Chip & Debbie Willis on s\v Elegant'sea: 2025

Debbie finished off the hatch covers 2025

The finished product. Debbie finished off the last of four Bomar - Pompanettellc Hatch, 100 series covers. The white Sunbrella will help keep the boat cooler. They have bungee chord sewn in and a small line on each one that we tie to a hinge to keep them onboard in case of high winds that may dislodge them.

New hatch covers by Debbie 2025

Debbie is making new hatch covers for our Bomar - Pompanettellc Hatch, 100 series. These are stock hatches for our Islander Freeport 36ft plan B sail boat. The buyer had choices on the selection of hatches and our boat has four 20×20 inch hatches.

Today we tested our Standard Horizon MATRIX AIS+ VHS radio with our Digital VHF/UHF 125-525Mhz Antenna Power & SWR Meter. We have an Antena splitter for the vhf radio and our Vesper Marine smartAIS XB 8000 ais system.

About two years ago one one two life lines that hold our stern steps when they are down and in the water broke. We stopped in Mazatlan on the way to the Sea of Cortez and had amsteel lines installed but they did not have a swedge machine.

While having some deck painted by Chava we decided to have the top of the binical painted.

We realized we needed a longer cord for our electric pump that we use for inflatables. Most of the time we use a hand pump but now it seems we want to use our electric pump.

Debbie is finishing up on our Spectra Ventura 200T water maker watermaker flush hose relocation.

Today Debbie and I launched our Achilles LSI dinghy and we are putting new grab lines on the dinghy tubes. Our old ones have been eaten by the sun and salt. Our dinghy is about 12 years old.

We had our non-skid painted on the decks 2025

The painting of the gunels, sail track areas and non-skid looks really good. Also the area by the winches and back around to the stern steps were painted and look great.

Debbie made us a companionway hatch boards storage container from some Sunbrella. It has been working out great!

Our Beta 38 temperature guage stopped working on the enging control panel.

We have tried grounding the wire from the sensor to the block, the guage should peg out but does not.

Debbie decided it was time for new winch covers. We had purchased the fabric (Sunbrella) a while back. Inside of the cover there is a choker (bungee) to keep the cover on the winch in windy weather.

We had Sirgio of Dawn Rigging here in La Paz Mexico splice and whip our hurricane lines (three 25-foot lengths of 5/8" Sampson double braid).

New guitar case, shaker 2025

On Wednesday of each week at Club Cruceros (in Marina de LaPaz) there is a musician jam session. I have been attending the last few weeks with my guitar (and harmonica) and have been enjoying it.

New house batteries for s/v Elegant'sea. Our old house batteries lasted about five years. They are not holding a charge as well now. They do run down quicker at anchor not leaving us many ah in the over 70% range at night.

Our new battery.

OK, time for a new Beta 38 hp diesel engine starting battery. The one we have is a bit over seven years old and they are supposed to last seven to eight years. We think it is not cranking the engine over fast enough for it to start quickly. It starts but after several cranks.

We are in the boat yard for a bottom job at Marina Palmar. Not a problem getting in there but we had a really hard time backing out of our slip and up the fairway in Marina de La Paz. First time backing out of our slip.

We just had Dawn Rigging fix our Harkin traveler line. The line was originally spliced by Downwind Marine in San Diego but the splice is now stiff and too big to go through the sheave at the other end.

Today we purchased a bronze check valve for our fresh water system project. It is 3/4 inch so we are reducing it to 1/2 inch for our water lines. This will go in our cold water line just before the hotwater tank.

We had Sergio and Carlos from Dawn Rigging (Buceo Bahia) upgrade our topping lift. We had them use dyneema line. It is white and it needed to be longer which it is.

Having the forward gunels painted started this expanding project. Actually it was repairing a scupper that I had done but was looking a bit ugly. I asked Chava if he could fix it up and paint the area. We'll he did and it looked so good we decided to have the two forward gunels painted.

We have finished installing our hot water heater and have tested it out. It is working with both 110 volt and 12v solar. The solar is not much but worming the water some now as it is in the low 50's at night and upper 70's 🌡 daytime here in La Paz.

The other day Debbie removed a salon seat cover and stitched it up by hand. The cover was big and a bit hard to remove from the curved seat and would have been too hard to sew on our Sailrite sewing machine. Debbie sat in the cockpit and sewed it up which was not easy but necessary so it would not rip or split open further.

Debbie wiring up the new Whale Premium Water Heater - 3 or 6-Gallon Capacity - 120V - Perfect for Boats and RV.

During the installation of our new Hot Water Heater, we thought we might have to replace the breaker. So that prompted us to take inventory of the current electrical panel and the spare breakers we have on-hand. We didn't have to switch out the breaker after all yet it's nice to know what we have and what we need to purchase on our next USA shopping trip!

This is the last of three Caframo Sirocco fans we installed. Two were black ones in the salon and stateroom and this white one in the head. This one can also swivel around and help the fans in the stateroom. More importantly this fan will help with the shower heat to push it out the hatch and potholes and also it will cool the toilet area when it is needed there.

We removed our 12,000 btu built in HVAC unit and then removed our 6 gal water heater. We had the help of Chava and his worker Teto for the lifting and caring out to the dock of the two units.

This is an older picture but it is the same element.

We purchased a new split element for our new hot water heater that we also purchased this last sumer. As we thought, we couldn't remove the old element from our current leaking water heater.

l The satin varnishing of hard to reach places and cubby's is at the finish line! This nav station project area was the last of the larger satin areas on the boat to be done. The previous owner had installed a battery selector switch here which we removed and we put a teak cover on the hole. A couple small easy access spots are left to satin varnish but is it. This about completes the interior varnishing of our 1978 Islander Freeport 36ft plan B sail boat.

Guitar holder mounted 2025

his little project was simply putting up a guitar holder. If the guitar is hard to get at it does not get played. It also has to be boat seaways friendly. Meaning it is not going to go flying in a blow with rocky seas. This fits that check box and ease of use check box. Now the old Bora fan screw holes will be a bit more challenging.

Debbie is finished with the dinghy chaps. We have a 10.2 Achilles dinghy which is about 12 years old and still in great shape. We store it out of the sun in hurricane season and have the chaps that Debbie originally made on it the rest of the time. This year the chaps got a major refit by Debbie re-stitching lots of areas and replacing and adding chafe.

Here is another use for the helm seat, a work bench. I had to fabricate a couple pieces of teak and needed a spot to work.

This year and forward we are having Chava varnish our teak on the outside of our boat. It is a once a year job and because we cover the grab rails a lot they are about a three year job.

This is the first coat of satin varnish. The trim where the luvared doors go will be gloss. As you may know the gloss can cover the satin varnishing easily but not the satin, it will not cover gloss. It would come out looking a dull gray. Any way it is looking better than the pictures show.

Today I did some prep under our nav station. We have already done the hard part which was varnish the louvered doors.

Debbie is working on re-stitching our dinghy chaps and replacing some chafe on the chaps. A big job yet it needs to be done.

First coat of satin varnish on the stateroom under bed storage area. This in not the storage are under the matress. That is a separate area.

We finished off the satin varnishing in our stateroom behind where our teak luvered privacy shutters go.

The storage area under the bed is the last major place on our Islander Freeport 36' sailboat plan B that has not been varnished.

Did a bit of varnish prep in the stateroom today. Washed and sanded with #220 the area with TSP. Tomorrow a coat or two of satin varnish, then gloss will go on the upper trim. Chava took the privacy shutters to put more coats on them. I thought I better get my butt in gear and get this part done before the shutters come back!