The aft cabin upgrade consisted of three separate projects. First project was the replacement of the teak wood hatch with a custom Bomon aluminum hatch. This project is covered in the Wooden Hatch Replacement section of the Construction and Projects page.The second project was replacing all three of the ABI stainless steel ports with New Found Metals stainless steel ports. The third project was making room for the generator exhaust hose. The generator installation is covered in the Generator Installation Project section of the Construction and Projects page, but the exhaust hose installation is not

The replacement of the ports was lots of fun! Naturally there was more then met the eye. The New Found Metals ports require a flat surface both inside and outside for a good installation. This is impossible on a boat such as the Hardin with so many compound curves. Once the holes were enlarged to accommodate the new ports, then a flat surface was made. I used a product that is a polyester filler with short hair fiberglass strands mixed in. The following pictures do not show much of the progress of the project. One picture shows the old port out before the new one was in. The remainder of the pictures show the new ports installed.

As part of the generator installation, an exhaust hose was required. I had thought of running the hose to the side of the boat to either the port or starboard side but this was just not able to be done. The remaining choice was the stern, which had its own set of problems. The main engine exhaust hose( 2 1/2" I.D.), a 4" cooling hose, the steering hydraulic hoses, air conditioning cooling hoses and several electrical wires were already running under the aft cabin deck to the area under the aft cabin bunk. There was not room for a 1 1/2" I.D. hose to be installed. I would have to cut a hole in the floor to make room for the additional hose, and then make a box to cover the hole. Of course while I was doing this work, I would clean up the area, and the area under the aft cabin bunk, and then paint it all.