Archambault 31 Refit Update - Paul Cronin Studios

Yikes, the last week of February, it is hard to believe. Two months and I will be finishing up the bottom work at the yard getting ready to launch. It has been a good push since early December doing the refit on the A31. Covid has me spending most of my time in the shop.

It has been a busy boat with three to four jobs going on at a time.

I started this refit with 95 items on the list, and now I am down to 40 plus or minus, since I am adding and deleting as I go. Below are just a few examples of what is coming in the next two Episodes, 60 & 61.

Electrical System:

In January I pulled all the 12-volt wiring out of the boat, except the engine wiring, and main battery wires. The rest needed replacing to be up to ABYC code. Also there were changes by the last owner, and boat yard that scared me. But that is now all completed to ABYC standards, not twisted wires against pressure fittings as done by the factory.

This is my third full boat rewiring since I took the ABYC course. I enjoy the process. Starting at all the fitting and bringing the wires back to the board with excess, before adding terminal block, bus bar, and fuse blocks. But it takes a lot of time. I even found wires that made no sense which were just pulled. I keep messengers running in all the hard to reach areas.

Once I was done I connected batteries and turned on the system, and was very happy with the results. It was great to see how accurate the Victron BMV 700 battery monitor is when looking at amp draw. This confirmed the specifications for the fuses on the light loads, and the bigger loads on the breakers. I also added a few new items that I will show in the next episode.

New wiring with temp labels, new labels coming

B&G cleaning up

I went through all the B&G NMEA 2000 wiring and cleaned up what I did in a hurry last summer to get sailing. Everything is labeled with a few new fittings to keep the contact at connections solid. Also I wired in a back up autopilot, Vesper AIS, and new VHF.

Fresh Water System:

I pulled the pressure fresh water system. Pressure fresh water on a 31’ boat to me is silly. And I do not find need for water in the head sink. In the galley I prefer a foot pump that is plumbed to one 30 gal soft tank three feet away. This is a project that I will finish next month, since I just pulled the plumbing when I pulled the wires.

Cockpit and Pit Area:

New pit setup for 3-reefs, 3- spin, jib, main, SS/SJ, tack, vang, cunningham, foreguy

The cockpit is stripped of all the hardware except the main traveler, winches (which I fully serviced) and the backstay U-Bolts. The new Pod is in build as I write this, and once that is finished this week, I can get all the new Ronstan hardware installed for a nice singlehanded setup. This setup will be similar to the last boat but with some nice improvements. There is a lot going on here, which I will cover in more detail in Episode 61, Feb Overview.

Fill one of three holes in cockpit. Old VHF speaker

So with so much going on, and a tight time frame I though it would be nice to give you a short update. I am editing nights for episode 60 & 61 so they are coming.

Hope all of you have been following the Vendee Globe? What an amazing race, the absolute top of our sport in my eyes, bar none. Every sailor, and team has a story worth reading. So many heroes.

Then there is the America’s Cup, fun to watch the replay for us the next night with cocktails on the window seat.

NOTE:

I am going to set up shorthanded training weekends out of Narragansett Bay. If people are interested contact me.

Keep safe, have fun, great the vaccine is here. We are planning on an exciting season of sailing.

See you soon, Paul