‘Gary’s Goddess’ Bilge Ballet: I Didn’t Want To Do It

Gary Girard hoped to find a professional to do some work on his boat, the Catalina 470 Gary’s Goddess. Things didn’t quite turn out that way …

It was time to have my Catalina 470, Gary’s Goddess, rerigged. I made an appointment, and eight months later the day was here. I did not want to do any work myself; let the experts handle everything. Rerigging led to the replacement of the radar, which in turn led to replacing the chartplotter, etc. Scott, the rigger, recommended the best technician/installer in Ventura. I was excited. I hadn’t upgraded the electronics since I bought the boat in 2003.

I told the tech that I would buy everything through him and not shop on the internet. I thought this would facilitate the project. I don’t know what happened, but he never purchased the equipment and he never arrived. It seemed to be a personal issue. I next hired another well-known electronics installer/supplier. Every time he walked down the dock he would wave and say, “I haven’t forgotten about you.” After a month I moved on. The next introduction was recommended as highly reliable and good. He called me immediately and said, “You’re on the schedule, six months from today.” That was it; I would do the work myself. I purchased all the equipment and had it shipped.

Scott installed the antennas, wind instruments, and radar. He ran all the wires to the bilge, and labeled them for me. To my amazement I installed all the equipment and pulled the wires. Pulling the wires was unforgiving. The console, cabinets, and headliners had to be removed. I reached into holes and into places that were not accessible for an arm to enter. The bilge ballet and contortions were hard on the body for this long-in-the-tooth sailor. My body hurt; the tutu did not fit and the ballet was hard to learn. I had my body in places that only a young, enthusiastic installer should.

After a few days my wife said, “Stay the night and finish the project.” At this juncture I could only work approximately four hours a day. I told her if she wanted me to continue to be able to walk I would have to take a few days off between installations. I wasn’t kidding. I finally reinstalled all the cabinets, cockpit console, etc. Everything was connected. I was very nervous: Would it work?

I waited until the morning and threw the switches, and to my amazement everything worked. Fantastic! Twenty minutes later it crashed. I did not know what to do so I called the experts at Raymarine. They walked me through the situation and I opened a factory wire, pulled out the specified colored wire, and cut and terminated both ends as instructed. I turned the units on and VOILÀ! Thank you, Raymarine.

I am still shocked that everything functions properly ….