Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Final bits before painting.

I assisted Charlie today removing the above the waterline thru-hulls (3), all the tank vents (4) and the outflow for the shower drain. No real surprises or issues, just some moderate effort removing hoses and unscrewing the lock nuts.

Exhaust and bilge pump hru-hulls along with top of the rudder post bits:

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Before we started in those items, I needed to get the last bolt out of the stem fitting. The cast aluminum stem fitting used 5 Phillips-head machine screws with nylock nuts to secure it. Because the hull layup in the pointed end of the hull/deck junction was fairly slap-dash, getting a purchase on the nuts was a trying exercise. In particular, the forward port machine screw did not want to come out. Last week we had fabricated a slim wrench to fit in the tiny space forward and used an impact drive to try to remove it. No luck, the threads were galled and the nut wouldn’t budge. Much swearing and grunting occurred...

I pulled out a 3/8” drill bit, chucked it into a corded drill and started in on drilling off the machine screw head. Not too tough, it just took a bit of time and lots of cooling shots of PB Blaster to get it broken. A few hammers on a drift and the screw shaft fell out.

After drilling:

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Next step, remove the stem fitting:

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Bugs? Teeny-tiny birds nest?

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From here on for the next couple of months, the hull will be in the hands of the yard, being prepped and then painted.

Although I feel like a turning point has been reached, and it has, there is still plenty for me to do while the boat is being painted. I have the new cabin sole to build and I am going to spend a fair amount of time refurbishing the wiring, running rigging and standing rigging on the mast.

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