2026 Maintenance and Upgrades

Fiddler received routine maintenance, a couple of repairs, and a few small upgrades in 2026. Fortunately I filled the tanks (700 gallons) prior to the spike in prices which lasted the season. With no major upgrades or purchases, this was a typical year in terms of baseline cost of ownership.

Nonetheless, things wear out or break and need to be replaced. The electric horn stopped working at the end of a trip April. The Coast Guard requires you have a horn for safety reasons. I purchased the same model horn, removed the old one, and wired the new one. Of course, getting to the wiring that runs through the brow, into the pilothouse, and to the switch required taking off some panels in the pilothouse and locating them among a nest of other wires. I connected the wires to the new wires, tested the horn, then screwed it down with appropriate sealant. Better than new.

The other maintenance project was to replace the kelp cutters that prevent kelp and other underwater debris from getting caught in the stabilizer fins. These are stainless steel devices with a sharp edge that screw into the hull directly in front of the fins. Here is a photo of the original installation, which is attached with three screws:

Sometime early in the year I lost the cutter on the starboard side. I must have hit a piece of wood or something large enough to dislodge it. The newer version attaches with four screws and has a sharper edge to it. Since one failed, I decided to replace both of them, which can only be done properly when the boat is out of the water. I hadn’t planned on hauling Fiddler out again this year since it was just done a year ago, but I needed to get the cutters replaced. Here is what the new cutters look like, very sharp, and a place for an anode to keep it from corroding.

In the upgrade category was new faucets in the galley and head. These are the same fixtures used in your house and are installed the same way. Easy enough. They are an improvement in quality and functionality, at least in the galley. The galley faucet arches a little higher over the sink and has a pull down spray attachment, which is nice to have.

The final upgrade, if you can call it that, was to find an appropriate place to display the drawing of Fiddler made by a friend and given to me as a gift for being Commodore of the yacht club last year.

That’s about it for maintenance and upgrades, which left plenty of time for cruising. More on that later…..