Lackey Sailing | tim lackey

(page 103 of 166)

Scupper 66

January 25, 2019 / tim lackey / Comments Off

Friday

In the forward cabin, I removed the tall hanging lockers at the aft end of each berth. I used a saw to cut along the intersection of these lockers with the sides of the v-berth liner, and along the edge of the berth top, leaving a bit of an edge that I’d clean up and make flush later with additional sanding. I cut out the lockers in a few sections to keep the size manageable, and removed remnants of the old tabbing along the hull sides to finish up the removal for now.

Removing the lockers greatly opened up and enhanced the space, and allowed decent access to the inside of the hull and forwardmost chainplate locations, and would greatly streamline further work efforts in the near future. For now, I wasn’t sure how the owner wanted to finish off the space, but we’d discuss it during an upcoming meeting at the boat. I’d soon clean up the areas with additional sanding, but for right now I planned to focus the rest of the day in the main cabin.

I turned back to the lockers beneath the settees, particularly on the port side, where I removed the rest of the core from the area with a grinder; I’d tried prying and scraping it, but found it too time-consuming. With one remaining sanding disc on the grinder, I ground away the remaining square foot or so of core, and lightly cleaned up the lockers on both sides. There was more and better sanding still to come soon, but I needed a new supply of the sanding discs first.

The main cabin largely consisted of molded, gelcoated interior components and liners, including the galley, settees and backrests, and the overhead, and the original finishes were old, tired, and stained. On the port side, where work had been done in the past by others, there was some nasty glossy white paint filled with bubbles and roller stipple. (Note: lots of additional photos of the interior in various stages of disassembly and “as-arrived” condition can be found in the early pages of this project.)

During the remainder of the day, I sanded all the gelcoated surfaces in the main cabin and galley, removing gloss from the gelcoat and, where necessary, removing that nasty old paint. This included all areas of the settees and backrests, the galley and companionway areas, the underside of the bridgedeck, and the undersides of the sidedecks. This initial round of sanding was a sort of initial cleaning pass, and I planned additional finish sanding soon to take care of final surface prep for primer as well as deal with detail areas and corners. The large bulkhead aft of the galley was still covered with well-stuck Formica and didn’t receive any attention at this time. In some areas, I had to remove hated silicone sealant residue, which the builders had used beneath some of the trim and around the large port above the galley. It was like sanding a car tire, but I prevailed.

The molded overhead was pockmarked with holes from hardware installations above, as well as a nightmare area above the galley where various old work had occurred. This overhead was never going to be the final surface in the new interior, but I felt it was still necessary to sand it with coarse paper to clean, degloss, and abrade the surface so it would be ready for whatever future treatments I might do.

The overhead was also too ugly to live, and after all, I had to work in this space for some months. A happy boat restorer is…well, happy. It just felt better in the boat after I’d sanded the overhead clean.

I cleaned up the dust and detritus from the past two days’ sanding, and looked forward to repeating the process in the forward cabin next time.

Total time billed on this job today: 7 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 30°, clear. Forecast for the day: Increasing clouds, 32°

Dharma Rose 35

January 24, 2019 / tim lackey / Comments Off

Thursday

With the end of the project, the owner arranged to have the boat surveyed for his insurance purposes, and once that was over with early in the week, I went ahead to prepare the boat for her imminent departure, restowing and securing the mast on deck and loading various gear back aboard.

One final detail remained. I had hoped to be able to install a zinc on the prop shaft; while in my mind the requirement or even desirability of this remains in question, at least when the boat’s underwater metallic compontnents are electrically isolated from one another (as they are here), there seemed little down side other than simply recycling zinc through the ecosystem. The first prop hub zinc I’d tried, a standard and readily-available version, didn’t fit in the tight space between the prop and the rudder on this boat, but after a pretty extensive search I found a version that looked promising and ordered it.

When the new zinc and nut assembly arrived, and after quickly determining that it would work here, I installed it. This zinc came with a prop nut that replaces the original two nuts, so I removed those and installed the supplied prop nut tightly. The zinc itself is designed to fit over this nut, with a hex-shaped recess on one side, and then the zinc is secured with a castle nut at the end of the shaft, which fits inside the rounded aft end of the zinc. I finished off the installation with a cotter pin to hold the arrangement in place.

With a brief unusually-warm weather window (if not fair weather), the owner planned to pick the boat up and bring her home in a whirlwind trip, and I got the new zinc in place just in time before the owner arrived in Maine in the evening.

in the morning, with freakishly warm temperatures but a newly-icy and slick (but aesthetically reflective) driveway thanks to the recent snow now saturated with rain, the owner departed for home with the boat, ready to finish a few small projects and go sailing this summer.

0600 Weather Observation: 40°, rain. Forecast for the day: Heavy rain, 50s

Scupper 65

January 24, 2019 / tim lackey / Comments Off

Thursday

After a hiatus to work on other projects, and in keeping with the overall delivery schedule for this boat, I returned to work on Scupper, this time with my focus on the interior. During the first phase of work, I’d removed interior trim and the like, but the main surfaces remained largely untouched and now required what I tend to call “bulk prep”–sanding and related surface prep. All the interior surfaces would require some level of prep, including the molded overhead and interior components (the largest area of the interior), plus all locker and bilge spaces and any exposed areas of the inside of the hull.

After getting set back up with the various tools and lighting I needed, I got to work at the stem and started working my way back. In the forward cabin, I used a sander to clean up the inside of the chainlocker, the huge space beneath the v-berth (in the forward section and as far aft as I could reach beneath the protruding molded lockers), and the exposed hull above the molded v-berth liner, removing as necessary old paint, grime, and generally smoothing the often rough surfaces to better prepare them for new paint and work ahead. These areas wouldn’t be exposed in the final interior, but still required prep and other finishing work.

The v-berth featured two awkward and confining (and useless) “hanging lockers” molded into the aft end, which the owner and I had discussed removing. These lockers seemed to close in the berth space, didn’t provide useful storage, and greatly limited decent access to the hull and chainplates. For now, I stopped my prep work just forward of these looming, ineffective, unpleasant, unnecessary, and undesired walls, but planned to cut them flush with the berth in the immediate future (I was awaiting saw blades for this).

While I was in the forward cabin, I took the opportunity to clean up the inside of the forward hatch opening to prepare it for some interior glasswork to complete the new fiberglass frame I’d built earlier. I planned to install a layer of fiberglass over the insides to seal off the exposed core, help tie in the hatch frame, and close off the opening between the interior liner and deck above.

Continuing aft, I worked in the main cabin to clean up the hull above the settees on each side (again, an area that would not be exposed in the final interior), and also inside the settee back lockers themselves, removing old paint and cleaning the surfaces as needed without going overboard. I also similarly cleaned up the inside of the hull inside the locker spaces in the head.

The lower lockers beneath the settees themselves required some extra work. Much earlier in the project, during other rounds of work, I’d discovered that these lockers featured thin core against the hull, the purpose of which wasn’t clear (it wasn’t structural). The core was on top of the inside of the actual hull laminate, and covered with an additional skin of fiberglass inside the locker. What was clear was that the installation had been poorly executed, and the coring was damp and debonded from the skins above. At the time, having determined that this wasn’t a serious structural issue, I left the lockers for another time. That time was now.

On the starboard side, the old skins and coring were pretty easy to remove, so poor was the core’s condition. With a cutting tool, I sliced through the top edge of the skin and along the edges as needed, eventually cutting the skin into large but manageable pieces that I could easily pry off. This took most of what remained of the core with it, and the leftovers were easy to scrape free of the hull.

The port side, where everything was harder (this was the side that had received whatever major damage somewhere back in time, many of which repairs I’d already had to face and rebuild during the deck and exterior work), fought me tooth and nail. The coring was generally in as poor condition as to starboard, but in some areas there was much thicker fiberglass over the top–probably part of the previous repair cycle–and some of the coring was still well-stuck despite its poor condition. At some length and with effort, I eventually got most of the old core and top skin out, leaving some of the still-stuck areas for later removal with better tools (I didn’t want to stop and go down to get my core chisels right then).

Afterwards, I did a quick initial cleaning pass over the insides of these lockers with my grinder, using a couple of worn-out discs for now as I’d used up my supply during the day’s efforts. This initial pass got rid of most of the leftover core scrim and loose bits, and some of the old paint, but I’d come back with fresh abrasives and finish up the job as soon as I could. For now, my work here was done.

Total time billed on this job today: 7.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 40°, rain. Forecast for the day: Heavy rain, 50s

Dharma Rose 34

January 18, 2019 / tim lackey / Comments Off

Friday

With the scope of my varnish work complete–2 coats at the owner’s request–I installed the hardware and hinge on the new companionway boards, completing their construction.

Next, I finished up in the interior with some minor reassembly, including the bi-fold head door and two wiring chase covers that the owner had removed earlier but asked me to install now. I also installed the cabin sole. Meanwhile, now that work was complete, I finished some of my earlier efforts to clean up the cabin, remove tools, and so forth.

In the engine room, I finished up by adding the basic fluids to the engine: coolant (both to the heat exchanger and the separate overflow tank); engine oil (about 2 liters); and transmission fluid (about 0.2 liters).

Finally, I installed new vent hoses between the engine room and the after cowl vents, replacing those I’d removed earlier in the project. I installed the tiller, thus expunging the last item from the project scope.

Total time billed on this job today: 4.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation: Partly clear, 15°. Forecast for the day: Snow shower, mostly cloudy but improving later, 30°

Dharma Rose 33

January 17, 2019 / tim lackey / Comments Off

Thursday

Next on my dwindling agenda was to install the new shaft, which had recently arrived from the machine shop. A bench-fit showed that the coupling was too tight a fit, so I cleaned up the inside a bit until I could slip the coupling over the shaft with acceptable ease. I double-checked the length of the new shaft against my original measurements to ensure it was what I’d asked for (it was).

I slipped the shaft through the stern tube, and from inside the boat installed the packing nut over the end, then installed the split coupling and key, securing it with the shaft setscrew and the two coupling bolts to squeeze the coupling together. With the coupling installed, but before installing the sacrificial coupling section, I completed the final engine alignment, adjusting the mounts as needed to bring the transmission and shaft couplings into alignment. Once aligned, I tightened all the mounting studs and bolts to affix the engine permanently.

Now I moved the shaft back a bit to make space, and completed the installation with the sacrificial plastic coupling, which bolted between the shaft and transmission couplings to provide electrical isolation, a bit of alignment forgiveness, and as a failsafe to help prevent damage to the transmission should the propeller hit an immobile object.

I completed the installation with the new propeller. This is a Campbell Sailer size 11×6.

I tried the fit of a prop nut zinc assembly, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough clearance in the tight aperture even for the nut itself.

As a final step, I tightened down the stuffing box nut, tightening it more than would ultimately be necessary so that upon launching, there’d be no unexpected nor unwelcome surprises from the stuffing box; it would require proper adjustment at that time, however.

Total time billed on this job today: 3.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 6°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 16°

Dharma Rose 32

January 16, 2019 / tim lackey / Comments Off

Wednesday

To finish up the new companionway boards, I used the old top board as a guide to measure for and lay out the location for a new ring pull on the new piece, then, with a router, chisel, and large drill bits, relieved the opening as needed to accommodate the flush ring pull.

To match the original, I milled a small piece of solid teak for the back side, creating a small handle. I attached this with glue and temporary screws through the front side, which holes would later accommodate two longer screws to secure the new ring pull.

The owner requested that I apply a second coat of varnish to the new boards, so now I did so.

Meanwhile, I reassembled the original set of boards with their original hardware.

The owner had brought me a new, slightly-oversized teak cockpit grate blank, and requested that I fit it as needed. I had the old grate on hand as well, but to use it as a template I first had to remove some cleats from the bottom side so I could lay it flush on the new grate for marking and trimming. I found that the new grate was a close fit, but one long side required a slight trim, and I also had to open up a relief cut (for the cockpit gear lever) at the starboard aft end.

With the cuts completed, I tested the fit, which matched the original as expected.

The cockpit sole, with its removable engine hatch and short fixed aft section, was not quite all at one level, which is why the cleats had originally been added to the old grate. After checking the fit of the new grate, I decided I could simplify the cleat system, since the after section was just 3/8″ lower than the forward section, so I milled some cleats of appropriate size and installed them with screws. Later, I’d need to slightly relieve the forward portion here and there to accommodate the screw heads that secure the engine hatch in place, since the grate by requirement sat directly above many of these screws, but the old cleat system hadn’t eliminated this need either and had required the same relief cuts.

The rigger was on hand during the morning to install and complete the new standing rigging, which included mechanical bottom terminals which, because of the way the rigging passed through holes in the mast, had to be installed on site.

I was away from the shop for a while on other business, but upon my return I decided to finish up the chainplates by trimming the excess sealant from around the new deck covers.

Total time billed on this job today: 4.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 26°, cloudy. Forecast for the day: Mostly cloudy, snow shower, 37°

Dharma Rose 31

January 15, 2019 / tim lackey / Comments Off

Tuesday

Finishing up the hose runs and installations in the engine room, I installed the new hoses for the cockpit scuppers.

When I’d first installed the batteries a few days earlier, I found that the little fuses (I’d had them in stock) I’d installed on the positive terminals were already blown, causes unknown, but it gave me a moment’s consternation when I turned the battery switch and nothing happened. Since the only wiring I’d done was on the battery and engine side, I’d no idea as to the status of the boat’s existing wiring, though I knew from the owner it was functional. Brief troubleshooting at the time led quickly to the fuse problem at the batteries.

So I ordered replacement fuses and now, with them on hand, I reinstalled the connections and this time had no problems with the system, as anticipated. I tested various items to ensure that the new battery wiring was as it should be: It was.

Next, I installed and wired the new shore power inlet, replacing the old one that, while apparently functional, had disintegrated upon removal. Once the installation was complete, I tested the system.

I temporarily installed the tiller so I could layout and install the blocks and tiller-mounted cleats for the Monitor windvane control lines. On this boat, the way the lines led from the windvane itself meant that only a single turning block was required in order to lead and redirect them to the tiller, and I’d already ordered the required blocks and had them on hand.

Using the guidance from the windvane instructions, as well as my past installation, I made some layout marks on the tiller and, with the tiller at approximately 15° either side of centerline, used a square to transfer the marks to the coaming; this indicated the position for the turning blocks. With a sistership’s installation and resultant confidence already in the books, I went through these motions quickly and more as a means of confirmation, and soon I’d mounted the new blocks to the coamings in the appropriate positions with threaded holes, machine screws, and sealant.

The adjustment system consisted of a pair of cam cleats to mount on the bottom of the tiller, allowing various easy adjustments for weather helm, etc. With the basic position mark already in place, I attached the two cam cleats on either side of the mark, completing the setup. I left the lines long at the tiller so the owner could make final adjustments and decide how much excess line to leave in the final installation.

With most of the work on the boat actually done, I spent some time removing excess tools and cleaning up parts of the cabin. The new propeller shaft arrived at the end of the day, hand-delivered by the machine shop, so I planned to finalize the engine and shafting installation next time, along with a short list of sundry small jobs to complete.

Total time billed on this job today: 5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 6°, clear. Forecast for the day: Partly sunny, 28°

Dharma Rose 30

January 14, 2019 / tim lackey / Comments Off

Monday

I spent the morning working on the cabin sole, starting with the openings for the several hatches in the main section. I cut just inside my layout lines and test-fit the sole to be sure the layouts were correct before completing all the openings as needed.

For the forward cabin, I cut out the hatch opening and the small veneer section and test-fit as required.

To align the new veneer on the newly-cut forwardmost hatch in the main cabin, I set the hatch itself in place, and made reference marks so I could later align the veneer with the wood strips on the adjacent cabin sole.

At the aft end, just forward of the engine room, I attached the small section of new veneer to the hatch cover with screws, so that the entire section would lift out as a unit for access.

Now I laid out a strip of the teak plywood veneer to accommodate all four hatch covers, and cut oversize blanks for each that would allow me to align them properly. It turned out that the old veneers were glued in place on the plywood hatches, so I ran them through the planer to remove the old 1/4″ veneer and make room for the new before laying out and gluing down the new plywood along pre-determined layout lines.

While I left the glue-ups to dry, I finish-sanded the sole pieces, cleaned them, and applied a sealer coat of varnish to all sides. The owner requested only the sealer coat in order to finish up the coats himself, so this would be all the varnish I’d be applying at this time.

When the waterproof glue on the hatch covers had dried sufficiently, I trimmed the excess veneer with a router to complete the hatches, then sanded and seal-coated these as well.

To wrap up the woodwork, I also applied a sealer coat of varnish to the new teak companionway boards.

In the engine room, I finished up the hose runs for the vented exhaust loop, cutting the hoses to final length and securing all connections with hose clamps.

I completed the exhaust system by installing the shutoff valve in the lazarette, where I’d prepared the hoses earlier, and making up the final hose run between the engine outlet and the exhaust muffler below the cockpit sole.

To finish up the engine work, I installed the final length of raw water intake hose, running between the sea strainer and the raw water pump on the engine itself.

Engine-wise, all that remained was to install the shafting, which was being machined (or soon to be machined), and propeller, along with final alignment.

Total time billed on this job today: 7.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation: -2°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 24°

Dharma Rose 29

January 11, 2019 / tim lackey / Comments Off

Friday

Awaiting various materials to finish up portions of the engine installation, I focused instead on several other jobs still on the work list, starting with completing the new chainplates’ bedding and deck cover plate installation. At each of the six locations, I began by forcing butyl tape sealant into the exposed slots wherever possible.

Next, I applied my usual light polyurethane sealant to each chainplate, a heavy bead into which I pressed the new fiberglass covers I’d made. In addition to forming an additional defense against water, the sealant also served to hold the covers in place. I left the excess sealant to cure, and would trim the excess later.

While I had the sealant out, I reinstalled the deck plates for the two vents on the aft deck.

Preparing ahead for the new shafting, and expunging another item from my list, I cut rings of graphite packing material to fit (I wrap the packing numerous times around a shaft–the old shaft in this case–and run a knife through all rings in a straight line to create properly-sized individual rings for the stuffing box) and installed as many rings as possible in the new packing nut (three in this case). I ran the now-filled packing nut over the shaft to press in and seat the packing, so it’d be ready for final installation once the new shaft arrived, hopefully soon.

Now I turned in a different direction. The owner had requested I build new companionway drop boards to replace the existing ones, which were old, and one of which had been modified to incorporate a GPS display that the owner wanted to relocate. To begin, I disassembled the original boards, removing hardware and a continuous hinge on the top two sections so I could use the originals as templates. From a new sheet of 1/2″ teak plywood, I cut the new boards to fit as needed and incorporating the same details and shapes as the originals. To keep both sets of boards in working condition, I ordered new hardware for the new set, and would later reinstall the hardware back on the originals. After a light sanding, for now, I set the new boards aside to await a sealer coat of varnish.

Next on the short woodworking agenda was a replacement cabin sole veneer. The original teak-striped veneer was in poor condition, broken into several pieces and damaged in other ways, but fortunately I could easily piece it back together to use as a template for the new veneer. With the various pieces properly positioned and clamped carefully in place on a new sheet of 1/4″ teak and “holly” (the light strips aren’t actually holly) veneer plywood (which happily had the identical “board” spacing as the original), I traced along the edges and in the openings for the hatches. I found that the new sheet of plywood was about 1/2″ shorter than whatever had been used originally; this posed no problem since the overall length of the required cabin veneer was longer than eight feet by a fair margin anyway, requiring a separate piece at the aft end, but I’d need to slightly change that piece when I got to it.

Next, I cut carefully along the lines with a jigsaw set to a bevel to help match the edge of the new veneer to the shape of the hull curvature, and test-fit the main piece in place.

At the aft end, where I needed to incorporate a new opening for the new hatch I’d cut into the sole just forward of the engine room, I decided to cut off the long veneer piece in line with the forward edge of the new hatch, so the separate after veneer piece could also act as the hatch cover itself. To do this, I used tape in a straight line to mark the proper line, and after marking the sole accordingly cut a straight line across.

Now I laid out the original aftermost piece of veneer on the new sheet of plywood, and extended it several inches further forward so I could cut its leading edge in line with the hatch cover as well to complete the basic sole section.

These simple cuts required multiple trips up and down into the boat for measurements, test fits, and so forth, but one critical new layout remained: the new hatch opening at the forward end of the cabin, above the new bilge area created by the waste tank removal. Here, I had no guidance from the original veneer, but with various other measurements, tape marks, and the new hatch itself, I used one section of the old veneer to help me template and test-cut the opening so I could accurately lay it out on the final piece.

Still ahead, I’d need to cut out all three openings in the cabin sole for the hatches, as well as create the new veneer for the small piece in the forward cabin, but I decided to leave those crucial cuts for next time.

Total time billed on this job today: 7.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 10°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 20°

Dharma Rose 28

January 10, 2019 / tim lackey / Comments Off

Thursday

I continued with work on the engine’s final connections, beginning with a portion of the exhaust hose. I had hoped to install the aftermost portion of the system first–leading from the transom outlet to the muffler beneath the cockpit, by way of a new heavy-weather shutoff valve that I’d prepared at the owner’s request–but I found I’d mis-measured the diameter of the connection at the steel gooseneck at the transom. Earlier, I’d thought it was 1-9/16″, at odds with the rest of the 2″ exhaust system, but workable with adapters at the shutoff valve, so I’d reduced the outlet side of the valve accordingly. Now, however, I found that in fact the diameter was 2″–just a roomy fit for the 2″ hose, so I had to order another 2″ hose connector to re-adapt the shutoff valve.

In any event, I cut and installed the short final length of hose to the gooseneck, leaving the other end in the lazarette for connection to the shutoff valve. I also cut and dry-installed the hose run that would go from the muffler to the inlet side of the valve, so final connections would be quick once I received the new hose connector. More on this as it happens.

Next, I prepared to install the two lengths of 1″ hose from the exhaust elbow to and from the vented loop in the cockpit locker, only to find (sigh) that I didn’t have the correct clamp size on hand after all–just one in stock. I could have used larger ones, but I hate having long clamp tails, at least in exposed spaces, so I left this project for completion later as well. I did manage to successfully install the little coolant overflow tank in entirety, but clearly engine work wasn’t otherwise in the cards for this day.

In the port hanging locker, I reinstalled the cover panel that I’d removed for chainplate access. then reinstalled the bulkhead face as well.

Across the way to starboard, before reinstalling the cover panel on that side, I first needed to install a new AC electrical panel that the owner requested for the boat’s simple shore power system (one outlet). Previously, the shore power inlet connector in the cabin side above had led directly to the outlet in the galley without benefit of a circuit breaker.

In order to connect new wire to the shore power inlet, I had to remove the fitting, since access to the side for one of the screw terminals was too tight to the nearby bulkhead. Given the way of things, I was hardly surprised when the old plastic outlet fell into pieces upon removal, the victim of 35 years of UV exposure. I ordered a replacement.

Meanwhile, after a few measurements in the boat to determine any clearance issues for the new electrical panel, I laid out and cut the opening in the plywood panel, and prepared the electrical panel by installing a 15 amp breaker for the outlet in the blank hole beneath the main breaker and making all the related wiring connections, both for the shore power inlet and the circuit leading to the outlet. With the wiring complete, I screwed the new panel in place, and installed a plastic protective back that the owner had also provided, then installed the teak plywood panel back in its spot, running in the wires to the outlet box to await a new outlet later (the original outlet I’d removed, while still on hand, was old and tired; plus, it should be a GFCI outlet).

Next, I reinstalled the original assembly for the water tank fill, which I’d removed early in the process for access.

In the galley, earlier I’d painted around the new through hull fitting I’d installed, and now I finished up the work there with a new length of drain hose for the sink.

Finally, I installed some straps to secure the batteries in their compartment. I chose webbed straps with stainless steel brackets to secure them to the base of the compartment, and, before replacing the batteries, I installed terminal-mount fuse holders and 100 amp fuses on the positive battery terminals.