Ventolines, the second one, is on the hard, at Ross Marine in Charleston. We have a lot of work to get done:
- Thru-hulls serviced or replaced
- Mast pulled, rewired
- Mast step inspected and corrosion fixed
- Install Raymarine radome
- New standing rigging
- Inspect mast
- Replace wire/rope halyards with all line, necessitating a change in sheaves
- Pull and inspect chainplates, replace if necessary
- New bottom, at least paint.
All this is being done to keep the boat on top of the water and moving along. Once this work is done (and maybe some other things) I can begin replacing hoses, rewiring the DC circuits inside the boat. My goal is to be done with the serious work by the end of April so I can have a summer family cruise to shake her down in June. Probably to the Bahamas.
While the boat is out, and sailing is at a minimum, I want to work on a few things that I will shoot some video for and write about here. First, I am creating a house bank from Winston LiFePO4 cells. Next I am installing a new charger/inverter that can care for those LiFePO4 cells like they should be. Finally, maybe finally, I want to add 2 or 3 high wattage panel and MPPT charge controller so I can fill that bank off grid. LifePO4 really doesn’t like the traditional 3 stage charging that Lead Acid/AGM like, so this will be a bit more complicated than normal.
I may do each of these in reverse order. Each module I am looking at can be programmed for Lead Acid or for LifePO4, so I can work out the kinks prior to attempting to destroy $2400 worth of Lithium cells.