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Halcyon 4

January 4, 2017 / tim lackey / Comments Off

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Wednesday

Finishing up the bottom work for now, I lightly water washed the new fairing patches, then sanded them smooth with the adjacent areas.

The bulk of my remaining work on this project would be on deck and in the cabin, as the owners had had the hull brushed a few years ago and were happy with the existing condition. So with hull work complete for now, I set up staging around the boat to give me a comfortable working height around the perimeter of the decks.

To protect the hull from spills or damage, I covered it with plastic that I taped to the top edge of the hull just outboard of the wooden toerails.

The decks were in original condition, generally fair in appearance but well worn, with thin and checked gelcoat and several areas where there were more significant cracks that could be indicative of structural damage. My scope of work for the decks in the weeks ahead included inspecting for and repairing any damage, and refinishing the entire deck in the usual way. These photos show the deck’s condition at this stage of the project.

The exterior woodwork had been maintained for some time with Cetol wood finish, and was generally in fair or good condition, The current work list included applying a maintenance coat of finish to this wood, but I’d assess things further as time went on.

The interior appeared to be in original condition and in need of sprucing up, though at least most of the finishes were sound, if worn, tired, and dirty. The work plan here included repainting the overhead, hull, and other areas, refinishing much or all of the woodwork, and some additional work in the galley and “head” areas, along with revamping the basic electrical system, adding a GPS, and other maintenance tasks.

I removed all the contents of the cabin, storing it away for safekeeping for the duration of the project and, where needed, setting aside removable bits of woodwork, doors, cabin sole, etc. for later attention.

The original deck hardware–mainly aluminum with some bronze–was in fair condition overall, but several pieces were damaged or broken, including the port stern chock and stern cleat. I hoped to source original-specific replacements for the damaged hardware, and, if luck was with us, perhaps replace some of the other pieces–which were pitted if sound–if better vintage pieces turned up. These photos document the original placement and condition of the deck hardware. The original lifelines were in poor condition, and replacement (along with a rigging inspection and assessment) was on the list for the project.

With the basic preparations, unloading, and initial inspection complete, I was ready to get down to business, and would start removing deck hardware next time.

Total time billed on this job today: 6.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:
32°, rain; freezing rain; sleet. Forecast for the day: precipitation ending, clearing,

Halcyon 3

January 3, 2017 / tim lackey / Comments Off

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Tuesday

During the morning, I finished up the bottom stripping, taking care of the last large section on the port side, then moving all the jackstands and removing the paint in those areas as well.

When the boat hauler delivered the boat to the shop earlier, he’d not been able (or willing) to raise the bow of the boat enough to block the boat level; the forward end of the keel ended up a little lower than the aft end because of the limitations of the boat trailer. This didn’t necessarily pose any immediate problems, but frankly it was irritating me since it just looked bad and was poor practice, and later I knew I might want the boat to be properly leveled in all directions for some of the interior work.

arrival2-91316 — Delivery Day in September, 2016

Fixing the issue was straightforward: I used the forward jackstands to raise the boat enough so I could slip in a taller block to raise the forward end to an equal height as the existing aft blocking, and to bring the base of the keel level along its long length. Since this keel was parallel to the waterline, this also meant that for all intents and purposes the boat was level fore and aft.

Afterwards, I leveled the boat side to side as well.

The bottom gelcoat was in good condition overall, but there were various little dings, scrapes, and pockmarking spread around the area–all the things one expects in a 50 year-old (or thereabouts) boat. After surface preparations, I applied some epoxy fairing compound here and there on the bottom to address these minor surface issues.

Total time billed on this job today: 6 hours

0600 Weather Observation:
30°, cloudy. Forecast for the day: clouds, possible light wintry mix, then wintry mix to rain overnight

Halcyon 2

January 2, 2017 / tim lackey / Comments Off

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Monday

The owner elected to strip the bottom and start fresh, so I made this my first task. After setting up and getting ready, I spent the day stripping all the old bottom paint from the starboard side, and a bit over half of the port side. I removed the bulk of the old paint with a carbide scraper and finished up with two sanding passes and two sanding grits to remove the remnants and finalize the bottom surface. The substrate was in good condition overall.

I’d finish up the last section next time.

Total time billed on this job today: 8 hours

0600 Weather Observation:
15°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 37°

Halcyon 1

December 21, 2016 / tim lackey / Comments Off

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Wednesday

Halcyon, a S&S Sailmaster 22 (year of build unknown), has been in the same family for over three decades, and while she’d been well maintained throughout that time, her age and normal wear and tear had begun to catch up, and the owners wanted to make some lasting improvements to bring the boat through the next years of use. The proposed scope of the project would focus mainly on the decks and interior, as the owner had had the hull painted with one-part paint fairly recently and was happy with its current appearance.

One of the first items on the rather extensive work list was to assess the condition of the bottom and determine what, if anything, was required there. Now that I was gearing up to begin work on the boat, I took an opportunity to look over the bottom. I chose to do this early on so we could determine what course to take before diving into other parts of the project.

(Note: all photos clickable for full size)

The bottom featured numerous layers of antifouling paint, mostly in fair to good condition, but with the inevitable evidence of past areas where the paint had flaked away and been painted over.

In the flattest, least-supported sections of the boat–that is, the after sections of the boat, starting roughly amidships and running towards the deadwood–the paint had cracked and begun to crack, a normal condition seen in areas of hull flex, but mostly the paint remained well-adhered, though there was substantial buildup. The flaking issue was neither catastrophic nor widespread.

Given the existing condition, and the intended use of the boat, at a minimum my suggestion was to scrape and heavy-sand the loose areas as needed before repainting, simply to ensure reasonable adhesion of the new coating. No one likes stripping bottoms, but certainly it was something to be considered here for the long-term, as it appeared it had never been done before. If this was the chosen course, it was a job I planned to take care of first, before moving on to the rest of the project.

Acadia 58

December 19, 2016 / tim lackey / Comments Off

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Monday

Now that I had new liner fabric and adhesive on hand, I finished up my work list with the quarterberth liner. Using the old vinyl piece–I’d removed this earlier–as a template, I cut a piece of the new fabric to fit, then dry-fit it in place to check the fit and see if I needed to cut any darts or make other changes. It actually smoothed into place very nicely and stayed where I wanted it, so I masked around it with tape and paper to prevent overspray on adjacent surfaces. Then, to permanently install the fabric I pulled away sections at a time and sprayed on the adhesive, then pressed the fabric back into place.

Once I’d glued the fabric in place, I finished up the job by securing the VHF antenna cable along the back side of the nav station cabinet, reinstalled three trim original pieces on the aft bulkhead, and installed a small piece of trim along the outer edge of that cabinet since I thought it looked nicer than the original raw edge.

This ended my current work list for this project.

Total time billed on this job today: 1.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:
-1°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 15°

Acadia 57

December 16, 2016 / tim lackey / Comments Off

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Friday

I took a day off from the project to give the freshly-varnished cabin sole plenty of cure time before getting to work on finishing up and reassembling the cabin. Now, I began by reinstalling the cabin sole base trim around the perimeter of the main cabin.

Next, I reinstalled the bookshelf, bulkhead lamps, and clock on the forward bulkheads, after which I returned to their original locations all the various books, hardware, galley equipment, and other loose gear that I’d removed before beginning the interior refinishing.

One small final item was to install two new louvered covers for insides of the Dorade vents over the raw holes in the overhead: one in the passageway, and the other in the head.

The only job still on my list at this point was to install the new liner in the quarterberth, which I’d finish up as soon as the new materials were on hand.

Total time billed on this job today: 5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:
-5°, clear, windy. Forecast for the day: clear and windy, 8°

Acadia 56

December 14, 2016 / tim lackey / Comments Off

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Wednesday

This project was really winding down now, but there were a few odds and ends to take care of yet. One of these was to reinstall a little paper towel holder and cover above the engine room countertop. This angled piece had originally covered the back sides of the old engine instruments, and had been installed with a pair of the plastic slam latches used throughout the boat. One of these was broken, and since such quick access was no longer required to this area (since I’d removed the gauges), I decided to install the unit with a pair of cleats, which I screwed to the liner and the backing behind it. I used a single screw on each side of the angled unit to secure it to the cleats, making it still easily removable if needed, but otherwise secure.

In the quarterberth, there was an old (original) vinyl liner glued to the hull, and this was in poor condition.

The owner asked that I replace it with a new fabric liner, so with the bulk of the other work now behind me, I turned to the removal of the old liner. Fortunately, though the liner was still adhered well with its adhesive and a few wooden trim pieces at the aft end, it pulled away easily once I started it, and it took little time to remove the old liner in one piece, which I’d use to help prepare the new fabric once it arrived. I’d return to this project in due course.

After final preparations, I applied a coat of rubbed-effect satin varnish to the cabin sole and centerline hatches, which wrapped up what I could accomplish for this day. These photos show the varnish after an overnight cure.

Total time billed on this job today: 3.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:
Mostly clear, 20° . Forecast for the day: Mostly sunny, 30s

Acadia 55

December 13, 2016 / tim lackey / Comments Off

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Tuesday

I spent the morning reassembling hinges and so forth on the varnished doors, then reinstalling all the doors and drawers in the boat, along with the base trim in the nav station foot well. The base trim on the remainder of the cabin sole would wait till I completed the varnish work there.

The port door over the upper electrical service locker on the aft cabin bulkhead needed some latch modification. The original slam latch receptacle had at one time in the past been reinstalled upside down or sideways, and didn’t function properly to capture the screw on the back of the locker door. I knocked the mounting block loose from the inside of the locker and, after cleaning things up a bit, reinstalled it in the correct orientation with some epoxy adhesive, clamping the block in place while the epoxy cured.

I lightly sanded the varnish on the cabin sole, then applied another gloss coat only to the little trim areas, thresholds, and center strip and hatches, attempting to bring these areas to a similar beginning state as the main sole panels. I hoped to apply satin varnish to the entire sole next time.

I also varnished the exterior side of the companionway swashboards, which required only this maintenance coat.

Total time billed on this job today: 4 hours

0600 Weather Observation:
10°, clear. Forecast for the day: sun and clouds, 32°

Acadia 54

December 12, 2016 / tim lackey / Comments Off

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Monday

Over the weekend, I decided that a few of the painted interior panels required a third coat of paint, as I wasn’t happy with some thin/dark spots at the upper edges, where coverage hadn’t been as good as I’d hoped. So after basic preparations, I applied a third coat of paint to the panel outboard of the nav station on the port side, the small section above the aft galley countertop, and portions of the galley and engine compartment.

Now, with the paint work complete, I removed all the masking tape from the cabin. Final installation of the base trim and various doors and drawers would bring the whole thing together soon.

The cabin sole had looked pretty good at the beginning of the project, but as work progressed in adjacent areas, it looked more and more downtrodden, and some time earlier I’d decided that I’d fo a quick refresher coat of varnish on the whole thing to spruce it up. The existing finish was fair, but rather rough, and there were bare teak trim thresholds and center trim and hatch pieces that had never been finished, along with a single oddball plank in the passageway. There was some water damage on the port side, which had stained the veneer and lifted some of the old finish.

To prepare, I sanded the existing finish with 120 grit, concentrating as needed on the damaged area to port and cleaning up the bare wood as well. Afterwards, I vacuumed and solvent-washed, and masked off some areas in the passageway to prepare for new varnish.

Preparations complete, I applied a thin sealer coat of varnish to the bare wood sections only.

The thin sealer coat cured enough during the day so that I could go back later and apply a fresh coat of varnish over the entire sole, including the bare areas and center hatches once more.

A couple of drawer fronts had been uncooperative in properly accepting my second coat of satin varnish earlier, so I sanded these and applied another coat, and also a final coat to the main side of the bookshelf; I’d varnished the inside of this unit over the weekend.

Total time billed on this job today: 5.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:
20°, snow (2-3″ so far). Forecast for the day: snow (6″ total ), ending mid-day

Acadia 53

December 9, 2016 / tim lackey / Comments Off

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Friday

After a light sanding with 320 grit–mainly to scuff the surface–and the usual cleanup process, I applied a second coat of white semi-gloss enamel to the interior surfaces so treated.

Most of the small parts and trim looked good after my coat of satin varnish, but there were a few pieces with a holiday–it happens–or drips from the finger holes, so for these several pieces I lightly sanded and applied a new coat of satin varnish.

Total time billed on this job today: 3 hours

0600 Weather Observation:
27°, partly clear with a snow shower. Forecast for the day: partly sunny, 30.

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