Refit diaries: 11/23/2025 – 11/30/2025 

Check out our latest YouTube video here! Here’s this week’s rundown of refit projects: 

Solar Upgrade 

We lowered the dinghy to prepare for the removal of our current solar panels, the modification of the solar arch, and the installation of four new 585W bi-facial panels. 

Wiring Update 

The more we dig into this boat, the more wiring issues we find. In addition to a few more undersized cables, we also discovered some labeling discrepancies this week. For example, I guess there was an option to have three electric winches on this boat, because there are three winch wires, but they are all labeled “W1”. I’m sure you can imagine the confusion this caused us… Ray spent a good amount of time this week tracing everything and updating our wiring diagram. 

Workshop Update 

Circa Marine kindly gave us a tour of their facility this week and even let us wander around with a camera (check out the video here!). Their operation is mind-blowing: specializing in luxury aluminum boats, they are not only equipped to build vessels, but also craft stunning custom interiors.

They had the framing of our workshop laid out, ready for the finishes to be pressed on soon. Compared to the other projects we saw at their shop, ours feels tiny in scale— but still exciting for us! We can’t wait to see the room come together aboard Sabado.

Mast Parts Update 

VMG Soromap has so far been unable to source any of the parts we need, so we’re now exploring the possibility of having them custom-made here in New Zealand.

Sewing 

I’ve started re-making our primary line bag at the helm. Over time, the original has worn thin in several places. This time, I’m hoping to boost durability by using two layers of fabric and reinforcing the edges with UV-resistant binding. We’re also switching to black mesh because the white version looked dirty about 24 hours after cleaning it!

Family visit! 

My parents arrived on Friday morning, and we’ve been enjoying some long-overdue time together. As I’m typing this, we’re cooking a belated Thanksgiving dinner. Naturally, they also showed up with a suitcase full of boat parts, so we’re excited to dive back into projects and keep the momentum going next week!

We hope you all had a great week! 🙂