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Reefmagnet · 18-10-2012, 17:29

See a few Q's relating to projects on here from time to time. Thought I would post up my album of work my wife and I done to our Vega during her recent refit.

The album kind of runs backwards and some photos are out of order, but it gives the general idea of the sequence of work involved.

http://photobucket.com/missisle

Any way, some info on this refit...

Major refit areas:

Repair, fair and paint hull
Convert back to inboard from previous outboard conversion
Rewire and update electrics
Refurbish mast, standing and running rigging
Reapply barrier coat to underwater hull
Add chain locker and anchor winch
Replace all hoses and through hulls as needed

This took us 14 months to do with both of us working most weekends and holidays over the period although we only did about 8 to 10 hours on site on a weekend on average. Initially we thought we would take about 3 months because we were just going to give the boat a tidy up and re-engine. Problem is, once you start going over with a fine tooth comb...

Cost wise, I stopped counting when we hit the amount the that represented what a decent example of this boat would cost. That was at about month 5! Fortunately, a project like this allows you to "pace" your spending so the financial hit week to week isn't all that great although there was a surge in costs in the week or two leading to relaunch. The only external work we paid for was for the new standing rigging to be made, and new lifeline wires made and installed. We also paid to have the fridge regassed. One thing we did to save money was list the items we needed to buy right at the start. This allowed us ample time to hunt down these items at discount rates from either overseas or ebay. Main lesson learned costs wise is don't forget to factor in yard fees when undertaking a project, as the longer the project duration, the larger they add up and this is dead money that has zero return on "investment".

This was the third boat we have refitted, and I vowed after the second we would never, ever do another one

. I can say though that considering the amount of work required on even a boat of this size (27 foot) I have hence forth given the wife strict instructions to bitch slap me senseless should I ever suggest buying another boat needing anything more then a minor going over and regular maintenance!

Cheers - Jeff.