The Refit

In brief, we purchased Caprivi at the end of 2016 on the east coast of the United States in Maryland. We simultaneously lived aboard in the Florida Keys and refitted her in stages over a five year period while making a living and saving for the cruising kitty. We finally left the dock in June, 2022 for an open-ended amount of time. Below is a gallery, description and the evolution of our extensive refit. For specific details on the vessel, visit here.

---

2016 | Before the refit

Previously known as Valiant or NA4, Caprivi was a utilitarian yacht built for the naval academy and had retired a few years before we found her. She was relatively clean, sparse and ready for some love. We saw the potential in her rig design, shape, structural integrity and sailing capabilities. The attractions included an oversized winch farm, heavily reinforced keel-to-hull joint, a hull built from vinylester resin and Airex foam core, a skeg hung rudder, an overall heavily built construction and at a price we could afford.

---

2017 | First six months on the hard

We first focused on the exterior works and getting her back in the water. We painted the topsides, bottom and re-gelcoated the deck. We altered the running rigging bringing lines back to the cockpit, removing two of the six winches at the mast; moved the main traveller forward; removed dorades and a cockpit locker; and added a self-steering wind vane, bow roller and windlass system. For the interior, we added bulkheads to create an aft cabin, cut down water tanks to allow for an eventual U-shaped settee and changed a forward hatch into two smaller ones. Here we worked every day for six months; Bens folks helped for two of those months. We splashed her in a rigid November and sailed to Florida.

Slideshow:

SWIPE below for some extra photographs.

---

2018 – 2020 | Interior, dodger & engine

While living on Caprivi, this period focused on the interior build. We built out the v-berth, settee and settee table; made a large bosuns locker; painted the whole interior; added doorways and doors; extended the galley; made new upholstery; helped make the mainsail with our sailmaker and built a fiberglass dodger. We also found a fairly new, cheap and non-running Yanmar to fix and decided to make the swap before we bolted down the dodger. During this time we often house sat for people and could get some major work done. We had access to leftover materials and were given/traded various hardwoods and time in wood shops in trade for Ben’s mechanical skills and the like.

Slideshow:

We get a lot of remarks about the hard dodger which took a lot of time and thought; SWIPE for more images.

---

2021 – 2022 | Systems, cabin sole & cabinetry

During this time before adding the final touches we re-did all the electrical, added electronics, a freezer, a hot water system, cockpit shower and saltwater wash down. We changed out to LiFePO4 batteries, added a Spectra watermaker, had an arch built for us and installed our solar panel system. We also built a walnut and black tiger oak cabin sole and finally made the cabinetry. It should be mentioned that by this time we had a marine electrical business and certain materials fortunately came easily to us.

---

2022 | Refit complete!

We departed in June, 2022 with door knobs barely in place but spent the summer cruising New England, testing and fine tuning our systems. Late 2022, we also had the rod standing rigging replaced by Jay Maloney. You could say that all that originally remains are her strong bones, mast, boom and bulkheads; the fridge, tri-sail and curiously the Force10 stove and Skipper head! We had not intended to spend five years on the refit but circumstances, non-travel covid times and good opportunities allowed us to dive deep and in the end we are immensely satisfied and thoroughly enjoyed the project.

Looking back at these images as I finally compile them together, there was certainly a lot of hard work, a lot to be grateful for and many people to thank. Namely, Brenda and Mike Couturier (Ben’s folks for spending multiple months of their time on our project); Jimmy and Karen Wray of Key West Woodworks (various wood, shop space and tools; mainly their friendship!); Tommy Mann (being a legend, woodworking advice, shop space); Joe Wysong (welding, shop space and various woods) and Pat Aud (canvas shop and teaching Jade to sew); Ben’s partners at Harbor Marine Electric, Steve Foote and Tyrone Chatman (being steadfast business partners) and many more others who helped in various ways. Thank you!

Interior:

Exterior:

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about our refit.

Follow along below.

• Facebook
• Instagram

____