Turkey Day Update

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

A lot has happened from the last update. The boat is coming along nicely and everything is starting to fall into place.

First of all, the mast has been put up! It went up easier than I thought even with the old crane that the boat yard has. The only snag was that the new pins for the stays were a little larger than the holes in the new chain plates that were made so I had to temporarily pin them up with bolts. I then bought an expensive bit for stainless and enlarged the holes to the right size. No big deal, easy fix. Before the mast went up, I had a new mast step created that was 2" taller so that I could cut the corrosion off the bottom of the mast. I took an angle grinder and chopped off the bottom 2" of the mast and drilled a new hole for the mast wires. The new step has proper drainage so that the corrosion won't happen again.

To put the mast up I had help from the guys at UK Sail-makers / Sailfish Canvas , who ran the show on the stepping. They are the guys who are making the dodger, Bimini, and new sail cover. Thanks for the help!

As you can see from the pictures, the bottom has been finished and looks great! We have moved on to a lot of interior work. The aft cabin has been torn apart, the old water tank removed, an access hole cut to get to the side of the engine, and a new water bladder installed for the time being. The cabin is now back together and being sanded for new paint. The engine has a new impeller and filters and has been primed. It starts right up and sounds great!

Old tank gone, access hole for engine

New bladder installed, starting to rebuild berth

Bunk back together and starting to sand bulkheads for paint!

Other projects completed included hooking up all the wires on the mast, making sure all electronics work, testing the refrigeration, testing the propane system, and various other cosmetic jobs to make her look nice. The plan is to launch her next week after the propeller is put back on (hoping it is delivered on Monday) and movie onto the boat and get everything set up. Then move down river to Southport for sea trials and sailing lessons. Then moving south to warmer weather from there, nothing is set in stone yet but a little warmer weather would be nice! Hopefully everything goes well! Fingers crossed...

After cleaning it out and a new fuel pump the heater works great!

Can't wait to launch her!



Believe you can and you're halfway there.
Theodore Roosevelt 

1 step forward, 2 back

Well, I'm home from work and back to the grind on the boat. Not much was done since I left her in August. The eye-brow and hand rails have been varnished for me and the bottom has been stripped. The boat was moved outside of the building and a couple guys with the Farrow System stripped the bottom. The nice thing about having it done with this system versus sand blasting is that it does not hurt the gel coat.

The bottom looks great with only a couple places that need to be faired. We then put three coats of barrier coat on the bottom, we used Petttit Protect because the bottom paint that followed was Pettit Ultima SR 60.

For bottom paint, we used one layer of black, then finished off with 2 of red so that you can tell when the paint wears down and it is time to pull and apply another. The yard had some left over black that we used to start and bought 3 gallons of red to finish the boat. It looks great finished! (forgot pics today though) Here's the start of it:

Next, the interior is starting to look great too! We brought the cushions up to see how it looks and for the initial survey. We did some painting in the cabinets and started to put things in their place.

Ok, for the bad news. The Max Prop was taken off while I was gone to have the cutlass bearing replaced. The bearing was replaced but when the prop was taken apart it was found that a piece inside was sheared and had to be sent out to the company to have it rebuilt. They still have the prop and should be sending it back in about a week. This has been the limiting factor for launching the boat, although probably not the only factor. 

The mast, after being inspected by the surveyor, is in great condition but the bottom 2 inches have to be cut off due to corrosion because the mast step did not have adequate drainage and held water to the mast. The mast step was very corroded and I have a new one being fabricated with a lift on it to account for the 2in that I am gong to cut off. 

Finally, the engine. The engine should be fine, it is just working on it that is the problem. I wanted the impeller replaced while I was gone, but there was no way to actually get to it. The engine is a re-power and the engine is larger than the original in the boat. So they must have got the engine, barely fit it in and forgot about ever doing maintenance on it. So, what I had to do to gain access to the side of the engine is cut out the steel water tank in the aft cabin. So after all of the steps forward, this is a large step back, but hopefully won't slow down the launch that much. I already have it out and a bought the wood to get it back together. I will try to post pictures when I get the camera from the boat tomorrow. 

Anyway, its moving along and looking to put the mast up next week and launch the boat as soon as the prop gets back.

“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” 
― Babe Ruth