December 17, 2021

Arietta Phase 2-31

Friday

I’d been planning all week to take advantage of an unseasonably mild day in our still basically snowless winter to shuffle boats, as the Arietta project was nearing its end (with a few small jobs remaining to complete), and I would soon be moving onto the next project, which was in the other side of the shop, but I wanted to have it in my main work bay and these transfers were always easier and more pleasant when it wasn’t cold, icy, or snowy outside.

To begin, I broke down and removed the staging from around the boat, clearing the way for me to move her into the other, newly-vacated, side of the shop.  I also moved in the mast from where I’d had it outdoors so it’d be ready to put back aboard the boat when the project was done after the next week or two.  Then I spent some time getting reorganized and set up in the new side of the shop so I could continue working.

The remaining punch list for this project included the new instruments, which I spent some time reading about and looking into the details of installation, particularly regarding the transducers.  The old depth  transducer would need to be removed, and my first minor attempt at removing the nut from inside went exactly nowhere, but gave me the information I needed in terms of planning the replacement.  While I’d hoped I could spin off the nut and easily remove the transducer now, I hadn’t really expected it to be like that, and now I could focus on the actual removal and other aspects of the instrument replacement in the coming days.

Similarly, for the first time I looked at the solar charge controller the owner had provided and that I needed to install and connect with the new solar panel on the sea hood, and I planned for this installation by ordering supplies I’d need (wiring and the correct crimping tool), and attempting to figure out just how I was going to run the wires through the boat.  This would all come together a bit later, once I received the supplies.

In the days ahead I also had to finish up some minor interior work, including reinstalling the shelves I’d removed earlier in the project (though for now I decided to await this till I figured out some of the wiring paths), and also finish up with the settee fiddles and that sort of thing.  But right now, a bigger priority was to finish up the paint work around the new through hulls and at the repaired liner at the aft end of the cabin, and I applied a coat of cream-colored semi-gloss paint to coordinate with the color of the existing liner.  I’d probably need to do a second coat over the weekend to wrap this up so I could finish with the new scupper hoses in the near future.

Total time billed on this job today:  5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  40°, fair.   Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 48° but falling in the afternoon.