Deltaville Refit

Hi everyone,

We flew back to the US east coast a week before Easter.  We stayed with friends John & Sharon in Reston VA for a couple of days where we collected an array of packages they'd held for us.  Then we drove down to Deltaville Yachting Centre, Deltaville VA.  Time for a mini refit of Zen Again!

Deltaville!

DYC is a great place to store and refit boats.  Very cheap for storage on the hard.  Staying aboard is permitted, as is working on your own boat.  There's a yard car available for free but limited to Deltaville town.  The facilities are good and staff are great.  There are many boating-related companies in the town plus a large West Marine store.

DYC office building

West Marine Deltaville

We spent the week before Easter staying with OCC Port Officers Chris and Bill.  We had a hire car (which on collection morphed into a crew-cab/ute (aka 'the truck').  From Easter we stayed at an AirBnB run by another OCC Port Officer Terry.  Both much nicer than staying aboard Zen Again on the hard in cold weather.  And the hire car allowed us to travel far & wide.

From 22 March to 9 April the refit included...

• Cleaning, tidying and sorting out
• Checking key systems - house batteries OK, engine battery discharged, Mac Mini computer OK
• Loosen shrouds in preparation for mast unstep
• Mast unstepped by the yard
• Remove both old electical cables from mast, pulling through VB cord with the old cables
• Clean Autoprop propellor and shaft and fit new anodes
• Pull-through new mast electrical cables and terminate at masthead and first spreaders
• Polish stainless mast and deck fittings
• Fit new 20kg Manson Supreme anchor (keeping 16kg unit as spare)
• Service windlass, including swapping gypsy for 10mm version
• Big sort out below during a day of heavy rain
• Remove old VHF antenna and bracket, and replace with new Shakespeare unit
• Remove old RG-213 VHF coax, pulling through new LMR-400 coax
• Terminate and connect new VHF coax at masthead
• Remove start battery and use to test mast cables
• Service spreader caps, replace some mast split pins and inspect mast overall
• Confirm Tides Marine SailTrack measurements using test carriage
• Apply Propspeed to prop and shaft, sharing a medium pack with sv Leventeia
• Drive to Annapolis, buy 60m of new 10mm HighTest chain, return and fit
• Liaised with Tides Marine and yard then drilled new 'gate' in mast slot
• Galley stocktake and reorg
• Boom Tent and Rain Catcher canvas repaired by Mission Canvas
• Dodger canvas repaired and side clears added by Mission Canvas
• Connect two new Lifeline batteries to the two old pair after equalising voltages
• Removed old mains and alternator charger from pedestal
• Removed old mains wiring from pedestal and saloon
• Fitted new inverter/charger to pedestal
• Fitted SailTrack to mast
• Trial inflation of new KAM200 Highfield AirFloor dinghy
• Rekey Coppercoat antifoul and clean sea cocks
• Mast stepped by yard
• Launch Zen Again and fill water tanks at service dock

Cleaning the Bruntons Autoprop

Preparing the Propspeed

Propsped

New VHF antenna and LMR-400 coax

New 10mm (3/8") chain for us and sv Leventeia
in the back of our 'truck'

Two new Lifeline 100Ah LiFePo4 batteries added

Dodger canvas with patches and new side clears

Tides Marine SailTrack kit

SailTrack foot

SailTrack fitted

About to get wet!

We had a single day off during this period.  We moved back aboard a couple of nights prior to relaunching.  Twas good to be back aboard.

From 10 to 21 April the refit included...

• Refitted dual PVC tubes to pushpit (used to stow oars, boat hooks, brooms etc)
• Refitted line tail bags to pushpit
• Hoist & furl yankee
• Fitted new hose to pushpit and mounted Torqeedo electric outboard
• Delivered staysail to Evolution Sails for new UV shield and head repairs
• Purchase and fit new starter battery (300CCA sealed lead-acid)
• Fitted small inverter and dual new Victron 30A Orion-TR chargers in quarterberth
• Fitted Starlink in quarterberth after resplicing cable to shorten
• Test engine with new starter battery and alternator chargers
• Test fitted new mainsail and boombag - both have issues
• Delivered mainsail and boombag to Evolution Sails, and collected staysail
• Hoist & furl staysail
• Fitted Maretron DSM410 NMEA2000 display and Pelagic Autopilot Controller in cockpit
• Fitted Vesper Cortex handsets in NavStation and cockpit
• Fitted Pelagic Autopilot Drive in quarterberth
• Fitted new Airmar DST810 transducer
• Fed mast cables through deck fitting and VHF coax onward to NavStation
• Refit canvas rain catcher to goal post
• Remove old VHF
• Recommission HF/SSB including new backstay feed
• Drill & chisel path for mains cables from inverter/charger to galley
• Connect inverter/charger AC In from shore power RCD
• Connect inverter/charger AC Out to house power outlets in galley
• Test thermos kettle, induction hob and all battery chargers from inverter/charger
• Configure Vesper Cortex handsets and Maretron DSM410 user display pages
• Test run Torqeedo
• Attach Harken Carbo blocks with new dyneema lashings
• Rig mainsheets, boom brake and stern lift lines
• Replace anchor snubber chain hook
• Splice painter for new dinghy
• Test radar
• Fit two new Viking 10kg composite propane tanks
• Update software on Mac Mini boat computer

New Airmar DST810 transducer

AirmarCAST iPhone app (via Bluetooth)

Victron 1600W/70A inverter/charger

Electric thermos-kettle and induction hob

Dual redundant Victron 30A alternator controllers
plus small inverter powering Starlink 

Pelagic Autopilot drive unit (at top)

NavStation with Cortex handset

Cockpit coaming with Cortex handset,
Pelagic autopilot controller and Maretron display

It's been pretty much flat-out for over four weeks.  Our original goal was to depart Deltaville by Anzac Day on 25th April.  We may just make it.  The only things holding us back are the mainsail and boombag.

Despite the hard work it's been a fun time.  We've had one OCC get-together and another is happening this evening.  There's another Australian boat, sv Leventeia from Sydney, here at DYC which has been great.

OCC get-together with sv Leventeia and local Port Officers

It's great having enough mains power to run the kettle or induction hob.  That should save us a lot of propane.  Hopefully the new electronics and autopilot will perform well.

Let's go sailing!