damp
- Installed a carbon monoxide alarm
- Fitted brand new lights throughout the boat
- Put a swanky stereo head in (new 6×9s and subwoofer coming soon!)
- Polished the blue paintwork
Work in progress:
- Rip out old, unused wiring
- Make new bowsprit
- Bend the davits back into place
- Fit remainder of new curtains
- Sand remaining 12.5% of gunwhales
- Anemometer display unit needs fitting in the cockpit
- Polish the blue paintwork
Future ideas:
- Chartplotter and radar (gulp!)
- Flip-down LCD TV in the saloon
- Self-tailing sheet winches (another gulp!)
- Polish the blue paintwork
…we’ll keep you updated, and yes, we will be forever polishing…