This past weekend was the big annual Oakland sailboat show and we caught up with suppliers. Quality parts came home with us, and 4 boxes arrived from Defender in CT. We also made a deposit on a discounted Viking ocean life raft – the price locks for a year; we don’t want the raft certified until we need it this fall, this extending it’s service interval 4 months or so. Next we handed the BottomSiders folks patterns for the cockpit cushions.

It’ll be five pieces around the horseshoe shaped benches. Similar vinyl dipped, closed cell cushions have been on Origami for 10+ years and still look new, so that was an easy choice.

Parts were sorted out today by theme. Lighting will be almost all LED; one incandescent steaming light (only used under engine power) was a $16 Hella find, and we already had a few halogens we may still use.

The two spreader lights won’t go on the mast; one will mount on the hardtop facing the foredeck and the other on the stern tower to light the steering gear and boarding area when needed at night. RickH, we’ll have small red lights under the hardtop to illuminate the sail controls and instruments area underway at night.

Keith wanted the largest possible bow shackle on the mast hound as this will hold the forestay and side shroud dyneema cables (one shackle connects all the mast support lines). It’s huge, bigger than one’s palm. RickWS, I like this better than the other solution you showed me, but we’ll be plenty careful about seizing that pin!

Some of the many plumbing parts… A 1-1/2″ seacock / ball valve combo unit is much bigger than we realized so it changes the waste plumbing plan a bit (it won’t fit under the shower floor as planned). We keep finding more thru-hull needs, but still just two under the waterline. Latest adds are watermaker discharge line (97% of what goes to a reverse osmosis unit is bypassed back overboard, so says the Spectra salesman), and a propane locker vapor vent.

We’ll detail the propane system later, but of course step one is cutting the lazarette floor to make room below for a sealed propane storage locker. This fiberglass and plastic tank is 1/2 the weight of the steel ones under your BBQ at home, plus it won’t corrode and is easier to take in the dinghy for refilling. See here how the tank needs to drop down at least a foot.

Also in that photo, the fresh water fill (black and blue disk) was installed next to the port coaming winch, and the outdoor shower on the cockpit bench bulkhead. That’ll make a nice senior citizen shower – just sit down safely and discreetly in the cockpit, lather up, and rinse it off thru the scuppers :)

The shop went quiet for some days while Greg took a consulting job, then joined Griffin to have a look at the University of Mississippi. If you haven’t seen an SEC football school, the TV-deal money translates to huge, attractive building projects on these stately old campuses. The Ole Miss folks are very charming to prospective students. Big decision due this month. From CA, you fly to Memphis, so before the flight home we walked along the Big River watching the barge-push skippers do their amazing jobs. And yes dear, the fried pickles are good.