Monday, May 18, 2015

The Shed

Progress on the boat: not a whole lot. Progress on the rebuild project: a significant step forward.

I’ve been out of town/working on other projects/Spring jobs around the house and generally trying to line things up to start in on the next large scale task, painting the decks.

The 14’ X 45’ X 16’ fabric and steel shed that I ordered back in late April was delivered to the yard. After waiting out some inclement weather I hired my neighbor and friend Skip, along with his construction crew to erect the structure. Looking at the instructions made it pretty clear that it was not a one man, one day job. They did a good job of erecting the frame while I was away in Northern Virginia.

Jungle gym and new-to-me toy in the pickup:

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Another couple, good friends and neighbors, showed up early in the morning to help us with covering the shed. Again, it was not an easy job but the results were good.

Attach Tab A to Slot 3:

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One oversight of mine was that I “assumed” that both ends of the shed would have opening doors. Not so much. One was a roll-up and one was solid. This is going to be a problem when it starts to warm up. I called the company and after discussing the issue with them, I think that I am going to have to purchase another opening end panel. In this case, I’ll opt for the cheaper material, store the solid panel and offer it as an “option” when I sell the shed. 

Nonetheless, having the boat indoors, dry and protected is a big plus for being able to work efficiently over the next year. I already have plans for a large fan, a diesel heater for cooler temperatures, a cooler, a couch, flat-screen TV… Umm, no, scratch the latter three items. Need to get some work done when I’m there. 

Snug, dry and unfortunately, very warm:

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Today I started out expecting to get going on deck work and setting up the work environment in the shed but I got a call that our Mako 261 would be ready to go. I had taken it to another local yard to have the impellers replaced and lower unit oil changed as preventive maintenance for the summer season. Given that it was out of the water I decided to make it a day of buffing, polishing, waxing and cleaning boats. Ergo, both boats got a sprucing up.

“I know that I have a 9/16” socket here somewhere…”

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"Wax on, wax off…”

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Thunderstorm coming? No problem, I’ll go work on Ronin in the dry shed.

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The last scrub-down of very, very tired old gelcoat. I hope.

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As lagniappe, a photo of the inspiration for the paint color that I chose for “Ronin”, the old 12-Meter Columbia.

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Sunday, May 3, 2015

Working on OP's boats...

I know that I’ve tried to post at least once a week with progress on the refit but as usual other things get in the way.

After getting back from my great Interstate excursion I received an emergency request to assist with timing duties in a weekend endurance (horse) race near West Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. I spent a Friday, Saturday and Sunday standing in the cold and wet ensuring that the horses coming into the checkpoint were pulsing down to 60 BPM. 

From there I ended up in Arlington for two days attending to some chores and catching up with one of my old bosses and her husband. Truthfully, I’ve enjoyed the days off from working on our boat.

However, that does not mean that I have not been working on boats. I have been. Other peoples (OP) boats...

I have two neighbors here in Reedville who have sailboats that either accidentally acquired holes in their hull or needed to have a couple of thru-hulls removed and glassed over. My friend, and the builder of our new home, Vincent has a Corsair F-24 trimaran designed by Ian Farrier that he sails every free moment he has. And I go along with him whenever possible. Flying along at 14 knots in light winds is quite the bit of fun!

Earlier this spring we had abnormally high winds and during a particularly windy day, his boat was blown of the jack-stands in his driveway while being readied for bottom paint. There was not damage to either of the floats but one jack-stand managed to put a 4” cracking the laminate near the rest of the main hull. Repair work was in order.

After having no luck finding a boatyard that could get to the repair within a reasonable amount of time, we decided to do the repair work ourselves. Over the past few days I have been working on that crack and another one found in the starboard float. Fortunately the damage was not too great and did not extend completely through the laminate. After grinding out the areas I worked up a schedule of 10-oz woven cloth for the punctured hull section and some biaxial cloth tape for the edge of the float. After applying the cloth using a slightly thickened mixture of West System and colloidal silica, I let it set up.  A quick check today when the rain stopped confirmed that the fix was strong and ready for grinding, sanding and finish fairing.

For another neighbor and friend, new to sailing, we removed the non-function head thru-hulls and glassed the holes over. Since the boat will be used for afternoon sails in the creek and out in the Wicomico River, it made no sense to provide for a head. Illegal one at that...

Nice Cape Dory Typhoon with head thru-hulls glassed over and ready for bottom paint: 

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Fast Corsair waiting for more glasswork:

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