Posted by seychellois_lib (mcunningham@…>)
I bought my F30 in San Diego and brought it up to the Bay Area nine
years ago. for the first four years I did a lot of sailing, weekends
and cruises, etc. but for the last five years I have lived in New
Mexico and have essentially used the boat for a floating California
Delta condo with exception of my summer cruise where I head out into
some frequently serious weather. A couple of observations:
The F30 is perfect in the floating condo role. Small enough be
maintainable on infrequent visits and big enough for one or two people
to stretch out and enjoy life. I never use the head so I do have a
little walk to the loo when I’m in condo mode.
Treat the boat like a royal navy ship in days of old. Ensure all your
condo junk can be “cleared for action”. I don’t put anything aboard
that I can’t stow or otherwise batten down so she’s all a-tanto before
I head out. Our lives are so full of material crap anyway, I get a
kick out of seeing how lean I can keep my stuff.
Re nails and screws… think once, twice, thrice before adding any
new holes anywhere. They are very hard to undo, esp. in your woodwork.
Reuse the holes you already have (ahem). I have found that previous
owners and the original builder provided all sorts of screws and such
that can be removed and reused for hanging stuff, etc. I have used the
fixed port light screws to fix an XM radio bracket, The original
molding screws to hang gear nets and so forth. Sometimes you need to
buy a little longer screw but you don’t need to drill anything.
I’ve spent a lot of time fixing small areas of wet core so I’ve been
between the laminate layers numerous times. If you must drill, I would
almost prefer to go into the interior laminate layer before I would go
into any wood. The layer is about 3/16 thick, then you have about 1/2
inch of balsa then the outer layer - WHICH YOU MUST NOT PENETRATE!! It
is correct that you will not be able to hang much weight but we’re not
putting up chandeliers are we?