Do or Do Not...

... there is no try. I Did Not this weekend. 90+ degrees and 100% humidity turned the boatyard into a sauna. I made the attempt but it didn't last long. The killer is when I found that I left my fan in the cockpit exposed to the recent rain which apparently is not good for electric fans. Otherwise, I have been driving around looking at empty lots of land and a few 'fixer-uppers' (just a little TLC will have this beauty... blah blah blah). I am also narrowing in on a boatyard not far from me that would work out. Further and less endowed than my current boatyard but with some advantages.

Right Turn Clyde..

I realize not many are going to get the reference to the blog title but I will give it a chance anyway... So... I was away for a weekend visiting other boats and people. I was trapped by all the household errands that were put off the following weekend. This past weekend had some holiday party plans and general recuperation. In other words, I haven't done a damn thing in three weeks. There is a bright spot though. I received some goodies in the mail.



My new stove arrived and it looks beautiful :-) Two foot pumps for the galley also arrived plus some miscellaneous shop supplies. Even better is that the stove fits quite well.

I was worried the side locker door on the settee back was going to be blocked by the stove but it looks like it just squeaks into place. The idea is to mount the stove low enough so that a removable section of the countertop can be placed over the stove, extending the counter top area. Unfortunately, this means I won't have enough room under the stove to really stretch out my feet if I choose to lie down on the port settee. I could raise the stove, losing the counter space, or lower the stove, losing my toe-wiggling room. The toes lost and the stove will be mounted below the level of the countertop.

Actually, there is a little more to my 'got nothing done' story. It seems the boatyard where Jenny sits and where I have been almost happy paying my two thousand dollars a year in storage fees is being sold. Or rather it has been sold. I haven't had the official notification but I ran into an employee at the grocery store who filled me in. I drove through the yard today (Sunday) and saw that all the yard heavy equipment is gone which confirms what I heard about things moving fast and being sold off. So... I am paid up through September but Jenny doesn't have a home after that. What makes this a bit more difficult is that the local area is already over capacity and there simply isn't room to re-locate 150+ boats. Prices will go up and some boats will move farther away. In the meantime I have been scrambling to sort out my options.

My situation isn't totally dire. I have friends that will let me put the boat on their property but the ability to work on her will be a bit... constrained. I could put the boat in my yard (I rent a small house) which will solve the short term problem but I am quite sure my landlord won't be too happy with that plan so once it gets noticed I won't have very long to move her again. This weekend I spent some time looking at bare land for sale. The idea is that I spend around $2000 a year for storage anyway. If I could find an unbuildable lot for around $20k then in ten years I have more or less re-couped by purchase cost. (Sort of- I have to ignore my economics degree a bit to convince myself). I could spend more if the land could have a structure built on it but it gets a little gray deciding how much of my total assets should be put into boat storage when I really don't have enough to store myself (in other words home ownership)

One could already argue that I put more of my assets into Jenny than I should but for the moment I am pretty effective at ignoring that argument. I will also start calling around to boatyards for availability but I am not sure how far I need to go, how much I need to pay, and how little permission I will have for boatwork. Land ownership would be the ideal but I will be covering all the bases; especially since nothing in the real estate market has jumped out at me yet. With all this going on it has been hard to think about what the next little project is on Jenny so rather than fight the worry I have been looking straight at it and trying to find a solution to the biggest problem at the moment. I have no doubt that there is a solution I just don't know what it is today. And that's all I have. Anyone local want to rent me their backyard?...

Attack of the Gloss Monster

The plan for this past weekend was more exterior varnish. The weather, however, was a bit too cool on Saturday with a seabreeze. Since I had a carload full of varnishing supplies, I shifted gears slightly and applied varnish to all the interior wood. Stepping inside the cabin this morning was quite a shock. The woodwork had previously been coated with a single coat of varnish thinned 50% to seal it. It looked like wood but nothing special. The new coat of only slightly thinned varnish created a huge increase in the gloss factor. The interior was very bright. It looked nicer for sure but it was bright bright. Too bright. This morning I applied a third coat to the slightly tacky interior varnish which was tricky because it was hard to see the surface with all the gloss. I was applying more by the feel of the brush than by any wetness I could see. It looks much nicer but I will be happy when the rubbed effect coat gets applied. Not much more to say. Quite a few hours with a varnish brush in hand. Next week I will be away so there won't be any progress to show for at least two weeks. Hopefully I will have a new stovetop to show off for next blog post. Em tasol wantoks.

Varnish weather

A retired boat friend of mine has often told me that when varnish weather comes, I must drop everything and varnish. Those days are just too rare to waste. Everytime I wait for a good varnishing day I remember this. I am convinced that a well varnished boat, ready for launch in May, working solely on the weekends, is an impossibility. All the more reason to find that spot of land and build the boatbarn with a radiant heated slab floor so I can varnish at will; preferably in February. Last weekend was a total washout. Literally. Rained cats and dogs all weekend. Even the basement was flooded so I couldn't work there. (not that I have much to do there other than cleanup and I save that job for a 'rainy' day... After a week of rain, the weather broke and we had beautiful weather. Heeding my friend's advice I started varnishing. The toerails were getting desperate, particularly along the top edge that sees the most sun. Given the time, I would probably consider a complete strip. Given what I had, I spot sanded the worst areas and gave myself a year or two before I need to reconsider a complete strip. The toerails, companionway entrance, engine instrument panel and compass holder all received two coats of varnish. While I had the brushes out, I gave the saloon and V-berth soles two coats of clear urethane. There is a bunch more small stuff that is begging for the varnish brush and I hope to keep at it all summer and maybe get ahead of it a little. There is always something more fun to do but I am going to have to devote the time or else face the wrath of the Neglected Varnish Gods. They are never fun to deal with. It is a pretty boring week picture wise. Hours of sanding and brushing. That about sums it up. On another note; I have been agonizing over the choice of a galley stove. I think I have finally decided on one. My inital thought was to go with a three burner drop in stovetop. I always knew I wasn't going to give up enough space for an oven. I would love an oven to bake those cookies on rainy/foggy days stuck on the coast of Maine, but I am afraid I will, like Pooh, eat too many cookies and cakes and have trouble exiting the cabin when the time comes. After some investigation I realized three burners was out of the question for the same reason. Too big; and I really won't need the third burner all that often. Plus, I have a gimbaled sea swing stove that I can use in a pinch if I really HAVE to boil the pasta, stir fry the vegetables, and warm the sauce all at the same time. At that point I still had a bunch of choices left which I narrowed down to either a Dickinson or Seaward model. I was looking at the two dual sized burner models but even they were a little too 'thick' and were going to restrict the length of the port settee berth. The Seaward: And the Dickinson After a fair amount of searching around for what is deemed the 'best' or 'mimimum' btu output to look for. I settled for the Seaward 2276 with dual 7000btu burners. By all accounts they are big 'enough' to do the job and the stovetop is quite thin and there is still a chance of a full length berth (sticking my feet under the stove) on the port side. I expect to be placing an order for one, "any moment now". Along with the foot pumps for the water supply which will make the water system 'nearly' operational. Until next week then, ;-)

Counters, Panels, Soles...

Well, when I took a look at my pictures I realized I hadn't posted in a few weeks. Here is the update as of today. First, the counter tops are in. Finally. Mostly... The countertop structure and surrounding panels were fussed with for a good solid fit and then the countertops were screwed into position. I stopped with screws in case I need to open things up again. One of the rare occasions when I left the epoxy in the can.

I ordered the wrong sized bungs so the screws are still exposed at this point and I haven't oiled the top yet. The starboard two pieces were epoxied together where they mate up. I know I said I didn't use epoxy but all I really did was turn the two pieces into one piece. Screws are still the only things holding the countertop in position.

After the countertops were in, I really wanted to start playing with the storage lockers. However, before I could do that I needed to sort out the the interior 'ceiling' or paneling behind the countertops. To make that happen I started with cardboard mockups that were transferred over to cheap plywood mockups.

I also cut up some blocks to anchor the panels too. I oiled the blocks and then epoxied them to the hull. I learned this great trick from a pro for securing stuff like this without elaborate clamping / positioning techniques. The trick is to apply the epoxy over *most* of the surface and on the remaining free area apply a dab of hot glue. The hot glue sets up in ten seconds or so and holds the blocks adequately until the epoxy can set up.

With the blocks in place (can't find those photos) I used the same plywood templates to cut up the foam insulation that has been applied to the rest of the living area of the hull interior. Once fit, I glued the insulation in place with contact cement. I didn't use the proprietory glue this time. Once again, I opened the can to find the glue had hardened. At $70 a gallon I decided I needed to buy something easier to obtain and in smaller quantities so it wouldn't go bad before the project ended. I have worked a lot with a 3M product called 1300L at my 'real' job so that is what I used this time. Looks and smells the same which is to say, very yellow and sticky with strong overtones of MEK. Only use this stuff with good ventilation. The fumes in a closed boat are unreal...

The side panels were cut and oiled but I didn't get a chance to secure them in place today. Here are pictures showing how they look at this point. Trim and concealing cabinetry have yet to be installed...

The panels are one of those things that once they are in place it seems like they have always been there and one wonders why it looks like nothing has been done lately. Now for that final aft panel.

My battle with mold in the bamboo sole continues. It is in the same location and this time I was more aggressive with the sander and the chlorox. Hopefully this will be the end of it. Otherwise, a small throw rug is going to become part of my interior decorating plan. To be fair, I must admit that I have had some help at the boatyard. So while I was hogging the aft end of the cabin I have been overseeing some work in the V-berth area and doing some of the critical cutting stuff. For a long time I have been looking at ugly undersole.

Now I have new bamboo plywood sole with a nice cherry kickboard in the V-berth :-)

Thank you 'L'. So that's the update. Next should be a little more paneling aft of the galley countertop. Perhaps some galley storage. I need to order and install the water foot pumps and connect the sink drain. I need to settle on a stove top and get that coming so I can move forward with that side of the cabinetry. The V-berth project is gaining a bit of momentum and I hope that will continue (hint hint...) When the weather gets more reliably dry (thankfully the warmth is finally here) then varnishing and the rubrail installation will become the top priority. Interior cabinets are more fun then varnish but when varnishing weather comes then that becomes top priority. Someday I will have a dry heated boatbarn so I can do my varnishing in February... That's it. Nothing more to say. The End. ... until next weekend... Laters, Taters ;-)

Not quite stalled..

but not a ton of progress as is becoming usual. Not sure how to fix that except keep plugging along and doing what I can when I can. I have been pushing the ball forward in a couple of areas. The countertop project of course. Firstly, the storage bins underneath received more coats of paint and are looking quite spiffy at the moment.

Before assembly there has been more painting to do. I decided to paint under the dish storage area and the drop storage box on the starboard side. The bottoms and non visible areas were coated in straight epoxy for sealing. The plywood has proven quite thirsty and it has taken three coats of bilgekote to get exceptable coverage. The last coat went on today so 'soon' is the plan for final installation of the countertops.

Installing the remaining sound/heat insulation around the engine was another project that was done recently. That funny wooden thing on the engine is my Triton original spicerack/electrical panel. I need to add a electrical plug in the wiring harness so I can disconnect the panel wiring from the engine wiring. Until then I have to remove the rack to keep the wiring harness out of the way of the countertop. That's another 'soon-ish' project.

I also took another stab at fixing that irritating leak that I have been trying to track down. I am pretty sure the leak is starting with the cheap plastic hatch cover on the starboard side which I will use to access one half of the house batteries. Water was pooling up on the battery shelf and being dumped right along the seam between the 'half bulkhead' at the aft end of the cabin area and the plywood panel I used to close off the cabin from the cockpit area. I partially fixed that by cutting a corner off the battery shelf so the water gets dumped further aft and away from the seam.

I also noticed that water could be riding down the manual bilge pump hose (yeah, that grimy one in the photo. Mold has been a constant problem so far even with the improved ventilation). During a rain storm I had applied polysulfide sealant (boatlife) to parts of the seam in a quick and dirty attempt to fix the issue. Today I finished removing the old stuff and doing a better job of getting the goop into place. Having the corner of the battery shelf cut away improved access for my paw-like hands.

Further access was granted after I took another look at my exhaust system. I have been suspicious of it for a few years and I have been keeping a close eye on it for awhile. Its just normal iron piping. Two weeks ago I took a harder look with a three foot crowbar and found the remaining metal not up to my expectations. I was able to break the pipe. That made access easier and resolved me to fixing the exhaust properly. More about that in another post.

Finally, I spent some time trimming the supporting structure for the countertops in preparation for final installation.

And that is where the boat is at the moment. I usually write something about upcoming plans but since I seem to be so bad at predicting what will be getting worked on next I might just stop here and let everyone, including myself, be surprised. If you life in the northern hemisphere then enjoy the spring weather. If you live in the southern hemisphere then... well I am sorry, it sucks to be you. Bundle up 'cause old man winter is a 'knockin :-P Until next time wantoks ;-)