Update…

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Dave

We are still hard at it and making some progress. The weather has not been cooperating and we have run into a couple of snags but over all things are going well. Nothing overly exciting to report but here are a few pictures.

We were able to remove the covers/hatches for the anchor locker, cockpit lockers, and aft companionway. We cleaned, sanded and primed them with Awlgrip 545 primer. On the next sunny day we will paint them. We are actually painting the entire boat, top to bottom, this is just one part of the process.

We did run into a little snag with the engine. While positioning the engine into its final resting place we ran into some clearance issues and had to pull it back out to investigate. Fortunately the problem was easy to rectify and relatively inexpensive. We are waiting on one part and once we receive it, we will reinstall the engine.

Another part of the engine installation is the drive shaft. This shaft is in two parts which makes it easier to position the engine and align everything properly. Well our drive shaft was rusted together and I bet had not been apart since it was first made (35 years ago). After three days, a whole lot of PB Blaster (solvent), and a little patience, it came free today!! I was able to get the two pieces apart which will make the engine installation go a whole lot smoother! It’s the little things in life…

Since our boat is old and we plan to have it in the water for years, we are going to apply a waterproof barrier coat. The barrier coat prevents water intrusion into the hull which can turn into osmotic blisters. Blisters can be extremely expensive to deal with.

The bottom has to be clean, dry and free of bottom paint. We have begun grinding the bottom down to the gelcoat, fun job and what a mess. Once the bottom is clean we’ll apply the barrier coat and new bottom paint.

That’s all for now…

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We’re Back in Maine!

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Dave

We are back in Maine and back to the boat!! We took five days to drive from Florida to Maine. We were able to visit with friends and relatives along the way which was great!

Now we are back at it. It’s an all out push to get the boat ready for launch in late June. The boat fared very well through the winter thanks to Bob and Joan. In order to get back to work we had to remove the winter cover and frame, then rebuild the larger frame and recover it with tarps. After all that was done, we got to work and completed the installation of the 10 ports. They are done!!! We got the V-Drive back in this afternoon and will get a basic alignment done in the morning. We’ll consult the project list after that!

Just as we left her:

Winter cover off, need to remove the frame:

Now we need to rebuild this frame:

 New frame is up:

Took quite a bit of help to get this done:

New stainless steel ports:

V-Drive back in:

Thanks for all the help!!!    That’s all for now!

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Traveler Rebuild is Complete!

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Dave

We are getting back into the boat projects again. One project that has been sitting on the shelf here in Florida is the mainsheet traveler. The traveler allows us to trim the main sail by controlling the position of the main boom. Our traveler is almost 35 years old and in pretty bad shape. I won’t go into to much detail but the paint was peeling, terrible corrosion, and all the sheaves (pulleys) were cracked or disintegrated. It was barely functional when we removed it. Well today, the task of rebuilding the traveler is complete.  We disassembled and cleaned the parts, stripped the paint, primed and repainted, replaced the sheaves, and replaced all the hardware.

Start:

Disassembly actually consumed the most amount of time:

Stripped down to bare aluminum:

Awlgrip primer and Matterhorn white paint:

I had to rebuild the blocks (pulleys):

All cleaned up with new sheaves and hardware:

The blocks are now through bolted and secured with lock nuts. They spin feely and should make the entire thing much easier to use:

I wanted to replace these bocks on the traveler car but could not get them to come off:

Since I couldn’t get the whole block to come off I ended up drilling out the center and replacing the sheaves and hardware. Replaced the old plastic with roller bearing delrin sheaves::

It will be much easier to replace these sheaves in the future:

Works perfectly:

All put together. The track is now fastened with counter sunk machine screws and lock nuts.

In addition to the traveler we are replacing all the associated blocks etc. that route the mainsheet from the cockpit, through the traveler, and to the main boom. The blocks were original 1978 and made of aluminum and plastic. We found a company in California, Garhauer Marine, which manufactures their own products and has great customer reviews. These blocks etc. are made of stainless steel with delrin sheaves that spin on roller bearings, they are really sweet! They cost about 70 percent less than the original equipment and they’re made in the US, what a surprise that was!

That’s it for that project. We are plugging along with the watermaker. I have ordered a bunch of fittings and parts that should enable us to complete the three main modules, motor and pump, pressure vessels (filters), and the control panel. Once these modules are complete we will be at a standstill until we return to Maine. Once they are installed we will be able to wire and plumb everything.

We can’t wait to get back, finish what we can and get back in the water! Looking forward to seeing everyone again!

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Watermaker

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Dave

We are slowly making progress on the watermaker. All of the large pieces have been purchased, now it’s a matter of finding a place to permanently mount everything so we know how to wire and plumb it. We are ordering all the small fittings that will enable us to connect the high pressure pump to the filters (membranes), then to the control panel and eventually into the water tanks.

Today I made a mock up of the control panel. The pressure gauge in the middle will let us operate the watermaker at the proper pressure for the water we are in. The flow meters in either side will tell us total system water flow. Once we begin producing water, the meter on the right will tell us how much fresh water we are producing per hour. The valve on the lower left is the controlling valve or needle valve. The more you close the valve the more sea water is forced through the filters (membranes) thus producing more fresh water…in theory. We still need to add an on/off switch and divert valve to the panel. Before adding water to the tanks it must be tested first. A divert valve will divert the fresh water to a sink where we can test it for purity, if it tests “good” then we switch the divert valve to route the water into the water tanks.

Mock up of the control panel:

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Certified Scuba Diver!

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Dave

For the past few weeks I have been taking PADI www.padi.com open water scuba diving classes. I have always wanted to go scuba diving but for one reason or another I never got around to it. Well yesterday I completed the course with open water dives along the coral reefs off of Palm Beach Florida! Wow what an experience! The visibility was great, the reefs are amazing, the fish are so colorful, and the moray eel was docile. Our class went out with Walker’s Dive Charters of Palm Beach www.walkersdivecharters.com and they could not have been more professional, safe and fun! So now I am a PADI certified open water diver, now all I have to do is convince Tanya to go with me!!!

Walker’s Dive Charters, nice boat, great people, excellent trip!!!

Good times!

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