Hello all and welcome to my first post. Sondra and I moving the boat 10 months before we actually slip the lines and go cruising has made people say the title of this post a few times.
A brief answer to this would be the ability to have trained professionals do work that Sondra and I are not really comfortable with or aren't confident that the boat won't explode or forever be scarred by our skills. North Florida is beautiful but there is a palatable lacking of specialized marine services outside of the norm. Sondra and I have a bunch of tasks that we can accomplish ourselves but here are a few items we are going to farm out to the professionals prior to October.
Lead acid to Lithium Battery Conversion
This is the big one. If you are familiar with all the advertisement of "drop in" lithium batteries (LiFePO4 Batteries) then you may know you really can't just drop in new Lithium Batteries and expect it to work to it's full potential. All my electronics, chargers, inverters, etc.. were installed before Lithium was a real possibility on boats so that all needs to be upgraded or at least considered. A short list would be: New Inverter/Charger, Battery Monitor systems (redundant from actually monitor on battery) AC/AC converters, new wiring, shunts, and a new high capacity alternator are big ones.
In theory I understand what to do and how it all goes together but so my Insurance doesn't drop me I will need an ABYC (The American Boat & Yacht Council) certified person to sign off on the work and that in itself makes me want to have someone do the work (and I really don't like to be shocked).
If you are interested in why we are going to Lithium post a question. I could make a huge post on the benefits but I don't want to make this too long.
Solar addition and Arch Modification
Utopia has 350 watts of Solar that we would like to bump up to 600 watts to extend our time at anchor and to further limit running the engine to charge the batteries. Adding this (I think) will have us do some modification to the arch and since I can't weld without
making it look like something Homer Simpson would make I intend to have professionals do the work. This work will also require new Solar Chargers for the new panels and to make sure it plays nice with the Lithium.
Whisker Pole and Rig Tune
Utopia is a great boat but we would like a little more ability to sail downwind in light air so I am going to have a easily deployable whisker pole that lives on the front of the mast. Selden makes a kit with tracks and blocks that will make setting up short handing easier. If Utopia already had a whisker pole I would just use that one but if we have to purchase one I want easily stowable and deployable.
The Rig tune is just a piece of mind to make sure it is tuned correctly presently. I have been messing about with it over the past few months and just want a professional rigger to take a look before we go off into the big blue.
So, in a nutshell that is one of the big reasons of moving down to St. Pete so much in advance of our departure. Having said this, we intend to take advantage of the area since the sailing is great and there are many places to explore right outside of our marina.
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