Tag: refit

Once Duet returned from Delta, more work began. Jeff’s team was busy working on several things at once, fortunately they are not all in the same place on the boat. We visited periodically during this time, and were able to watch Duet on Salmon Bay Marine Center’s web cam number 6. Many friends watched her too, and Nancy and Ron felt a bit like the pandas at the zoo, as they were getting texts saying “we can see you, what are you doing?” etc.

Duet on the web camera at Salmon Bay Marine

 Installing the new crane was the largest project we asked Jeff to undertake. First, however, the old one had to come off. This is always easier said than done. Bits which have been sealed to a boat for a long time, if it was done correctly initially, tend to seriously resist being removed. To keep them attached in the first place, boat builders use a long acting sealant, usually something known as “5200”. 5200 is short for 5200 Polyurathane Adhesive Sealant. Adhesive is the key point. Done right, a good 5200 job will hold and, as importantly, keep water out, for literally years.

So, first the old crane had to be cut, pried and generally pulled off its base. Nancy, having removed many items which had been 5200ed to our 46, sympathized with the team. The trick is to get the sealant to let go, or, when you pry the item up, you bring part of whatever it’s attached to with it. Since we needed to install the new crane in the same place as the old one, we wanted all the deck to remain intact. Fortunately, this wasn’t the first crane rodeo for Jeff’s team, so all went relatively well.

After a solid day of cutting, prying, heating (to loosen the 5200), pulling, pushing and general coaxing, the old crane came off. It was gently lowered onto the dock, put into a truck and taken to Second Wave, a local marine consignment store. Ron and Nancy are big patrons of marine consignment stores, we have bought and sold many items on the second hand market over the years. So the crane went off to find a new home, which it did within just a few weeks. It was a great deal for someone who didn’t need power rotation, as it worked just fine. 

As the picture below illustrates, the old crane base was square, see the filled holes all around, but the team managed to get it off the deck without taking pieces of the deck with it. The pipe in the middle is new, for the hydraulic hose run for the new crane. The old pipe is below it to the right. For readers who are wondering why the sun in Seattle has suddenly turned blue, the area where the crane team was working was covered by a large blue tarp throughout the project to prevent Seattle’s endless precipitation from getting the project, or the team, wet. 

Even on sunny days, or what passes for sunny in Seattle, the work site was carefully protected, as the picture below illustrates.

 

 

A unit the size of the old crane, which is intended to handle significant loads, will not only be sealed on, it will be bolted as well. Hopefully, those bolts will go right through the deck and out the other side, with backing plates or large washers on each bolt to spread out the loads and more 5200 to keep them dry.

On Duet, however, out the other side is an approximation, as the base of the crane straddles the bulkhead on the starboard side of the salon. Getting at the underside of the deck in the salon is pretty easy, as the roofing panels are velcroed in place. But the half of the base over the starboard outside walkway was inaccessible. To get to the those bolts, Jeff’s team had to cut a rather sizable hole in the fiberglass roof of the companionway.

This is not as bad as it sounds, because we needed an access panel anyway to inspect the new bolts on a regular basis. Captain Ron is not a believer in having vital items, like the bolts which secure the crane, in inaccessible places. So cut they did. Not only cut, but also remove an outside light which happened to be in the way.

The picture below illustrates the hole over the starboard companionway, where about half the new bolts can be seen coming through. Just to add to the complexity, the new crane has a round base, while the old one had a square one, as illustrated by the blue taped holes. 

 

This second photo shows the inside of the crane base, which is over the starboard sofa in the salon. You can see the new hose chase, the old wiring and some of the new bolts, as well as the old bolt holes, covered by blue tape while the filler in them dries. 

 

Now came some important decisions. Fitting a full backing plate under the deck, through which all the bolts were attached, would be nigh on impossible, because the bulkhead was in the way. Creativity was required. After much thought, Jeff’s team came up with an elegant and practical design. They bolted a stainless steel plate through the deck and then bolted the crane to the plate anywhere the crane could not be thru bolted directly, namely over the bulkhead. Anywhere the crane could be bolted directly through the deck, it also went through the plate, giving it another level of support. The plate was thru bolted over the salon side of the bulkhead, as fewer of the crane bolts go through the deck on that side.

The new crane, a beautiful white Steelhead 1000, has a round base with 16 bolts. Of the 16, 4 were tapped into the plate, which had 4 bolts of its own thru the deck. The remaining 12 crane bolts went through the plate and then thru the deck. So the crane base and the plate both have 16 bolts. The deck is solid fiberglass over two inches thick. The new bolts all had the biggest backing plates that would fit on the uneven surface under the deck. All in all, a solid installation.Below is a photo of the steel plate before installation. You can see the 16 holes for the round crane base, as well as the 4 additional holes in a straight line above the central hole (for the hydraulic hoses).

 

 

The photo below shows the steel plate in place, with the hose conduit through the middle to prevent chafe. Chafe is a real problem on a boat. Everything moves, all the time. Anything that can rub against anything else inevitably will. So not only were the hoses run through a protective pipe, they were also carefully protected everywhere they passed through something, to prevent any chafe and related leaking issues later on. The white goop, visible in this picture as well as others, is the infamous 5200.

 

 

Once the engineering challenges were met, then came the cosmetic issue. How to make it beautiful, as well as functional? In this case, Kevin, a master cabinetmaker, came to the rescue. He proposed using a material called Paper Stone, which is very strong, can be cut into almost any shape and is easily painted.

Kevin built another base, square rather than round, which sits between the round crane base and the square steel plate, out of Paper Stone. The steel plate fits neatly under the Paper Stone base and is invisible from the outside. The Paper Stone base allowed to the crane to be leveled, as the slight outboard camber of the deck was absorbed in the fit of the Paper Stone. It also helped spread the load out. The crane was bolted through the Paper Stone, the steel plate, and, finally, the deck. In the photo below, you can see the Paper Stone base, under the crane base. The steel plate has disappeared under the Paper Stone base.

 

So, after much preparation, the crane was ready to be hooked up. But what about power? The new crane is a 24V electric hydraulic model, with a beautiful little electric motor driving it’s hydraulics. The initial idea was to install the motor in the lazarette, but getting the hydraulic hoses down the back inside of the house proved difficult. So the unit was installed in the starboard stack, on a raised base to keep it above any water which might penetrate the area.

 

The hydraulic hoses to power the crane ran from the crane base, through the boat deck, forward under the salon roof and up into the stack. The power wires to power the crane motor then ran from the motor down the stack into the engine room and under the floor to the 24V battery bank, which is under the master bedroom floor. Eric and Ron carefully calculated the voltage drop across the wire length and were satisfied that no undue reduction of power would occur.

The crane was wired into a separate 24V breaker next to the bow thruster breaker, at the base of the master berth. Nancy finds it interesting that, on boats, critical gear is installed all over the place, so you can easily find yourself gazing up at the primary bow thruster and crane breakers while doing your morning stretching on the floor. These breakers are critical, however, to ensure that things that are supposed to be off are really off. We don’t need the crane deciding to move around while we are offshore. This is more likely than it sounds, while it never happened to us, several 46’s have had “phantom” winch problems with the winches that lift their tenders.

Finally all was sorted out, the old holes in the deck were filled, the new holes were drilled, 5200 spread around in large quantities (Jeff says, and Ron and Nancy agree, if you don’t have it in your hair by the time you are done, you didn’t do it right). Last, but not least, the crane itself was installed on the base.

 

 

It looked magnificent.

 

But does it work? As an aside, folks may be aware of the story of another trawler, whose builder shall remain nameless, where, during the first test of the new crane and dinghy, the entire assembly fell gracefully over the side, fortunately without injuring anyone. This was not something anyone aboard Duet ever wanted to see. 

Everyone crowded round, Chris did the honors, lifting the dinghy easily (and amazingly quietly) straight up in the air and neatly over the side. The first question on everyone’s mind was did the base creak, or, heaven forbid, crack? Brent, who had his ear to the base during the initial lift, heard a groan as things settled, but there were no signs of cracking or other strain on the unit.

 

Over time, as we use the crane, Ron will be keeping a close eye on this installation. We even ran a hose on the base for hours to see if it leaked. It didn’t. Keeping the boat in Seattle also provides commercial strength leak testing, as eventually the relentless rain will find any weak spot.

Then we had lessons. Chris and Ron retrieved the dingy and then put back it in the water several times, started it up and Ron went for a ride. For those readers who haven’t met Captain Ron in person, he is in blue below and Chris is in red. 

 

 

As often happens with boat activities, something immediately broke, namely the dinghy set off an engine temperature alarm, so Ron limped back to the mother ship. The problem was easily diagnosed, during the winter gunk got in the cooling pipe which brings water in to cool the engine. A couple of rev ups later she was running like a champ.

 

 

Last, but definitely not least, we replaced, at Chris’s suggestion, the dinghy lifting harness. The new one could potentially be used to lift the entire boat in a pinch, and we are very happy with the way it works.

 

 

Next, in the order of project magnitude, was the installation of the at anchor flopper stopper. Our Nordhavn 46 had paravanes, which allowed us to deploy a “flopper” at anchor to keep her stable. There was no question that our next boat needed one, but installing it proved to be an interesting challenge. Completing this project was rather like an Amish barn raising, everyone from the “neighborhood”, including all of Jeff’s team, Ron and Nancy, PAE, and several Nordhavns both near and far, participated in the process. 

First, we needed the gear. That wasn’t too hard, as is common with many pursuits, buying the stuff isn’t difficult, it’s getting it to work that takes the time and effort. Unfortunately, due to a series of problems along the line, the flopper stopper kit was delayed, so this part of the refit didn’t really start until pretty late in the game. Once the pieces all showed up, attention focused on how to install this gear so it wouldn’t come off when it was put under load.

Nordhavn provided a useful instruction sheet on how to use the gear. Ron has a lot of experience from installing the paravanes on our 46. Jeff had worked with the flopper stopper rig on San Souci, a beautiful Nordhavn 68 belonging to one of his customers. Finally, the Nordhavn 76, Eliana, was tied up two slips away. She conveniently has flopper stoppers, so whenever our creativity flagged we could go look at her.

There were several issues. First, engineering the pole mount. The inboard end of the flopper pole attaches permanently to the side of the boat, in most cases the port side, as there is no walkway there. Some boats have them on both sides, but we think one will do. Worst case, we will install another later on if we need it.

 On most Nordhavn 50s, the base of the pole is attached just above the forward galley window under the eyebrow, on the port side, so it is thru bolted into the house. The pole then runs aft, when not deployed, terminating at the end of the house, as shown here on the N50 Twins. Readers will note that Twins does not have the big galley window Duet has, it is an optional feature.

 

In Duet’s case, however, we will install storm plates over these windows when traveling offshore. After much measuring, it was determined that there wasn’t enough room to install the pole above the windows but still under the eyebrow, without conflicting with the storm plates.

Now what? Our brain trust stood around contemplating for a bit and then decided that if it wouldn’t work on the house, the pole would need to be attached to the eyebrow of the boat deck, just above the galley window and be stowed along the eyebrow, instead. The eyebrow is solid fiberglass until about halfway up, then it is hollow. So we needed to engineer something that would take the compression load of the pole when it was in use.

The members of the team shown below include Kevin at the foremost end of the pole in black, Jeff in the middle in red, and Brent in plaid. Ron is still in blue, it’s his favorite color.

 

Several people came up with the same idea at the same time, demonstrating that either this is a very bright team or we suffer from group think. Whatever, we decided to use compression blocks between the eyebrow and the house where the pole is attached. The base of the pole rests on a stainless steel plate on the outside of the eyebrow, to spread the load, as the actual base of the pole is rather small.

The pole base is then through bolted through the eyebrow into another steel plate on the other side of the eyebrow, thereby spreading the load on both sides of the eyebrow. The pole base is raised slightly on a base so that it doesn’t touch the eyebrow along it’s length. Duet, like many of us, is wider at the stern than she is in the middle, so the back of the eyebrow is further outboard than the front. 

 

Two compression blocks, made of our new favorite material, Paper Stone, were crafted by Kevin and Michael to fit tightly between the eyebrow and the side of the house, on either side of the through bolts for the pole base. The picture below shows the blocks before they were mounted, using a bit of plywood to demonstrate how the stainless plate would fit. The angled side of the blocks fits on the outboard inside of the eyebrow, while the straight part is against the house.

These blocks are screwed into the eyebrow through the outboard and inboard steel plates and transfer the compression loads from the steel backing plates to the side of the house. The entire installation was polished and painted so it looks like original equipment. In the picture below you can see the bottom of the flopper pole base, mounted on the outside plate, and the inside plate and compression blocks. 

 

It is safe to say that this installation is probably over engineered. However, as Captain Ron pointed out, we don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night, hear the pole groaning under the load and worry about it ripping off.

The pole also has three lines which stabilize the pole when in use. First, and most critical, is the topping lift, a term which is familiar to Nancy and Ron from their sailing days. The topping lift attaches from the outboard end of the pole up to the side of the port stack on the boat deck and keeps the pole from being pulled down by the the flopper. This is same way that a topping lift works on a sail boat boom.

Second, there are two lines, the fore guy and the aft guy, which, naturally, run from the end of the pole forward to the port midships hawsehole, and aft, to the hawsehole on port aft deck. These keep the pole from being pulled too far forward or backward.

The only line which required a new attachment point is the topping lift, it clips to a pad eye installed somewhere on the port stack. The somewhere part was a little tricky. We had lots of pictures of where other boats had placed their pad eyes, but they were dry stack boats, which changes the geometry. Duet is a wet exhaust boat, so she has two smaller stacks to provide engine room ventilation, one on each side. You can see the single dry stack in the photo below of Tivoli, Nordhavn 50#5.

 

The dry stack is in the center of the boat deck and is a more substantial bit of gear than our two individual stacks. Our stacks, although each is smaller than a dry stack, are joined about two thirds of the way up by a fiberglass cross bar, which provides structural stability. A person can climb on the stacks and stand on the crossbar to work on the electronics installed up there, so they are relatively beefy.

In the picture below you can see the folding steps on the starboard stack. The pad eye will be installed just aft of and above the antenna mount on the outside of the stack. You can also see the stack access panel on the starboard side, there is a similar one on the port side, which enabled us to put a large steel backing plate on the pad eye.

 

Larry Geiselman, our PAE broker, also helpfully connected us with the project manager for the Nordhavn 50, as well as the Nordhavn 57 (which has the same twin stack configuration as Duet), who was comfortable that the pad eye would be fine as long as it was installed below the cross piece.

So we started testing. High school geometry is not Nancy’s forte, fortunately it is Ron’s and, as it turns out, Kevin’s. The general idea is that the topping lift needs to be attached high enough to pull the pole up enough to create a compression load at the base of the pole, causing the pole to push into the boat, rather than just yanking down on the topping lift. But it can’t go too high, because then we run the risk of putting too much strain on the supporting stack.

The pole was held in place by Chris and Bill, while Ron, Jeff, Kevin and Brent assessed where to put the pad eye. Cameron held the pad eye. Nancy stayed, mostly, out of the way and took pictures. Kevin also contributed a really cool app on his smart phone which can calculate the angle of the pole when deployed. It is important that the pole be 25-30 degrees above the horizontal to create the needed compression load.

 

 

After much discussion, a location was chosen for the pad eye. A large stainless steel backing plate, to spread the loads on the stack, was chosen and drilled. Everyone took one more look, and then Kevin boldly drilled the stack. Up went the pad eye. In the picture below you can just see the stainless backing plate for the pad eye, on the inside of the port stack.

 

The resulting assembly was then tested on the dock, although we stopped short of anyone hanging on the end of the pole to simulate the flopper at work. Nancy and Ron will test it in the real world when we take the boat out in March.

 

 

As you can see from the above picture, the pole fits nicely against the eyebrow. We are still working on how to secure the aft end of it beyond the clip, as we don’t need it deploying by itself offshore. Unfortunately, the hardware that PAE normally uses for this has been discontinued, but we shall find a solution. In the meantime, when Duet is moving, the end of the pole is tied to the rod holder bracket on the aft eyebrow.

The final part of the installation was the big question of where to put the flopper itself? On our 46 the floppers (we had two since we had paravane poles on both sides, although we never used more than one), were stored on the boat deck, strapped to the rail. The flopper is big and awkward to move, so the closer to the deployment point the better. A rack was built for it behind the cockpit ladder, and a cover was made, so that it is neatly out of site. 

 

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, the flopper installation was something that Jeff’s team had not done before (unlike the crane) and uncharted territory is always daunting at the beginning.

The last of the big projects was the samson post installation. On our 46 Ron had installed a single custom stainless steel post. In the 50’s case, placement of a single post was difficult, as the cabin top comes very close to the back of the windlass. Also, the large custom post was quite an expensive bit of gear, so the Budget Committee was anxious to evaluate alternatives. For readers who did not follow the adventures of the first Duet, the post from the 46 is shown below. 

After much searching of web sites and catalogues and looking at other boats, Ron decided to install two smaller posts instead, much to the Budget Committee’s relief. Two looked better than one, and, although we could have done with one, looks are important. Also, sometimes we had more than one line on the 46’s post and, given these posts are smaller, two gives us more flexibility.

The posts are aligned fore and aft with the two rollers on the bow. They are also raised so they are level with the rollers, allowing for a fairlead to each post, rather than having lines foul either the windlass or the anchor pulpit. These posts will be used for the mainly for anchor snubber and other mooring lines.

They will also be used for the parachute storm anchor when we need it. It is our practice to set up a parachute storm anchor for deployment whenever we travel offshore, the idea being that if we break down we can sit to the anchor more comfortably than if we were just rolling about in a seaway, while Ron fixes whatever has broken. 

Installing the posts wasn’t that hard, especially compared to the flopper stopper rig. There was one little trick, however. Our Maxwell windlass has a manual crank, in the unlikely event it should fail. The reality is, cranking up several hundred feet of chain and the 154 pound Rocna is something Ron doesn’t even want to contemplate, but it might happen. Unfortunately, the posts block access to the section of the windlass where the manual crank is inserted. So they needed to be removable.

Jeff’s team came up with a well engineered solution, similar to that used for the crane. They installed a stainless plate, thru bolted to a backing plate in the chain locker. Below is a picture of the plate, with the 8 thru bolt holes and the 8 tapped bolts for the posts themselves.

 

Then they made a Paper Stone base and bolted it to the plate. Then the posts were bolted to the Paper Stone and tapped to the steel plate. This not only allows Ron to remove the bitts relatively quickly, as they are tapped, not thru bolted, but it spreads the loads more than just bolting directly through the deck to a backing plate. The Paper Stone was cut to fit the camber of the deck so the bitts are level and it was painted to match the deck. All in all, nicely done.

 

 

So far the posts have worked very well and we haven’t had to test whether they are removable, as the windlass has worked flawlessly.

 

Remaining smaller projects included the storm plates, which are heavy plastic (½ Lexan in our case) covers installed over exposed windows while traveling offshore. While Duet’s glass windows are between 3/8 (salon) and ½ (pilothouse) an inch thick, it is prudent to give them a little more protection in the event of a strike by a wave during storm conditions. The most exposed windows are those on the port side of the salon, as they are directly on the water. They will be covered any time we go offshore.

As an aside, Three-at-Sea, a Nordhavn 43 presently cruising off the coast of South America, was hit by a wave on the port side, and her aft most salon window was broken. She did not have her storm plates in place at the time. Her Captain’s theory is that an unfortunate sea turtle was flung into the window, as the weather was quite mild at the time of the incident and there were many turtles in the water. No one was hurt (other than possibly the turtle, if, indeed, a turtle was involved) and the window was replaced at the next stop.

 

The starboard salon windows will be covered in the event of a more significant storm on the horizon, as will the forward facing pilothouse windows, but these plates can be put on at sea. Nordhavn 50s, like some of the 57s, but unlike other Nordhavn models, have aft, rather than forward, raked pilothouse windows.

The windows are protected by a substantial eyebrow, but could, in a significant storm, be hit directly by a boarding wave. Despite extensive research, Nancy was unable to find any example of such an incident on a Nordhavn, but better safe than sorry, so plates have been made for all the windows. We also consulted Brent about what his father, Don, does on Starr, as she has similar aft raked pilothouse windows. Don is a very experienced mariner and he carries plates for his pilothouse windows, so we shall too.

The 50’s aft raking windows can clearly be seen in this ariel photo of N50#8, La Vagabunda del Mar.

 

Jeff has made plates before, and suggested we use hardware inserts in the plates to make it easier to install them. Duet already has the matching hardware on the boat side, stainless steel plates at the corner of each window, each with a bolt hole. We also have the bolts, courtesy of the first owner, but we ordered more, as the chances of them going in the water during installation or removal are quite high. The insert is shown below.

 

The salon plates were made, fitted and then carefully stored in a special rack built of Starboard, forward of the Portuguese bridge. They still have their paper covering on in the photo below. 

The rack was covered in a stamoid cover, to protect the plates, which can scratch. This rack is so unobtrusive that Ron walked right by it without even noticing it. Once the the pilothouse storm plates are completed they will be stored on either side of the center rack (shown below) two to a side, in their own racks with covers.

 

Duet’s previous owner also visited during the refit and dropped off four custom stainless steel screens for the salon windows, which had come with the boat when he bought her. These are great, as they solve a problem that we never solved very well on the 46, namely how to screen the windows without having to put canvas over the insides.

The team also completed the scupper covers. Nordhavns, as ocean going boats, need big holes in the deck sides, called scuppers, to make sure that any water which comes over the sides or the foredeck goes out fast. Scuppers on the aft and side decks are usually covered by a hinged, one way panel, called a scupper cover. The scupper cover lets water go out, but not come in, as often at sea waves are banging against the sides of boat, above scupper level. If the water gets in, it fills the side decks and cockpit, which is not something we want.

Some of the Nordhavn 50’s were built without scupper covers. The idea seemed to be that the scuppers are high enough up the hull that water will not enter them from the outside. As you can see in the photo below, the Nordhavn 50 has 4 scuppers on the starboard side, mainly to drain the side deck, and she also has one in the port cockpit. This photo is of Duet, in her previous life as Loreley, before the covers were installed. 

 

Consultation with other Nordhavn 50 owners indicated that water does come in during rough conditions, particularly in the aft deck. Having waves sloshing about in the aft deck is not something we were willing to sign up for, both because of the potential for causing instability and because there is a lot of critical gear in the lazarette.

The lazarette lid is supposed to be water tight, but the Nordhavn 40, Uno Mas, suffered a leak into her lazarette on the Nordhavn Atlantic Rally. Said leak shorted out her inverter, thereby shutting off her stabilizers. This was not a good thing in large Atlantic seas. A work around was implemented, but we would like to reduce the chances of having to figure that kind of thing out while rolling heavily from side to side.

Kevin and Michael patterned the covers, made them in Paper Stone, had them painted on both sides, one side the color of the hull and one the color of the inside of the deck and neatly installed them. Below is a photo of the port cockpit scupper cover from the inside. The following picture is of it from the outside. In the top photo, you can clearly see the retaining mechanism which lets water go out, but not come in. 

 

 

 

The only big issue remaining to be solved was the anchor and the chain. After much soul searching, Ron decided to give up trying to fit 400 feet of ½ inch chain into Duet’s chain locker. A useful formula from Dave Gerr’s Boat Mechanical Systems Handbook demonstrated that no matter how we crammed it in there, no more than 300 feet would fit. After checking with various friends who have anchored in Alaska, we decided that 300 feet was too short for comfort. So the ½ inch chain is now on Craig’s list for some lucky boater to acquire at less than half price.

400 feet of new 3/8 inch G40 chain was ordered and installed. The old 3/8 inch chain was BBB, which isn’t as strong as G40. As we couldn’t have the ½ inch, we wanted as much strength as we could get. It fit into the chain locker like it was made for it, which of course, it was. Funnily enough, the 46’s chain locker was much bigger than the 50’s, as the 46 didn’t have the bulbous bow and machinery space underneath.

The anchor retrieval problem, namely the shank pulling the chain off the windlass, remained an issue. Jeff, Chris, Brent, Ron and Kevin spent much time observing the problem and looking at other boats. Finally, a consensus was reached, we would add a second roller at the aft end of the bow roller. It is designed to go over the top of the chain, rather than under it. It should keep the chain down and flowing onto the windlass when the stock of the anchor comes up. The stainless piece has been made, but Ron hasn’t had time to install it yet, so we will provide a report on how works in the next log.

Last, but definitely not least, steps were installed into the bulbous bow. Getting down there is no joke, and there is equipment which must be maintained. While Nancy has no intention of ever going down there, after seeing the top of Ron’s head below her feet from the access area in the guest head, she realized that an easier method of ingress and egress would be required. Folding steps were installed and now Ron can climb in and out of there to his heart’s content.

Finally, we were getting close to finished. A refit is never truly finished, but the Budget Committee was getting restive, so this refit was declared finished. Kudos to Jeff’s team, who managed to not only do the work, but also keep us happy at the same time, which isn’t easy.

As an aside, we would like to note that, like all good folks, Jeff has a boatyard dog (actually several if you count office dogs, namely Adrienne’s wonderful Boston bulldogs). Sailor visited us several times, providing close supervision from the dock.

We also took advantage of Jeff’s connections to purchase various bits of gear, including safety gear, parts, etc. So endless boxes were carried onto Duet, and every time Ron and Nancy arrived it was rather like Christmas.