| Sea Glass Refit |
May 31, 2007 Yesterday, Mike and I settled on a few remaining items that should be completed before I wrapped up my portion of the project, so today I addressed the final punch list. I began with the hinges on the forward hatch and lazarette hatch, which I had removed in order to paint the hatches. I had also filled the old holes in the deck, so I needed to redrill those. On the forward hatch, this was complicated a bit by the fact that the old fasteners were welded (by corrosion) into the hinge base, and could not be removed. Therefore, I had to drill up from inside the boat, using the old hole locations as a guide. Eventually, I installed all the hinges in a heavy bed of polysulfide sealant, wrapping up this portion of the job. Later, I installed two new-to-Mike bronze chocks on the bow, drilling and tapping holes for the #12 screws into the fiberglass rail. I further secured these with nuts and washers from within. Next, I prepared to install two stanchion gate braces. These require a single screw at deck level, so I temporarily installed the braces and marked the hole location; then, I overbored the hole and filled it with epoxy, leaving it to cure overnight before I could drill and tap for the correct fastener. |
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Earlier, I had built new varnished teak boards on which to mount the registration numbers--to replace some old, decrepit ones--and now, needing a project of fun satisfaction, I applied new vinyl registration numbers--gold leaf with a white outline--and then installed the boards on the hull in the same location as the originals, using stainless steel fasteners and some rubber washers beneath in an attempt to prevent water leakage. This was an experiment, but if it worked it would make removal of the number boards for maintenance much easier in the future. The boards and numbers looked excellent. |
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I wrapped up the day with the installation of a newer bilge pump, simply replacing an older pump with a new one using the same wiring and setup. With no batteries on board, I couldn't test the pump, so I hoped it had originally been wired correctly. I couldn't let the cheap wiring crimps that were present on the old wiring to stand--clearly installed by the same electrical whiz who chose to reverse the colors of the battery cables, as described yesterday--so I replaced the crimps with adhesive-lined waterproof ones, and further protected the ones closest to the pump with additional heat shrink tubing to enhance their watertight integrity. |
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