Once upon a time, there was a young couple preparing to go cruising. They bought every book they could get their hands on, including one called “Upgrading the Cruising Sailboat”* by a man named Dan Spurr (and illustrated by the incomparable Bruce Bingham.)

There are many pieces of practical refit advice in the book. What stands out to me, though, is his matter-of-fact relating of the major refit project he undertook on his own boat, a 28’ Pearson Triton. He allocated 6 weeks of working after work and on weekends to completely redo the interior of his boat, including changing out the v-berth, the table, the refrigeration, the galley, and the cushions.

Six WEEKS???? My questions are numerous.

1. Are you sure this is not a typo? Did you mean to say six MONTHS and not weeks? Even 6 months seems an ambitious timeline for all of this work.

2. Did you have a phalanx of helpers, somehow all pint-sized yet strong as Paul Bunyan and filled with endless energy for going up and down the companionway carrying all manner of tools and such, stuffed into the boat with you?

3. Were you living on the boat at the time?

4. How did you organize the projects, and how the HELL did you deal with the inevitable “oh look at that. Now I need to add xxx to the list!” issues that popped up?

5. What workshop space did you have access to? What tools did you use?

6. What was the finish level like? Did you have to spend endless months later making it all look pretty? Was utilitarian the look you were going for initially?

7. Do you have any before, during, and after photos, good ones, that show the process?

8. Is the local hardware store a 5 second walk from the boatyard? Or did you have someone running errands and feeding you and taking care of all the niggly details that take some insane amount of time?

And most importantly - are you available to help us come knock out our project list on Calypso in a similar timeline? I’ll bribe you with homemade pizza.

As a comparison. We’re allocating as much time as it takes (maybe this is issue #1) to do the “must be done before we can shove off” projects. We’ll be working after work (work day shifted to end at 4 pm so we can start boat work with a semblance of daylight) and on weekends. This list includes:

• retrofitting the main salon to have a pull-out double on the port side, including a modification of the table and getting all new cushions made for the salon settees

• gutting and rebuilding the galley, including a complete remodel of the chart table to incorporate an ARB refrigerator on slides

• modifying the quarterberth as part of the chart table re-build

• completely redoing the interior 12-volt wiring system, including re-positioning the batteries

• installing an electric windlass

Any guesses as to how long this will take? (in the middle of all of this we need to prep, list, and sell our house. Which is 3 hours away from where we have the boat.)

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