The covers for the bed cushions had started falling apart and some of the mattresses had an unpleasant smell so when Ikea had a sale of foam mattresses (34,99€ a piece) we bought 5 of them and cut out new ones, using the old ones as templates. We then ordered 15m of fabric from Germany and sewed new covers.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
The original wall vinyl had almost completely dropped from the upper side and was pretty disgusting. The heater was installed in the middle of the floor making the already small head even smaller. We decided to get rid of the vinyl and clean the wall and also try to move the heater to the cockpit area.
We also decided to remove the two thru-hulls since we only use a Porta Potti as the closest pumpout station from our home port is a few hours away. As the Porta Potti is square and pretty big, we also wanted to enlarge the floor space a bit by lifting it up. The space created under the new floor board can then be used as storage for e.g. the toilet chemicals, engine oils etc.
Still needs a shelf or something and then it’s done!
The biggest and most visible issue with the boat when we bought it was the walls and ceiling of the doghouse where the paint had started flaking off badly.
I started off with scraping off all the loose paint. After that quite a lot of sanding, the best tool for the job was a “Mouse” kind of sanders and a 40 grit paper. I never intended do remove all of the old paint, just the loose stuff.
At first I thought I’d do just a “quick&dirty” fix but ultimately decided to remove the roof hatch, the windows and all of the electrical wiring to really get into the corners as well. Since the windows were removed, it was also a good opportunity to replace the (original?) window seals that were almost all leaking.
Then it was time for fairing. On the port side I tried out some different fairing compounds, deciding finally to go with West system epoxy and their 410 Microlight filler. It creates a fairing compound that is easy to lay out and easy to sand. I put on fairing and sanded three times, it’s far from perfect but good enough for now.
Next step some primer, I used Hempel Primer Undercoat and put on two layers of it. It already starts to look a lot better!
The next day it was time to put on the actual topcoat, which was Hempel Brilliant Gloss Topcoat and the color off-white. The biggest reason for this paint was that two full cans actually came with the boat so why not use it. One can (0,75l) was just enough for two coats, will use the second can for the outer side of the doghouse once the weather permits painting outside.
The reinstallation of the windows was as expected a bit tricky but with the help of soapy water, teaspoons and a bent coat hanger it eventually went pretty smoothly.
Done! Just in time on the evening before putting the boat back in the water.
*Updated 16.8.2019* Added picture of final result with roof and electrics.
The rear cabin wall was a plain piece of plywood which we thought needed some brightening up so we painted it white for a much fresher look. Could have used a better paint and/or more layers but there was not enough time and space for that this time.
The old battery box came apart when picking it up so I had to build a new one from some scrap boards and white paint. It’s supposed to fit two big batteries. Another two boards are added on the bottom that are curved along the hull so the box stays horizontal.
