Your best project for less than 100 bucks.

[DCatSea]

Cap'n Vic - love what you've done with that TV tray. Everyone has these things, and now I know what to do with "some" of ours.

I also suspect you have some pretty nice helm chairs; any chance of pix of these?

Doug

[Vic K]

0124161108.jpg

Thanks for the complement.

[Vic K]

I submitted a couple of more pics of seats but they didn't make it. I'll try again. Front part of the right seat folds down to act as a leaning post.
Vic

[DCatSea]

Capt Vic

Your helm - chairs and everything else - looks fabulous, well coordinated and you obviously know your way round the carpentry shop.

Thanks for sharing the pix. I'm going to go and fret now.

[Vic K]

Thanks again for the complement. Just don't look to closely. Everything on the boat is utilitarian and not yacht grade by any stretch of the imagination. That way if I have to or want to rip into it and make a change I can do it with a clear conscientious.

There are some others on this site that have done some real nice work.

Vic

[Northern Spy]

My new "Your best project for less than 100 bucks" is an Insignia 17" LCD tv that I scored on black friday last year ($80). I looked at the display model and lo and behold it had a wall mounted transformer. I read the transformer and the output was 12VDC and oly a few amps. After a while of using it on AC current I decided I would see if runs off my dc panel directly. I cut off the transformer and spliced it in to the panel and it works great! Now I have to get a better antenna...

[Tree]

My new "Your best project for less than 100 bucks" is an Insignia 17" LCD tv that I scored on black friday last year ($80). I looked at the display model and lo and behold it had a wall mounted transformer. I read the transformer and the output was 12VDC and oly a few amps. After a while of using it on AC current I decided I would see if runs off my dc panel directly. I cut off the transformer and spliced it in to the panel and it works great! Now I have to get a better antenna...

Ironically, I'd say my best project for under $100 was my TV antenna. Unused but sold as used on eBay for £28. I think the wall mount for it only cost me £10. I can't remember the model but it is a Glomex that is suitable for digital television. Instead of using the nasty looking power switch for the gain control, I simply spliced it into courtesy light switch.

My other mod was putting wifi on the boat as I was sent a 4G LTE router by my mobile provider since I kicked off about the quality of the service. Wifi on the boat might seem a little pointless but it's worked so far for FaceTime audio calls between two boats when we didn't have a cell signal

[DesertAlbin736]

A stern rail mounted hose reel used for holding 325 feet of 1/2 inch yellow poly floating line to be used for running a stern line to shore & tying off when anchoring in tight coves up in Desolation Sound this summer. $24 + tax for a plastic wall mount garden hose reel from Walmart, plus bits of leftover doug fir, white oak, & Iroko wood from previous projects & fastened with screws.

completing_the_shore_tie.jpg

One could pay $230 for this store bought one....

store bought reel.JPG

Or this one that I knocked together for under $30.

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[DesertAlbin736]

Next best project: What to do about covering the plywood floor panels in the cockpit? Teak & Holly? Lonseal vinyl imitation teak/holly flooring? Expensive carpet? How about indoor/outdoor carpet from Home Depot, $20 for 6 x 8 roll. Naturally with the A25 you need to be able to lift & remove the individual boards from time to time, so I cut separate pieces for each board and attached them using s/s canvas button snaps. Easy to remove to clean, cheap to replace with they wear out. For the fiberglass section of floor just forward of the aft cabin I sewed loop side of velcro to the carpet & attached adhesive backed hook side to the floor.

[kerrye]

I've been trying to solve that floor problem myself. I've hesitated with going the carpet route since carpet holds water but have not yet imagined a better alternative. I considered some kind of fake teak marine plywood (I think about $200) per sheet but I've put the project off. I did paint the existing plywood with exterior latex paint which was a complete disaster. It flaked off within a couple of weeks. It must be because it was painted on top of oil based paint.

[kerrye]

Anyone tried this stuff as flooring?

http://www.rubbercal.com/rubber-mat/boa ... oring.html

I ordered some samples.

[DesertAlbin736]

I've hesitated with going the carpet route since carpet holds water but have not yet imagined a better alternative.

The 6X8 piece of indoor/outdoor area rug they sell at Home Depot for $20 is a fairly thin synthetic material & doesn't have rubber backing. If it did get wet individual sections are easily unsnapped and taken out to dry. If you didn't want snaps you could use velcro, but the snaps seemed a better idea than stick on velcro which tends to come loose. 3/8" long screw in male snap studs hold well in the plywood. If the carpet sections get dirty they're easy to take out and wash off. In any case the cockpit rarely gets wet with the canvas enclosure in place, and if it does the carpet doesn't hold moisture. One 6X8 piece is enough to to do the cockpit floor with some left over.

I don't have many pictures of the floor, other than this one that got lens flare from the sun, but gives you an idea of what it looks like. Pleqase ignore the rest of the clutter.

Another little tip: If you look closely at what you can see of the shelf on top of the galley cabinet in this picture, that's where we keep silverware in a regular plastic kitchen drawer divider. Very handy.

The DPO installed mini blinds on the cabin side windows and made curtains to go across the front and aft cabin windows. The Sunbrella pilot house windshield & side window covers are a godsend for privacy & shade.

I guess all Albin 25's are a bit different with various customizations. Ours has three 120V AC shore power outlets, one under the driver's seat as can be seen here, one in the head compartment, and a third near the top of the front wall of the hanging locker in the main cabin. Also 12V outlets on the dashboard & one on the front wall of the cabin hanging locker down near the cushions. Only thing we're lacking is a built in refrigerator and shower.

Past owners made a cutout on top of the engine box near the starboard edge so one can check engine oil (Yanmar engine) without needing to open up the whole engine box. This is the early model version where you have to remove the seat, the first floorboard, and swing open the cabin bulkhead to lift up the engine box. Coolant expansion reservoir is accessible by lifting the floorboard under the driver's seat. In fact I have never seen a boat where everything is as easy to get to as on an Albin 25.

[kerrye]

How do your window covers attach and what's the purpose of the two hinges to port above the cooler compartment?

[DesertAlbin736]

The window covers attach on the outside with button snaps (all inherited from PO). Hinges on the side wall were for a small swivel seat the PO had installed, which we removed because we considered it to be more of a nuisance & in the way, but left the hinges in place for no particular reason. The round object on the wall below the hinges is actually a jam cleat for the headsail sheet. Remember, this boat was set up for the sail rig option. The plywood covering the "cooler compartment" doubles as a cockpit table that hooks onto the aft cabin door & has a pipe for a leg on the front end. There is no built in cooler on this boat & that space behind the plywood panel we use for storage for engine spares and odds and ends. In order to install the larger holding tank I had to sacrifice the storage space under the starboard bench seat & place the battery banks there. The web straps behind the engine were installed by the PO to hold a cooler in place. He gave us a Coleman 12V plug in cooler, but mostly we use a West Marine "5 day" cooler with ice. The funky closed cell foam bench seat cushions were also inherited from the PO.


We haven't gone through our boat quite as thoroughly as you're doing with yours, but we've made substantial changes in the last two years since we bought the boat. New f/g hard top with hatches, new canvas, changed out the non-marine grade Coleman propane camp stove for an Origo non-pressurized alcohol stove, bottom paint job, larger holding tank, rewiring & new AGM batteries, LED cabin lights, new on board charger, new alternator & external regulator to name a few. We renamed the boat, carved new name boards, removed the trolling motor the PO had mounted on the swim platform, added a mounting bracket for our dinghy's outboard. And of course the carpeting.

Here's the admiral getting ready to enjoy a glass of wine with a feast of salmon grilled on our Magma stern rail BBQ as we sit down at our cockpit table while anchored in the Gulf Islands in 2014. Albin cruising does not get much better than this.

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All these changes will be put to good use this summer when we return to Canada & head for Desolation Sound. Maybe we'll get lucky and see dolphins like in this YouTube video when we do the 30 mile crossing of Georgia Strait from Nanaimo to Secret Cove. We've seen pods of dolphins swim near our Catalina 25 sailboat when we sailed up the SoCal coast fro San Diego to L.A., four years ago but nothing like in this video. I'm telling you, if you ever get up to the San Juans & Gulf Islands you'll be amazed.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddhkZ2RpcBI

[rnummi]

Guage panel raise and angled. 20 bucks worth of mahogany board and some stain. Savings on neck muscles: priceless.