Happy 5th Birthday, Y-Not! Boat Project Updates – Flooring, Composting Toilet & More

This week marks five years since we took ownership of Y-Not, our 1999 Bayliner 4788. Crazy how time flies!

And what an incredible journey into the cruising lifestyle it has been!

It’s been a few years since we’ve done a major update on boat improvements, projects and modifications we’ve done – so we thought this the perfect opportunity to share.

If you’re just joining in, or want a re-cap – here’s some relevant posts:

• Introducing Y-Not: 1999 Bayliner 4788 Motoryacht for Exploring the Great Loop
• Selecting our Great Loop Boat: How We Ended Up With A Bayliner 4788 Motor Yacht
• Y-Not Upgrades & Modifications: Two Year Update and Bayliner 4788 Tour
• Our Top 10 Trade-Offs of the Bayliner 4788 Motoryacht

First, here’s the video version of the tour:

New Flooring – Carpeting & Wood Refinishing

Our biggest projects lately wrapped up just last week – and that’s new carpets and refinishing our galley wood floor.

When we bought Y-Not the ‘softs’ of the boat were in pretty poor shape. It was one of the reasons we almost passed on this particular boat. But the price was right, and they’re all things that can be improved with a little lot of work.

It took us five years to get around to it, which now that we’ve been through it – we know for certain there’s a reason we put it off so long. It’s a LOT of work.

A long time follower Joe reached out to us last month when we posted we might be ready to tackle this project – turns out he’s a retired carpet installer wintering in the area, who has worked on boats before. He knew how much work it is and offered his skills as a generous gift – as long as we took care of the grunt work of getting the old stuff out.

We had thought our galley wood floor was in such bad shape that replacing it was the only option – but he took one look and said a sander would do the job.

So I spent 3 days on my hands and knees sanding, and then sealing it up. And the results are amazing! That part of the job we totally should have tackled earlier.

Taking the old carpet out turned into an ordeal – as there’s oodles of staples holding the carpet onto each hatch and step. And all of the padding was glued down. Chris and I spent 5 solid long days pulling, scraping, ripping, cleaning and uttering new curse words.

And then Joe worked his artistry of installing the new stuff we picked out (and ordered at the local hardware store for quick delivery). Having a pro handle all the intricate cuts in a small space, was a miracle. And we feel incredibly blessed.

And we couldn’t be more pleased with the upgrade to Y-Not’s living space. A perfect 5th birthday present!

Astute followers might note that we have a center hatch in the salon into the engine room – a common modification for the Bayliner 4788 for better access. We actually had the hatch cut back in 2019 when Y-Not was left at Hinckley Yacht Services.

Hot Tub

We added an inflatable hotspot at the end of 2020, and it’s been an amazing addition to the boat.

We share a full post on our Boat Upgrade: Inflatable Hot Tub on a Bayliner 4788

Composting Toilet

Last year we decided to replace one of our Vacuflush toilets with a composting toilet. The reasons why include:

• Pump out stations can be more difficult to find sometimes, and when you do, they can often be broken.
• Vacuflush toilets need to fairly routinely be rebuilt, which can knock them out of service.
• When we’re ‘on the hard’ hauled out for extended work – pumping out can be extra difficult, as can climbing down a ladder to get to the restroom.

So having the additional flexibility and redundancy is awesome.

We haven’t actually used it much as we do have luxurious pump out service here in Sanford (they actually bring a boat up every week and handle it for us).

We went with the C-Head Shorty model after lots of research – mainly because it was the simplest installation (no vent required), can be used with or without the crank and it fit our small guest bath space the best.

We kept the old toilet and all of the plumbing intact (just capped off) – so if we change our mind or a future owner wants to go back, it’s just a quick change over.

Solar & Electrical System

Since our last boat project boat tour, we did do a finalized installation of our four solar panels which are now our hard roof on the flybridge. They make up 1440w of solar power, that feed into our 300AH at 24v lithium battery system from Battleborn.

The system keeps us pretty well powered when not at a dock, and only needing to run a generator an hour or two every other day to keep up (as long as we don’t need heat or AC).

We have an entire post going into nitty gritty of our setup:

Tour of our Boat’s Electrical System – Solar, Lithium Inverter!

Screen Doors

Right after we filmed our last boat tour video in 2019, we had screen doors made for all 4 of Y-Not’s entry points at Boatswain Locker in Jacksonville.

These are a wonderful addition to allow us to enjoy cool breezes on a spring day while keeping bugs out and Kiki in.

Each one snaps on to the door frame, and then have zippers. The main one in the salon has extra snaps so we can roll it up out of the way, or attach a privacy panel.

New A/C

Our salon AC started to really make loud squealing sounds and wasn’t putting out as much cool air. Being aboard in the summer, this makes it a concern!

Our friends at Dometic hooked us up with a replacement unit at cost, which was a fairly easy drop in replacement for the MarineAir we had. Thankfully, this unit is easily accessible under the pilot house settee.

Ahhh.. it’s been so nice have quieter cool air!

LED Lights

One of our DIY pandemic projects was replacing most of the lights in Y-Not with LED.

The prior owner has actually switched a lot of the original lighting to LED, but they were a mismatch of brands, colors and brightness. It’s been so nice having consistent lighting throughout the boat. And the upper lights in the salon are actually multi-color.

A future project is to make the lighting smarter and voice controllable. We’ll get there.

New Faucets

We replaced the galley faucet as one of our first move aboard projects five years ago – it was in really crummy shape.

When we returned to Y-Not in January, the bathroom faucets where leaky and just really looking old too. So, time to replace!

Problem is, they have to be really low profile as the master bathroom’s medicine cabinet has to swing out over the faucet. And there’s just not that many single handle choices that would fit the space.

We found however the Kohler July model on Amazon, and it’s been a beautiful upgrade! But of course, the boat yoga needed to remove the old and install was pretty advanced.

Water Maker

When we got back to Y-Not in late February 2020 and just not sure what was coming – we decided it was time to get a watermaker onboard. This allows us to turn salt water into drinking water.

We just didn’t know if marinas would be able to remain open, if we’d have access to fresh water. We wanted one eventually for more flexibility, but with an approaching pandemic we wanted to be more prepared to be independent if needed.

So we ordered in a Rainman portable system. Aside from testing it before we left Savannah to head to Florida, and cycling it a couple times a year – we’ve not actually had the need to use it.

On the Future List

We do have some other projects we want to tackle as we have time, that include:

• Having all of our settees (couches) re-upholstered. They’re especially looking old and worn with the new carpeting.
• New helm chairs for both the pilothouse and flybridge.
• Replacing one of the engine alternators with a 24v one for charging our house batteries while underway.
• Getting pull screen kits for our front V-berth Bomar hatches.
• Replacing our apartment sized residential fridge in the galley with a 24v marine style so we can turn the inverter off when no longer needed.

Would We Get a 4788 Again?

We get asked often if we had to do it again, would we choose the Bayliner 4788 after now having owned one for 5 years and been introduced to many more boats.

And yes. Absolutely yes.

Y-Not has been the perfect boat for us as a mobile condo on the water, and we forsee her being ours for many years to come. We have no temptation to upgrade, and the size (while larger than we thought we wanted) has been perfect.

What’s Ahead? When Will We Complete the Loop?

We bought Y-Not intending to do the Great Loop, but at a slower pace. Our pace has obviously been much slower than even we anticipated.

But we’re happy with our slow pace of exploring amazing coastal cities and exploring by land in our RVs. And that’s what matters.

We’ve come to identify as cruisers, not necessarily Loopers. Sure, one day, we may actually follow a course that resembles having completed the Loop.