I started the day by sanding the first fresh coat of varnish, this time with 320 grit paper. Afterwards, I vacuumed and solvent washed to prepare for another coat late in the day.
Meanwhile, I turned to the cockpit instruments. With a third matching instrument display now on hand to replace the old round and obsolete instrument I’d removed from the port side, I drilled a 3-3/8″ hole in the blank cover plate I’d made and painted earlier, matching the two others that I’d pre-drilled. Then, I installed the plates and instruments, using sealant on the backing plates (the instruments had built-in gaskets) and securing the instruments from behind with wooden blocks and the instruments’ supplied screws.
New two-speed self-tailing winches arrived to replace the pair I’d removed from the cabin top earlier. The new winches were the smallest size available with two speeds and self-tailing capacity, but of course the bolt pattern was different from that of the old winches (I expected this). For now, I held off on further installation steps as I didn’t want to create drill spoils and dust while in the middle of a varnish project. These winches came with a plastic top cap and a little note from the manufacturer explaining that there’d been a temporary shortage of the normal stainless caps at the time of production, but with instructions how to request shipment of the proper caps at no cost, which I did at once.
After final preparations, I applied another coat of varnish to all the exterior brightwork.
Total time billed on this job today: 6 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
50°, rain. Forecast for the day: rain and clouds, 50s
I finished up the brightwork masking, taking care of the handrails, eyebrow trim, companionway, and cockpit. I used mostly the low-tack masking tape for these areas. This tape wasn’t so great to work with, but would be worth the frustration if it didn’t harm the white paint. It didn’t stick well over nonskid, curves, and corners, so I found myself constantly pressing it back down throughout the day.
After final preparations, I moved right ahead with the first coat of varnish on all areas.
Total time billed on this job today: 4 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
Cloudy, 36°. Forecast for the day: clouds, rain overnight, 50.
To give me good working access to the toerails, I set up staging around the boat at deck height.
The existing brightwork on deck was in good condition overall and well-maintained, but the most recent application of varnish was filled with brush marks and runs in many areas. In some areas it was really pretty awful.
To prepare the brightwork for maintenance coats, I sanded everything with 220 grit paper–a little coarser than I’d normally use between maintenance coats–to smooth and otherwise prepare the surfaces, and remove the drips and rough texture left by the previous applicator.
After vacuuming and a solvent wash, I began to mask off the brightwork, beginning with the toerails, Where I could, I used green masking tape, but anywhere the tape had to lie on the gloss deck paint I used blue low-tack masking tape, hoping it wouldn’t harm the finish the way masking tape had previously in the cockpit during the previous varnish application. Mid-November and the big door wide open.
I’d continue the masking next time, as it was the end of the day I wanted to give the newly-painted cockpit areas an additional day before overmasking anyway.
Total time billed on this job today: 6.25 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
26°, clear. Forecast for the day: sunny, 55
Anxious to see how the paint work turned out, and not wanting to leave the tape on the too-delicate existing paint surfaces any longer than required, I removed the masking tape, paper, and foam tape from all areas. I was pleased with the end result in all areas–a notable improvement over the original peeled paint condition–and most of the blending was virtually unnoticeable thanks to the foam masking tape. I thought I might work more on a few areas to better blend a couple harder paint lines than I liked, but also didn’t want to mess with the old paint any more than necessary lest I make matters worse once more.
Over the course of a couple hours, I applied three coats of gloss white topcoat to the areas I’d prepared earlier, including the new instrument backs, using a small portable sprayer.
Total time billed on this job today: 2.5 hours
0600 Weather Report:
35°, partly cloudy. Forecast for the day: growing colder and windy through the day
After corresponding with Beta Marine to get their recommendations for the propeller pitch required for this boat, prop, and engine combination (the recommendation: 10″ pitch), I followed the simple instructions to set the pitch on the prop hub. After removing the prop zinc and two other rings from the aft end of the prop hub, it was easy to pull out the hub itself (they call it the ogival nose) and twist it to the required setting. Stan at Beta indicated that notch 9 (10.52″) or notch 8 (9.23″) would be appropriate settings. I went with notch 9. Now, when the propeller spun, the blades ended up at the appropriate angle, rather than basically flat the way they’d been when the prop was shipped at the 0 setting. I reassembled the pitch locking ring and other hub components, completing the job.
Next, I turned to the cockpit paint preparations, beginning with a light sanding for the newly-primed patch at the forward end and the new instrument cover plates. Then, I went around the cockpit edges, sanding the damaged paint areas as needed to feather the paint edges and prepare the substrate primer beneath. This was all detail sanding by hand. I brought the sanded area down a little bit into relatively solid paint to give the new coating a place to blend into the existing. During the morning, I went over the cockpit, sanding these edges on both sides of the varnished coaming tops and at the aft end as well.
In addition, there were some failed paint areas along the edge of the cabin trunk where the eyebrow had been taped off, so I similarly sanded and prepped these areas as well.
With the sanding work complete, I vacuumed and solvent-washed, then spent the remainder of the day masking off. I used my normal green masking tape on all the varnish and nonskid deck areas, but anywhere I had to mask over the white gloss paint, I used a special low-adhesion masking tape that I hoped wouldn’t create its own issues when I removed it later.
In any field areas where the new paint would be required to blend into the existing coating, rather than a hard line at some brightwork trim or nonskid, I started with a strip of foam masking tape, set just beneath the sanded area, which would help avoid a hard transition between old and new. Then, I masked below and around the edges as required to protect from overspray, covering the adjacent surfaces with masking paper.
Total time billed on this job today: 7 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
28°, clear. Forecast for the day: sun and clouds, high 40s
Now that the engine installation and testing was essentially complete, it was time to turn to some of the other tasks that had recently been added to my work list for the boat. Transitioning from the engine phase, the first thing I did was prepare to reassemble the engine room, which would be nice since I’d have steps to get into the boat for the first time since the day the boat arrived.
Earlier, I’d effected a minor glue repair on the removable front panel from the engine room, and since this piece was still down on the bench I chose to sand it now, preparing it for the next refinishing steps. The owner asked me to paint out various areas of the old plywood cabinetry, which task I’d be getting to soon, including this engine room panel. I’d also earlier cut away more of the panel, making additional access room to accommodate the new engine specifics. Afterwards, I reinstalled the panel with various screws from the back side, as before, and reassembled the engine room countertop and ladderway. The adjacent panels below counter and settee level would soon receive similar preparations and, eventually, primer and paint, but more on that later when the time comes.
For the immediate moment, I chose to focus on a few deck tasks before shifting my focus to the interior refinishing, and the first step was to reassemble some panels in the starboard sail locker and reinstall the CNG bottle and its support system, clearing these items off the foredeck where they’d been stored for the past weeks. While I was in there, I discovered this handheld radio sticking out from beneath the bulkhead just aft of the pedestal.
My chosen first task on deck was to deal with the paint failure problem and patching thereof in the cockpit and a few other areas of the deck. Part of this process included dealing with one obsolete instrument in the port cockpit bulkhead, and an old weathered backing block beneath two modern instruments on the other side.
I removed the instruments and the wooden block, then cleaned up the sealant from around the openings. Fortunately, the paint beneath held up well on both sides. We’d talked about teak backings for the instruments, since the holes in the bulkhead were larger than the current instruments, but my belief is that these small bits of wooden trim are a hassle to maintain, so instead I made up some plates from 1/8″ fiberglass sheet, sizing them to accommodate the square instruments while still covering the large holes beneath. I cut 3-3/8″ holes in two of the plates to accept the starboard instruments; for the port side, I left the plate blank, simply as a cover for the old hole but ready to accept another instrument like those to starboard.
After some finish sanding to smooth the corners and edges and otherwise prepare the fiberglass, I applied several coats of epoxy primer to the new pieces.
The edges of the cockpit near the teak coamings and some other areas had been damaged by masking tape at some earlier date; the reasons for this catastrophic paint failure in this professionally-painted boat were unclear and unknown and, frankly, unimportant at this stage, but the failure disturbed the otherwise nice appearance of the boat. These photos show a few of the areas in question.
Knowing full well that any attempt to patch in these spots would be imperfect, both in final appearance (though I hoped to do well towards that end) and in the potential longevity of the new coatings, not to mention the already-failed older coating, my plan of attack was to sand the transitional areas as needed–but no more than needed–and spray in some new topcoat, hopefully blending it with the original, hopefully taking care of the problem long enough until someday when the owner wanted to redo the decks completely. With an acceptable compatibility test result a few days earlier, I’d be using Alexseal paint on hand for the repair rather than attempting to locate and use Imron; I already had the closest match for the color and all the other components on hand.
I’d planned to spend what remained of my afternoon (it was to be an early day thanks to an outside commitment) beginning the sanding and prep process for the paint, but as I got set up and began sanding in the cockpit, I realized that this would be the ideal time to get some primer on the large patch area at the forward end of the cockpit, where I’d removed the old engine gauges. I already had a small batch of primer underway for the instrument covers, and with ample product mixed and already in use, it made sense to get the primer on the patch so I could then move forward with the topcoat all at once when I was ready. So I adjusted my plans and quickly prepared the area for spraying with some masking tape and paper, then applied a few coats of the primer over the raw patch over the next hour or so before I had to depart.
Total time billed on this job today: 5.5 hours
0600 Weather Report:
32°, partly clear. Forecast for the day: mostly cloudy, chance of showers.
I got started in the morning with some final preparations for the engine’s first test run. I filled the coolant reservoir, checking it several times and topping off as needed as the coolant found its way into the deeper engine passages and the hoses leading to the potable water heater. I’d continue checking this level once we started the engine later. The reservoir took about a full gallon of antifreeze at this point (and more later on).
Next, I filled the oil pan. This required approximately 3.75 quarts of 15W40 oil. I’d recheck this later as well.
I bled the fuel system at the engine-mounted secondary filter, a quick and easy process with the primer bulb in the fuel line. This photo shows the bleed screw on the filter.
To fill the transmission with fluid (ATF), I first removed a drain plug on the side of the transmission (as directed), then added fluid through the large fill hole on the aft side of the transmission. After three full quarts, oil finally seeped out of the drain hole, at which point I rethreaded the plug and checked the level on the dipstick.
After completing setup of a temporary intake hose, fresh water source, and bucket. we were ready to fire the engine the first time. The owner was on hand for the event. The initial firing was slightly delayed when we found there was inexplicably no power to the engine panel in the cockpit, but I quickly traced that to the wire harness plug at the engine, which had come undone, perhaps when I was leaning over it while filling the transmission or doing some other job earlier. With the plug reconnected, the engine fired almost without touching the key, and never hiccuped. I noticed a water leak in the exhaust hose behind the engine, which is shown briefly at the end of this video and in the photo below.
I’m not much on video editing, so you get several separate and raw videos showing different parts of the process. After the initial running of about 5 minutes, we shut down so I could check the fluids. As expected, I topped off the oil level and coolant a bit. Then, it was time for a more extended test run, allowing the engine to come up to temperature.
During the final stage of the test run, we checked the prop rotation when the gear lever was moved one way or another. With no documentation as to which way was which on the transmission lever itself, and no simple way of reversing it, I’d simply hooked up the cable and hoped that pulling up on the pedestal control would be reverse and down would be forward. Inevitably, the lever was backwards, so to correct the problem the only solution in this case was to reverse the control lever and cable support bracket on the transmission–fortunately not a terrible process in this case.
Afterwards, pushing the pedestal control lever down produced righthand (forward) rotation on the prop, and vise-versa, as intended and required.
Later, with the excitement of the engine out of the way, the owner finished up work in the lazarette (work he’d requested to do), securing the blower and vent hoses and making their final connections as required, and painting out the other half of the locker. There he is, hard at work sanding in the first photo.
Meanwhile, I worked on removing two of the four cabin top winches, which the owner wanted to replace with self-tailers. Removing two teak cover plates from the cabin, I exposed the nuts and washers, which I removed easily, then, from on deck, I removed the fasteners and the two winches, quickly scraping off excess sealant from the deck as I went. The first set of new winches the owner had purchased were not what he wanted–single speed only–so installation of new winches would come a little further down the road.
Afterwards, I cleaned up the boat and shop from the engine test, dismantling the hoses, exhaust piping, and removing the excess fluid containers and so forth from the boat.
Total time billed on this job today: 6.75 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
25°, clear. Forecast for the day: sunny, high 50s
Preparing ahead for an engine test-run in the shop, I set up some hose and piping to route the engine exhaust out of the shop–as much to avoid the mess as the fumes. I clamped a length of 1-1/2″ hose to the outside of the exhaust outlet, which allowed me to lead the exhaust forward, where I connected the hose to a series of plastic pipes and flexible connectors I had on hand, leading forward towards the shop door.
The boat–decks and hull–had been painted elsewhere several years earlier, and in some areas of the deck (mainly the cockpit), the paint had not adhered properly, and when someone masked off the brightwork, the tape pulled away the paint. This was a pity since the decks looked good otherwise. These photos show a few of the worst areas in the cockpit.
The owner wanted to improve the appearance while stopping short of what the cockpit (and perhaps other areas of the deck) really needed, which was to start over to ensure proper preparation and adhesion of the topcoat. But accepting the existing conditions for what they were, I thought we could patch in some new paint to hide the ragged edge and primer beneath, though the repairs would be necessarily imperfect.
The cockpit was painted with Imron paint, which I thought would be a compatible base beneath the Alexseal I normally used, and which I preferred to use for the repair since I had it on hand and was used to using it. To check for compatibility, I soaked small rags in some of the topcoat solvent and taped these rags to the existing paint in a few areas. After 15 minutes, I removed the solvent-soaked rags and checked the paint beneath. There was no sign of failure, or anything beyond an almost imperceptible softening of the Imron coating, so the existing coating, for all its known shortcomings in this particular cockpit, would be compatible as a base beneath the new paint where they blended together. I’d move forward with this touch-up job in the near future. This also meant I could more easily prime and paint the large patch at the forward end of the cockpit where I’d repaired the old gauge holes.
Total time billed on this job today: 1 hour
0600 Weather Observation:
24°, clear. Forecast for the day: sun, high in the 40s
Next on my agenda was to install the new propeller, a 3-blade feathering J-prop. Unpacking the components from the box, and looking through the instructions, I dismantled what I needed to and prepared all the parts for installation. The first pieces were a spacer–clearly marked in the box (there was another type of spacer in the box also) and a sacrificial anode.
Next, I installed the hub center and Morse taper. This process took a little while, as the center was grooved to match the grooves on the Saildrive shaft, and there were two small keys that needed to line up after the threaded Morse taper was installed and tightened–a trial and error process requiring a few repositionings of the grooved center piece.
With the center hub in place, and the little keys secured, I installed the propeller itself, slipping it over the shaft and aligning it with the holes in the center hub. Then, I used the supplied wrench to tighten the internal prop nut, located within the prop hub itself.
Afterwards, I finished up the installation with a smaller Allen bolt inside the hub, followed by the external zinc at the end of the prop. For now, I did not make any adjustments to the propeller pitch, so the blades were basically flat when opened all the way.
Later, I applied two coats of bottom paint to the area around the leg, including the rubber boot. I did not apply any bottom paint to the leg, which came from the factory with a white paint.
Back inside the boat, I continued work on the starboard water tank. I build a new plywood cleat for the aft end of the space, and modified an existing cleat from the forward end, to accept longitudinal braces, as I’d done on the port side earlier. Here, the amount of available room was less, so the new braces had to be smaller in their height dimension. The smaller, outboard brace required two screws into the plywood top to hold it in the center of the field, as it tended to bow upwards slightly.
The locker spaces forward of each water tank were worn and dirty, and after some sanding and cleannup, I applied Bilgekote in these areas to brighten them and make them easier to keep clean in the future.
Total time billed on this job today: 5 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
36°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 49°
