Upgrading our Sailing Boat with Upcycled Trash! Clever Sailboat Refit Using Salvaged Materials

Upgrading our Sailing Boat with Upcycled Trash! Clever Sailboat Refit Using Salvaged Materials

For the past 4 years, we’ve been refitting this vintage 30ft sailboat, the tickets to be able to experience some of the most incredible places by sea. We had absolutely no sailing experience when we started and knew absolutely nothing about boats. I’ve only sailed once before, it’s a lot of boat for us because we don’t really know what boating is all about.

Transforming her from this to this has been a pretty big undertaking. Why do we do this?

For the past few months, we have been working tirelessly to gear up for what will be our biggest adventure yet aboard UNTA, sailing North all the way to Alaska.

Our time here is sort of running out so we really need to put the pressure on in order for us to be able to leave in the next couple of days. We’ve overwintered UNTA here in Alert Bay which is a small remote Community off Vancouver Island’s Wilds North Coast. It’s about miday now and the southerly winds that we need to blow Us North are about to die out.

If we miss them, we’re going to be bashing into Northerly for weeks. We’ve got to put the pressure on if we want to get off this dock but not before wrapping up a few important projects that we need to do in order to get going. In all the refitting we’ve done the past few weeks, everything has pretty well been displaced and rehomed on the boat.

Our propane system is one of those items in order to move back on board and be able to cook and make food, then we are going to need to fix this up. So today, we’re finally going to get to installing a proper system.

We upcycled some old fiberglass to make a new propane Mount that’s going to go on the transom. It’s made from solid glass practically indestructible and going to live for another Thousand Years I’d say. Basically it was some fiberglass that was lying around in someone else’s boat and we thought well, it look nicer hanging off the back of ours.

I’ve been storing it here in my shed for quite a few years now. Okay so it came out of a motorboat down at the dock he was changing his battery Bank out from being big lead acid batteries to being small tiny little lithium batteries and he no longer needed this big fiberglass battery box.

I said I’ll take it don’t go throw it in the rubbish Heap because it’s plastic and it’s just going to live forever and I thought that we might be able to use it at some point. So today is the day that we’re going to use it.

Now we’re building a propane mount on the back of our boat to hold up our propane cylinder. I’ve done all the roughouts for the design and everything and made a negative and now we’re going to cut this box up into sheets so that we can then take those sheets and ref fiberglass them together into a completely different structure.

Fiber gloss never actually really breaks down it’s plastic it losts forever. So this will be a really great way to repurpose this fiberglass box into something new on top of that buying fiberglass Port is actually pretty expensive so we actually save a fair bit amount of money by just cutting this up into different size panels and then regluing them all together.

That’s kind of the theme of our boat, I guess. We’re trying to reuse as much old as we can to make new stop from getting wasted. It’s always nice to use something that would otherwise end up in landfill and we think it turned out pretty good.

Upcycling trash has sort of been our JY throughout this entire refit. You might remember a few seasons back when we repurposed this trash stainless steel to transform our Rock gley for probably about 500 bucks. We were able to pretty well redo the entire Galley.

It went from a 40 year-old rotten Galley to this beautiful modern stainless kitchen never would have believed they would have looked this nice when we pulled that daggy piece of metal off the top of the truck.

You guys are probably thinking oh my goodness what are they going to try and do with that? And now that it’s in here finished it looks really really good. The stainless we obviously got for free but we had to reinsulate the ice box.

The stove we had from a previous project that never really got used and it turned out way better than I even thought and I’m so so stoked to cook in here. The stainless struck again when we were able to use the remaining off cuts for our diesel heater project.

So this little bit of stainless steel is the scrap that was left over from the galley refit and this was the leftover off cut that we’ve been storing since just enough to squeeze out the stainless steel for the heat shielding around the diesel stove but the big long section which will be for behind the flu.

And then I have enough here for the square that will be bent to make the surround that we’ve already built. Transforming discarded things destined for the trash and finding ways to repurpose whatever we can find lying around has been a satisfying way to make this boat new without breaking out another thousand.

It feels really good to be able to fix and upcycle things, giving them a new lease on life. And that’s been the running theme throughout this entire refit for the last couple of weeks we’ve pretty well redesigned our entire cockpit space between our solar install and ripping out our steering pedestal in that mess.

Our propane system pretty well got displaced and so today we’re going to wrap this all up by putting our propane system back together. We’re using the same motorcycle mounts that we’ve used for the solar panels and we’re just going to find out where exactly we’re going to mount them on the back, drill some holes through put it on install it see how it looks.

That looks pretty snazzy, looks pretty skook. I like it. Looks like it was always there that was the plan. We’re going to work out where we’re going to cut another hole in the transom for the propane line to run. We’re going to mount our gas gauge the regulator and the solenoid on the side here.

We’ve just got to start putting thread tape on all of our connections, attaching the regulator, the solenoid and start getting all that stuff sort of lined up and then we’ll mount it run our line and call this job complete. We’re pretty happy with how everything’s looking.

We’re just trying to work out where our propane line is going to run through the transom and I’m thinking that we’re going to bust a hole in the top of the transom here and just run it straight down into the back lazarette and then we can cable tie it up and around and down into the gley so hopefully it doesn’t take us the rest of the afternoon but in all likelihood it’s going to take us the rest of the afternoon because that’s always the way it goes.

And we’ve got some friends arriving a little bit later and we’re going to change the stuffing in their box. So we got a box stuff and we got to get this propane Mount hung off and ready to drill I’ve been wanting to redo the cushions in our boat for so long the fabric that’s on the cushions now came with the boat.

They’re really old, they’re sort of smelly and dingy. So it’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for a really long time but I’ve been putting it off. But today’s the day I borrowed this machine from someone in the community and I am going to do my best to try and use it.

I’ve got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. I think I’ve got about 15 cushions that I need to sew up. Probably won’t get through all of them and it might not look the most professional but I’m going to give it my best shot.

Okay so I’ve got my fabric cut out to the correct dimensions for the length and the width and now I’m just going to cut in the corner notches. I’m using this fabric calculator from Sailrite and essentially it gives me all of my dimensions and so it says I need to cut out Corner notches that are 1.5 in deep.

So I’m going to go ahead and do that now. Well I totally surprised myself that’s actually not too shabby if I do say so myself, it’s like pretty fun. Alright that gives me a bit of confidence so uh let’s keep going here we finished up Alon for our propane system and I think it looks pretty bloody good.

I’ve always thought that propane mounts kind of look pretty daggy on the back of the boat but I’m quite impressed with what we’ve pulled off here. I think it looks pretty skook, propane regulator all hooked up I had to undo everything and redo it a second time because it wasn’t holding pressure.

Uh so I used a different threading compound and now it seems to be holding pressure. The regulator here on the side and the solenoid and so when we turn the main valve on the tank open we can see the pressure in the regulator on the pressure gauge and and it’s all stopped by the solenoid.

So we can see that the system is holding pressure between the valve and the solenoid which is great. And now we can pressure test the rest of the system by turning the valve off and then turning the solenoid on and we should be able to see if it’s leaking between the solenoid and the stove top.

So the final part of our propane install we are putting in a zinch propane sniffer. Yep I did that that was weird that’s me sniffing propane anyway, zintec propane sniffer lots of people have these in their boats they smell for propane it looks like a little pig nose sensor.

We’re going to install it here in our galley the place that the propane is most likely to leak because this thing actually has to smell the propane as it’s leaking. It makes absolutely no sense to go put this up in the v birth if the propane is located down here in the galley.

So it’s going to go down near the floor we have the alarm it’s going to go just up here by the propane solenoid switch because we already have power run up here. You probably should check it every time you go to turn your solenoid on and off so the little interface I don’t know what do you call this screen fault indicator gauge.

It’s a gauge that’s what it is, aha so we’re going to put the gauge right here next to the propane solenoid switch that way every time you turn the switch on and off you’ll be able to double check that there’s nothing leaking and then the sniffer little pig no sniffer here.

We’re going to drill a hole down at the floor off the galley and we’re going to install it down there. We’ve already got power positive and negative run to these switches so it should be fairly easy and straightforward to install there we go.

You can get versions of these which have the solar noid switch and everything built into them which is pretty cool. I just didn’t think about that at the time that I ordered everything that’s me, you do it your way that’s cool but yeah pretty easy install a couple of holes and just attach it all together positive negative and Bob’s your uncle or the guy that you bought your boat from whichever as in we we we bought the boat from Rob no relation no relation to us he’s not our uncle but he is a dude who sold us a boat installed put the propane sniffer in the galley.

So that when we turn the solenoid on the propane sniffer also turns on so we should be able to see if there is any leaks occurring between the solenoid and the stove top and our sniffer should also alert us if there is any propane scents below the stove top so let’s do that let’s pressure test the rest of the system here and then we can move on with safety in the boat because that’s really important when you have an open diesel flame in a stove as well as a gas source.

[Music] With our propane system holding pressure now between the main valve and the solenoid we now have our switch installed and our propane detector installed it’s all wired up and hooked together now so that when we turn the switch the sensor turns on as well. So now we should be able to pressure test the remaining part of the system from the solenoid down to the range just by turning the switch we should see that our detector doesn’t smell any propane.

And we should also be able to see that the pressure gauge on the regulator also stays in the same place so let’s commence with testing the rest of the system okay we got a green light that means it hasn’t smelled any propane yet but the day is still young. We’re probably going to leave it sit like this for about 20 minutes or so and let that really sit in the um tubing and that should be able to detect any small leaks.

And we should be able to monitor up on the pressure gauge where everything is [Music] alright so I just did a bit of a test fit and it turned out pretty good. I think it’s a little bit tighter maybe lengthwise but I think once I add the backing on then it’ll sort of like pull everything together.

I’ve got some some other fabric that I’m going to use for the back of this cushion and then I’ll put this the scratchy part of the velcro along that piece and it should fold over and Velcro on just like that threading through this project was turning into a bit of a marathon stitch by little Stitch cushion by cushion it was starting to take shape but these are regularly shaped cushions definitely giving me a bit of grief.

Okay so I’ve been working on this irregularly shaped cushion for days now then I’ve sort of been revisiting it to sew the seams. This morning I started working on it at 900 a.m. and it is now 2:00 p.m. and I’m still working on it these are regularly shaped cushions are really tough.

It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like this I’m just sort of making it up as I go. I guess like I’ve watched some YouTube videos on how to do this but I didn’t have all the materials in order to do it easier and so maybe I’m doing it the hard way.

But I’m at the point now where I should be able to sew the top plate and the bottom plate together and have a finished cushion fingers crossed everything works out oh my God pray for me I really want this to be over with back down at the dock things are also starting to take shape and we are just about to finish up another important project that is also going to improve how we live on the boat.

When we refitted out gley a few season ago we insulated the box here in the corner and it was just a fiberglass Shel there was absolutely no insulation in it and it kind of just melted ice faster than it kept anything cold. Play with the fun two-part polyurethane expanding foam. First time really using it and go through our little holes here to fill the void inside the cabinet to better insulate our ice box check it out had an eruption of pH.

It’s been working great few layers of insulation in there and it keeps things perfectly cool the ice box was a little bit small and it’s really kind of inconvenient over this side of the galley because you have to reach over every time to get in it and when you’re cooking your hair catches on fire we used to have a yeti on board as well for extra storage space because it’s just not big enough now with the stove there we have no place to put the yeti.

We finally decided to use a little bit more of that fiberglass and recycle it to make a customized box to fit in under the stove here. It’s going to fill the void really really nicely and I think it’s going to be a little bit bigger in terms of space than the yeti which is probably exactly what we need for all of our fresh provisioning.

Finishing up the final steps now painting it and making it look a little nicer. I’m just adding some mahogany veneer that was left over from another project going to glue it on the front face and then we can paint it and call this job done [Music] It looks so cute in here really it feels so good to have finally moved back on UNTA to have all of these projects wrapped up and to be living comfortably on our boat again yeah I mean we’re still basically camping but we’re camping at a luxury boat Resort and it’s really sweet.

Loving the upholstery, the upholstery looks absolutely fantastic down here just really really nice definitely a labor of love but it’s made such a big difference to how we feel about living in this space. It actually feels like a little living room right now we’ve got sheep skin rugs and nice comfy pillows and we’ve just been chilling out before we’d feel a little bit like restless being in here we always wanted to be like out of the space and now it’s a place we actually want to hang out and enjoy and that’s worth all the effort, heat that’s coming out of the diesel stove.

Absolutely been a game changer. It has been so wet it’s just been constant rain and to be able to come down light the heater dry out our rain jackets dry out our base layers get up in the morning and not be cold revolutionized the way that I feel about the boat to be able to turn our propane on with the flick of a switch and start cooking with the peace of mind that we’re not going to have a propane explosion the ice box is working out so well for us as well having the two ice boxes really stops us from going in them all the time.

So one’s like dedicated for like you know Dairy and meats and things that we don’t open as often and then the pull out one has all our fresh veggies and everything in it so that you pull it out open it up and it’s been keeping ice for what it’s been like 9 days now and the block of ice is still there so that’s pretty good, that’s pretty bloody good the yeti did do that no it didn’t so you made a ice box that’s actually better than the yeti yeah I think that’s pretty bloody good I wasn’t expecting this but the foam flooring that we put in revolutionized the way that the boat feels.

Before we just had hard glass liner and it was so cold from the ambient temperature of the ocean just coming up through the bottom of the boat but now with the half an inch of foam just lining the entire floor you don’t feel your cold feet and it’s soft, it’s spongy and like we’ve been hanging out sitting on the floor in front of the heater in the evening drinking a glass of wine it’s the one Improvement which I wasn’t expecting to make such a huge difference.

It’s an indoor outdoor application pretty stoked on it installed it in our cockpit as well so we’re putting it under the stress of the outdoor environment and it’s holding up really well it gets rained on it dries out pretty quick and it’s been keeping our feet warm while we’re out there sailing we’ll put the link to this product in the description so you guys can go and check that out if you’re interested to do the same on your boat this pretty well wraps up our projects.

We have a few more for you next week and then we finally get off the dock. We’re off the dock have a little bit of a spicy Shakedown Cruise we’ve already broken our first thing which is our electrical system um broke it with fire which is always fun so you don’t want to miss that one and then we’re off really good wo sailing up the coast and we’re so excited to share the journey with you and so all of that starts next week.

Thank you for subscribing thank you for always leaving such lovely comments Al and I really enjoy reading every one of them and we try to get back to all of them really appreciate all the support from you guys out there if you’d like to support the continued production of our videos so that we can keep making these for you while we cruise up to Alaska the next couple of months please consider becoming a patreon.

If you’re feeling like you’re missing us that’s the place to be jump in there sign up patreon support really fuels the project our video software music licensing camera gear we just did a big upgrade on camera gear for as little as $3 a month you can be part of the crew your support really means so much to us and we really really appreciate you guys showing up for us and helping us to get to Alaska and to make all this production so that we can bring it to you guys that’s it from us this week folks we will see you when we’re looking at you yeah we’ll see you next time cheers