Planning

Having returned from France with lots of new information, sources and questions we set about the tasks at hand. Friends that set out on their JY51 in the Med had horror stories of equipment not showing up in time and scrambling to find the required and desired equipment to outfit the boat. I was determined to not have this happen to us, so I set about the task of ordering the big items; dinghy (Seago from UK), Self tacking jib (Technique Voile from France), Electric folding bikes (Brompton from London) and Linens (Beltrami from Italy). All these items had long  lead times and the commissioning yard was happy to store them for us until our arrival. My efforts paid off as all the items arrived in time.

The one item that was vexing was an outboard for the dinghy. We have a propane outboard on our current boat, but propane was not an option in Europe. I do not care for having gasoline on the boat so that left electric. There are more and more options for electric available today. I went with the Epropulsion Spirit with an integrated battery. As with everything else it had a lead time, but arrived in time.

The rest of the equipment seamed to be readily available from the Uship catalog and would be delivered to the store next to the commissioning yard. The only item eluding me was a custom Bimini and Dodger. I reached out to many canvas companies, but none were willing to do a custom assembly. We knew that we would have to have a bimini and dodger, so we relented and pursued a company located next to the commissioning yard with a set up that would be the factory configuration from a company called NV. At least we could get the color we wanted. The picture below is the configuration, but not the color.

Due to supply chain issues Beltrami was unable to get the Sunbrella fabric we wanted for the cockpit cushions. We checked our local sources and found what we wanted and decided to make the cushions ourselves. We needed to template the cockpit so we reached out to Mike and Linda in Anacortes to see if we could get back on Wicked. They were happy to accommodate us so we flew into Seattle and drove to Anacortes for a day of templating  the cockpit. While we were there it was a great opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the boat again.

Armed with patterns and measurements we set about ordering materials to fabric our cushions. This was a great winter project. In addition to the cushions we decided to do pillow shams to match the cushions. Eventually this led to selecting more fabric for accent pillows. Below are the fabrics and finishes.

Other tasks including engineering a way to plug our 110v boat into a 230v dock outlet and/or alternately install solar panels. My good friend Mike, an accomplished sailor and boat mechanic, helped me with both systems. I sourced the parts and will do the installation when I arrive at the boat. Another project will be to change the sea water fed heads to fresh water, we do everything we can to keep the head smelling good.

We were making great progress in our preparation for a boat delivery, scheduled for April 26 of 2022. Inevitably supply chain issues struck and we were notified that the boat would be delayed until sometime in June. We were a bit disappointed, but the reality was that we probably needed the time and we could slip over to France and see the boat in production!

Off to France....