Something constructive to talk about!

I wanted to say thank you all for helping me reach 1000 page views.  I know, there is no real reason to have that as a goal, but what makes me excited is that people are following what I am doing!  Thank you all for continuing to view my blog!!!

Okay, so, earlier in the week I ordered and picked up my sheet of marine plywood for the bulkhead.  I was hopeful to get more done today than I did, but isn't that always the case.  What I did get accomplished was some new construction.  I talked a while back about my Tacoma pickup that I got.  I found it to be very useful today.  Who needs sawhorses when you have the rails of the pickup bed to support your work on?  I have also found that the tailgate makes a very useful work bench.  The verdict on the truck is this:  it was ABSOLUTELY the right choice for where I am in my life!

As you can see, it took many attempts to fit the bulkhead into the space, but that is okay, because I was actually able to put it in place as one solid piece.  I was worried that I would have to cut it into two pieces to make it fit, because this could have compromised some of the strength of the bulkhead, but also could have made a nice, ugly seam across it that would be visible to anyone entering the boat.

I had made a template for the bulkhead, and that was my starting point for how big to cut the piece.  I second guessed myself on the template though, and cut the bulkhead bigger than what was traced from the template.  This translated into many more fitting attempts.  In the end, it was a relatively straight forward process of fitting, trimming, fitting, trimming, fitting, etc.  My dear friend Jeff asked me yesterday if I was interested in doing historical boat restorations, and after today, I am certain that I DO NOT have the patience for that kind of work on a regular basis.  For "small" projects such as this, I can manage.

I even took the time to drill and through-bolt the bulkhead to the cabin top, as the original bulkhead was.  As you can see, the cover piece for the nuts was also added to the backside of the bulkhead.  The plan for today was to fiberglass the bulkhead into place, but unfortunately I ran out of warm temps and daylight.  I will be back bright and early to get started on the glassing project since it is supposed to be 50+ degrees tomorrow.  While I love winter and am upset that winter in Maine in the last few winters has been disappointing, I am very greatful to global warming for allowing me to fiberglass in January without the use of indoor spaces or heaters.

As a side note, as I was leaving, I tightened the stand that was under the bulkhead.  I had loosened it because the pressure from the stand was causing the hull to flex inward, and I did not want the bulkhead to be permanently skewed inward.  When I tightened it with the bulkhead only wedged into place, the hull did not flex.  This is a good thing for two reasons.  1) Flexing of fiberglass causes it to crack and break, allowing water to penetrate.  2) A hull that keeps its shape in the water (aka- the hull does not flex) is going to be faster in the water than one that has a poorly supported and therefore flexible hull.  No, this boat is not going to ever be a real performer or a racer, but having a very structurally sound and stiff hull is important regardless.

AC/DC Baby!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish I was talking about the rock band.  I am actually going to be talking about AC and DC electric systems and how NOT to wire them.  First, however, I would like to mention that it is indeed winter in Maine, even if they are projecting 50 degree F by the end of the week.  If you would take note, I have had to shovel paths around the boat so that I can place my ladder and untie the tarp to allow me access to the boat.  I have also noticed that the cold and warm alternating the weather has been doing has caused the boat and stands to shift.  There have been two or three times when I have arrived to work on the boat, and one or more of the boat stands are not touching the boat.  It makes me nervous, but that is why I have 5 stands.  I've seen the boat supported on only three (when being offloaded from the trailer), so I know it is possible, but it still worries me.



It was also Christmas recently.  My parents have a sense of humor.  Because I work in the shipping industry, I saw more Amazon boxes than I care to think about.  So my mother decided to be funny and put my gifts in Amazon boxes.  Not funny mom, not funny!  The gifts from my parents are quite useful.  I got a wind up flashlight, which was used extensively for the work I did this weekend.  I also received rubber work gloves, which also came in handy when working in 20 something degree weather with metal tools.  I also received money from my grandparents that will be used to buy some much needed marine plywood, but that is next weekend's project.  Thank you all for your gifts and support in the project!  It is needed and much appreciated!!

Now, on to ROCK AND ROLL!!!  I mean, AC/DC.  I mean..... electricity?  The previous owner had put in an AC (alternating current) shore power system.  Think: wall outlet in your house (120v).  I knew I needed to remove the system not only because if it's age, but I suspected it of not being up to marine spec in terms of components and installation.  The twist on caps used to wire some of the system are acceptable in house AC systems.  Generally in houses you do not have to worry about pervasive and persistent moisture, nor do you have to generally worry about dangerous gas build up in enclosed spaces.  Both are issues on boats for the following reasons: 1) The boat is in water, so no matter how dry you keep the inside, there will always be high humidity.  This can lead to corrosion of the connections because they are not sealed (heat shrink tubing, etc) which can then lead to excessive heat being generated by the poor connections.  This, with 120v AC systems can very quickly lead to fire, which is never good.  2) Boats generally have inboard motors (gasoline or diesel) and or stoves (propane, alcohol, gas, diesel, etc) that, with the exception of diesel, have the possibility of having their fumes pool in the low points in the boat, making for an explosive mixture needing only a spark to ruin your day.  This is why ALL wire connections are supposed to be sealed in one manner or another, even on the DC (direct current) system. 

I was hopeful that the wiring the previous owner used was going to be re-useable, unfortunately it is not.  Basically, it is extension cord wire, and that is not really good enough for doing the AC system on the boat.  It is not terrible, but it is not up to spec.  The wiring in boat systems, AC or DC, needs to all be tinned.  What this means is that EVERY SINGLE STRAND of copper wire is covered in a thin layer of tin to prevent corrosion.  That makes it very expensive, which was probably the main consideration when the previous owner installed their system.  Thankfully, I will not have to install an AC system until late summer or fall, so I can put off the costs and that segment of the project for the time being. 

Now, we come to the DC (direct current) 12v system that most of the boat systems will run off of.  A 12v system is by no means as dangerous as a 120v AC system, but is can also pose a fire hazard.  This is why the 12v DC system needs to be constructed with as much care as the 120v AC power system. Many of the same issues that I outlined above for the AC system are true for the DC system also.  Corrosion, poor connections, and sparks are all issues.  The panel and the battery switch (in my hand in the picture) are the brain of the system.  They are necessary to power the systems, like navigation lights, bilge pumps, and radios, and be able to turn them off when not is use.  This means that because it is the control center, it needs to be somewhere easily accessible.  The fuse panel and battery switch were mounted to the V-berth in the front of the boat, meaning that when you wanted to turn something on or off, you had to traverse the entire length of the cabin.  That does not sound that bad, since the boat is only 26 feet long, but when you're in a hurry, and have to climb the companionway ladder also, it makes the extra steps and stooping steps that could be avoided by placing these components in the main cabin, and closer to the companionway.  This is the goal for me and my retrofit.  

As you can see, the back of the fuse panel is a mess.  If I have learned nothing over the years working on cars, motorcycles, boats, and everything else, I have learned that when you have a mass of wires, LABEL THEM!!!!!!!!!  I also sometimes do that with hardware too, when it is very specific to a component.  It makes the rebuild process much faster!  When I started to remove the wires from the fuse panel, I noticed that they were all wired with those darn twist on caps that the AC system had been done with.  I am glad that I found this, if for no other reason, so I can fix it so it is correct.  I would have preferred that it had been done correctly in the first place, but what do I expect from an $800 boat?  Sometimes too much, that is for sure.  

I have ordered my 1/2 inch plywood for the main bulkhead, so I think that I may be able to get that cut out, put in place, and maybe screwed into place so that I can work on bunk deconstruction.  I decided that I needed to put the bulkhead into place before removing the bunk.  The bulkhead and the bunk hold the galley cabinet in place, and I do not want to have to try to figure out where it goes if it moves out of place.  More on that next week though!

PS- If you made it this far and find my post somewhat incoherent, it might be because I am sleep deprived.  My bad....  :)

Its days like these.....

I know its been a while since I posted.  I have been working extra shifts for the holiday season, both to make money for the boat, but also because both of my jobs are incredibly busy during the holiday season.  However, on to boat related things.

It is days like today that make me wonder if I might be making a crazy mistaken decision.  It was 0 degrees F this morning when I was at work.  I was cold in my apartment, and wondered on my drive to work this morning past the steaming ocean whether I am making a mistake.  My thoughts were something like this:

If I was cold in my apartment, how cold would I have been on the boat?
Do I really want to do winter in an even smaller space than I already live?
What am I going to do if I get to the end of summer and realize this isn't for me?
How well am I going to be able to heat the boat?
What happens if it does not get warm enough for me to finish my projects before my lease on my apartment runs out?

In case you are wondering, I do have my doubts, and they were many this morning.  I am not inhuman.  I cannot just power though the project without wondering if it is going to work.  I am willing to voice my doubts.  Honestly, if I did not have doubts about this endeavor, I would be worried that there was something that I was really missing as a key piece of information!  This is a big project, but also a big change in my lifestyle.  No longer will I have copious amounts of space to fill with stuff.  I will have to temper every purchase with the question "Do I have space and a real NEED for this purchase?"  If I cannot answer yes to both parts of the question, then I can't buy it, which is something new for me.  I think it will be a good thing, but new and, therefore, will take adjusting to. 

In other thought processes this week, I have determined that I will probably be living on a mooring this summer rather than in a marina at the dock.  That means that I will have to be self sufficient in terms of power for lights and electronics.  This means I need solar panels because wind generators are too expensive!  Fortunately I am happy to experiment with off the grid living, as it is also one of my life goals.  Even better, I think I found some marine grade solar panels at a very low price.  I am a bit skeptical because you generally get what you pay for, but when you are on a budget, sometimes you have to go with the cheap alternative because you cannot afford the good stuff.  On the other hand, when you buy top quality equipment, it last longer, saving you on replacement costs and repairs.  The solar panels are an unusual size (long and narrow), so that might fit into the price factor.  Who knows.  I hope Monday I can get some things done for the boat, but we will see.  More updates to come. 

Happy Holidays!

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season!  May your time with friends and family be merry and may you want for nothing!

 Here is a quick update before I go to work this morning from Monday's project.  As you know, I removed the bulkhead, but there was a trim piece on the junk bulkhead that I wanted to save.  It is a nice piece of mahogany and a single piece of wood.  It would be quite time consuming to reproduce, and the wood alone would cost a fortune.  So instead, I decided it was worth the time to try to salvage the piece.  It was nailed into place with little brad type nails which were flush.  To get them out, I had to chisel some wood out of the way so that I could get a pair of vice grips in there to pull the brads out.  I think the job was successful.  When I rebuild, I will be reconstructing the bulkhead with screws instead of nails so that if I (or the next owner) has to do this job again, it will be much easier to deconstruct.

I also had a good time screwing around with the Macro setting on my little point and shoot camera, and all of these photos were taken with the macro setting on.  Below are some photos of the rotten bulkhead in close.

If you were in doubt....

I have quite a bit to cover for today's work.  It was quite productive, even though it was short and I ran out of light.  In case anyone was curious, it was a balmy 23 degrees Fahrenheit with occasional snow flurries.  Sounds like a beautiful day in the State of Maine to me!!!!

Let us revisit last weekend's progress.  I had a short time to fiberglass the open through hulls because it was in the 40's.  The picture to the left should look familiar from last weekend.  Today, when the piece of plastic came off, there was a royal mess underneath.  Unfortunately I did not get the piece of plastic taped tightly enough to the hull of the boat, so the epoxy resin was able to run and pool where it was not supposed to.  That means that I have to now sand it off, and maybe try again.  We will see how it turns out once I get the excess epoxy off, and whether adding more glass to the through hull holes will in fact make them stronger than they are already.  I am hoping that with the bottom paint on the bottom, I might be able to chip the glass off, because the bottom paint is supposed to shed growth on the hull.  Maybe I will get lucky, but more than likely, I will have a lot of sanding to do.  That will be a project for another day. 

 Now we come to today's project.  If you were in doubt about how damaged some of the interior parts of the boat are, here is the photographic proof that I am not making this stuff up!  I removed the main bulkhead in the cabin today.  You can see it leaning up against my truck, and you might be thinking that it doesn't look so bad.  Take a peak at the picture below.  I made myself a cardboard template for when I get the plywood to replace the bulkhead.  I then laid the actual bulkhead that came out of the boat on top of it for comparison.  As you can see, a substantial portion of the bulkhead is missing.  This is because of major water damage, not just from water sitting in the interior of the boat while it was on land, but also because the chainplate leaked substantially down onto the plywood.  When I took the chainplate out after the bulkhead was removed, I saw what the issue was.  There were 2 screws missing from the chainplate bracket, and once that came off, I could see that the sealant that was used was gone.  These will be things that I will be modifying/repairing when I get there.  First things first though! 

In the above picture, it shows the inside of the galley cabinet with the bulkhead removed.  There are also lots of pieces of rotten plywood on the floor from the removal process.  The challenge that is upcoming is how to get an entire bulkhead into the space where it needs to go, since it was likely put in place with the cabin top not on the boat yet.  One possibility is to cut the bulkhead into two pieces and then scarf or lap (types of joinery) them together if the entire bulkhead will not fit. 

I have to give credit where credit is due.  I am not a genius that just knows how to do all of these things innately.  I have spent a lot of time reading as much as I can about boat repair, and I have spent quite a bit of time working on boats at summer camp and the local non-profit community sailing organization.  To be fair though, This Old Boat by Don Casey has been indispensable!!!  When I don't find what I am looking for in Casey's book, Fix It and Sail by Brian Gilbert usually has what I am looking for.  I also have to thank my dad for all of his help on this project, from going to look over the boat in the buying process, to letting me bounce ideas off of him, to letting me borrow his copy of This Old Boat while I work on the project. 

Thank goodness for global warming?

It was in the 40's yesterday, which is a bit unusual for Maine in December.  That being said, it was a good thing because it was warm enough to do some fiberglass work.  Since I will be using a composting head for the boat, I do not need the 3 through hulls that were associated with the previous traditional head on the boat.  That means I can patch the holes in the hull, and have fewer through hulls to maintain and worry about. 

Here are some basics for fiberglass.  I was using epoxy resin for yesterday's project.  It is the strongest, most water resistant resin out there.  It is also expensive.  I used it because where I am patching will be underwater, and therefore needs to be water resistant so that osmotic blisters do no occur on the bottom of the hull.  Osmotic blisters occur when water penetrates the layers of fiberglass.  This ruins the strength of the fiberglass, and is quite expensive to fix.  The epoxy resin gets mixed to a specific ratio (5:1 in this case), then the layers of glass fabric and mat get soaked with resin.  The layers get progressively bigger as you add them because then each layer will grab more of the existing hull and have more hold strength than if each layer is the same size, or the bottom layer is the biggest.  In this case, I had one layer of fabric on the outside of the hull, with 2 layers of mat and 2 layers of glass alternated on the inside of the hull.  Doing the repair in this manner makes for an extremely strong fix, which is important when patching the hull.  I will have to do some fairing (read: LOTS OF SANDING) of the glass layers after they have set and are hard.  This will make them basically invisible as fixes on the hull, and also make the hull smooth so that it cuts though the water very well. 

 Left: The layers of glass laid out in prep for soaking (aka: wetting out) with epoxy and application to hull.

Below: Plastic sheet taped to hull to form glass work to the shape of the hull so that less sanding is necessary, and less material will be removed in the process.  One through hull hole is still left to be patched due to temps dropping below 40 degrees.

A final note: The tailgate of the pickup makes a great work bench for doing projects for the boat.

Shins + Boats ≠ Friends

I know it has been a few weeks since I have done an in depth post.  The reason is because I spent 2 weekends working on car problems, followed by having to buy a new vehicle.  It was also USA Thanksgiving recently, so that made work on the boat go on hold. 

First, I have to talk about my truck.  It is a wonderful vehicle, and a wonderful replacement for the Outback I had.  When I transferred the "essentials" that I generally keep in my vehicle from a station wagon to a regular cab Toyota Tacoma pickup, it was an exercise in downsizing.  I still don't have it all worked out.  I generally carry a toolbox (mostly because I have had cheap, unreliable vehicles so tools were a necessity), jumper cables, extra oil, windshield washer fluid, ice and snow scrapers (yes, even in the summer, because you never know!!!).  There is generally a lot of other junk that accumulates in my vehicles because there has been space for it.  In the Tacoma, there is not.  My toolbox occupies the space where a passenger's feet would be, and the other "essentials" are tucked into whatever space I could make them fit into.  There were also many things that could not fit, because there is so little space in the cab.  You might be asking yourself, "Why don't you use the bed, since it is a pickup truck, after all?"  Here is why:  I live in a small city with many homeless, transient, impoverished people.  Anything thing that is not locked will disappear.  A cap for the truck isn't in the budget at the moment either.  That means if I can't fit it in the cab, it goes into the apartment.  Also, even though it hasn't been acting like it, it is winter here in Maine.  That means that its raining/snowing/sleeting/etc. on a regular basis.  Those are not good conditions to keep things out in.  With those things being said, I do have to say that I think that the truck is going to be a better solution to schlepping my stuff around, since in 4 months or so, I will be putting the boat in the water, and therefore moving boat stands, sails, dingy, moving out of my apartment, etc.  The pickup just makes sense.  Plus, having a rear wheel drive, standard transmission vehicle in the winter is a lot of fun!! 

Meet Yoda, the Toyota.  ;)

Hatches in the bed, moving them to the shop for rebuilds

Sandbags in the back for weight 

Now, on to boat related things.  This weekend I was able to take a quick trip to the boat and remove 4 out of 5 hatches to take them to the shop so they can be rebuilt.  All of the hatches are junk, and have to be rebuilt.  I was also able to clean up a bunch of junk left by the previous owners that I have no use for/don't know what it's use was.  I have not decided what I am going to do for all of the hatches, but I have a few ideas.  I know that I would like the forward hatch to have a clear Lexan (name-brand composite material used for windows, portholes, display cases, etc) cover to let light into the v-berth.  I will have to see what the budget looks like to see if that will happen.  I might also make the lazarettes (hatch) in the cockpit out of foam and fiberglass, but again, we will see. 

This brings me to tomorrow.  SPOILER ALERT!!!!  Because the weather is supposed to be 45 and sunny, I can do some epoxy work on the hull and glass over the through hull holes in the head.  I thought that for certain I was going to have to wait til spring for that to happen.  Who knows what else I might get accomplished tomorrow as well.

I will finish with an explanation of my title.  Anyone who has sailed knows what I mean without explanation.  I spent four years racing dingies on the college level.  During the sailing season, I was black and blue from knee to ankle.  Several years later, my shins still bear the bumps from the 420's I spent so much of my college sailing career in.  I also remember as a child going out on my dad's boat.  We all ended up with inexplicable bruises on our shins.  Apparently it is just a part of sailing.  Over the weekend, I was getting off the boat, and tripped on something, nailing my shin on a ladder.  My shins have taken so much abuse from college sailing, it did not hurt so much, but ended up with a pretty substantial bruise.  Even without racing, being around the boat gives me bruises.  This is why shins and boats will never be friends!