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My only comment is based on backpacking rather than boating.  Simple is best!  Alchohol stoves aren't as hot, are harder to fill, and not as nice but they don't break.  I've seen people dismantling and reassemling stoves while getting hungrier and hungrier.  I've even had a guy give me an earful about how poor my stove was and then have his erupt in a huge burst of flame and burn his eyebrows off.  Go simple or be hungry!

After looking at the costs of a Yanmar GM10 I started checking out other engines.  I too like the idea of dual propulsion.  For this reason I fitted twin 454 cu in engines developing a total of 758 HP.  I can now do 8.3 knots. (see ya tubatooter!)  The only downside has been that the only place to sit is on top of the engines themselves.  They get hot very quickly so that I can actually only run the engines for 22 minutes before my clothing catches fire.  I considered going with asbestos shorts but have decided instead to install a remote control.  I can then run the engines and steer the boat from a safe distance...preferably the shore.

I love the smell of gasoline in the morning.  It smells like lunacy.

I too have an outboard.  There is a cutaway and there's a small circle visible where the prop sharf would come out.  Maybe there's something like that on yours and it means the hole is mostly cut through?  I looked at the cost if putting in a Yanmar 1GM.  It's simply not worth it as you're looking at the engine plus $2k in other expenses.  May cheaper to wait for new electrics coming in the next few years?

My first trip up the mast, excluding using the yard's crane, was a memorable one.  I clipped the main halyard to my bosun's chair (a plank of wood with four stout ropes attached to a ring) and had a friend haul me up.  I'd seen this done before.  I'd seen it done on my boat in fact in exactly the same way.  What I didn't account for is that I weigh 210 lbs and the person I'd seen go up before weighed only 150 lbs. 

A pendulum effect ensued.  Or is that a pandemonium effect?

I could easily have worked on the neighbouring boat's mast as it was periodically and frequently within arm's reach, even though there was a slip between us, but would have only had a second or two before I was rudely swung many degrees to the opposite side.  At this point a friend from the yard climbed aboard to take control of the situation.  His 250lbs on top of the coach house may have helped...or maybe not.  Then the original person who had hauled me up decided he'd better get off so he stepped (jumped really) off the coach house onto the side deck with his 225 lbs.  He felt it best to do that at the exact moment we I was accelerating to that side, further adding to my velocity.  Another friend, watching from his boat, later stated that this was the moment he went below as he "could not watch anymore".

Finally someone realized that if they lowered me everything would stabilize.  And, just as Mr. Newton would have predicted, it did.

Lesson learned: sailing may be an art but science still applies.

That's a very interesting idea.  Unfortunately the v-berth cussions are almost new and were very expensive so I'm not going to cut them up.  That being said maybe I'll modify your idea and have small lockers that hang from the ceiling. 

Any suggestions about what to do from the sink (port) and the stove (starboard) on back to where the cockpit cuts into the quarter berth?

I'm not sure if this will be a spring project as I'm recovering from being hit and run while riding my bicycle.

My mainsheet has a block on each aft quarter running to a block in the centre of the transom under the tiller then forward to a camcleat at the edge of the coming under the tiller.  The problem I have is that if I make a sudden, strong gybe the part of the sheet running to/from the boom to the quarter block bangs into the safety lines very hard.  Sometimes hard enough to pop open the shackels.  Any suggestions?

My wife is taking sailing lessons.  Yesterday she came back from class and said "can we get some of those lazy things?". 

Any recommendations out there?  I've looked at Harken and EZJAX websites but want to hear from someone who's actually used a system.  Also thinking of just buying the parts.  Any designs already existing?

I don't think I'll be doing it at all.  My interior is not factory built.  I don't know if the roof liner is or not but it completely obscures the fasteners for most of the track.  There's no way I'm going to cut it.

Also, I read in a recent boatworks about the risk of distortion if the the hull/deck joint is removed.  I think I'll just make sure it's well calked and watch for leaks.  With the non-factory interior it's very easy to see the hull if required.

I want to re-bed the genoa track mostly as a precaution.  It appears that the only visible fastners are bolts.  Does anyone know if the ones concealed by the edge of the cabin ceiling are screws?  If this question doesn't make sense it could be becuase my interior is not factory built, thpught the cabin top seems to be.