Last Friday my wife and I took a day trip to the big city of Richmond to catch the Rodin exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts before it moved on this week. It was, not surprisingly, very nice. We both agreed that the next time we go see an exhibit like that that we do some research before going.
Afterwards, to put a nice end on the trip we drove over to the new Stone Brewery. We’re beer snobs and have been to the original brewery in San Diego and loved it. Great surroundings, food and extremely good beer. Unfortunately the new Stone plant is still not running and the brewpub itself hasn’t even broken ground. They did have some inside and outside seating along with a small bar so we stopped for a beer.
Saturday was the Smith Point Sea Rescue Oyster Roast which we always attend and donate money for. I was asked to join a few months back and I finally got my application in after which I went back to shoveling steamed oysters down my throat.
Sunday afternoon I did a few small jobs just to add a few hours towards knocking off the project list. In the morning I spent a few hours with a pencil and graph paper working up some ideas on creating storage under the port side helm seat. The more I thought about putting some type of soft pocket/bag hanging in the space the less I liked the idea. I was concerned about having a large hole in the cockpit that might allow large amounts of seawater into the hull if pooped or worse.
I decided that I would fabricate something out of FRP. More on that in another posting. But I did spend some time grinding off the filler that C&C used to glue it down. I also ground out the polyester and fiberglass laminate to give it more definition along the edge.
Bring out the brutal tools:
Casting about for a quick task to complete I spotted the two plywood shelves that support the 30-gallon fresh-water tanks and gave them a quick coat of white paint. I know that they will never be seen but I’ll feel better about it.
Fresh paint.
Before heading off to dinner I put the final coat of satin varnish on the small v-berth ledge teak and holly cover.
Today, after getting back from the YMCA I drove the tool truck to the yard to do some planning and mockups. One thing that I wanted to do is install a secondary larger automatic bilge pump for use in the event of a large amount of water ingress. Hopefully never needed.
The current setup is a manual Whale pump located next to the wheel in the cockpit which exits a though-hull in the port side counter. The new Whale low-profile, low volume pump I’m ordering will continue to dump into a “T” fitting in the starboard cockpit scupper drain the way the original bilge pump did. With the new larger pump I want to run it aft and have it dump out just above and in line with the manual bilge pump through-hull.
Despite having misgivings about the hose exit being very close to the waterline and underwater when powering at speed which is not recommended because of the possibility of back flow into the bilge, I decided to go ahead with the plan. My friend who runs the yard felt that it would fine with a tall loop up to deck level with an anti-siphon vented loop installed.
Whale Pumps says 12” minimum with NO submersion:
So, I started crawling around underneath the cockpit and measuring. Along with a new through-hull I’ll need around 26’ of hose. I have a couple of Rule 2000 GPH pumps in the shed so I brought one along to figure out the placement. It will be higher in the bilge so that it only switches on when the water is well up.
Height and location works well:
I’ll need to make the shelf removable to allow for easy access to the keel bolt. I’m pretty pleased with the location though.
After getting that task documented, I turned to the pedestal holes in the cockpit sole that need to be closed off. Even though the sounding indicated no softness I somehow convinced myself that the area around the holes should be removed and re-glassed.
Well, that was a dumb idea. After cutting the starboard side and have to pry the laminate off, which essentially broke as I did, I realized that all I need to do was plug the holes and keep going.
Not balsa core but quite dry.
I pulled out the West System and mixed up a small amount with colloidal silica to thicken it, found some 3/4” and 1/4” wooden dowel material and put it all back together.
Quick fix for now.
Later this week I will come back and grind out the area and apply some fiberglass cloth just to make sure that it is tied together and closed off. I expect that I will soon start sanding the non-skid in the cockpit in preparation for painting the decks so no harm, no foul...
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