New chainplate

The old backstay chainplate was mounted inside of the lazarette and giving unnecessary extra load to the transom, which of course, with the years had got bended improperly inwards. Alex removed that old chainplate and built a new one in 1/2 inch (12,75 mm) stainless steel that is mounted on the outside of the transom instead of inside. The chainplate is cut from a 316L steel plate and has been bent under heat. The process of bending it, drilling the holes (countersunk) and polishing of the plate took Alex around 12 hours in total. The chainplate is now fastened with six bolts, two of them has encapsulated nuts inside of the new plywood knee which is glassed in place. The four remaining bolts goes through the knee and the transom. Will show you the inside and the glassed knee when that space is tidied up if that could be of interest. Just too bad that we need to remove the boats name from the back and move it somewhere else on the hull, but at least we've got the backstay issue out of the way and the transom has slowly been forced back into its right shape. This installation should definitely give a more even load to the transom.

This is how the boat looked from the back before the new chainplate installation. Nice from a far with the name clearly visible, but not so safe nor good for the construction cause if you looked close enough, you could clearly see that the whole transom was being pulled inwards by the old chainplate. 

Replacement

One other very important safety procedure to perform when buying a boat is to check the condition of the gas hose. Old, leaking hose can result in terrible accidents and there are many boats that have caught in fire and too many people got killed in boats that have exploded because of leaking propane or butane gas and that's not our preferred way to die, or get injured for that matter. We found tiny cracks in the existing rubber hose and decided not to risk it but instead change the whole length of hose to one made of copper. Can tell you it was a mission to bend that stiff copper through all those holes, walls and nooks around the boat to get it in place from the deck to the stove but it feels very relieving to have one more worry gone.

Work in progress

The mainsheet traveler was only one of all the things that we have found out wasn't accurately installed on our 'new' boat, good for us that it hadn't had an opportunity to break before we noticed. A furiously flying boom is never a good thing on a boat, we can do without that type of disaster. Here's Alex making the backing plates he wants to install to support the track. Glad we have free access to one of the best boat workshops in the Caribbean here in Antigua so we can get all those very important details properly done.

Home is where your heart is

Was about time that I got to show Alex my home country which we both enjoyed very much, but we always seem to miss our little boat whenever we're away for too long. Although she's currently a big mess with things and tools all over the place, nothing beats the feeling of being home. I am still, two years after I moved aboard a boat with Alex, amazed at how easy it was to adapt to a life in confined spaces on water. Tight, hot, not always so comfortable, currently no functioning water heater, not always enough electricity to charge the laptop, not quite enough space for all the belongings we wish to have with us - yet still this is where we feel most satisfied. Strange? Maybe, but there simply is something utterly fulfilling with being unattached in the way that you are when you have only yourself to rely on. Only the thought of that we can turn the engine key or hoist the sails any second and change location to almost wherever in the world, gives such incredible sense of independence, which I believe most of us are yearning for in one way or the other. Sometimes we look back and reflect upon the fact that we left a slightly more normal way of living to live aboard a small sailboat far from most of our families and friends, and even though life occasionally can be hard in the way we have chosen to live it, we still think this was the right way to go. There are many more dreams waiting for us to fulfill and every step, every deck fitting we re-bed, every new winch that is getting installed, every hour of work in front of the computer, every argument we've gone through and every hour of organizing inside of the boat is just taking us one step closer to those dreams. It is amazing how almost everything that we do in our everyday lives nowadays are intentionally or unconsciously connected to those dreams and it is pleasing to know that we have the power to make reality of them all. With a focused mind and a mutual understanding for the goal and the process, I sincerely believe we all can make our own miracles come true. 

Inside

And here's a piece of the interior of our new boat if you'd be interested in that. Kind of roomy, galley is on the right, chart-table down left, master cabin and head in front, two double-bunks on both sides in the back. We still haven't begun the refit of the interior and the woodwork is good as it is so no need for dismounting any of it for the moment. One of the first things to do in here though is to build a dining table. The table there is is basically the engine cover and too low to eat at. We are currently contemplating between different options on how to build a table that looks good, which is comfortable to sit at and that is easy to stove away/or perhaps one that doesn't need to get moved away..? Table will be made in mahogany as much else of the interior around. You see the hatch for the refrigerator on the right btw? It's huge. Fridge and freezer is much larger on this boat than our previous. Our last one had a volume of around 70 liters if I'm not mistaken, this one rooms 160 liters in total. Everything is a bit larger than on Caos, well naturally as the boat is 43 feet, not 35. The bed, the couches, the deck, the galley.. I love cooking onboard this boat as it has so much space and storage, will show detail photos of the galley a bit later as well.

Superficialities

More on the curves... the boat's that is. Look at that sensuous tumblehome. Just need to make a paint job on the hull but that'll have to wait for a while. New paint won't save our lives in a storm. A leakfree deck might do though, as well as new winches, rig and whatever else we have on that list. At least we don't have a teak deck no more, thank lord for that. Gelcoat non-skid is the way to go, not only because it looks better in photos as it does, but also because we don't have the patience to deal with the maintenance of a teak deck once again, particularly not here in the tropics where the sun is hard on the wood. It certainly is enough with what is in the cockpit. And yea, that might have to get replaced one day too when I think about it. Old and sad teak is never a beautiful thing.

Our new beauty

First time of docking our "new" boat, had to fill up the water tanks and instead of forcing ourselves to take numerous dinghy rides to fill up jerry cans every second day we thought we should go to the dock to fill the tanks for once. Went pretty well I must say although it is interesting to learn to do things a bit differently than with the previous boat. And yes we know, our boat has beautiful lines, people stopped and asked us at least four times during 40 minutes "what's that" "what make is it" "how beautiful she is.."and all we can do is to agree. This Halsey Herreshoff is a damn gracious yacht with gorgeous lines. If only she wasn't such a mess inside hah. 

Leaks

Besides of making the boat as energy efficient as possible, it is also of utter importance that the boat is leak free.. we didn't have this problem on our previous boat thank god, but this Duende leaks, not to say from everywhere because that would make Alex more stressed than he already is, but almost. You see how the gelcoat/fiberglass is cracked around the winch? It is certainly leaking from there. You see the rusty areas around the fittings of the cleat that is wrongly mounted? It's leaking from there. And the sprayhood mounting? It's leaking from there as well. And not to mention the rest of the fittings on deck, the rudder shaft (!), by the anchor locker, the cockpit teak.... yeah go ahead and name it, it's probably leaking from it too. Now most of these defects are leaking only very subtly and it's not like it's pouring in water, but still it's a major job considering from how many places it leaks. As Alex still is busy with a couple of other important jobs on other boats, we haven't had the time to begin this process completely, hoping to get started end of the month. I'm sure I will get back to you on this subject later this spring. Until then I'll be sleeping with my rain clothes on. lol 

No, but really, I haven't even begun to tell you all the many issues this boat has and if I would I'm sure most of you would say: why the hell did you change from Caos to this boat? But for us this gives great fulfillment, it's the type of project which we could never get started with on our last boat. Hallberg Rassy's are great as they are, not much modification needed or wanted. Of course we could have continued with the few remaining cosmetic upgrades of Caos to make her absolutely perfect (like replacing the old teak etc), but after almost two years aboard Caos we decided that we wanted to move on, get some more space and we figured that this old, but beautiful Duende would make us happier in the long run. It's like when you're getting a house, either you buy a safe and well equipped home and don't have to bother with much, or you get yourself a rundown house with beautiful potential if you only dare to dream beyond the dusty surface. Many of you would probably choose something in between, more closer to the first option, and we do acknowledge that what we got here is quite extreme (meaning the overall condition of this boat), but this is what we felt was the best for us, and also what suited our budget for the moment. It will probably take a couple of years before Duende's in the ultimate condition we wish to see her, but time we will have more than enough of when we're out of here and out on the seas again.

And here's our yacht from a distance, beautiful when you don't get to see the flaws from up close...

and from behind..

LED lights

Last time we were in St Maarten we went to our favorite chandlery in the Caribbean, Budget Marine, to get new led lights to all lamps onboard. Just like we did on our previous boat, we'll need to make Duende maximum energy efficient. One of the first steps is of course to replace all normal bulbs with led bulbs as they draw much less energy. It's funny, all what we did only 1,5-2 years ago on Caos is now getting repeated on our "new" boat. But c'est la vie.. at least things goes quicker this time as we know what we need, like and have been satisfied with. Alex will tell a bit about our energy consumption onboard and how he thinks regarding solar and wind power shortly for the ones that have asked about that. Thank you for your patience, Alex has been overloaded with work these past weeks but it should calm down a bit with soon..

Details

Inspecting the wooden spreaders (which needs to get new paint asap) and replacing the lines for the lazy bag.