Just acquired a 461

Thought I'd say hello as expect I'll soon be in need of help on here. We have just taken ownership of a 2006 461 here in the UK. She's currently in Scotland having a bit of a refit. We'll holiday in her on the West Coast next spring before working her down to the South Coast (Hamble) some time later in the season where we're based. She'll be a weekend and holiday boat for our family of 5 as well as grandparents and friends etc (8+ berth requirement! ). 

Refit work includes new International Perfection Pro paint (telegrey) to the topsides, replacing original standing rigging, some repairs to the bulkhead bonding forward of the forward head, repair woodwork damage from shower sump leaks, adding a diesel heater (hydronic) and lots of small jobs/repairs. More ideas for later include replacing the standard non folding anchor roller for something that matches the quality of the rest of the boat and can carry code 0 and asymmetric on a furler, adding some solar and probably a reupholster of the saloon.

Have to say thank you to all the past posters on this forum as reading the last 14 years of 461 posts was hugely helpful in deciding she was the boat for us. Very rare to find this sort of owners forum. This plus the combination of the unique layout (8 berth, double + bunk fwd), sailing performance, epoxy hull and proper keel structure were the things that convinced us. 

Thanks. 

In our refit, there was a 6 KW Yanmar generator and 2 120 volt 16,000 BTU aircon/ heating units that I removed, each having 3 hair handlers, one on each side of the boat in each cabin, aft, salon, and forward master. Our goal was to replace the AC system with a DC system. Over the last few months, how experiment has proven successful. We put 2,000 watts of solar on our new top as well as 1300 amp hours of battery. In replacing the heating and cooling system, we chose a 12 volt DC powered air conditioning heating solution. The master and guest cabin have 7,000 btu machines, they pull about 20-25 amps. The salon has a larger 12 volt 12,000 BTU machine, it pulls about 40 amps. A great note on these machines is that they have variable compressors, so once they reach temperatures, their amperage drops and become even more efficient. We like the 12 volt units a lot 

That sounds like a very nice system. I wish I could say the UK was warm enough for this to work for us here as that approach is definitely to my liking. Sadly the UK water is so far as I understand too cold for reverse cycle heating to work well at the colder ends of the season but be interesting to know if anyone disagrees. 

Thanks.