Blue Opal was built in 1998, and has a Raymarine navigation electronics suite from that era. On our trip in 2021, I used an Android tablet (with OpenCPN and a few other bits) as a cockpit-based MFD-like tool for charts access etcetera. This didn’t work out too well, due to the power consumption of the tablet (necessitating a charging lead to it most of the time), the poor nits level of the display, and the reflectivity of the screen. It was also a right pain to keep in front of me at the helm. Thus was born the desire to upgrade the navigation suite to a modern setup with MFD. I’ve been thinking about this on and off since then, and finally decided to actually get things moving this year.
I’d also been thinking about replacing Blue Opal’s engine mounts, as they’re also fairly old (and rusty), and given where the auto pilot linear drive is (behind the engine), it made sense to combine the jobs. I should have done it far earlier in the year, but I procrastinated a bit and then there was travel stuff, and life stuff, and suddenly I wasn’t arranging the lift-out (since the boat is in Malahide for winter) until mid-late May. This has meant we didn’t get to go sailing in the early summer that happened in May (Malahide is an hour away by either train or car), which is a pity. We did, however, go for beach walks and the like, so not all bad.
On the docket for this round:
- Replace the house batteries with a Titan Lithium 180Ah 12V battery
- Remove the engine from the engine bay
- Remove all the old sound insulation
- Replace the old sound insulation, and add more further back under the cockpit sole
- Replace the engine mounts
- Replace the starter motor, refurbish the old one
- Add a second fuel filter above the engine with a 10 micron filter
- The on-engine filter is basically inaccessible
- Replace the on-engine pleat filter for the fuel system and clean the bowl
- Check the impeller to see if it’s time to replace it
- Remove the old navigation system, leaving the instrument transducers in place
- Replace the linear drive for the auto pilot setup
- Install new navigation system, sticking with Raymarine for ease of re-use of transducers
- Replace anodes as needed
- Clean diesel tanks
- Install access hatch in the main water tank to enable easier cleaning