Over the past three months, I’ve gone through probably the biggest and toughest sprint of my boat rebuild journey to finally bring Vira to big water. I worked almost nonstop — nearly every weekend, plus quite a few Mondays and Fridays — at the boatyard. Even on the days I wasn’t there, I was busy preparing parts, tools, and plans for the next trip. The boat is now about 150 miles from my home, which meant driving between Austin and Houston 11 times — around 3,300 miles total. Over the last three months, I’ve spent 24 full days working on the boat. Now I’ve decided to slow down a bit and spend the next two weekends at home with family and friends. Going forward, I don’t plan to be at the boat every single week. Most likely I’ll switch to a bi-weekly schedule, but spend full weekends there instead. Let’s see how this balance works out for me and my family.  

  Things was done  since 10/29/24 Replaced Cabin sole with hard PVC panels Replaced cover around manual bilge pump 3d printed breakers blockers to avoid switching on or of by mistake Reinstalled cockpit compass at lower position.  Connected foot water pump to the water system. Added pedestal guard in the cockpit. Engine hauled out. Engine tested, injectors tips replaced, injection time adjusted to spec, compression, oil pressure tested.  Engine converted to fresh water cycle Made and installed engine monitor module to monitor engine parameters under way. Temperatures, oil pressure, coolant level e.t.c. Installed cabin table with pneumatic lift to height adjust. Rebuilt engine mount beams  Replaced engine mounts. Made all cabin cushions. Made cockpit cushions.  New navigation computer installation, IP68 box and base board providing additional USB ports, and other Open plotter features. Installed 12V outlets. Installed 6 GAL Water heater.  Added shower c...

  Mast  On Friday, first thing in the morning,  we arranged with the boatyard to assist us with the crane to step the mast. My son Andriy and I stepped the mast and secured it tightly enough to climb up and disconnect the crane hook within about 40 minutes. At the beginning, it wasn’t clear how much clearance there was between the mast and the overhead high-voltage line. It turned out the clearance was quite small — probably about 50–60 feet — but we were able to step the mast without any electrical shock 😉 After the mast was set up, we asked to be lifted on the travel lift so we could apply bottom paint to the centerboard and the bottom surface of the keel. The boatyard asked us to move the originally planned splash to the end of the day on Friday.   Centerboard  When boat get in air I found the centerboard requires some serious work. As first when it released it travels too much in front, second problem is the centerboard is not tight side to side, shaft an...

She got NAME.  Toady applied  registration numbers and Name/Port  to the boat hull. I had option to not show Texas registration numbers (as soon as she is antique boat), but I decided it will be "polite" to officials to show it to avoid additional questions. Starting today she is 100% officially VIRA.        Mast Preparation to get back to the water are underway.  All Mast  hardware is reinstalled. Everywhere where stainless contacting to aluminum Tef-gel  applied to minimize galvanic corrosion. Custom Radar mount installed. All top mast instruments are not installed to minimize vertical draft and protect them from damage in case we get contact with bridge for some reason. All new cables installed.  total 8 cables ;-)  Mast top: VHF/AIS  Antenna  Tri-color/anchor light (16 AWG)  Wind sensor/video camera (20AWG) Radar  level: Radar cable (B&G cable) "spare" Ethernet CAT5 (for 4G/WIFI router) 4 wire 18awg ...

Boat Name   Mocked up boat name           Painted a waterline   Mast  Mast was sanded, cleaned and coated with 2 layers of Naylic coating for protection. ( https://www.nyalic.com )   After 48 hours started to reinstall all hardware back.  Mast steps reinstalled (riveted) on the mast.  Backing plates for mast winches produced from ASA plastic and winches re-installed. Bottom Keel port side last layer of bottom paint applied.  Strut mount cavity closed, glassed , and first cover of bottom paint applied. Rudder,stands patches painted with bottom paint.    Small things  Made New aluminum deck light brackets instead of original mild steel ones.  Rebuilt camera/wind instrument. Added power supervisor. Put 3m4300 blob inside the rudder mount spacer. Re-attached autopilot actuator. added 3/8->5/16 spacer to the arm hole, loctited second nut. Tight bolts on engine shaft coupler. Loctite applied. Ad...