BRAVO Refit - Weeks 4 thru 9

YES, you read that correctly......Week bloody NINE !!!!!

Our refit project continues forward, albeit at a truly glacial pace.  It's a helluva lot of work.  We took a few weeks off to travel with Seattle amigos David and Diana, making it deep into the South Island.  Had some great adventures, and saw some wonderful sights.....Another blog post will follow shortly on that journey.

But there is progress on several of Bravo's fronts...

Fuel tanks: 

Mock-ups of the 3 starboard tanks awaiting fabrication.  Not a right angle in the lot!

The last couple of days have been big ones...Thursday afternoon saw the stainless steel tank installs completed.

The tanks are true works of art, we hate to cover them up.  Welding doesn't get much better than this.  I finished the plumbing in the afternoon and called a tanker truck company to deliver fuel to the boatyard for Friday morning.

We filled the starboard side first (3 tanks plumbed together as one).  Went without a hitch, and we calibrated the sight glass at 270 litres.  No leaks!!!!!  We then started the fuel running into the port tank, and immediately saw a leak at the filler.  Not a total surprise, as the filler neck had a couple of tight bends to navigate, and the hose just wasn't up to the task.  Bummer.

We had the tank welder make up a custom filler neck in stainless steel.  This morning we had the truck back, and loaded up on 210 liters of fuel....with NO leaks!  YEEEEE-HAH, a real success.  We can now start to rebuild our home, reconstructing the demolished bulkheads and cabinetry, and reinstalling the watermaker, rebuilt generator, dodger and bimini.  Should be a a few more weeks of work remaining, and the leaky fuel tank episode, begun in Ecuador well over a year ago, will be a closed chapter in the Bravo history book!!!

Painting:  The hull has now been painted from the rail to the waterline.  2 coats of primer followed by 2 coats of finish paint.  The cove and boot stripes are freshly painted, and the bottom paint awaits spraying.  Looking SHARP!!!

Exterior woodwork:  Scraping off of all old varnish is finished, and we've begun sanding to get ready for the new finishes to follow.  Hopefully if the forecast rain holds off, we will be completely sanded within the next week.  (yes, we have LOTS of woodwork)

Freezer:  Foam insulation shipment arrived last week, and we picked up the new compressor in Auckland last week.  Started this weekend on building the new box, completing the vapor barrier today.  Should complete the box construction this week.  Lid fabrication will likely take a couple of more weeks, then we'll be ready for new countertops.

Rigging:  The boom came back from the welder, and looks great.  We had a lot of reinforcing work done of weakened areas, and installed a new reefing system.  We are also replacing the rest of the standing rigging, and that should be finished in the next few days.

Sails:  Our main sail and genoa have both been repaired, and await pickup.

Canvas:  We received our new dinghy cover (old one was stolen when the dinghy and motor went on walkabout from the Whangarei town dock)  Also had repairs made on the dodger and bimini.

Mechanical systems:  Generator is in the shop, having completed a major refurbishment, including injectors, injection pump, heat exchanger, and substituting many of our new spare parts in storage for those on the genset, so we should be good to go for many more hours.....(knock on wood!!!)  Engine will get it's 1000 hour service when we're back in the water.
 

Those are the major pieces to our refit puzzle.  Lot's of minor ones interspersed, of course....tracking and stopping leaks, rebedding port holes, reinstalling all hardware removed for the painting work, reinforcing the rubber tubes of the dinghy, regalvanizing our anchor and chain, other rigging modifications, etc.  It's coming, but slowly.

Stay tuned for a photo and travel blog update on our terrific recon journey around this terrific country.

BONUS PHOTO:  Shipwright next door to us shows true kiwi ingenuity!!!