New 380 Sundancer owner

**Zach312** · 11-01-2012, 06:06 PM

I've had a few post on specific questions but figured it was time to say hi to all.

My wife and I just bought a new to us 2001 380 sundancer. We are upgrading from a 2006 185 sport so we are both very excited and nervous at the same time.

We are also upgrading many components this winter.
-Hard surface cabin floors
-'floating' stairs
-new hardware in cabin
-flat screens
-new sounds system
-New cockpit and cabin lighting
-new bedding
-new canvas (black)
-remove cock pit carpit
-Raymarine e7d chart plotter

We love to hear your imputs, ideas and advice. We hope we have picked the right boat. What other upgrades do some of you enjoy? We don't know all the questions to even ask yet!

Thank you to all of you who have already helped with questions and we look forward to hopefully meeting some of you.

**DF470DA** · 11-03-2012, 09:17 PM

Congrats Zach on the 380- It is an excellent choice and I am sure you'll love it as we did for the 11 years and 330 hours we put on her here on the Ohio. That's a big list of upgrades, looks like you have covered most of what you can do. One suggestion, and this coming from the guy who bought my 380 in March, he replaced all the lighting (Cockpit and Cabin) with LED lights, and they look awesome. They were costly, but they burn much cooler, use less energy and are much brighter. ....

**Summer Fun II** · 11-09-2012, 11:09 PM

Congrats on the new toy.

**JediJD** · 11-10-2012, 07:08 AM

I'm sure you'll see the "Official 380" thread with lots of information. You will want to customize to your specifications but we love the black canvas and had a pretty neat cantilevered camper canvas system built that has proven to be a winner. Get enough extra Sunbrella to do the front sunpad. Not sure about the floating stairs. Carpet in the cockpit will be wildly improved if you also cut and lay EVA under it. Handy add for me was putting a paper towel holder in the engine compartment with a velcroed LED flashlight...amazed at how often that comes in handy. UW lights are pretty. LED lights make a difference. If your stupid green power light flickers...there's a repair for that. Make your fart filter rechargeable. Tempergel foam pad on the bed does wonders...get one with the cover and sew it to new size. Put little plastic tubes in the water outlet holes to prevent streaking (thanks Carter Chapman)...the list goes on. Welcome home.

**Zach312** · 11-10-2012, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by JediJD

I'm sure you'll see the "Official 380" thread with lots of information. You will want to customize to your specifications but we love the black canvas and had a pretty neat cantilevered camper canvas system built that has proven to be a winner. Get enough extra Sunbrella to do the front sunpad. Not sure about the floating stairs. Carpet in the cockpit will be wildly improved if you also cut and lay EVA under it. Handy add for me was putting a paper towel holder in the engine compartment with a velcroed LED flashlight...amazed at how often that comes in handy. UW lights are pretty. LED lights make a difference. If your stupid green power light flickers...there's a repair for that. Make your fart filter rechargeable. Tempergel foam pad on the bed does wonders...get one with the cover and sew it to new size. Put little plastic tubes in the water outlet holes to prevent streaking (thanks Carter Chapman)...the list goes on. Welcome home.

Thanks for the info.

Were is most of your boating done? Do you find yourself using your radar?

We will be doing all of our boating on the St croix and Mississippi river (near mlps, MN). I would like to update to a new chartplotter and would like to but a E97 in the existing radar spot. I think we will use the chartplotter much more than needing a radar. We can always add radar back in the future.. Thoughts... anyone? Thanks!

**northern** · 11-10-2012, 09:38 PM

Based on the two boat we owned you might want to try it as is for a season or part of a season then upgrade as you see fit. Our first boat we did things at the start that we felt were correct but after a year they were not correct for us. When we got our second boat we knew what we wanted but ran it for most of the summer to make sure what we wanted was needed. One can spend a lot on things that may not be correct. You may find you want to do different upgrades.