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Thursday

The first order of business was to prepare, then paint again, the steering pedestal.  I chose a semi-gloss finish for the pedestal, as I felt it would look best and was appropriate to the original pedestal finish.  The second finish coat was looking pretty good.

I continued work on the hull, this time on the starboard side, where I cleaned up and polished the topsides, removing various minor stains and increasing the shine.

I finished up the aft part of the port cove stripe with the logo, then replaced the starboard cove stripe with the gold leaf tape as well, simply copying what the old stripe details had been.

Meanwhile, not to be forgotten, I continued my tiny varnish project with the cockpit table, which was now approaching its final coat.

Now that the new foredeck paint had cured for a couple days, I finished up the windlass installation by installing the two foot switches.  The holes were all prepared, with pilotholes for the screws already in place, so installation was relatively quick.  I chose to pull the wires up through the deck in order to connect them from the top just to make life a little easier.  I bedded the plastic switch bodies with butyl sealant.  Testing the windlass operation would have to wait till the batteries were hooked up.

With a new custom winter cover planned, and the project wrapping up soon, I turned to the framework required for the cover, which the canvas contractor needed in place to effect his initial fitting of the cover blank, and to give him time to complete the cover before I was ready to move the boat outdoors, it was time for me to get the frame set up.  I’d get back to some additional hull work as soon as the frame was done.

Earlier, we’d worked out a couple basic details about the frame for this boat, and to get started I pre-assembled two ridge sections down in the shop to streamline the process and keep the sections as straight as possible.  I spliced the sections together with bolts to make setup and removal as simple as possible on an ongoing basis, and sometime later I’d mark and label everything for its proper position.

This frame was to dive from the foredeck to the stem, so I set up the first 16′ section of ridge so it ended at about the foredeck cleats, where I installed a vertical support, and another further aft near the mast step (this one was actually the height benchmark).  With the first section steadied temporarily with some lines, I cut and fit the angled forward section to notch around the base of the bow pulpit on centerline, and secured it to the horizontal ridge with some angled splice brackets.  My goal, as always, was to keep the frame as simple as possible, both for initial construction purposes as well as annual set up and break-down.  The angle of the cover itself would provide enough slope without the need for complicated rafters or side bracing.

This brought me to the end of the day, but it’d be no trouble to finish up the aft part of the frame next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  7.5 hours

0600 Weather Report:
20°, partly clear.  Forecast for the day:  decreasing clouds, 34°

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Wednesday

After a light sanding, vacuum, and solvent wash, I applied the first of a couple coats of enamel to the steering pedestal.

The hull was in good condition overall, but needed just a touch of sprucing up.  I started at the transom, where I removed the rest of the old name and hailport and cleaned and polished the surface to prepare it for the new graphics, which would be on hand soon.

I continued with the port topsides, which started out looking pretty good but with some staining and minor wear or oxidation.

Though the forwardmost waterline would require a little more work–there was some yellow staining just above the boottop that I wanted to get rid of with another product, as well as some marks probably left by a mooring buoy–after a straightforward polish and buff the topsides looked cleaner and renewed.

With some color changes on hand, my first step was to replace the existing blue cove stripe with classic gold leaf.  I was running out of shop time, as I had another commitment for the afternoon, so as of this writing there remained some work at the aft end of the cove stripe and with the original logo, but the remainder was complete.  I’d repeat these basic processes on the starboard side next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  3.5 hours

0600 Weather Report:
30°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  partly sunny, high around 42.

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Tuesday

One more washing and light sanding, and I was done with the stern tube repair, so I went ahead and reinstalled the propeller, along with a new zinc on the special nut at the end.  It was interesting to compare the old zinc with the new one.  The old cotter pin had either been purposely broken off inside the shaft, or accidentally so, so I knocked out the remains and replaced it through the zinc’s special prop nut.

I lightly sanded the primer on the pedestal and foredeck, and after cleaning up I masked off the rest of the starboard side of the foredeck so I could repaint the area with paint that matched the existing areas.  Because the deck was conveniently sectioned with white borders, I chose to paint this entire area to better blend in the repaired area around the windlass.  With past experience using Kiwi-grip (the paint that a previous owner had applied to the decks sometime before), I knew to mask in a wider area (especially where the sides of the roller might touch) because the stuff was messy to work with.

With preparations complete, I applied a coat of cream-colored Kiwi-grip that I fortunately had on hand, and which matched the paint already on deck.  Once the paint had cured just barely past the potential disaster stage, I removed the masking tape from the edges, as leaving the tape on till this particular paint cured completely would pull up the edges.  This was always my least-favorite feature of using this particular product, but in this case was uneventful.  The end result looked good, and I’d leave the new paint to cure for at least a full work day before attempting the final installation of the windlass foot switches over the fresh surface.  Later, I removed the masking tape from the cleat, choosing to wait to lean over the fresh surface till it was basically dry.

Next, I applied a coat of primer to the steering pedestal–the entire thing this time.

My work list grew ever shorter, with most of the remaining work to be done on the hull, but before I moved the staging down to hull height I went around and installed new set screws in all the stanchion bases, in the existing holes.  These, along with the fixing screws that passed into each stanchion, would help hold the stanchions tightly in place and prevent wobbling.  I had to clean out a couple of the holes with a 1/4-20 tap, but otherwise the project was without note.  I put a little waterproof grease on the screws since a new winter cover would require annual removal of the stanchions, and this would prevent the set screws from freezing.

I continued the varnish work on the cockpit table with another coat on the top surface (4).

With whatever work remained on deck and inside the boat just as do-able without the staging, and a need to continue work on the remains of the project list, I spent the rest of the afternoon breaking down and resetting the staging at hull height.

Total time billed on this job today:  5.75 hours

0600 Weather Report:
22°, 2″ of snow plus some freezing rain overnight, light freezing rain/drizzle.  Forecast for the day:  continuing to warm through the 30s and 40s and even the 50s, turning to all rain, with another round of heavy rain and wind due late

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Monday

Over the weekend, in two separate events, I continued work on the stern tube and sanded and fine-tuned the new fairing with additional epoxy material, sanding between rounds.

Round 1:

Round 2, which was a minor fairing to take care of a few lingering low spots:

Now, I washed and lightly sanded the aperture a final time to smooth the last application of fairing compound.  To finish off the area, once I’d cleaned up I applied a coat of unthickened epoxy as a sort of sealer for the fairing compounds beneath, and left it to cure.

Meanwhile, upstairs I continued varnish work on the cockpit table top.

To better support the windlass and spread any loading across a larger area of the deck, I elected to prepare and install a fiberglass backing plate belowdecks.  With various existing installations to work around, I started with a piece of 3/4″ prefabricated fiberglass sheet and, after rough-trimming it to fit within the allotted space, pressed it temporarily into place with a stick to hold it so I could go on deck and mark it for the cutouts and bolt holes, which I cut down on the bench.

For a close fit with the built-up structure forward of the backing plate, I scribed the leading edge of the backing plate to the shape, which allowed all four windlass bolt locations  a good bearing surface.  After I removed a bit of extraneous and pre-corroded aluminum from the edge of the existing structure, the new backing plate was effectively flush to allow the fourth bolt, which was half in and half out of the backing plate, a place to rest.

I prepared the windlass for its final installation by slipping the supplied gasket over the base.  The “knife edge” of the windlass base would probably seal the edges at the gasket fairly well, but to add some extra sealant and protection against water intrusion I added some butyl sealant around the tops of the fixing bolts and around the two large openings of the windlass base.

Pressing the windlass firmly into place from above–I had to push hard to get the butyl around the bolts to squeeze into the holes, which was a good thing–I moved below to install the backing plate, fender washers, and nuts, and I tightened the bolts in turn to pull the windlass securely into place.  As I’d hoped, back on deck the gasket looked well-compressed below the windlass base, and some of my butyl had squeezed out as well.

On paper, the windlass setup, with its threaded collar and shaft, castellated gearbox, and separate electric motor, looked fairly well thought-out from an installation standpoint, and so it turned out to mainly be.  To begin the installation, I applied good waterproof grease to various areas, as directed, including the shaft and key, inside of the gearbox, castellated interface, and the threads to accept the large fixing nut on the shaft, as well as the motor shaft, bolts, and mounting flange,

The system allowed easy positining of the gearbox and motor assemblies for various situations, and after trying a position or two I settled on facing the gearbox and electric motor aft and to port, which offered the best access, kept it out of the way of the windlass chain pipe, and away from the two foot switches to keep access there as good as possible also.  The notched end of the gearbox housing fit into corresponding notches on the shaft housing, with a st ainless key to secure the windlass shaft within.  To secure the gearbox, the large plastic nut from the housing simply threaded hand-tight over the gearbox threads, with a simple clamping ring at the bottom of the shaft to secure the key within.

The motor was heavy, and with limited arm and shoulder access into the chain locker its initial positioning took a little wrestling till I figured out the best way to hold it in place–and lined up with the shaft–while getting the bolts started.  The two bolts threaded into the motor housing itself, so there was no need to juggle nuts and double wrenches, amd once the weight of the motor was supported it was no task at all (though I wished–as I frequently do–that manufacturers would leave enough room around bolt heads for a ratcheting box end or even a real socket and ratchet).  Yipe, yipe, yipe.

Now I could make up the final cable ends to the windlass motor.  The ground/negative cable was already terminated from earlier, and I secured it to the center post along with a smaller ground wire that led back to the control box.  Then, I cut and terminated the two positive wires (F1 and F2), which controlled the motor’s (and windlass’s) direction and attached them to their corresponding posts on the motor, and covered all three wires with protective boots and secured the cables out of the way as needed.

Final installation of the foot switches would await my repainting of the foredeck where I’d patched it, but while I had the wiring tools on hand I determined the lengths and made up the terminal ends of the wires to allow for easy final installation later.

Finishing the foredeck was now a priority, so to that end I masked off as needed and prepared some epoxy primer for the newly-epoxied areas, as most one-part paints and primers wouldn’t cure properly directly over semi-cured epoxy (the alternative would be to wait a couple weeks).  I applied the primer over the epoxied areas, and this would allow me to continue with the final deck treatment as I chose.

Similarly, back at the cockpit I masked off the steering pedestal as required, and applied some of the epoxy primer to the areas where I’d installed  epoxy fairing compound there as well, so I could soon continue with the final primer and paint on the pedestal.

Total time billed on this job today:  7.5 hours

0600 Weather Report:
-19°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, high near 20, then increasing overnight to freezing and above. Snow late in the evening turning to frozen mix and eventually rain.

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Friday

With a new Cutless bearing that I’d ordered after removing the shaft several days before still a no-show from my original vendor, I’d ordered another one from a second vendor, and it arrived on Thursday afternoon while I was working on a remote project.  So with plans to reassemble the shaft, stuffing box, and coupling, I got back to work early in the morning so I could finish up the stern tube repair and prepare the Cutless bearing before my helper arrived to squeeze himself back into the bilge and put things back together.

With some photos of the original setup as a general guideline for how much stern tube should be protruding from the deadwood, I mocked up the shaft through the tube now to make some reference marks and see how it all played out vis-a-vis the original photos and my own sense of things.    Eventually, I determined that the stern tube had stuck out about 2″, and I masked off a reference line at this dimension so I could cut off the excess tube.  After double-checking the dimension, I made the cut, and once more mocked up the shaft and propeller to ensure that there was ample room between the tube and the prop hub.

With the tube at the right length, I turned to the Cutless bearing.  I had to lightly sand the inside of the tube to make the fit a little easier, but then the bearing slipped in with just the right amount of friction.  The brass body of the bearing was necessarily slim, and the rubber lining minimal, in order to fit a 1″ shaft through a 1-1/4″ ID tube.

Pleased with the overall arrangement from the mockup, I prepared two threaded holes, at 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock on the stern tube and about 1/2″ in from the end, to accept set screws that would hold the bearing in place.  Before installing the set screws, I used a small drill bit to just barely dimple the brass bearing housing at each location to better accept the set screw point.  Then, I installed the bearing, using a tiny amount of sealant on the body to help secure it and leaving about 3/8″ of the bearing standing proud of the end of the stern tube.

Normally I might have liked to have faired in the tube with the aperture before proceeding with the shaft, but with a desire to wrap up the stuffing box project and with schedule constraints, I could take care of that later.  I finished up the preparations just in time for my helper Jason’s arrival, and we got right back to the reassembly, starting with cleaning up the bilge area aft of the engine while access was as good as it would ever be.

The packing box hose was an extremely tight fit over the stern tube, but Jason eventually got it on and secured.  Then the space between stuffing box and transmission coupling was so minimal as to leave barely enough room to actually fit in the shaft coupling and brass key, a process made more difficult by the fact that most of the work had to occur one-handed.  But though challenging, of course it was possible to reassemble, and without too much fighting Jason got things put back together and secured the coupling set screws into their shaft dimples, and moused the bolts to prevent movement.  From there, it was a relatively simple matter to bolt the coupling back in place to the transmission coupling with new bolts.

With that done, I could start fairing the stern tube in to the aperture, much the way it had been when we started.  To save some future person some of the agonies we experienced during removal, I chose to leave the bearing set screws exposed, rather than burying them beneath the fairing as they’d originally been.  So I masked off the very end of the stern tube, and over the exposed end of the bearing and shaft, then mixed up a preliminary batch of epoxy thickened substantially with structural and adhesive fillers, smoothing it into place around the stern tube and approaching the final shape, though to avoid excess exotherm I’d do the buildup in 2 or 3 total applications.  I figured the first application would cure past the “hot” stage before the end of the day and would allow another application later, so for now I moved on to the next thing on the list.

It was time to drill the large holes required for the windlass installation, which would allow me to dry-fit the windlass and make sure everything was looking good.  So on the foredeck, I carefully set up the base template once more, ensuring its proper alignment with my teak base and, more importantly, with the anchor roller on the platform.  Satisfied, eventually, with the layout, I used a center punch to mark the centers of all the holes I had to prepare, including a 3-1/8″ hole for the chain pipe; a 4″ hole for the windlass shaft and body; and four 3/8″ holes for the fixing bolts.

Starting with the chain pipe hole, I used a hole saw to create the opening.  This was a long process, as this particular bit was very dull, as it happened.  With frequent stops to clear the teeth on the saw, and occasionally chiseling out the waste from within the hole to allow the hole saw to penetrate the growing depth, I eventually made my way through the roughly 2″ of solid teak, then a 3/8″ (more or less) thickness of solid fiberglass deck (the fiberglass was much easier to cut than the teak), then a thick layer of filler/putty/adhesive, and finally the aluminum cross member inside the chain locker.  With the nearly 4″ deep hole complete, I retired the exhausted hole saw permanently with honors.

The next hole, for the windlass shaft and body, was even larger, but as it turned out it was much easier to drill.  After giving my heavy-duty drill some time to cool off from its own heroic efforts on the first hole, I chucked in the 4″ hole saw for the final hole.  This saw was much sharper, and cut the teak with greater ease, and this large hole also ended up completely aft of the putty/aluminum structure I’d dealt with on the forward hole, so with hardly any ado at all, I was through.  Drilling the four small holes for the fixing bolts was a cinch.

The windlass fit into place quite nicely, and with it finally through the deck I could look from beneath and start to figure out the details of a backing plate that I felt was required for added strength.  Fortunately, I’d not need to worry much about building up the backing plate to match the thickness of the aluminum sub structure, as the bolting area of the windlass was aft of this point, other than one bolt that was close to the edge and would require something thicker there.

 

Meanwhile, on the deck side I was pleased to find that the lead from the anchor roller to the chain wildcat was even better in reality than I’d hoped for while laying out the templates.

I’d move forward with the final windlass installation details in the immediate future, but for now my next task was to seal the insides of the large holes (and, as much as I could, the smaller bolt holes) with epoxy to help protect the wood within.  Fortunately, there was no core material to deal with in any of these holes.

The windlass base itself had no flat surfaces to speak of, and wouldn’t be easy to seal well.  It came with a gasket, which hardly seemed sufficient on its own, so I’d find a way to add some better sealing material at the most critical parts of the windlass’s deck penetration.

To round out the day, I applied a second coat of filler to the stern tube, as the original coat had cured sufficiently over the past four hours.

Total time billed on this job today:  7 hours (Tim); 1.5 hours (Helper)

0600 Weather Report:
-10°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  sun, high 16°

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Thursday

Early in the morning, before I had to depart the shop for a day working remotely on another project, I removed the Delrin rod from the now-cured stern tube repair.  It took only light pressure with a wrench to slightly turn and break free the rod, after which I could pull it out of the new lamination by hand.  I was very pleased with the results of the repair, and would finish up the tube extension presently.  It would require cutting to the correct length, and installation of the new Cutless bearing, after which I could proceed with reinstalling the shaft and, at my leisure, fairing the tube back into the aperture as it’d been originally.

Total time billed on this job today:  1 minute 12 seconds

0600 Weather report:
18°, partly clear.  Forecast for the day:  sun, clouds, show shower in the afternoon, high near 30 but dropping in the afternoon

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Wednesday

I began the day on the foredeck, where I sanded smooth the fairing filler over the various patches.  The end result was good enough to allow me to continue with the windlass base installation.

After a final check and double-check of the base position and chain lead to the windlass, I masked off around the new base and prepared two fastener holes to secure it, mainly as an aid while the sealant cured as the windlass would eventually bolt right through the base in a couple places.  I drilled and tapped the deck for two machine screw fasteners, and after gooping up the deck with sealant I installed the base and cleaned up the excess.   Later, I bunged the two screw holes, even though they’d be hidden by the windlass.

I had to leave the shop for a while on an errand, but upon my return I installed new terminal boots on the windlass control box, which allowed me to tighten and permanently install the cable ends there.

There was nothing more I could do on the windlass installation for the moment, and I anxiously awaited the usual UPS afternoon delivery that should contain my much-needed Delrin rod for repairing the stern tube, so with the most significant jobs in a state of suspended animation, I turned to some of the little items still on the list, beginning with perhaps the easiest of the whole project.  The owner had mentioned that the companionway slide would often slide right out in a surprising and disconcerting manner in a seaway, as there was nothing to hold it within its tracks at the aft end.  My solution to this was, as I like best, very simple.  I installed a screw on each side of the track, hidden within the track, that would prevent this movement.  There were even holes already there, suggesting that something had once been installed there, but the screw was straightforward and effective while still making it a cinch to remove the hatch slide for maintenance should it be desired.

The engine room on this boat was quite cramped, a feature of the design, and there was a number of hoses running through the space directly beneath the oil pan.  At the moment, these hoses were unsecured and rubbed on the oil pan in places, and the owner had concerns about this.    What would have been really nice would have been to reroute all these hoses (they serviced the waste tank pumpout, bilge pumps, and who knows what else, along with all the adjacent detritus required for the engine) away from the engine entirely, but as I pondered the engine room I couldn’t see any realistically feasible way to do this without basically starting over, as the engine room was tight and crammed with wiring and hoses on both sides of its narrow confines.  Over 30 years of additions, improvements, repowers, and the usual owner-effected changes tends to have this effect on things, all complicated by what was really a challenging and poorly-designed space to begin with.

Instead of wishing for what could be “if only”, I focused on the immediate issue, which was the way the hoses chafed on the engine.    The problem was really only at the forwardmost end, and to cure it for now I installed a padeye fitting on the engine bed–there was just enough room to get in there with a drill and screwdriver–and then installed several hefty wire ties to secure and pull down the hoses away from the engine.  This worked:  the hoses were free from the engine and, while they still had to run through the cramped space, at least they were no longer in danger of chafing through.  It was an imperfect solution well-matched to an imperfect world.   Anything more would have required untold hours and unforeseen issues that would be best left for some future time when a long-term maintenance outlook might dictate an overall systems replacement that would eventually be desirable to reconfigure the various rats nests that were present throughout the boat.  But for now it was all in good-enough order and working condition.

With my much-needed, non-stick 1-1/4″ Delrin rod finally on hand, I turned immediately to the stern tube reconstruction.  It was a bit of a tight fit into the original tube, so I cleaned out the innards with some sandpaper till the plastic rod fit in without undue pressure.  I inserted it far enough for stability, but not so far as to make it potentially difficult to remove after I glassed around it.  The idea of this exercise was to use this rod as a mold around which I could add on to the remnants of the original stern tube that I’d damaged–both inadvertently and advertently, as it were–during removal of the recalcitrant bearing earlier.

To ease the transition where the old tube ended, and to ensure that the inside of the completed tube was smooth and flat (well, flat in the sense of smooth), I started with some thickened epoxy putty right at the end of the old tube, which I used to even up the cut end and smooth the surface out on to the slick rod.  Then, I wrapped biaxial fiberglass around the tube in two separate pieces, which eventually gave me 4 or 6 layers’ thickness and tied the new work in with the old.  I purposely made the extension longer than it needed to be so I could cut it off squarely at the proper length later, and the uneven end of the laminate wouldn’t matter.  I think the old tube originally protruded about 2″ total from the deadwood, but I’d determine that more precisely later using the shaft as a guide, along with photos of the original setup.  I left the new fiberglass to cure overnight.

With time left in the day, I decided to lay out and prepare the holes for the two windlass foot switches.  Starting with the original switch location, where I planned to install one of the new switches, I laid out straight lines and, leaving 3″ between the switches, marked the location for the second switch.  I drilled out the main holes with a 2″ hole saw, then marked and overbored the fastener holes (all except the forward most one on each switch, which were both in an area of solid fiberglass without core) so I could omit the core from about the fasteners, as well as reaming the exposed core out from the larger opening.

Afterwards, I filled the voids with thickened epoxy and left the area to cure overnight.

Total time billed on this job  today:  6.5 hours

0600 Weather Report:
0°, mostly clear.  Forecast for the day:  clouds, chance of a snow shower, highs in the 20s

 

 

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Tuesday

The best laid plans.

I discovered Monday morning that I’d actually not placed the order for various things required for rebuilding the stern tube and shafting system–everything was right there in my shopping cart, but apparently I’d never completed the order.   Stupid.  So materials I’d anticipated being delivered on that day would not be arriving after all.  Upon discovering this in the late morning, I completed the order immediately, which from this vendor would normally mean delivery by the next day–today.

But my mid-afternoon, there was no sign of UPS, and I checked the tracking only to find that for whatever reason, the order had gone out later than usual–whether a vendor delay or a shipping delay was unclear–so it wouldn’t be delivered till Wednesday afternoon now.  Sigh.  This meant I’d not be able to even begin rebuilding the stern tube till then, and with the Cutless bearing backordered I wasn’t sure the pieces would come together as I’d planned and expected, as I’d hoped to reassemble the shaft and its component parts at the end of the week when my helper was available again.  I wouldn’t be the end of the world if I had to postpone, but I disliked unfinished, pending jobs and losing momentum.

All that aside, I continued work on the windlass installation, first spending time with the sander at the foredeck to sand smooth and clean the new fiberglass patches.  Afterwards, I applied fairing compound to the area as necessary.

The piece of red 2/0 cable that remained from the main run wasn’t long enough to make up the two required pieces from the control box to the chainlocker (and windlass motor), but I had on hand some additional cable left over from another job.  However, that red cable length alone wasn’t long enough to make two pieces, though it would do one just fine.  So with the owner’s OK–asked because I hated to do this–I used a piece of black cable instead of red for the final length, as this would allow me to continue work immediately and avoid having to order and wait for more cable.  I marked the end of the cable well to indicate its color and function.

I led the two new lengths (one red, one black) from the control box into the chainlocker, leaving the excess length at the forward end till later, when the windlass was actually in place, but I made up the ends for the control box and installed them loosely on the terminals for now, as I’d need to add terminal boots later.  From my various wiring plans, I determined that I required three additional small wires (14AWG) between the control box and the chainlocker–one for ground, and the other two for the foot switches.  To make this easier and cleaner, I used some 14/3 round sheathed cable that I keep on hand for bilge pumps.  With this wire led through the wire chase and forward as needed, I could begin to secure the cables along the wire chase.

The key fob-type remote control featured a little control box that needed to be wired into the main control box, so I mounted the unit nearby.  Still, I had to extend the four wires in order to reach the main control box, and I led them out of the way across the top of the locker and down to the box itself.  I’d made the main control box easily removable since I’d anticipated that wiring access to the small terminals on the bottom would be a challenge, and now I proved the point and removed the box temporarily so I could make up the connections to  terminals 1, 2, and 3 for the remote control as well as the two foot switches.  Terminal 2 was a ground (and the other end would connect to the main ground on the windlass motor), and terminals 1 and 3 controlled windlass up and down, respectively.  I led the positive wire for the remote control to the main positive terminal on the large control box (the center top terminal).

After reinstalling the control box, I straightened out and secured the wires, completing this part of the windlass installation for the moment.  That taped-up thing near the upper right corner of the windlass box is pre-existing wiring leading to a reading lamp.

After checking over the wiring and diagrams a few more times to satisfy myself, I determined that I seemed to be done with the wiring chases in the cabin, so I reinstalled the covers and trim.

Back at the cockpit, I led the final length of cable between the “cold” (i.e. switched) side of the house battery switch, across the cockpit through a convoluted route according to where other cables and hoses were led–it was busy in there–and finally back to the windlass breaker switch near the helm.  I had just enough cable to make this run.  There was a hinged plastic cover covering the battery switch area, so I didn’t need a separate wire boot there.

I’d been planning to spend time during the late afternoon working on the stern tube rebuild, but without the materials on hand instead I turned to the teak windlass base, which I needed to get cracking on anyway, and sanded it clean and smooth, and rounded the top edge.  After a test-fit (the epoxy on the foredeck was well-tacked by now), I laid out two screw holes that I’d use to help secure the base during installation, and applied a sealer coat of varnish to the new teak.

Finally, I started varnish work on the top side of the cockpit table, coat #2 here.

Total time billed on this job today:  6.5 hours

0600 Weather Report:
12°, light snow, about 6″ overnight.  Forecast for the day:  snow ending, cloudy, high around 25

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Monday

Having ignored the steering pedestal at the end of last week, I took several minutes first thing to clean and sand the last application of fairing filler on the base.  The pedestal was now ready for primer, but for the moment I had bigger fish to fry, so I’d get back to the pedestal in due course.

I set up for and spent some time sanding the foredeck, both above and belowdecks,  to prepare the various obsolete holes in the deck for filling and patching so I could continue the physical windlass installation.  This included the old windlass shaft hole and bolt holes, the old manual chain pipe, and the old foot switch opening.  After cleaning up, I masked off the holes from beneath.

I trimmed the teak windlass pad a little smaller, which I thought looked much better, and spent a few moments working on its basic placement once more, as yet another confirmation of the location and to ensure that the way was clear in all ways, above and belowdecks.  The chain pipe was close to the staysail stay location, but with the large full-width glassed-in aluminum backing plate beneath I didn’t think there would be an issue with support.  This area of the aluminum (as seen in one of the photos above) was already partially cut away and corroded from the old windlass installation, and happily the new chain pipe would pass right through this area.

Next, I filled the  various holes with a thickened epoxy mixture.  Later in the day, when the fill had cured somewhat, I applied fiberglass patches to the top sides of the openings where needed.   I didn’t fiberglass the switch location since I planned to locate one of the new switches in the same place, but since it required a different sized (and much larger) hole I’d filled the original so I could redrill as needed.

Preparing for the new windlass wiring, I installed wire tie mounts along the underside of the deck in the port wiring channel.

The windlass required a main breaker, and we chose to locate this in the cockpit.  I found a good spot near the helm on the port side, which was convenient to both the main power source (battery) and the route forward for the wires.  I installed the breaker in the huge hole required for it.  (What is it with equipment manufacturers’ obsessions with massive holes for their installations?)

Now I led in new cables for the windlass, size 2/0.  This is what had been in place for the old windlass, but I realized belatedly that they were somewhat larger than what was actually required by the new unit.  Better to have too much cable size than not enough, but the heavy cable was no fun to work with.  I spent some time interpreting the various wiring diagrams for the windlass and its accessories, working up my own rough drawing for the wires required for this specific installation, including two foot switches and a remote control unit.

Space considerations and manufacturer admonishments dictated that the windlass control box (aka solenoid) be mounted safely away from the chainlocker, and there happened to be a relatively convenient space in a locker at the aft end of the port v-berth.  The control box was very large but easy to mount with a pair of bolts, retaining decent if not ideal access to the cable terminals on top and smaller wiring terminals on the bottom.

There’d be a pair of the heavy cables running from the control box to the windlass itself, and one positive cable from the cockpit (breaker switch/battery) to the control box.  In addition, one negative cable had to run from the battery compartment directly to the windlass motor for grounding.  So with the two longest runs led in, I made up the first two terminal ends as needed, for the control box and (eventually) the negative cable for the windlass motor.  I also led in a smaller wire required by the wiring diagram.  These were all the longest wires in the installation.

This allowed me to pull back and tie up the excess wire along the wiring route aft and into the cockpit locker so I could make up the ends there as needed.  The exact termination point of the negative cable would probably be a battery terminal, as I didn’t see a negative distribution buss, but with the batteries removed and not a lot of excess cable I simply made up the terminal at the very end of the 35′ of cable length that I’d provided, which would allow it to reach to the battery compartment easily.  For the positive wire, I ran it aft to the new breaker switch, where I installed it (and the smaller wire mentioned above) to the proper terminal, along with a terminal cover.  I’d continue the wiring next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  7.75 hours

0600 Weather Report:
10°, mostly clear.  Forecast for the day:  clouds increasing, breezy, snow late in the afternoon and evening.