Maz Ocean meeting

Refitting a boat with upgrades and new gear takes some figuring out and planning, here we all put our heads together to come up with a perfect solution

Mast work

The mast cars were good but we replaced the ball bearings inside, allowing for a smoother and easier hauling of the Mainsail

Craig and Lithium Ion batteries

Craig from Maz Ocean in Dania Beach did our electronics upgrades. Here he shows how little a powerful Lithium Ion Battery is. Valence brand 139 amp/hrs $1900 US each. Lithium Ion can be drained to 5% and will take all the charging power you can give it until they are full at 100% allowing almost full capacity use for the boater.

Previous Lead Acid house battery

We replaced these big bad and HEAVY batteries with the Valence Lithium Ion Batteries. Lead acid cannot be drained less than 50% of their capacity and will quickly charge up to 80% then its a slow charge to 100% leaving most days just 30% of actual usage available to the boater.

Solar Arch install

John crafted our large Solar Arch from anodized aluminum. It holds our 980 Watts of Solar panels up above our boom alleviating any chance of shadowing that causes a drop in charge.

Solar Arch

The newly fabricated and installed Solar Arch for holding our 980 Watts of Solar Panels.

John installing Solar Arch

The Solar Arch installed on the back of the Catamaran anchored at the edge of the Sugar scoops.

Cole working on his own projects

We spent January at Harbour Towne Marina, Cole made friends with all the tradesmen and hung out at their shop doors learning and helping.

Craig and Brad

Craig from Maz Ocean working on wiring the Solar Panels to our house system

Cole building

Cole made friends with Woodchuck wood shop carpenters and began building his own wood building projects.

Chaos in the Cockpit

With Tradesmen working on our boat 5 days a week, 7:30 am until 5pm our boat was constantly in confusion

Brad working on his project

Always working on projects while at Harbour Towne Marina

Washing the Sail bag

Mildew accumulates on fabric exposed to rain and other elements. We removed the Mainsail bag and here Krista scrubs with soap and water bringing it back to good as new!

Mainsail bag

Cleaning the Mainsail bag at Harbour Towne Marina. Spelling is correct : )

Clean, clean clean!

Cole is cleaning the residue left behind from the previous name decals

Mainsail bag

Cleaning mildew off the Mainsail bag

Brad in the engine room

These engine rooms have enough room for a 6' 4" guy to get inside, maneuvering around is another story!

At Harbour Towne Marina

A few moments of reflection in between refit jobs. Cole was so patient and helpful through out it all...

Future home for batteries

Under a bed, the future home of our Lithium Ion Batteries and their control center

wiring

Cushions removed so that new wiring could be run underneath for much of the electronics.

Tony

Tony running wires

Krista

Krista making good use of our old lines. She's making fender ties from the old running rigging (boat ropes)

Old rope there is lots on a Sailboat

We had all the running rigging replaced with new high tech rigging, this is a partial pile of the old rope ready to be disposed of. Left at the side of a dumpster, it was soon claimed by people that made good use of it.

Brad

Contemplating all that is going on...

Cole and Daddy

Chilling on the fore deck at Lauderdale Marina

Mainsail taken off

We pulled the Mainsail off the boat and sent it to the sail loft to be cleaned and to have the stitching inspected and repaired where necessary. We have since replaced it with a new Main Sail.

Mainsail

Mainsail taken down for delivery to the sail loft

Up the Mast

We had the rigging company inspect the mast and the main rigging, they recommended it be replaced so we did that too

Up the mast!

All the way up to inspect and replace rigging

Original fridge and freezer

Pit fridges can help keep things colder based on their design but convenience of use is terrible. We removed them both and replaced them with a front loading stainless steel fridge. We have yet to complain.

Wiring

The new electronics have to be wired to command central here in the electrical panel.

Rear of the helm panel

This is the helm naivagtioin panel where the gauges are all installed. These will all be replaced with 2016 models. Wind speed, Depth, AutopPilot, Chart plotter including 25 mile Radar and AIS transceiver.

Raymarine navigational

The new Raymarine navigational equipment in boxes waiting to be installed

Tony

Tony works on installing the Raymarine navigational components.

Raymarine

Brand new still in the box Raymarine Navigational components.

Engel fridge/freezer 12V

We have two of these on SA3. One larger for Deep freeze and one smaller for additional galley refrigeration.

It's like Christmas!

Its like Christmas everyday here as our new equipment arrives daily. This boat will be sweetly outfitted when we are all done!

Chaos

As I've said, it was Chaos for almost 3 months while we practically gutted our Cat and refurbished her with everything new!

We Bought a CATAMARAN

This was the first day we took possession of Saltair 3. Here She is being hauled out for a better inspection.

Cool Cat

Cole is just as excited as we are!

Haul out

Steady as she goes! Being hauled out at Broward boat yard, a DUSTY place! If you don't mind your boat constantly covered in dust then Broward is fine

Hauling out

Hauling out

Broker James at the helm

There were a few bad experiences when buying out first Cat. James our broker was not one of them, but the guy to the left "Jeff Hahn" we cannot recommend. Details upon request.

Cole feeling the Chaos

Living aboard while all this work was going on was tough, somedays more than others...

Jeff Hahn

Our surveyor doing his lame survey in between eating sandwiches and enjoying his day out on the sea

Unbound as she was originally named

The day we found our Catamaran Saltair 3

is this the one?

Our first day seeing our future floating home

Cole and James

James sailed with us on our inaugural journey to the Bahamas, although James got off at Miami it was sure nice to have him along for the first part of the adventure.

Fuel gauge

Our fuel gauge can stick occasionally so I made a back up, a stick to be a fuel gauge, simple enough... : )

Custom cabinetry

We had Dennis Boatworks do some Custom Cabinetry for us. This is one of the installs his guy Luigi Corso did for us, excellent job Luigi. See the kitchen renovation for more excellent work

Outboard run great!

Joel took our outboard from us for a month while he waited for parts from Japan to get our yamaha 15 hp running like a top! Thanks Joel it runs perfect!

LED light bulb

Our whole boat is outfitted with LED bulbs. Where a typical boat bulb draws 40 Watts these LED's draw 3 Watts! Amazing

LED light bulbs

Showing front and back this LED draws 1 Watt. Our whole boat is outfitted with LED bulbs. Where a typical boat bulb draws 40 Watts these LED's draw 3 Watts! Amazing

too many Watts!

These bulbs draw 40 Watts and the little one draws 25 Watts.

Maz Ocean Crew

Hanna, Craig, Alex, Cole and Paul

Clothes Washer

This is our Panda portable clothes washer. Read our review of it on our REVIEWS page

Cole n Daddy

Engine work and Cole is helping

AFTER

This picture is an after picture of the Galley

Brad Storm

Cole lends a hand while Brad Storm the rigger and I, Brad Porter raise the Mainsail after inspection

John Bimini

This is John from Lauderdale. He did our new Bimini and did an excellent job!

New Bimini

The new Bimini is being fitted onto the frame

New Bimini

The new Bimini is fitted onto the frame. Such an amazingly large Bimini it provides much needed shade in the heat of the day and rain protection

Galley refit

Galley refit is coming along

Galley refit

The Template is fit and the sinks will be cut out and the laminate glued on to the top

Galley refit

The new Galley counter top is being glued down in place. Love the new look and the extra space we gained by replacing the counter top and covering in useless factory counter design

Helm navigation

The whole set of electronics was installed. including the amazing E7 Hybrid touch screen chart plotter.

Sail Drives

Here sit the new sail drives waiting to be installed

Unbound

Still called Unbound, our Catamaran sits in the boat yard with many tradesmen working on her daily

Stanchion bases

Some things have to come straight out of France from Fountaine Pajot direct. Luckily we found a wonderful girl there with loads of knowledge and she was able to help us get these stanchion bases

Cockpit

The Bimini frame with the old Bimini cover removed awaiting the new improved fabric made to fit the large frame. We LOVE the protection this large Bimini gives

Aaaaggghhh!

Some days we all felt like pulling our hair out! Stressful but exciting days to be sure!

New fridge install

Getting ready to cut out the fiberglass wall to make room for our new front loading high efficiency stainless steel fridge

Fridge install

Marking the area and getting ready to cut out the fiberglass wall to make room for our new front loading high efficiency stainless steel fridge

Pit fridge and freezer

WE removed the pit style fridge and freezer and the engine driven cold plates. Now we run completely off of 12 Volt with a low draw high efficiency front loading fridge. Many don't agree. No complaints here

Old pit freezer

Engine driven pit freezer with large cold plates.

Cold plates

one last look at the engine driven cold plates of the pit freezer and fridge. Not much room left with these big cold plates

old sinks

The old sinks and counter tops way before the renovation begins.

toilet!?

New toilet waiting to be installed and the kitchen counters are the old ones. The stove is new but cannot be installed until the counter tops are finished and installed

New stove

New stove waiting for the new counter tops, then it can be installed

Counter top choices

These were the choices we narrowed it down to.

New fridge!

Felt like Christmas so many days when new items would arrive!

New front loading fridge

This is the stainless steel front loading fridge we replaced our pit style fridge freezer with

New fridge

Interior shot of the new fridge

Face...

What does that face mean?

temporary stove install

We needed somewhere to cook while waiting for our counter top to be finished and installed. The stove could not be installed until the counters were done, so I temporarily installed the stove so Krista could cook : )

Glasses?

I'm getting older and my eyesight is my tell tale

old ugly stove

This stove didn't even work when we purchased the boat, although we were told it definitely did. We didn't have any propane to test it and took the sellers word. New stove cost us $1250.oo : (

old stove

Before picture of the old stove we were told worked, turned out it did not! : (

Pit fridge and freezer

Before shot of the pit fridge and freezer. We removed them both and cut out the open space in from to install the new front loading fridge with freezer

Old throttle controls

We replaced these tired throttle controls with new chrome controls. I do not have a picture of the new controls yet but will post one asap. New throttles cost $800.oo including new control cables.

Old electronics

All the Nav instruments were replaced with 2015 models and a larger E7 Hybrid touch display chart plotter taking control of it all. It creates it's own wifi network. More on that later in REVIEWS

old instruments

All replaced with 2015 nav instruments.

old nav instruments

one more picture before the AFTERS get posted.