While we now own “new” Pandora, an Aerodyne 47, this page provides links to the improvements that we made to our SAGA 43 Pandora as well as our new Pandora that we purchased in in the spring of 2015. I have begun making changes to her and will put links to those posts below. Following that, is a list of upgrades that I made to our “old” Pandora, the SAGA 43.
When Brenda and I bought the SAGA 43, Pandora nine years ago, I thought that she was about ready to sail and yet we still had to embark on what turned out to be a 3-5 year plan to bring her into proper cruising trim prior to my retiring.
Here’s some of the posts that outline what I have done to “old and new” Pandora over the years.
It’s pretty amazing how much it has taken to make them the best they can be for us.
So, for the Aerodyne Pandora…
New water heater for Pandora Aerodyne October 2016. And, a bit about the corrosive properties of RO product water.
I upgraded the Spectra watermaker to bring capacity to 14gph from the 5gph that the prior unit produced. We use between 15-20 gallons per day aboard so having increased capacity saves a lot of run time on the unit.
For the SAGA 43 Pandora. Upgrades galore.
This post is a rag list of some of the smaller upgrades that I made in 2011 and includes a shot of the new cabin cushions.
Holding tanks need to be very solid and I constructed new, and larger ones, fore and aft. This post gives construction details. This post also gives some information about the radar arch.
The new rudder bearings are a major upgrade and I am quite proud of this project and hot it turned out.
This post details the recent upgrade to the Espar heater. It was a complex installation. I had put in the ducting a number of years ago and the used heater I had in place needed to be replaced.
After years of messing around with my Max Prop, I finally bit the bullet and installed an Autoprop last summer. It was a major upgrade and is a big performance improvement.
This post details the new rudder bearings. You’ll see the rebuilt Max Prop which still vibrated, leading to the new prop last summer.
Here, you can see how I took the bottom down to prepare for the barrier coat and Trinidad paint.
I am particularly proud of the panty in the aft cabin. This post details the construction details as well as shows the cockpit side panels I installed.
I put in the most efficient watermaker I could find. This is a really nice unit. This post talks about how I chose this particular unit.
I removed, wooded and revarnished the cabin sole. This post details that process as well as the addition of the extended jib track.