Update and unhappy shoulder....

This is an update of the last few weeks, and unfortunately the work on the boat has mostly stopped because i went dirt biking on Monday and crashed.  I separated my shoulder (different than dislocation) and have to be in an immobilizing sling for 4 weeks.  It also makes typing with one hand difficult, so this will be a short post.

I have old teak on the boat, and it is bleached and nasty looking.  I could have spent a fortune on the teak restore kits, but I opted to take the cheap, non-conventional road.  I  used 60 grit sand paper to clean the hand rails up a bit, which also brought back some of their color.  Then I used tung oil instead of teak oil because tung oil is supposed to be more water proof than the teak oil.  We will see how it weathers.  The right rail has one coat of tung oil, and the left rail at the very top has been sanded, with the rest in the condition it came off the boat.

 I went last week to get my Airhead composting toilet.  More can be found on it at www.airheadtoilet.com if you're interested.  Before I could install the Airhead, I had to build a platform for the head to sit on.  I used some of the remaining 1/2 in marine plywood from the bulkhead replacement project.






After adjusting the toilet position so that I can sit on it reasonably well, I started to think about the strength of the platform.  While it is supported on all four sides, I thought that a little extra support would not be a bad thing.  I put a 1x2 spruce stringer under the plywood.  I then screwed the mounting screws for the steel brackets for the head into the plywood and stringer underneath.

This is the head in place, minus the liquid collection unit.  Being 6' tall, I find the head room in the boat mildly inadequate, even though the manufacturer claims 6'1" head room in the main cabin.  Unfortunately, the headroom in the head locker is significantly less.  The Airhead is rather tall, and when combined with low cabin height, I cannot sit upright on the Airhead. Almost, but not quite.  That's what I should have expected on a 26' sailboat.

THANK YOU CLIVE!!!!!

Clive is a pilot that I work with.  He also used to be a boat builder.  Since I have been looking for a block of teak, I thought I would ask him if he knew anyone that might have something.  Instead of asking around, he looked through his personal leftover supply of wood and found a 2"x2 1/2"x28" chunk of teak.  Not only was it big enough to make a new winch backing block for the mast (left), it also went into making oarlock blocks for Half-Shell(below).

 

Some other miscellaneous projects that got finished

 The forward hatch got bolted on finally, and the open mechanism was installed.  I happened to have a nice breeze over the bow, an even though the hatch opening faces aft, the draft out of the cabin was stunning.  The cabin cooled off quickly with the hatch propped open.










Remember when the mahogany molding came off the original bulk head?  Guess what!  That's right, it is back in place on the new bulk head!  Unfortunately it split when I screwed it into place, so the clamp was there to hold it in place while the wood glue set.

This is a slick experiment that my dad and I are trying.  I got a free set of oars with Half-Shell.  One of them was severely warped in two different directions.  We used 2x4 blocks to secure the oar flat to the floor (warp one taken care of), and then used more blocks to bend it to the right in the picture (warp number two taken care of).  Here is the experimental part though. My dad and I used to build and fly R/C airplanes and when you needed a curves piece, or to set a wing so it was square, you sprayed it with household ammonia to set the wood in place.  Since the oar is not balsa, nor is it small, we were not sure if it was going to work.  When I checked on it yesterday, there had been a massive improvement.  We will see how it looks this weekend after it sits in the ammonia bag a while longer.