Magic Goo!

This past week I received something in the mail that might have been sent from heaven! It is called Mckanica Silicone Remover and it will be worth its weight in gold if it works as advertised.

I did a test on a small area of one of the frames. You might be able to see an area of silicone on the right that is darker than the rest. That is my test area where I applied some of the magic goo.

I let it sit overnight although the directions say 2 to 3 hours. Hey, the Heat game was on, ok? This morning I checked it and IT WORKED! The silicone from hell peeled right off like it was not supposed to be there, which in my mind, it wasnt. You can see the now clean area on the right.

Hallelujah! Although I will have to sit and dab it on with a small brush or something, it sure beats the alternative. The alternative is destructive grinding with an abrasive and quite honestly that might not even do the trick.

In other news, I removed the old 1" cockpit drains. Once again, the bolts were ridiculously longer than they needed to be. They could have used a 1" long bolt but noooooo they used 2-1/2" long. They were bronze for a change but heavily corroded. Since I am working alone and my patience is thin, I backed the nuts off (small visegrips tied to a string on the nut and me in the cockpit with a screw driver) far enough to bend and break the bolts. Not text book procedure but it is my boat!

I will be replacing them with these babies.

Those are 2" Marelon cockpit drains. The strainers are 4" nickel floor drains. Installing these will require some ingenuity but I think I have a good method in mind. Something that was suggested by an old pro in one of the boat forums I frequent. More on that later.

This weekend I begin re coring the decks and also some hole repairs. The weather forecast is perfect, I have three full days and plenty of beer so lets see how far I can get!

Deadlight Struggle

The past few days has been rainy and frustrating. I did manage to get a little more demolition in though! Nothing can stop me from being destructive.

Last week I removed the Goiot hatch lid over the saloon and sent it off to Select Plastics to have a new lens and new gasket installed. So now it is time to remove the base and the teak ring. While I am at it, I decided to remove the deadlights too. After all, how hard could it be!

Base removed. Sealant is chalky.

Teak ring. This is going to be tough to get off. Save for later! :P

There was no way for water to escape this box....

Feeling froggy, I attacked the deadlights. This is going to be easy, just remove the bolts and the frames and lens will simply fall in my lap!

Bolts out port side...

and in the bow....

starboard bow....


















and finally starboard saloon.

I was certain this was going to be easy. Boy was I in for a big surprise. These deadlights are, or were, held in not by bolts but rather by the super duper silicone from hell that sealed them. I had no idea...

After messing around with a screw driver trying to gently pry the first frame off, it became apparent that I was going to need a beer...and another tool. I resorted to a metal putty knife which worked better once I found a point of weakness between the frame and the cabinside. Within seconds I knew this was going to much harder than I ever thought it would be.

First frame off after 45 minutes of CHISELING!

Close up of the silicone...

Three frames off in two hours. There has to be a better way!

By now the poor putty knife that I was using to chisel with gave up the ghost. I am glad because when I bought two new ones and used one I found something out. It is much easier if the tool is sharp! Duh...

So the next day I went back at it. It was still difficult to remove these things but mostly because I was trying to be very careful not to bend the frames. The exterior frames on the starboard side were much easier than the rest due to the fact they were exposed to direct sunlight and the silicone was softer. They were the last ones that I did and by then I needed a little break like that.

16 frames, 8 lens and 9 beers later...

Look Ma! No windows!

and of course within an hour it starts to rain....

Little did I know then but my phone was still in the boat. I only realized it after the deluge was coming down by the bucket.

I ordered two tubes of silicone caulk remover gel to get the crap off of the frames. I hope and pray it works! Stay tuned!

Tale of four holes...

Continuing to play blog catch up!

So, with nearly all of the hardware off of the boat, it is time to actually fix something. I decided to begin with what I consider my most obnoxious source of aggravation;  the ice box lid in the cockpit. I have come very close to stepping through it more than once. The wood is rotten and it poses a serious safety hazard. It has to go!


The ice box lid is the wooden rectangle on the left. Since I will be working right there, I might as well cut out the compass cuddy thing in the center too! And why not fix the AC receptacle hole next to it? What about the old gauge hole on the right? I am going to dive in head first and fix all four holes!

I started on the inside by cutting out the ice box lid support ring thingamajig that hung down about 2 inches. It took up a lot of valuable space inside and was good for nothing. It is gone! I used a multi-tool with a plunge cut blade. This took only one beer to complete.

The now removed ice box lid and it's support ring. Looks better sitting there defeated than it did lounging around in the boat being a total slacker.

Holy crap! The hole is huge now! There is no way that I can span that gap with core and cloth with so little deck to tie in to fore and aft. I am going to need a good plan in order to fix that.

Next was cutting out the compass cuddy. You can see here that it is done. This took two beers and was a bear to cut through.

Take that compass cuddy!

They make a nice couple dont you think?

Another view. What an odd shaped hole and right where I need the deck to be super strong. This is right in front of the companionway and I will be stepping there dozens of times per day.

Next up was to grind and bevel the surfaces inside. Done.

And do the same outside. Remind me to take everything out of the boat, like my tools and stuff, before grinding. It took an hour to vacuum the dust that covered literally everything inside the boat.

I went back and grinded some more on these after this shot was taken.

I decided that the ice box hole needed something solid instead of core. So I cut a 13" x 17" piece of 1/4" G10 to use as a plug.

Here it is. I beveled the bottom edges and scuffed up the surface on both sides.

Test fit. It is going to work but I dont like how high it sits.

So I cut out a 1/8" deep slot or lip around the edge using a dremel with a router bit. This was a major pain in the ass and took 3 beers to complete.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I bonded 3/8" core to the bottom of the plug. Much easier to do now than later, upside down.

Now, I know what you are thinking. "Ewwww he lives on a ranch" right?

Here is the ranch. The back patio of my apartment. :)

The pvc/tarp covering is an engineering marvel!

The ice box plug and the cuddy lid epoxied in place. I reused the cuddy lid because it is already shaped correctly and I felt that this repair needed extra strength. I also bonded 3/8" core to the bottom of it just like the ice box plug.

3 layers of 1708 over each hole. Moving fast now! I forgot to coat them with neat epoxy after they tacked up. The next morning I had to wash them to remove the wax before coating with neat and then fairing.

I also added another layer of 1708 in this depression as you may or may not be able to see here.

And all faired out! This is two coats. 11 West Systems "pumps" and 22 heaping tablespoons full of fairing filler. Mixing fairing putty is not the most fun thing in the world, trust me on that.

I also layed one layer of 1708 on the bottom of the ice box plug. Here it is being held up there with a piece of luan under 1" foam covered with plastic. You might be able to see some fairing over the lower part of the cuddy hole too.

There are some dry spots on the left where the 1708 didnt stick to the deck. I am going to have to grind it off and fix it up later when I start on the interior.

Well, thats it! I am kinda caught up with updates. It feels nice to be current after such a long hiatus. As you can see I have been busy working on the boat and have not abandoned my project or my dream!

I am on vacation this week and will be working on the boat. I hope to make some real progress on the decks when it is not raining and sanding/grinding on the interior when it is raining. It is raining right now so I better get busy, adios!

Not so fast Sole Man!

Has it really been almost two months since I last posted? Yes. Am I still removing the sole next? No. I am putting that on hold in lieu of repairing something else that has come to my attention. The decks! Hey, I was raised by women so I have no qualms with changing my mind regularly!

Actually, I came home from work one day and wished to do something simple yet productive. So, I removed the two fuel fills on the starboard deck. I was surprised how wet they both were and how rotten the core was on the older, original one.

Not good. This made me rethink the direction I need to go AGAIN, I know!













I then made it my mission to remove all of the hardware from the decks so that I can assess their shape. This took a looooong time. It seemed to rain every weekend during this period too, as is expected when I have something I really want to do. The rain really was not as bad as something else even more insidious. Very long, overly long, needlessly long and rusty bolts holding everything in place. Also, I am doing this without help so I had to be fairly crafty with small vise grips. In the end, I only had to cut three bolts and those were all upper chain plate bolts that I could not reach both sides of the bulkhead and were slotted.

Fore deck and cabin top with hardware removed.

Stern. Notice the packing tape over the holes. I removed the old caulk, scuffed up the surface and cleaned with acetone before placing the tape.

Starboard cockpit.

Port cockpit.

Starboard.

Port.

Hmmm....
That ice box lid....
And that compass cuddy.....
And the old gauges hole....









I am now only about three weeks behind with the blog and at a milestone in my boat project. It is now that I will move from demolition and destroying the boat to actually repairing it! I will start by "fixing" the ice box hole, the compass cuddy and the hole where the engine gauges used to be.

Anyone need dozens of 2", 3" #10 and 1/4" bolts? I hope to never go through that again...

I got sole!

My last post is a study in indecision, procrastination and denial on a subliminal level. When I started writing it, I felt so smart and knew exactly what to do next.  As I typed, my confidence in the course I was about to embark upon dwindled. The main reason for this is that I was ignoring a problem that I walk all over every time I step down into the boat. The sole! The "floor" for you non-sailboat lingo exposed landlubbers.

Actually the sole is fine. It is what lurks underneath the sole that is the ugly problem. There are several bilge compartments down there that have very questionable bottoms. These bottoms act as a shelf of sorts holding items stored within up and off of the keel providing a space for accumulated moisture a path to the bilge. The things I need to keep in the two aft compartments are my future, very heavy house batteries.

In the current configuration, these compartments are not vertically big enough to hold the batteries I have chosen (4x Trojan T-125 6 volt). So, even if they were not approaching being rotten, I would still have to "replace" the bottoms of them to fit the batteries with room to maintain them.

When I was writing my previous post, I realized that my next logical step was refitting these compartments and I became instantly depressed and quickly closed with what I now know to be false directions I was heading in. I have already done work on the boat that is grosser, harder and less heroic. I dread this task because I will be dealing my ability to walk in the boat a serious blow. Without the sole in place while I am doing this work, it will be very difficult to walk or even crawl in the boat. Not to mention climbing down the gangway since it will not have a floor for support. This is going to suck!

On the bright side though, when I am done with this, the boat will be that much closer to being a picture of forethought and skillful execution! I am not looking forward to the task but I do anticipate a great feeling of satisfaction when it is done and I can move on towards the next exercise. The greatest satisfaction will come when I am sailing and have to check these compartments for some reason only to find they are not the problem!

My three day weekend is now planned! Oh joy!

The path forward

I wish I could say that my path forward is as beautiful as what is depicted above. The  photo is misleading in a number of ways when put in contrast to my little endeavor. First, there should be weeds. Weeds would represent the things that I have questions about. I am a novice boat restorer after all and learning as I go. Second, there should be demons who would represent my paying job that keeps me from doing the boaty things that I need and want to do. I hope my manager does not read my blog! Third, the "light at the end" is far too close. I have a virtual world of shit to do and I know it.

Regardless of the above, I have chosen this picture as the "in my face" graphic motivational tool. It is now taped to my bathroom mirror. It is my desktop background on my work and home computers. It is taped to my windshield!  As I have said before, I do not do winter very well and I need this kind of thing to make me go outside when it is cold! Actually, this picture is a very good tool for me. I know what I need to do (clear path), I should keep focused (path is bounded) and there is a goal (the bright sunlight at the end).

Talking about this picture is not the reason I got online to update my blog. Outlining my immediate path forward is/was however. So, without further ado!

Critical path: (things that need to get done before the new engine goes in)

Um.......I need to really think about this further. I wrote a bunch of stuff but it was not long before I realized that more thought is in order. I can say this though, I need to replace through hulls and install the fuel tank. Both of those seemingly simple tasks open cans of worms as big as Barry!

I shall return with the answers!

Kilo Kilo Four Golf Golf Foxtrot

What does it mean?!?!?!?!? Kilo Kilo Four Golf Golf Foxtrot = KK4GGF = my kinda new HAM call sign! I passed the HAM tech and general exams back in January. January 21st to be exact. I am now a delicious HAM people!

I studied about two months for the tech exam using a number of different tools, gimmicks and printed study guides. I studied about two hours for the general exam, that morning, using only the exam pool questions that have the correct answers highlighted. When I passed the tech I was asked if I want to take the general. Feeling cocky, I accepted and just barely passed. I passed though and I am amazed at my ability to take highly technical tests on subjects I know virtually nothing about!

With my current HAM license status, I can do everything that I need to do and intend to do aboard. For those that do not know what sailors use HAM and HF (high frequency) radio for, here is a list of some uses:

° Receive graphic weather files via SSB like this:

° Receive text format weather forecasts via SSB like this:

° Send and receive very short, text based email via SSB using WINLINK. Those that give a sh*t about me will love this. I can also update my Facebook page using this wonderful technology!

° Participate in marine radio networks while in transit. Radio nets are scheduled events which are used by sailors to check in, report positions, give/receive weather reports and camaraderie with other sailors/boats while in a specific area or crossing a specific body of water.

° Safety. All of the above are based upon safety while on the high seas. Chances are that if I need a rescue, HAM, SSB or HF are not going to save me but there is a small chance. Hopefully the gribs, forecasts and my own common sense will keep me out of harm's way.

Passing two tests does not make me an expert. It is for that reason I plan on taking a third and final exam; the extra! That is what it is called...The Extra Element Four. The BIG KAHUNA! I am going to take this exam in April and it will be a test. I actually took this exam the same day I took the others but failed. It was a hail Mary attempt (25 of 50=50%=fail) but I now know what to expect. While studying for this I will learn a lot which may help me and others in the future. I might end up being the radio guru in some harbors! That could be a curse actually....

I forgot to mention that internet is not available in the middle of the ocean and 90% of the places i plan to be. This is why yo.....

/73