Here she is tied up at the jetty where she will hopefully be for years to come.  We made the journey from up-river yacht club to the marina with the escort assistance of the Fremantle Sea Search & Rescue boat.  While every system was checked and double checked this was first time in the water with new motor (the electric drive), untested main battery bank, bow thruster, new rudder and with the 2 masts strapped to the cabin roof, she would be vulnerable to other boats wakes and tidal rush etc.  As it happens we got her down river and safely tied up without a hitch.  Masts will come off and be cleaned up etc and mid Feb should see the first journey under sail.

We re-floated It's The Serenity Monday and spent the next 2 days prepping for the run down river to the pen.  Getting the masts from their not so clean storage place, up against the back fence of the yacht club, to the Etchel crane wharf then on board was a challenge but like all cruising yachties, we triumphed.

In the time we were tied up over the last 2 days we had countless visitors admiring the boat, the paint job and the fact that she was finally floating again after 3 years.  Many weekends of hard work paid off as we wallowed in the warmth of the admirers.

 Starb'd side with the top layer up.  Youy can see the worst of the core still wet.  This was a puddle of water when I lifted it and you didn't want to be down wind.

 Port side all finished.  A couple of bags of 'rapid set' concrete came in handy as weights to hold the fiberglass panels down while the mix of resin & cabasil cured.

These are the panels that were cut out of the starb'd side.  down on the ground so the rotten timber can be scraped off and the surface ground clean before going back over the new foam.

 Bit of an improvement from the 'before' previous pic.  Rotting wood chiseled off then ground back.

Foam in place. Lines on foam position the holes that allow resin mix to permeate thru.  Then original glass layer replaced and weighted down before the resin slurry started to cure.  Next day we had heavy downpour and our hard work thus far was justified. Glad to see the end of the rotten wood core.

These pics show the first stages of re-coring the deck. From the state of the core that I have exposed it is clear that water had been getting in thru bolt holes associated with the bowsprit and winch base.

You can see here the extent of the rot. Walking over this area of deck felt spongy under foot. This problem exists in patches down both sides of the cabin roof area as well.

Realised there weren't any shots of the boat as she looks in full profile.  To threw this one in.
It's The Serenity in Cooktown, far north Queensland.  Spent 3 or 4 nights here on our way from Cairns to Fremantle via the top.

 New rudder just fitted and in process of setting the gudgeon & pintle bearing pairs with filler before rounding over the bolt ends and glassing over.
This rudder is foam sandwich construction.  2 layers of foam to form the shape and layerd up with CSM and woven double bias.  I have incorporated an internal skeleton of stainless steel that is connected to the rudder post and both bearing sets.  Apart from the strength, it will also electrically connect all the metal surfaces associated with the rudder back to earth.  The actual fiberglassing and shaping work was done by a mate of mine who was later banished to China where he is being kept as a slave building 80' luxury ocean going cruisers for rich Chinese boaties.  He occasionally escapes to Hong Kong from where he calls me occasionally from some luxury hotel lobby bar as he gains some much needed R&R.  On ya Gramac.

Note that we have deviated from the original design slightly in that the trailing edge (bottom corner) of the rudder is no longer a curve.  In researching rudder design, I read that a right angled trailing corner performs better.  Trying to make her steer a bit in reverse.  Drawback is when you reverse in to shallow water, that trailing edge becomes the first thing that will hit.  If it proves to be an issue, it can easily be cut back to the original shape and re glassed.  That's the beauty of the product.

Shows the stainless skeleton.

 Cedar panelling going in to master cabin.  One strip at a time.

 New nav desk on stbd side.  Chart drawer slides out from the side.  3 X house batteries under seat.  Bow thruster auto switch can be seen on side of seat as can the battery switch.

 New galley.  From the left of pic we have a fridge opening. (couple of doors leaning up against that space in this pic) Then the sink with bin under.  The stove is on a gymble and then the island bench between galley and main saloon.

 Photo from main saloon looking aft.  On the left is the side of the nav desk and the ice box tucked in to the aft stbd corner of the area.  On the right is the island bench and there will be an 'L' shaped lounge with a table on a telescopic pedestal that will allow it to make that lounge in to a double bunk.

 15kW electric motor and 4 of the traction batteries under the floor between galley and nav desk.

 Another view of the motor and batteries under the floor aft.

 This shows the other 4 traction batteries below the floor in the main saloon.  Forward of the batteries is the 370li fresh water tank.

 The hydraulic steering helm pump fitted in to the binnacle head.  This has a 60mm thick turned ebony spacer carved with sea creatures around its circumference directly on top of the binnacle and then a large compass on top of that to finish it off.

 Another view of the helm pump.

 Helm station with instruments which include auto pilot control, wind speed and direction, GPS/SONAR, bow thruster joy stick and some switches.

 Helm ram.  Bit of a mess in there at the moment.

 Back to the helm pump but from other side showing the throttle control for the electric motor.

This is the main panel on the back alongside the mizzen mast.  Rudder angle indicator top left.  Sum log top right. (Hull speed)  Then the digital readout of amps and volts for the electric drive battery bank.  Couple of switches above the gen set hours meter. (Not in place) DSE gen set control panel bottom right.

This is an early shot of positioning the Side-Power bow thruster.  Up in the forward cabin which is also a sail locker, chain/rope locker and storage room for outboard motor and other bits-n-pieces.

 Hole cut in bow for the tunnel.  Once cleaned up, primed and antifowled it should be invisible below the waterline.

First view of the electric motor.  The motor is to the left of the opening and low.  By my toes of left foot is the cover over the belt that connects the output pulley of the motor to the 4:1 reduction drive.  From that drive you can see a gold coloured half coupling, the red flexible coupling (polyflex), the second half coupling before the prop shaft dissapears in to the stuffing box.

This is for friends to follow the refit of my 41' Ketch It's The Serenity.  Words and pics to follow how the boat is going will flooow when I learn how to drive this service.

The re-fit covers:-
Replacement of diesel engine with electric drive.
New bow thruster.
Full interior re-fit including new galley location, nav desk, mani saloon and shower room/head.