Since I sail a lot solo, I changed the winches into self-tailing type: halyards and backstays size 25 and genua size 40 Andersen (because of their ss drum).

The Garmin 128 gps is inside above the nav desk. To see the position data while at the helm, a Silva Star nav repeater was installed in the bulkhead and connected to the Garmin. A straight-forward job, and improves the navigational visibility a lot.

The original Volvo-Penta MD7 had been replaced with a MD2040, which maybe is one size too large for this boat; an MD2030 would do quite nicely.

At the same time, it would have been smart to increase the size of the fuel tank. The original 45 l. now gives one long day of motoring (i.e. we mainly sail...).

The folks who installed the new engine had overlooked the instructions for proper routing of the exhaust system: the water trap/silencer had been placed too high, so that water had flown back into engine when heeling over to port side. I have installed a riser at the engine and rerouted the exhaust.

A pre-filter /water separator was installed between the fuel tank and the fuel filter at the engine. The fuel flows into it 'backwards': first into the glass bowl at the bottom where any trash that may come from the fuel tank is immediately visible, and then through the pre-filter cartridge and towards the fine filter at the engine. 

The epoxy treatment that a previous owner did have made in '98 was partly failing: epoxy primer was peeling off in smaller and bigger flakes.

I scraped the bottom clean from the anti-foul paint and primer, sanded the bottom a bit, and then added 5 layers of epoxy and 4 layers of new multi-year anti-foul paint. The keel got one layer of rust-proofing as primer and then the 4 layers of anti-foul.

The tiller was pulling to starboard. The rudder turned out to be asymmetric: the port side had a clear valley in its profile for the full height of the rudder blade.

The rudder blade was sanded, filled up with two packs of epoxy filler and brought to reference pattern from 505 site by some sanding. Then the layers of epoxy paint and anti-foul.

The impact was substantial: with proper sail trim, she now runs on her own for long periods of time, and the one-sided pressure on the tiller is gone.

A long boat exposes a lot of surface to fight the winter winds, so that a substantial boat cradle is needed. A 3-pair cradle was adapted to the dimensions of the boat so that the support patches coincide with the structural bulkheads in the boat. That way, the stress is spread more evenly in the boat's internal structure. The added benefit is that you can open up one or two supports while clening the bottom, and still be on the safe side.

In spring '07 I converted the original main sail boom for single line reef. It is a relatively simple arrangement: now I can make reef #1 and #2 from the cockpit in relative ease.

To protect the boat's nose (and other boats) and to have a place for the gennaker roll, I added a stainless steel pipe loop for a bowsprit.

I recycled the 28 year old teak: took the teak up, reconditioned the planks, and glued it back with epoxy. At the same, the leaks into the deck sandwich structure were repaired.

Now the teak deck is ready for another 10..15 years of service, and the 900 screw holes are sealed for good. 

For summer 2010, I installed a Hoyt jib boom and started using the jib as principal fore sail. A furling gennaker was added to the wardrope for the light winds where jib does not have enough power.

The original deck hatch was worn out and slightly damaged. It was replaced with a Lewmar Ocean series hatch.

Cockpit seats

The plywood in the cockpit seats was rotting at its edges. Damaged plywood was removed, new plywood was cut to size and treated with epoxy and 2-component varnish.

Rear anchor box floor

The floor of the rear anchor box was damaged and leaked water into the rear bilge; potentially dangerous because the propane bottles are in the box, too. The plywood in the floor was rotten. I cut it out, replaced with 12mm plywood and a layer of glassfiber and epoxy.

The propane tube holders were replaced at the same time: new ones are for one 5kg composite tube, with a 2 kg tube for reserve.

Mast cables

Coaxial cable of the mast top antenna was damaged. I replaced it with a low-loss coaxial and added a cable for the mast top instruments and lights.