What Boat Projects You Should Do First

So, you just got a boat. How do you decide which boat projects you should do first? Here’s a few thoughts:

Prioritize What Boat Projects You Should Do First

Safety. Any repairs or upgrades mentioned in the survey as required for safety take the highest priority. First, your insurance company may require that they be fixed within a certain amount of time or your insurance will be void. But perhaps more importantly, the lives of everyone on board may depend on them.

Usability. Anything needed for the boat to be basically usable is next. We’re not talking about creature comforts but simply basic things such as the engine running well, holding tank pumped out, or a thorough cleaning.

Take a Breath

Then stop and use the boat for a couple of months. See what things really bug you. With both of our cruising boats, what we thought were our big priorities when we bought the boat turned out to be minor things once we moved aboard. In fact, some of those “priority” items we decided against ever doing once we used the boat as is.

And there are those things that go from “nowhere on the horizon” to high priority. With our first boat, one item that we saw as an advantage when buying the boat turned out to be the most-hated feature and first item to be replaced. You see, Que Tal came with a double sink, which all the articles I’d read said was what you absolutely needed on a cruising boat. The first meal that I cooked on board I discovered that the double bowls were so small that I could not put a plate in the sink – even diagonally on edge. We soon replaced the double sink with a single.

Other Priorities

Basic safety and usability are the highest priority, but I’d argue that basic creature comforts are fairly high priority as well. And here is where you start having to decide on the trade-offs. How far down on the safety list do you go before tackling something like more comfortable seating? Is it more important to have a larger battery bank or warmer bedding? Is it more important to replace the unreliable refrigerator or get a composting toilet so you don’t have to worry about pumpouts?

Most of us don’t have an unlimited budget of either money or time, and thus can’t do everything. We have to decide what’s the higher priority.

And once the boat meets basic safety standards and can be used, there aren’t any universal answers to “what’s most important.” And that’s why I recommend using the boat a bit and seeing what drives you nuts. What things do you mention not just once but on a daily basis?? Once you’ve got this list down, the next step is to decide what things bug you the most.

Addressing Project Creep

Admittedly, this can be where project creep sets in: “as long as we’re tearing this apart, we should do this other thing as well.” While there is a certain logic to this, you have to keep your eye on the big picture at the same time:

How will that affect our immediate boating plans? Will we lose a valuable boating season?
What is really the downside of not doing it all now? Will it be THAT big of a project to do the other things later?
If we do all that, what else won’t get done?
Are we absolutely positive that we want to do the “other thing”? If so, are we ready to research and make decisions?

You have to decide what’s important to you. And if there is more than one of you aboard, it has to be a collaborative decision – even considering the wishes of kids and pets. Most couples don’t have identical priorities – and it’s not fair if one person “wins” all the time.

Creating a boat that meets everyone’s needs is a balancing act. The Boat Galley can give you lots of ideas for things you might want to do, and details on how to do them. Hopefully you now have a way to decide what boat projects you should do first.

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