Your thought folks

[Mark Laurnen]

I'm onboard with Jleonard ... Autopilot Pilot was most impactful addition out of many I have done.

 

[Ertyqway]

Already had an autopilot and hydraulic dinghy lift when we bought the boat, so the two best upgrades I've done so far are the Marriage Savers (duplex headsets) and Starlink.

Of course, my icemaker and oven are recently deceased, so I'm thinking through what to do about both of them now.

 

[philmitch]

Stern thruster to go along with a bow thruster. Game changer.

 

[Caballero II]

I have searched and haven't found one on the Forum so I thought I would start one. What is your best modification to your boat, whether it be engine, cosmetic, fishing related, it doesn't matter. Let me know please

Thanks

There have been a few over the years. I guess the best modifications will vary by owner with the performance of the equipment they started with. In my case, a few mods in order of the pleasure they have brought me have been:

1. Diesel forced air heater, Espar in my case. What a luxury. We had no heat before.

2. Salt water washdown pump, Groco kit with valves and vane pump. We had none before.

3. Electric thru-hull valves. Groco as well.

4. New, powerful Lofrans Kobra windlass replacing old, tired and frail windlass

 

[slowgoesit]

Some of our upgrades, in no particular order:

• Hard bimini
• 2880 watts of solar
• LiFePO4 house battery bank
• Water Maker
• Starlink

 

[Mark Laurnen]

My boat is too small, but the Marriage Saver headsets sound like a brilliant idea. I saw a video where the poster mentioned a t shirt he had seen; “sorry about what I said while docking sweetie.”

 

[NancieLafferty]

As a liveaboard on Morning Mist, a 1986 PT35 Sundeck, the improvement I appreciate every day is our electric mattress warmer! And the fresh water heads; and the enclosures of the sun deck and fly bridge; and the bow thruster that we rarely need but is always there. We have lived aboard this jewel for over 20 years and every day she warms my heart.

 

[Sababa]

Strictly speaking, the OP asked about modifications, not upgrades. Hands down, the best *modification* I ever did was to soften the forward chines on the 2001 Nordic Tug that we used to own to reduce the notorious bow slap that plagued those boats. Our life as cruising couple would have been cut very short without that mod.

 

[kthoennes]

As a liveaboard on Morning Mist, a 1986 PT35 Sundeck, the improvement I appreciate every day is our electric mattress warmer! And the fresh water heads; and the enclosures of the sun deck and fly bridge; and the bow thruster that we rarely need but is always there. We have lived aboard this jewel for over 20 years and every day she warms my heart.

Thread drift: Your post reminded me of one of my favorite moments that made me feel like our boat is our second home. We bought it years ago in Somerset, Mass near Newport, Rhode Island in April. We motored it to West Wind Marina to spend a few days in Newport before taking off, so early in the season very few other boats were there yet. We walked a long way to dinner and stayed out very late, when heavy fog and wind and cold drizzle blew in. Dark rainy misty night. The buoy bells were clanging, the fog horns were sounding, we were cold, soaking wet, walking through dark spooky boat storage yards back to West Wind. We turned a corner and stepped onto the marina boardwalk and there it was in the slip - the warm glow of lights inside, heating system waiting for us, all safe and comfortable and dry with a cozy master berth and a good night's sleep. That's the moment I knew it was a good boat and we made the right decision.

 

[Rob at LTP]

My best mod has been practical and very cheap.

Being new to boating (other than off-the-beach cats), one of the things I don't always get right is catching my mooring. Worst example was a day when a near gale wind was blowing chop right on to my normally calm mooring. I managed to catch the mooring ball, but being a centre cockpit, the boat immediately went beam on to the chop, and it took a lot of grunting to get the mooring line up to the bow.

On the advice of an experienced friend, I now have a 12mm line permanently attached to a bow cleat, laying outside the rail and back to a cleat just outside the wheelhouse. And on the rope loop at the base of the mooring float, a 10mm snap shackle.

Now when conditions are a bit iffy, once I manage to pick up the float, I clip it onto the line, then slowly reverse until the float has slid up close to the bow, where I can attach the mooring cable to the cross bollard as usual.