Lackey Sailing | chloegreen

Wednesday

There were several large plastic deck hatches in the cockpit, which appeared original and were in fair condition. At least one of the flanges had a crack, and the surfaces were dirty and shop-worn.

I wanted to remove the hatches before painting the nonskid, and approached the first one cautiously (well, I approached them all cautiously, but particularly the first), as I was concerned that it might be hard to remove the hatch without damaging it. Plastic hatches can become brittle with time and UV exposure, and depending on the installation details this means removal often irreparably damages the hatch. Before attempting to remove the hatches, I researched replacement possibilities, which the owner wanted anyway, but I didn’t want to end up with damaged hatches and no ready replacements. I found new hatches made by the same company and to the same dimensions, though with a different lid design (hinged and handled, rather than pry-out), so we were all set there. I ordered the replacements and got down to the removal.

Fortunately, in this case the hatch was easy to remove. It was installed in a bed of silicone sealant, but fortunately one that didn’t have much in the way of adhesion to the hatch flange. The exposed core in the opening, under close inspection, had been coated with resin during the boat’s construction, and this had protected it successfully from any real damage, though there was minor water discoloration here and there.

Buoyed by the success, I quickly removed the remaining three rectangular hatches, along with a pair of round inspection plates over the fuel tank gauges. All openings were in similar condition. For now, I left the hatches loosely in place while I worked around the boat.

The owner suggested that the windshield wiper located on the starboard side was less than adequate for the task, with a weak motor and unhelpfully lightweight arm and blade, so I looked into replacements. Having located a motor, arm, and blade combination that seemed appropriate, I went ahead and disassembled the existing wiper, carefully removing the parts and a wooden trim piece over the wiring. This would have the added benefit of making the varnish work that much easier and better. I’d install the replacement unit later, once the maintenance was complete. I’d already removed a simple manual wiper from the port side.

A series of Velcro strips at the top edge of the windscreen, used to help secure the canvas top, were wrinkled with age, and partially losing their adhesion, so I decided to remove them, which would also make the varnish work easier. I also removed and secured out of the way the little light fixture in the center of the windscreen.

Some final trim in the way was a pair of bronze chafe guards on the toerails amidships, in way of the breast cleats. I removed these so I could strip the toerails and revarnish.

With the dismantling and related work complete, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on another item on the work list: gelcoat polishing, starting with the starboard sidedeck and cabin trunk. The original gelcoat was in generally good condition and had been maintained throughout its life, but was dirty and oxidized. I chose to clean this now since it was easier to do the areas adjacent to the nonskid now, before painting, because all the surfaces required cleaning before I could mask for paint and varnish anyway, and this way I didn’t have to tiptoe around freshly-refinished surfaces. It was also a good way to fill random bits of time like I had available now. These photos give a sense of the initial condition of things before I started.

Over an hour or so, I cleaned the starboard side of the cabin trunk and sidedeck, as well as the coachroof and forward side of the cabin trunk. This brought me to a good stopping point for now.

Total time billed on this job today: 4.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 38°, rain. Forecast for the day: Rain and snow , then mainly cloudy.

Tuesday

I began the project, as usual, with an overall inspection to determine the scope of work for each segment of the job. I knew Skeedeen well, as I’d done various work on her over the years, but it had been quite some time since she’d been in the shop here.

The boat’s apparently original nonskid pattern on the decks was well-worn, and had lost a lot of its nonslip ability as well as its looks. The original material featured a rough-ish, random pattern of peaks and swirls, apparently installed as an applique and not a molded part of the deck. After several past stops and starts about the nonskid project over the years, with the job ending up postponed for one reason or another, the owner and I both looked forward to renewing this surface.

The fairly substantial brightwork on the boat, all varnished teak, was in essentially good condition, and many areas would require just normal maintenance sanding and fresh coats of varnish, or at least so it appeared at first inspection. However, the forward hatch coaming and the toerails on both sides, in particular, would require stripping and complete refinishing, as the old coating had failed too substantially in these areas.

The massive windscreen was in good condition on the inside, where it was largely protected by the boat’s canvas top, and the exterior was in mainly good condition. Several seams between the pieces, always trouble spots on this structure, showed signs of water infiltration, but for the moment I hoped that spot repairs and then several good coats over the top would take care of things. Time would tell.

Handrails, eyebrow trim, and various trim pieces in the cockpit looked like they’d be OK with a few maintenance coats, but as I began the preparations I’d make adjustments as needed.

I worked my way around the boat, removing hardware that would be in the way for work on the varnish, such as canvas snaps, small fittings, and so forth, and also removed any trim pieces that I could to make the work easier: the companionway hatch and door and cockpit trim, including several small pieces located beneath the coamings.

The owner requested that I remove, and repair the leftover holes from, several erroneous antenna fixtures on the sides of the cabin, along with an old horn. The one antenna that was to remain, an 8′ fiberglass VHF antenna, was broken and had been repaired with tape, and he requested that I replace this as well.

To gain access to the back side of this hardware, and the nuts securing it, I had to remove two large fiberglass panels, one on each side of the cockpit. From there, removal was straightforward. I left the ratchet antenna base for the VHF in place, and simply removed the old antenna from its threaded mount for replacement.