The special boat

Hallberg Rassy, well known for its superior quality and a perfect interior, what can you still update?
For me, Norbert, I recognized that the Rassy had a lot of space inside, but storage room was limited.
So I enlarged the shelves in the forecabin as well as in the aftcabin and inserted 3 large lockers in the front as well as 2 large lockers in the aft without cutting the living space.

In the saloon, I build in shelves behind the sofas back-rests for all the necessary parts easy to reach.

Also the charttable area was modified by shelves for the SSB-radio, printer, guide books and much more.

All ceiling lights have been renewed with high quality lamps in warm-colour fluoreszens, halogen or LED´s.
All the main lockers are equiped with contact-switches, door open - light on, no search with a flashlight anymore! Also the engine compartment.

The engine, a robust Volvo-Penta MD21A, is the famous original Peugeot-Indenoor diesel engine, just marinised by Volvo.
This engine runs not only in millions of cars, but also in french military-jeeps, utility vehicles, generating-sets and more and has proofed his durability since more than 50 years.
Today, you can still find a huge number of this engines in North Africa, former French Colonies, running and running there under the hardest enviroment conditions.
Our reliable MD21A,  till today, he never failed to start or stopped suddenly.
Certainly this is the result of a good maintennance. Beside of a regular oil change, proof of valve clearence, impeller and sacrified anodes, I checked once a day before starting (Pilots like me make this automatically), the engine, the oil-and waterlevels.
 
All the periphery parts like pumps, alternator etc. are renewed and the old ones overhault for spareparts.


One of the best decisions we made was to built in a fuel day-tank.
First, it was a provisional arrangement, a jerry can of 20 ltr., build with boarding tools. It worked perfekt!
The tank is about one meter above the engine so the fuel will drop down. Important:no fuel lifting pump is necessary anymore, one problem less! No fiddly bleeding anymore!
Above all, the lifetime of the filters will increase drastically because the clean setting back fuel will not flow in the dirty maintank, but back in the clean day tank!
Here in Langkawi, I changed the provisional tank against a 40 ltr. S/S tank with fuel indicator.
There are two electric fuel pumps to fill the daytank.
The simple Volvo-CAV diesel-filter is replaced with a Racor 3 level-filter system

For a pleasant clima in the boat a good airflow is very important in the tropics. Therefor, I installed six 12V ventilators, each with electronic speed control from zero to max. Runs very smooth and silent.
If there is shore power, we have a portable aircon for the hatches.

Important things you should have twice!
We have in the large fridge-box 2 independant 12V Isotherm units with evaporatorplates. If one fails, the other will do the job, the beer and more keeps cold!
Or a spare pressure waterpump, can be fixed in 10 min, for the engine a spare alternator, raw- and fresh waterpumps.
We have no windvane. Therefor 4 electric-autopilots. The mechanical part is an Autohelm-Rotary-Drive, not with plastic-, but with solid brass gears.
Two independant control units, one Autohelm 6000 and one Tecnautic-system with gyro are connected. If one fails, just turn over two switches and you can continue with second one.
For additional security or light wind conditions, we have two NAVICO-wheel-pilots 5000, connected with a belt outside to the steering wheel.

The original LOFRANS Panther electr. anchor windlass was replaced through a new LOFRANS Tiger windlass.
The Tiger runs much quicker and more powerfull!
Rassy only fixed a mechanical press key for chain-up.
I installed a solenoid-box for up and down with a wireless remote control. One of the best investments on the boat, because, now we can control the chain from any position, even from the dinghy in case of any emergency like chain winded over coral reefs etc.

In Turkey we fitted a large bracket on the stern. This is not only for the swivel-mounted solar panels, but also a good fastening point for the awnings and gives a lot of security in the aft section of a sloop.


Even we get older!
That´s why we add a special electr. gear motor, made from a German company, to our two Lewmar 44 winches. Now, we can operate them either by hand as before or push the button for electric operation.
With a redirection of the halyard it is no problem to bring our Caribe-dinghy up and down from the foredeck.
For the dinghy, we have two outboard engines, one of 3.3 hp, instead of rowing and a 15 hp for planing and longer distances.  This engine is easy to get up and down with a tackle attached on the rear bracket.

There are plenty of modifications and additional stuff added over the years to make handling and living on board more comfortable and enjoyable.