I sat down below this morning and made a list of repairs and improvements for the winter lay up. Among other things, continue painting as needed, reinforce the sole bearers as needed, get rid of old thru hull transducers, install a new sea cock for the engine intake, organize the pot lkr. with some shelves, install a new sink spigot, add a thru hull sea cock up in the head for the sink, add a battery monitor to the panel, change out the engine mounts, replace a few hoses, install some new turning blocks in the trunks along with new pivot pins and bushings. I may tackle the spongy cockpit sole too.
We are really becoming fond of "Neena". Phoebe figured out that we've sailed her 33 days this season. Our cruise was about 18 days so quite a few day sails this year, learning all the time about her ways. We had an idyllic cruise with beautiful weather and no real challenges, following familiar courses and still anchoring like we drew five feet. Old habits die hard. It's going to take awhile to get used to the fact that we can go into skinny water and or dry out. I finally added a small jib I had and what an improvement. She balances much better and we added some boat speed too. She will steer her self up wind now under fairly wide conditions. It's wonderful to watch and feel her reacting to wind shifts. I guess I used the wrong bottom paint this year, as it was a bad year for fouling. I washed the bottom several times and in mid August discovered the prop completely covered in barnacles. With every thing clean her speeds improved although she's not as quick as I had hoped, averaging around five knots on 28 feet of waterline. Off the wind in a breeze she;s in the high sixes with a high of 7.4. We both love being down below on this boat. We love sitting at the waterline and looking out at the water. Her interior is open and light with great ventilation in the hot weather. Neena behaves at anchor and being low and skinny, she doesn't roam around her anchor much. The light helm, the small and light sails all make her easy to sail and deal with. The Yanmar is very reliable and we cruise up to 7 knots under power although, vibration wise, I like her at about 1600 rpm which gives around five knots.
