Kaholee Refit, Phase 3 | Thursday, June 5, 2008 (and period preceding)

Over the couple weeks since launching the boat, time constraints only allowed me a couple visits to work on some of the outstanding project list.

Perhaps most importantly during this time, I completed and successfully tested the propane system to the cook stove and cabin heater.  All the parts had been in place for a while, but I needed to get to the boat and complete the solenoid wiring, then leak-test the system and activate it.  This all went swimmingly, and with the advent of heat and cooking ability aboard, Allen was finally able to move aboard on Monday, June 2.

Here and there, I completed other jobs for the boat back at the shop.  Much earlier, Allen had stripped the old hardware off the boom, and I filled the old hardware holes.  After a couple weeks in this state, with no time available to make further progress, I finally found time to sand the boom--both to smooth out the epoxy fill and also to generate clean, bright, unoxidized metal for painting.  Then, on the same day and using Awlgrip's aluminum painting system #III, I applied a coat of 30-Y-94 chromate primer and, after it cured for a couple hours, three coats of snow white topcoat.


    

    


Meantime, we conceived and ordered parts for crucial rigging systems like the mainsheet and boom vang, and related items.  Eventually, all the parts came, and once they were in hand I scheduled another afternoon's work on board to knock off some of the stagnating project list and bring Kaholee closer to the ability to actually set sail.

Arriving at the dock at around 1400 on a rather raw, gray, blustery day, I spent the afternoon installing two new halyard winches on wooden pads that Allen made to fit the mast.  I discovered that we'd run all the halyards on the wrong side of the spreaders--with no cleats or winches on the mast at the time of rigging, it'd been surprisingly hard to determine the proper leads, and I'd made a mistake.  Fortunately, with the new main halyard winch now installed, and one halyard clear enough to use, I could hoist Allen up to the spreaders in his new bosun's chair, where he rearranged the halyards according to my direction.  We installed the boom, after replacing the end caps back at the shop before heading to the boat.



Afterwards, I installed a second mast winch, sorted out all the halyards and flag halyards that'd been bunched in an unruly mess at the mast previously, and installed halyard shackles on all three halyards.  I installed the roller furling drum and line guide, which I'd intentionally left off to make mast stepping easier and reduce the risk of damage to the parts during transport, and installed mast cleats as needed.  Finally, I installed a trio of boom bails for the new mainsheet, installed the new blocks Allen had ordered (I lost only one of the blocks over the side after it took a bad bounce...groan), and made a number of measurements for some of the lines needed:  mainsheet, boom vang, traveler, and so forth.  I also wrote up a list for Allen to fulfill of additional parts needed for the completion of the mainsail control systems, and addressed a few other items while on board.

Work remaining pre-sail:

  • Install hardware and line for mainsheet
  • Install traveler lines and additional hardware (cleats)
  • Install fairleads and hardware for other mainsail control lines (outhaul, cunningham, boom vang)
  • Install boom vang and Boomkicker (not required in order to sail)
  • Install genoa tracks
  • Install roller furling line
  • Test-fit mainsail and modified headsails

By 1900, I was ready to depart; the weather had made a drastic turn for the better, and now it was calm and sunny, with beautiful evening light.


    


<Previous | Next>