Lackey Sailing | tim lackey

Monday

After an errand to pick up the newly-varnished coamings and sea hood from the owner’s home, I got to work on their installation, beginning with the coamings. This was straightforward and quick, as these had been installed previously and it was a relatively simple matter of applying sealant (butyl tape) and screwing the coamings into position.

With the sea hood repositioned on the coachroof, and secured temporarily with the two screws that I’d installed a couple months before when the dodger was being patterned, I masked around the edges to mark the position and, later, to protect against excess sealant during installation. I also marked the sea hood scupper locations with pieces of tape for future reference. Then, I removed the hood again so I could prepare the fastener locations in the deck.

Using a narrower strip of tape to simulate the thickness of the sea hood, I marked in the center of the marked area for various screw holes all around the perimeter: four on each side (spaced away from the drain locations), and four along the forward edge. Since the coachroof was cored, I needed to overbore, remove the core, and epoxy-fill each fastener location first, so I drilled a small pilot hole through the top skin only, followed by a 5/8″ Forstner bit to remove the top skin and core from around each fastener location, leaving the bottom skin intact. Though I’d inspected the coachroof two different times over the course of this project and wasn’t expecting any issues, I was still happy to see clean, bright core spoils at each hole location.

After cleaning up the spoils and preparing all the holes, I filled the voids with a thickened epoxy mixture and left it to cure before continuing with the final sea hood installation another time.

Meanwhile, the owner had given me a few additional small tasks to take care of, starting with removing three obsolete and abandoned transducers (one depth, two speed) from the hull. One older bronze speed unit was located on the starboard side, accessible from within through a drawer opening in the settee, and the other pair (plastic/nylon) was located on the opposite side.

As usual, I first tried to remove these in the logical way: from inside, by removing the threaded fixing rings, i.e. the opposite of how they were installed in the first place. This almost never works, at least not in any sort of practical or useful timeframe, and now was no exception. It never makes sense to me to waste time fighting recalcitrant fittings with a wrench in an impossible location when in a few short minutes I can cut the whole fitting out from the outside, but it’s always worth trying first.

Having quickly abandoned the notion of unthreading these fittings, I moved outside and used a grinder and cutoff wheel to remove the pair of plastic fittings on the port side in about the same number of seconds: I only like plastic through hulls and transducers when I have to remove them from someone’s boat; otherwise I don’t think they’re worthy. But they are easy to cut through and remove, and from this perspective they’re wonderful.

The single bronze speedo unit on the starboard side was a bit more time-consuming to remove, but not much. Being bronze, of course it took a bit more work to cut free; also, this was a flush-fitting (more or less), without a large mushroom head but with the flange mostly recessed into the hull, but in only a few minutes it was out as well.

Next, I prepared the openings for patching by grinding away paint and gelcoat around each hole, preparing for a flush repair on the exterior with a dished, tapered opening, and a simpler surface patch over the hole on the inside, which only required that I remove the paint and old sealant from around the holes. I also reamed out the holes themselves to remove old sealant. I cleaned up from the work and prepared the holes for patchwork, but I wouldn’t do that till another day as I was running out of time at the moment.

While I was making a mess, I also sanded away the paint from the top edges of the shelf supports I’d built during phase 1 on each side of the saloon; the owner had cut some plywood shelving to fit and asked me to install them. I’d finish up that small job another time as well.

The owner also asked that I install a through-deck connector fitting for his mast-mounted radar. He already had the fitting on board, and it was a simple installation: drill a hole through the deck large enough for the fitting, and install it with two screws from above. The fitting came with a mounting gasket, and the design of the flange base didn’t allow room for anything in the way of real sealant, but I added some butyl tape to the portion running through the deck and to the screws when I installed them from above. (The deck here was solid fiberglass.) The thickness of the deck exceeded the threaded length of the fitting available for the included metal trim/fixing ring, but there was still room for the plastic nut and the included cap; I thought I might look for a washer that would better cover the edges of the drilled hole on the inside and gussy things up, but I didn’t have anything this large on hand so this would wait till later.

Total time billed on this job today: 4 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 44°, clear. Forecast for the day: Rain in the afternoon, 44°

Monday

Continuing the process with the various small repairs underway, I sanded all areas again as needed. The sail drive mount hole and transom repairs were near their final contours, with a few low spots requiring minor attention that I’d finish up in the near future, and the stem repair work was complete other than some additional finish sanding and eventual painting, which I’d probably wait on till after the hull was painted.

However, my focus for the moment was the cockpit sole repair. The main repair over the pedestal hole was more or less complete, with only some minor low areas remaining, but to deal with the overall cosmetics of the repair, the owner asked that I repaint the entire cockpit sole, which would best hide the repair work. So to prepare for this, I sanded the nonskid over the entire sole, smoothing it as much as possible without abrading or otherwise getting into the smooth borders around the nonskid field. The molded nonskid, as per usual, was essentially a raised area, so by maintaining the general height of this plateau the refinishing work would be similarly limited to the area in question.

This process brought the molded nonskid down to a relatively flat level, but not completely eliminated because of variations in the thickness of the molded gelcoat. I’d average out the surface and achieve the desired smoothness by skim-coating and filling the remains of the molded pattern with fairing compound, so to begin I masked around the perimeter of the nonskid field, following the raised edge of the field, then coated the entire area in epoxy fairing compound, starting with the known low spots in the pedestal repair and continuing with a thin coat troweled over the entire surface, up to the tape on the edges. I removed the tape thereafter, leaving a clean line, and left the material to cure overnight.

Total time billed on this job today: 1.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 44°, clear. Forecast for the day: Rain in the afternoon, 44°

Friday

Continuing the various ongoing repairs to the hull and deck, I began with a round of sanding as necessary in all areas, starting with the hull patch at the old sail drive opening.

I continued with the sundry and small transom repairs, sanding smooth the filler I’d applied n the exterior, and lightly scuffing the new layer of fiberglass on the inside.

Next, I sanded smooth and flush the patch over the cockpit pedestal opening, and the filler on the stem.

After cleaning up and related prep and, as needed, masking, I applied epoxy fairing compound to these various areas: The hull patch; the exterior transom; the cockpit patch; and the stem.

Total time billed on this job today: 2.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: -2°, clear. Forecast for the day: Increasing clouds, 26°

Thursday

The initial fiberglass work on the transom was ready for some sanding to smooth and begin to fair the repairs in with the adjacent surfaces. Inside the boat, I removed the tape “molds” from the back sides of the openings and lightly sanded those areas as well.

At the same time, I lightly sanded the inside and outside of the larger repair covering the old saildrive leg opening in the hull.

After cleanup, I made a simple pattern of the patch area on the bottom and cut two layers of fiberglass to fill it. The exposed area of the patch required a light skim coat of a thickened epoxy mixture to fill small voids around the edges, after which I installed the two new layers of fiberglass over the entire area.

The transom repairs required a layer of fiberglass to cover the insides of the three patches, and I used more of the thickened epoxy mixture to skim over the patches on the exterior, the first round of filler needed for these areas.

Next, I turned to the repair of the old pedestal mount in the cockpit. There was no practical access to the underside of this area for repair purposes, so I’d effect the entire repair from above. To fill the square hole left from the pedestal mount, I cut a piece of 1/2″ thick prefab fiberglass to a friction fit in the opening, the installed it with epoxy adhesive all around, and used more of the mixture to skin the whole area and fill the smaller bolt holes as needed, which I’d previously taped over from beneath by reaching through the square hole.

Finally, I cut two layers of fiberglass to fit and installed them over the repair.

The last bit of minor deck repair was at the stem, where the owner had removed the mount for a Hoyt boom that he no longer used. These old screw holes required patching, so I reamed them out, masked from beneath, and filled with a thickened epoxy mixture.

Total time billed on this job today: 4.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 23°, snow, 6″ down overnight and still coming. Forecast for the day: Snow, then snow showers, 32°

Wednesday

The first–and last, sort of–order of business was to install the four deadlights in the main cabin. Over many years of installing this sort of unit, I’d become decent at finding ways to make it easier and successful, as well as ways to do the task by myself, but for all that I never went into the chore expecting ease and tranquility.

I’d first installed these lights about a year before, during phase 1 of this project, and at time devised a means of bracing the units in place from a board supported by the two nearby stanchions, and a series of different-length wooden braces. I’d saved the various pieces of my bracing system, and now I got set up on the port side to begin the installation, beginning with some plastic and soft cloths taped over the deck for protection, and a couple old stanchion tubes I had around. I even had a list of the brace lengths I’d used the last time, to make it easier to setup each frame’s installation. When I removed these frames early during this phase of the project, I did not remove the one year-old acrylic lenses, as there was no reason to, so the frames were all ready to go (I’d cleaned off the old sealant earlier).

For the first frame–port aft–I began by dry-fitting and bracing the frame from the outside, then went in the boat to check the alignment. These frames had very little overlap on the outside, and the positioning was critical to ensure the maximum overlap while ensuring the inner part of the frame fit correctly within the opening.

With the positioning set, I added some tape marks on the outside to help me align the frame when I installed it with sealant, then removed the frame and applied the sealant before doing the final installation. (I was a little aggressive with the amount of sealant on the first one, and toned down the amount for the remaining three, while still being lavish.) With the frame positioned outside and braced–they tend to slip around when bracing if one is not careful–I returned to the cabin to install the inner frame. I’d marked and noted the screw lengths upon removal earlier, and initially I had some minor hiccups getting started since it seemed the frame had moved slightly from where it needed to be. With that corrected, I eventually got all the screws started without major incident, and drove them all home. It may sound odd, but there are few greater and more satisfying sensations than feeling these screws grab the blind threads milled into the outer frame, then pulling the frames tightly together. Supreme pleasure, because it’s never a guarantee.

Though there’d been initial frustration that gave me concerns for the rest of the morning, for now the first frame was in, and I went back outside to remove the bracing and clean up the excess sealant.

I repeated the process with the port forward frame. This time, the installation proceeded without incident. Each screw grabbing and pulling tightly produced additional euphoria.

With the port side complete, I moved my operation over to starboard and began with the after frame. Here, oddly, I found that I actually needed different screws than the lengths I’d noted on the frame during removal, but they all grabbed and pulled and did that beautiful thing they do, without issue.

I finished up with the starboard forward frame. During my first installation in phase 1, this one had given me trouble, and I’d ended up using two “temporary” long machine screws with nut and washer on the inside to hold the frame in (bottoming out the screw in the tapped hole in the frame, then tightening the nut from inside against the washer, allows the frame to be pulled in when, for whatever reason, one of the regular screws just won’t bite). Now, I didn’t even need these as a helper–all the bronze machine screws worked the first time around. Far be it from me to complain.

This was a great task to mark as completed, and was also the final hardware-related installation, which is always noteworthy and, in this case, finally completed the cosmetic appearance of the deck to bring things all together.

Oh, there was still some deck work ahead: installing the sea hood and coamings once I got them back, freshly varnished, from the owner, who’d been working on them over the past weeks. And then the new dodger could have its final fitting and installation. This would all happen soon.

For now, I could clean up the interior and deck as needed, remove excess tools, and get ready for a couple small jobs on the hull, beginning with a new cove stripe. The owner chose gold leaf vinyl for the stripe, a classic and classy look. With the staging now lowered to hull height, I installed 2″ masking tape below the rubrail on both sides, fairing the line by eye as needed. The bottom edge of this tape would give me the guideline for the vinyl cove stripe beneath. I used additional strips of tape to mark the ends of the stripe. At the aft end, I started with 12″ forward of the transom, my usual positioning, but on the starboard side this interfered with the bilge pump outlet, so I moved the aft end forward just a touch to 14″ from the transom, measured along the bottom of the masking tape. I added a 2-2/1″ interruption 12″ forward, for a small logo.

At the forward end, I began with where I wanted the new registration numbers to go. I like these a bit aft of the stem, and in this case the aft leg of the pulpit looked about right, or the 7th screw in the rubrail. I measured back 22-1/2″ from there (the length of the numbers plus one inch), and marked the forward termination of the cove stripe. I’ve found that having masking tape not only marking, but covering, the termination points makes it easier to install the vinyl, right over the tape, and then cut it off exactly where it needs to be.

With the layout complete, I installed 1/2″ gold leaf vinyl tape on both sides to complete the stripe.

Now I could completely dismantle the staging and, with the way clear, I masked off and painted the bottom with the owner’s choice of green paint.

Still ahead: finishing the dodger, and installing the name and registration, among other possible, undefined things.

Total time billed on this job today: 4 hours (6.5 total)

0600 Weather Observation: 27°, clear, 3″ snow down overnight. Forecast for the day: Increasing clouds, 37°

Tuesday

After taking some measurements and consulting older photos of the boat before the project, I located the fitting for the mast wiring conduit and drilled a small pilot hole through the deck to confirm its position below. Satisfied, I drilled the larger hole required for the fitting, then installed it with sealant. The mast step base had continued to ooze some sealant after I’d cleaned it up, so I took a moment to trim away the now-cured excess.

Next, I turned to the small opening ports, beginning with the pair in the forward side of the raised cabin trunk. These just needed their trim rings reinstalled, as I’d seen no cause to remove the port bodies themselves for this project. After cleaning up all the screw holes as needed, I reinstalled the trim rings with plenty of sealant and new bronze screws, which I chose because it was easier than trying to clean up the old sealant from the tiny screws I’d removed.

Next, I installed the trim ring on the starboard forward port in the v-berth, the last of the better “new” style ports, and continued with the starboard head port, one of the old-style and which, in this case (along with both its counterparts to port) I had fully removed at the beginning of the project. This style of port was time-consuming to install since I found I had to start with longer screws to grab the port body through the trim ring, then change them to shorter ones as necessary to prevent the thread from penetrating into the gasket groove on the inside of the port.

With the starboard side complete, I installed the two ports on the port side.

Meanwhile, I cleaned up the remaining chainplate covers, and got ready for the deadlight installation, which would be next. For now, with an appointment in the afternoon, my work was done for the day.

Total time billed on this job today: 5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: -5°, clear. Forecast for the day: Mostly sunny, then snow showers, 31°

Monday

I spent the day working on the remaining deck hardware, starting with the winch bases.

I continued with the furler cleat, located to starboard on the small molded riser on the sidedeck outboard of the coamings.

Next: The two mooring cleats on the poop deck.

The main halyard led aft from the mast to a winch on the cabin top to starboard of the companionway, and would pass through an opening in the new dodger. Because the dodger used a track to secure the forward end, the line slot would be some distance above the deck, roughly equivalent to the top of the plastic track. To ensure that the line cleared the track as needed, I built HDPE risers for the forward turning block, winch, and cleat, raising each about as high as the top of the dodger track.

Afterwards, I installed the halyard hardware on its new risers.

To reinstall the mast step, I began by drilling up through the holes in the mast beam below, then finished preparations above deck and reinstalled the step on its existing riser, which the owner had installed previously to make up for cutting an equivalent amount off the base of the mast to remove corrosion. The rebuilt deck was perhaps marginally thicker than the semi-original deck before, and I found I had to increase the depth of one of the recesses in the mast beam below to allow me to thread on the nuts and washers, but once I got that worked out the installation proceeded without further incident.

I almost had time to reinstall the wiring conduit through the deck near the mast step, but I needed to double-check its original position before drilling the new hole, and didn’t want to hurry the task, especially after the mast step took so much longer to install than I’d originally anticipated. So I’d finish that final piece of hardware next time before moving onto the ports.

Total time billed on this job today: 7 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 8°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 20°

Friday

I continued deck hardware installation with the remaining stanchion bases: First the final (aftermost) base to port, then the three bases to starboard. As before, I cleaned up the threads in each hole with the tap, and bored the old sealant out of the existing countersinks at each fastener location before installing new sealant and the bases with backing plates beneath, then cutting off the excess fastener length and cleaning up the sealant squeeze-out.

Next, I installed the genoa tracks on each side. This completed the hardware on the sidedecks forward of the cockpit.

Next, I turned to the stern pulpit, starting with the after two bases; I wrapped the forward bases in rags to prevent them from damaging the paint while they were on the loose. With the two after bases secured through the deck with their backing plates (oops, no pictures of those installations), I continued with the two forward bases, which incorporated little wedges beneath to accommodate the camber of the sidedecks.

Before the end of the day, and the week, I had enough time to install the stern chocks and flagpole socket, and also installed the chainplate deck covers at each of the 5 locations (backstay and two side locations). These cover plates relied entirely on the sealant to secure them, and I applied “bo-koo” sealant around each chainplate not only to ensure a good and full seal all around, but also to well-secure the cover plates. I left the substantial excess to cure over the weekend before I’d clean it up.

Total time billed on this job today: 6.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 16°, overcast. Forecast for the day: Snow, 4-8″ predicted, 20°

Thursday

After a day away from the project to give the fresh nonskid enough cure time, it was time to begin deck hardware reinstallation. After getting set up with tools, towels and such to protect the decks, and all the rest, I started, as usual, at the bow with the bow pulpit. Since all the hardware had been newly laid out and installed during phase one, then removed again early in this phase of the project, all the holes were in place (most needed a quick cleanup with the tap to ensure there was no paint in the holes), so the reinstallation effort was as streamlined as it could be. To help me lay out the masking tape to protect the deck during bedding and installation, I made a little cardboard template of the bow pulpit base shape, which I used as an analog to trace around to prepare all the mounting locations; this was easier than manipulating the pulpit and semi-installing it to achieve the same purpose. Installing the pulpit using the same one year-old fasteners was straightforward and uneventful enough, complicated only (as usual) by the tough access to the forwardmost holes from beneath.

Continuing in the area, I installed the forward whisker pole mount, the anchor roller and its riser, the mooring bitt, and the cowl vent in turn. For all the hardware, I masked off and traced the hardware bases on the tape, cut out the tape from the footprint, cleaned up the fastener holes, and installed with plenty of new sealant and the recently-removed fasteners, cleaning up the excess sealant and tape thereafter.

With the bow section done, I continued on down the port side, eventually installing two of the stanchion bases and the after whisker pole mount before the end of the day.

Total time billed on this job today: 6.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 16°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 27°

Wednesday

Luna Mia’s owner brought her to the shop to repaint the hull, as well as for a few other small projects and repairs, and the boat had been stored indoors in the second shop bay since delivery several weeks earlier. Though I didn’t plan to get into the project in depth for a few more weeks, a required pause in my ongoing project gave me a free day, so I decided to get a head start on things.

The hull appeared to have been painted once, as there were signs of blue gelcoat beneath the existing topcoat in a few areas where the finish had been worn down or scratched. Overall, the hull was in pretty good condition, with no major repairs anticipated during the refinishing process. I’d get into all that in more detail later on.

For now, my plan was to focus on the other smallish tasks on my list, including the following:

Remove an old engine bed from the lazarette (the owner had previously removed the engine and saildrive unit)
Patch the old saildrive hole in the bottom
Patch holes left from the removal of a steering pedestal in the cockpit (the owner had previously removed the wheel steering)
Patch several now-obsolete holes in the transom
Patch some obsolete fastener holes in the bow

The removal of the wheel steering (the owner reported that the pedestal was so far aft that there was no room to stand behind it, never mind the other reasons it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to begin with) left a large hole, and several smaller holes and fastener locations, in the cockpit sole, as well as a slot in the transom through which the original steering cable had extended to the transom-hung rudder. In addition, there were several old fastener holes in the transom that required minor work (previously filled, but showing through), and the now-obsolete engine exhaust outlet to starboard. These various openings in the cockpit and transom needed to be patched and repaired.

The engine bed was a molded fiberglass construction glassed to the hull inside the large aft lazarette, with generally good access thanks to a large hatch. The mount incorporated a large hole that extended through the hull where the saildrive leg had once penetrated. The owner requested that I try to remove the engine foundation in one piece if possible.

After getting properly set up with tools, lighting, and a fan (and as it happened, this was a great weather day for a messy grinding project, as the weather was warm enough to allow me to open the shop door for ventilation), I cut around the base of the foundation, where it was tabbed to the hull all around, with a grinder and cutoff wheel, which easily sliced through the tabbing. Access at the forward corners was tighter, and made more so by the transducers mounted on either side of the foundation, so with various other tools I eventually cut through the tabbing in these trouble spots. So far so good.

The challenging part came when I worked to remove whatever resinous material was filling the area between the hull cutout and the inside of the engine mount. I’d known this would be the hardest part all along, mainly because the opening was fairly small and there wasn’t adequate room for tools within. After various attempts and too much time using grinder and multi-tool from within, and even chisels and prybars from without, with little progress and no clear path to success, I cut through the foundation from side to side in two places, which opened up enough room that I could cut through the remains of the resin mash that secured and filled the opening all around, allowing me to easily remove the rest of the engine foundation. Technically, the old molding could be reassembled and fiberglassed from beneath without too much trouble, so despite having to cut it in the name of efficiency, it wasn’t destroyed beyond all hope. I couldn’t imagine a scenario where this thing would ever be reinstalled in this boat, but theoretically it would be possible with some work.

With a hammer and chisel, I easily removed most of the tabbing and adhesive bead from the hull around the old footprint, then cleaned up the whole area with a grinder. A little later, from beneath the boat, I prepared the underside of the opening for patching as well, removing paint and gelcoat and creating a tapered area to accept new fiberglass.

Meanwhile in the cockpit, I prepared the pedestal mounting area for patching, removing the gelcoat and grinding the area appropriately. I also sanded away the coatings from the insides of the various transom repairs to be dealt with: the engine exhaust to starboard, and the steering slot (and a nearby small hole).

Outside the boat, I prepared the transom for the repairs and patching.

After cleaning up everywhere, and solvent-washing inside and out, I masked over the transom openings from inside, providing a “mold” for the patching work ahead.

Similarly, I masked over the saildrive opening from beneath, using the tape to stretch tightly across the opening in a way that maintained the shape of the hull (there was a slight V shape to the hull along the centerline), and would support and mold the fiberglass above.

I made simple patterns of the various patches and cut fiberglass as needed: For the saildrive opening, and the large transom slot, I cut material to fit within and completely fill the openings as required by the thickness of the hull in each area (about 4-6 layers of 1708), then larger pieces to overlap and fill the previously-ground repair areas, including two large rectangular pieces to widely overlap the hull in way of the saildrive cutout.

Then, after final preparations, I installed the new fiberglass in epoxy resin, first filling the recessed openings with solid fiberglass, then, after using some thickened epoxy to make up some minor variations in the center areas, the larger, overlapping layers to tie the repairs in with the adjacent hull at each location. For the smaller, round holes in the transom, I began by filling the openings with a thickened epoxy mixture, then installed fiberglass to tie in with the hull all around.