Preparing our Jeanneau for living aboard and cruising, part 3

Now that the main salon project was completed, I moved on to some of the other items on the list. All of the sleeping cabins each had a small hanging locker and a smaller storage cabinet, plus a rather long shelf. We would surely need more storage. I saw the cabinets that Valiant was using on their boats and decided to adapt their design. The forward cabin got two sets, one on each side, and the aft cabins each got one set.

Next, the electrical panels were very minimal at best, so I ordered new AC and DC panels from Paneltronics in Florida. I cannot say enough good thngs about their staff and the quality of the product. I enlarged the opening and built a new teak hinged frame to hold the new panels. The center panel holds the remote panel for the Fischer Panda generator.

I also enlarged the communication panel to hold the Icom 602 VHF radio, an Alpine Stereo receiver and the Icom 802 SSB.

One project that I was dreading was what to do about additional fuel tankage. The original tank was under the starboard aft berth with a capacity of 45 gallons. There was a water tank under the port aft berth which I had removed because the top had cracked and would leak when filled. I began shopping for someone to build a fuel tank that would replace the water tank. WOW, I was blown away by the prices! It was not going to be an easy job as the hull sloped both up towards the aft and out to the side. To my rescue came a good friend whose father-in-law manages a huge manufacturing facility in, now get this, El Salvador, of all places. They build sugar cane and coffee processing plants in Central America. Victor said, " I'm sure Carlos can do it"! I still had the water tank I had removed, plus, thanks to folks at Jeanneau America, I was able to obtain a blueprint of the water tank as well. I cut the tank in half, telescoping the pieces and shrinkwrapped it. Victor flew to El Salvador for a visit and took the tank as "checked luggage"! Too funny! Carlos looked at blueprint and then asked Victor "why did you bother to bring the tank"? About a month later I received a call from Customs at the Dallas airport informing me that my shipment was ready for pickup. I had seen photos of the tank prior to it's departure. It was a work of art. Two large cleanouts and a very neat plaque that said "built by Carlos in El Salvador".

When I saw the tank I was shocked. Customs had removed the cleanout covers (which I could understand), but in the process they had bent a number of the 5/16" bolts. The biggest disappointment was they removed Carlos' plaque.

The tank dropped into place and fits like a glove. I don't call it the port tank, it's the "Carlos tank".