HORIZON AND THE PLAN
FOR SHTP
(Single Handed Transpac)
Let me introduce myself. My name is Richard Hillman and I live in Huntington Beach in Southern California. I bought a 1976 Contessa 26 in January of last year and am outfitting it for the SHTP which leaves from San Francisco on July 12th 2008.
As of now, I only have photos of "Horizon" before I changed her name from "Kiaf'. 
Here's the ongoing plan and checklist for the SHTP.
* Radar: The tower is installed on the starboard quarter. The radome and GPS are mounted as well. The wire is run into the cabin but I'm still trying to figure out how to mount the display for inside and outside viewing. I'm thinking of building a mount inside the companionway with two 7-8' articulating arms so that I can pivot the display.
* Next is installing the monitor wind vane self steering. That's in my garage ready to go.
* After that comes the SSB. That's also in my garage ready to be installed.
* In parallel with all this is the installation of 3 new AGM's Group 27 or 31. They will be charged and regulated by my alternator and one 80 watt solar panel. After having calculated the AH per day, this combination will do me fine. I really don't have any other electric draw except running and instrument lights.
* The Southern California Single handed Sailing Association (PSSA) starts racing this month. We have one race per month. I will use the Guadalupe race as my qualifier for the SHTP. The Guadalupe race is about 700 miles round trip.
I've got many pages of things to do and checklists to perform before I leave for San Francisco in early June, and as we all know the list just gets longer, even though I'm checking items off.
I've got a couple of specific questions. What is the general consensus on pulling the rub rail and redoing the hull to deck joint. Is the seal satisfactory? Is it strong? I'm also beefing up the bulkheads a bit by glassing in the head compartment and the storage compartment to the hull. I want to glass anything that I can see to the hull to lessen the possible flexing. Not that I see much evidence of that on this boat. What about the chain plates?
Well, this is an introduction of sorts… Feel free to e-mail me with any questions and/or suggestions. This is the first time I'm outfitting a boat like this and I really don't have a clue. I don't know whether this is the correct forum to pose my questions and request suggestions.
I'm pretty happy with the radar mount installation thanks to the help from my two friends Mark and John.
Rich Hillman