Last night I got down to the boat to fair in the last couple nicks in the hull. I thought I was done and was getting ready to celebrate when I remembered I still needed to address the point of the bow.
There was a superficial crack in the gel coat that ran vertical along the bow that needed some attention. I used the dremel to widen the crack, used the unthickend West epoxy to wet out the gouge, then mixed in some 407 filler and spread that into the gouge.
So, as of last night I'm almost done.
I should be able to fair in last nights epoxy tonight and then I can celebrate! It's been a long sore couple of weeks.
Over the weekend I was able to make some good progress on the sanding, as well as get a coat of paint on the cabin house and decks. I'm hoping to get another couple of coats on the cabin house this week so I can install the windows to keep rain out. Every few days I have to run down to the boat and put the tarps on. It'll be nice not stressing over tarping for weather and messing up fresh paint.
Almost there!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Slow Week
Starting off slow this week.
Almost done on the hull sanding. Should be done on Sunday. Yeah!
Then I'll start the painting. Might need a helper when it comes to rolling and tipping the hull.
Any takers?
Almost done on the hull sanding. Should be done on Sunday. Yeah!
Then I'll start the painting. Might need a helper when it comes to rolling and tipping the hull.
Any takers?
Thursday, August 20, 2009
It’s all in the hips
It's been a while since I posted any updates.
The short story is we spent some time working on the house before we jetted off to Michigan for 10 days.
Once we got home I got to work on the exterior. Over the last two weekends and many weeknights I've been sanding and filling the decks and cabin top.
All in all they were in fair shape. I've decided to fill as many holes a possible. All of the hand rails are now filled and faired as are the toe rails. I figure it's going to be a while until I can make or buy toe rails, and who knows if the hand rails will be the same bolt patterns as the old ones. So filled and faired. The overall idea is to get the boat in the water and watertight ASAP. There are some changes brewing and it sounds like the county is going to build a new bridge right where the boat is sitting. Last word was eviction noticed will come out in November. I hope to be sailing before then.
I took the 1st half of this week off work to work on the boat. 5 days of work yielded some finish sanding on the cabin top, a little bit of painting up there and a crap ton of long board sanding on the hull. For real, every muscle in my body is sore. For the last three days, a good 6 out of 11 hours have been working the long board in a figure 8 over and over hundreds of thousands of 8's. But, it's paying off. The starboard side and transom are f-ing smooth. I applied some paint on a small area to check the fairness. If there were any ripples, they'd show since I'm painting it black. The test showed that all the labor has paid off. When I left today I'm a bit over half way done on the port side. Which means I’m 3/4 done with the sanding? I'll be glad when it's done. I've got a picture of what I don't want. Someone went to town with a sander on this thing. You can see ripples from 50 yards away. On the flip side, one light coat of black on Winterhawk and you can see your reflection.
All in this entire project is taking longer, but that's fine. The results will be worth it. There was only one tricky part. That was fixing an old repair. Winterhawk took a bad hit at one time. I was working the fore deck of a 26 footer when we t-boned a 44 footer in 30+ knots of wind. That was exciting. We gouged the other boat, full thickens gouge, right into the interior. Winterhawk had a hull to deck hit that went inboard 9 inches or so, destroyed everything. There was a crush above the port light too. I figure the bulk of the other boat crashed into the hull/deck and the point of the bow came up onto and crushed the cabin. I saved this repair until the end of the topsides prep. By then I was feeling pretty good calculating how much epoxy and filler various tasks need. Then I got to it. The old repair was half assed and weak. No core, they just packed and bunch of filler in and faired it. It was weak. The whole area was cracked and crumbling. I ground out all this crap and did a proper repair. You can download, for free! some good info on everything epoxy related from the West Systems site. I templated for new core, and then made up a bunch of cloth pieces and fixed this up right. Even the cabin top repair needed some cloth.
So, more of the same for the next few days. Buy this weekend I should have all the sanding done. I've still got nicks and cracks to fill on port, then its another 8 hours on the long board to fair the repairs. Then, it's time to paint.
I'll try to add specifics on what and how soon. But for now, here are some pictures.
001 before any sanding, duct tape still there from the boat being sealed up. Note! Use a heat gun to get the tape residue off. This leave only a little bit to wipe off with the de-waxer.
003 topside holes. lots of them.
005 lots of duct tape.
006 ground out the crappy repair
009 note the damage on the cabin top. Must have been exciting!
010 new core
012 a bit of weight while it core cures overnight
019 starting the cloth
022 more cloth
027 I couldn't wait I rolled some paint to see how it looked. Turns out I could see a bunch of scratches. Oops, more sanding. So much of what I read said to use 80 grit. I think 120 is fine, and this route didn't leave more sanding with 120 anyways.
032 no more Winterhawk
033 testing to see if the hull is fair
035 filled scratches and nicks
039, the prior owner went to town on the bottom with a grinder. Ouch. This extended up to the waterline and a little bit above. This took a lot of time to sand out.
040 this is what I don't want. When you sand, angles are better than up and down.
042 1st coat on the topsides and cabin top.
043, a bit of paint on the fore deck
046 more paint, and the old bridge soon to be replaced by a new bridge, right where Winterhawk is sitting.
053 hours of sanding on the plank
061 where I left off today. A fair port side. Well half of it.....
The short story is we spent some time working on the house before we jetted off to Michigan for 10 days.
Once we got home I got to work on the exterior. Over the last two weekends and many weeknights I've been sanding and filling the decks and cabin top.
All in all they were in fair shape. I've decided to fill as many holes a possible. All of the hand rails are now filled and faired as are the toe rails. I figure it's going to be a while until I can make or buy toe rails, and who knows if the hand rails will be the same bolt patterns as the old ones. So filled and faired. The overall idea is to get the boat in the water and watertight ASAP. There are some changes brewing and it sounds like the county is going to build a new bridge right where the boat is sitting. Last word was eviction noticed will come out in November. I hope to be sailing before then.
I took the 1st half of this week off work to work on the boat. 5 days of work yielded some finish sanding on the cabin top, a little bit of painting up there and a crap ton of long board sanding on the hull. For real, every muscle in my body is sore. For the last three days, a good 6 out of 11 hours have been working the long board in a figure 8 over and over hundreds of thousands of 8's. But, it's paying off. The starboard side and transom are f-ing smooth. I applied some paint on a small area to check the fairness. If there were any ripples, they'd show since I'm painting it black. The test showed that all the labor has paid off. When I left today I'm a bit over half way done on the port side. Which means I’m 3/4 done with the sanding? I'll be glad when it's done. I've got a picture of what I don't want. Someone went to town with a sander on this thing. You can see ripples from 50 yards away. On the flip side, one light coat of black on Winterhawk and you can see your reflection.
All in this entire project is taking longer, but that's fine. The results will be worth it. There was only one tricky part. That was fixing an old repair. Winterhawk took a bad hit at one time. I was working the fore deck of a 26 footer when we t-boned a 44 footer in 30+ knots of wind. That was exciting. We gouged the other boat, full thickens gouge, right into the interior. Winterhawk had a hull to deck hit that went inboard 9 inches or so, destroyed everything. There was a crush above the port light too. I figure the bulk of the other boat crashed into the hull/deck and the point of the bow came up onto and crushed the cabin. I saved this repair until the end of the topsides prep. By then I was feeling pretty good calculating how much epoxy and filler various tasks need. Then I got to it. The old repair was half assed and weak. No core, they just packed and bunch of filler in and faired it. It was weak. The whole area was cracked and crumbling. I ground out all this crap and did a proper repair. You can download, for free! some good info on everything epoxy related from the West Systems site. I templated for new core, and then made up a bunch of cloth pieces and fixed this up right. Even the cabin top repair needed some cloth.
So, more of the same for the next few days. Buy this weekend I should have all the sanding done. I've still got nicks and cracks to fill on port, then its another 8 hours on the long board to fair the repairs. Then, it's time to paint.
I'll try to add specifics on what and how soon. But for now, here are some pictures.
001 before any sanding, duct tape still there from the boat being sealed up. Note! Use a heat gun to get the tape residue off. This leave only a little bit to wipe off with the de-waxer.
003 topside holes. lots of them.
005 lots of duct tape.
006 ground out the crappy repair
009 note the damage on the cabin top. Must have been exciting!
010 new core
012 a bit of weight while it core cures overnight
019 starting the cloth
022 more cloth
027 I couldn't wait I rolled some paint to see how it looked. Turns out I could see a bunch of scratches. Oops, more sanding. So much of what I read said to use 80 grit. I think 120 is fine, and this route didn't leave more sanding with 120 anyways.
032 no more Winterhawk
033 testing to see if the hull is fair
035 filled scratches and nicks
039, the prior owner went to town on the bottom with a grinder. Ouch. This extended up to the waterline and a little bit above. This took a lot of time to sand out.
040 this is what I don't want. When you sand, angles are better than up and down.
042 1st coat on the topsides and cabin top.
043, a bit of paint on the fore deck
046 more paint, and the old bridge soon to be replaced by a new bridge, right where Winterhawk is sitting.
053 hours of sanding on the plank
061 where I left off today. A fair port side. Well half of it.....
Monday, June 15, 2009
Time out
I've been spending lots of time working on Alia's house. The floor has been refinished, new gutters are almost done. I've also been putting in some hours on the Westerly. She's nearly "done". Just need to finish up the companion way doors. But, she's officaially for sale.
Call now for the Friends and Family discount!
http://westerlypageant.blogspot.com/
Check it out, spread the word.
Now things are sorta less crazy with the house I'll plan on getting back to Winterhawk. I'm planning to finish up the settee and galley and then start the bottom paint. If she is not in the water soon, she won't be this year. I'm not going to be one of those folks who spends years in the yard. Boats are for sailing!
Call now for the Friends and Family discount!
http://westerlypageant.blogspot.com/
Check it out, spread the word.
Now things are sorta less crazy with the house I'll plan on getting back to Winterhawk. I'm planning to finish up the settee and galley and then start the bottom paint. If she is not in the water soon, she won't be this year. I'm not going to be one of those folks who spends years in the yard. Boats are for sailing!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Ballard Cup
Short and Sweet,
Worked on the Westerly all weekend to get her ready to sell.
Was out for the Ballard Cup on Monday, this was #5 of 5 in the 1st series.
Pics are here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/44299992@N00/
The pic above is Moonshine, a MKI. Hull number somehting like 48.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
This weekend was pretty productive. I had done the 1st few coats of varnish in the main cabin with a satin finish. It was looking nice, but well satin. I wanted a little more shine. Since I was low on varnish and needed more I picked up a semi gloss. I like this much better. It really brings out a lot of the grain in the wood that was not shown with the satin. Alia came by this weekend and put a top coat of the semi gloss on the wood in the forward cabin too. You have to be extra careful as runs show up better but the extra depth is worth the labor.
I made a new engine box/cover. The old one was pretty tight. Someone at some point had to grind out some wood on the underside of the table top because a few pieces of the engine hit the underside. This is not ideal, but it does keep the box as low profile as possible. I kept as much of the old box intact as I could and planned to use the old box as a template but it turned out to be more work. Building a box should be pretty simple right? Well this one ended up being a little more difficult that I had planned. All in all I’m happy with it, but where the lower and upper sections come together is at an angle. It’s not the end of the world, I can “fix” it with trim but I would have liked it to be nice and straight. Oh well.
One thing I did like about the old box was that the upper piece comes off easily, leaving the lower piece in place. I can’t tell you how many tools are on the bottom of Lake Union under the other boat. This design should keep from dropping stuff into the bilge but still let you do 90% of what you need to. For the last 10% the lower section comes out with just a few screws.
I started working on the galley area too. I used the chemical stripper and took off the old varnish and then lightly sanded. It was around this time I decided I should replace the counter top surface too. The off white Formica was in ok shape but was not going to go with the new design of the interior. I’m still undecided as for colors for the inside, but I’ll figure that out later. After the trim came off, I had easy access to the Formica. It came off fine, but took a bit of wood with it. I thought it would be no big deal just to remove the old substrate and replace it. It would also make a great template for the new Formica. But, in true Yankee form even the counter top is over built. There were more screws than needed, but also some wood glue. Getting the old wood off was a lot hard work with a crow bar and warm beer but in the end I won.
The top would not come out in one piece so I used a back saw to take it out in three pieces. The galley counter top must have been installed before the forward knee that makes up the stove area. When I re-install it I’ll do it in two pieces. I’m pretty sure I’ll use Formica again, but tile would be pretty nice. We’ll see.
Lastly, I got two new neighbors. A friend brought these two R-boats up from California. I’m not positive on the plan but I believe they’re going to be taken but to Vancouver, B.C. These things are beautiful! I’d love to sail one someday. Speaking of sailing, things were going well on Rev. Notice I said were. We had a bit of a collision on Monday night. The wind was up, NOAA shows 32knots gusting to 38 during our race. Just before the start with maybe two minutes to go, we had a collision with another boat. It was a hard hit but Rev took it well. She took it right on the nose, I was worried about the forestay but surprisingly her damage was only cosmetic and the rig stayed up. Apparently the other boat was not so lucky. Until the details and insurance is all sorted out I should leave it at that. But it was an experience for sure. Only one boat in our division finished the race. 38 knots on the foredeck, in choppy seas, no lifelines. Good times!
This weekend I’m planning on working on the Westerly. I need to finish a few little things and install the new companionway hatch before I sell her. If anyone is looking for a sweet little sailboat let me know, I’ll be asking around 7K. I should have a little website up by the end of the weekend as well as a listing in 48degrees.
I made a new engine box/cover. The old one was pretty tight. Someone at some point had to grind out some wood on the underside of the table top because a few pieces of the engine hit the underside. This is not ideal, but it does keep the box as low profile as possible. I kept as much of the old box intact as I could and planned to use the old box as a template but it turned out to be more work. Building a box should be pretty simple right? Well this one ended up being a little more difficult that I had planned. All in all I’m happy with it, but where the lower and upper sections come together is at an angle. It’s not the end of the world, I can “fix” it with trim but I would have liked it to be nice and straight. Oh well.
One thing I did like about the old box was that the upper piece comes off easily, leaving the lower piece in place. I can’t tell you how many tools are on the bottom of Lake Union under the other boat. This design should keep from dropping stuff into the bilge but still let you do 90% of what you need to. For the last 10% the lower section comes out with just a few screws.
I started working on the galley area too. I used the chemical stripper and took off the old varnish and then lightly sanded. It was around this time I decided I should replace the counter top surface too. The off white Formica was in ok shape but was not going to go with the new design of the interior. I’m still undecided as for colors for the inside, but I’ll figure that out later. After the trim came off, I had easy access to the Formica. It came off fine, but took a bit of wood with it. I thought it would be no big deal just to remove the old substrate and replace it. It would also make a great template for the new Formica. But, in true Yankee form even the counter top is over built. There were more screws than needed, but also some wood glue. Getting the old wood off was a lot hard work with a crow bar and warm beer but in the end I won.
The top would not come out in one piece so I used a back saw to take it out in three pieces. The galley counter top must have been installed before the forward knee that makes up the stove area. When I re-install it I’ll do it in two pieces. I’m pretty sure I’ll use Formica again, but tile would be pretty nice. We’ll see.
Lastly, I got two new neighbors. A friend brought these two R-boats up from California. I’m not positive on the plan but I believe they’re going to be taken but to Vancouver, B.C. These things are beautiful! I’d love to sail one someday. Speaking of sailing, things were going well on Rev. Notice I said were. We had a bit of a collision on Monday night. The wind was up, NOAA shows 32knots gusting to 38 during our race. Just before the start with maybe two minutes to go, we had a collision with another boat. It was a hard hit but Rev took it well. She took it right on the nose, I was worried about the forestay but surprisingly her damage was only cosmetic and the rig stayed up. Apparently the other boat was not so lucky. Until the details and insurance is all sorted out I should leave it at that. But it was an experience for sure. Only one boat in our division finished the race. 38 knots on the foredeck, in choppy seas, no lifelines. Good times!
This weekend I’m planning on working on the Westerly. I need to finish a few little things and install the new companionway hatch before I sell her. If anyone is looking for a sweet little sailboat let me know, I’ll be asking around 7K. I should have a little website up by the end of the weekend as well as a listing in 48degrees.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Started on the varnish
Even though the posts have slowed the work on Winterhawk has been steady. I didn’t bring my camera this weekend so I don’t have much to show. There was a bit more stripping done and then some light sanding. Alia came down to help with the varnish. We applied the 1st coat to the main bulkhead, around the side, the door to the forward cabin and the hanging locker area. Alia and I pulled out the spinnaker I picked up and it’s a pretty close fit. 43’ luff 29’ foot. I’ve been packing the chute on Rev and the last 3 deploys have gone off just fine. I’m looking forward to having a spinnaker this summer.
I’m heading back to the boat tonight to knock down the 1st coat and get the 2nd coat on.
The weather is changing here and we’ve had a few nice days. I’m getting ready to do some exterior paint. The process of painting is a little confusing. The Pettit web site doesn’t clearly outline just what to do and in what order. Their tech people respond with no more than one sentence. I really like the Vivid paint as well as the easypoxy (I’m using that on the hatch for the Westerly, it goes on really smooth and has a nice high gloss finish) so I want to use Pettit, but when you compare the tech info with Interlux, it’s night and day. Interlux has a lot of info on line and the email I got from the tech people spells out what products they recommend and in what order. I think I have it all figured out for Pettit products, but it was tedious.
I’m looking forward to getting the Westerly hatch on so I can put it up for sale. If anyone is looking for a great little pocket cruiser get in contact. She’s in sail ready condition and has had loads of upgrades. I’m sure we can arrange for you to keep her in the same slip, possibly even with the live-aboard status.
I’m heading back to the boat tonight to knock down the 1st coat and get the 2nd coat on.
The weather is changing here and we’ve had a few nice days. I’m getting ready to do some exterior paint. The process of painting is a little confusing. The Pettit web site doesn’t clearly outline just what to do and in what order. Their tech people respond with no more than one sentence. I really like the Vivid paint as well as the easypoxy (I’m using that on the hatch for the Westerly, it goes on really smooth and has a nice high gloss finish) so I want to use Pettit, but when you compare the tech info with Interlux, it’s night and day. Interlux has a lot of info on line and the email I got from the tech people spells out what products they recommend and in what order. I think I have it all figured out for Pettit products, but it was tedious.
I’m looking forward to getting the Westerly hatch on so I can put it up for sale. If anyone is looking for a great little pocket cruiser get in contact. She’s in sail ready condition and has had loads of upgrades. I’m sure we can arrange for you to keep her in the same slip, possibly even with the live-aboard status.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)