Monday

After spending a good bit of the morning on another project, which had required my attention unexpectedly, I started back on Lyra by taking advantage of the “clean” conditions to remove the chainplates, which were in the way of the interior painting and were only dry-fitted and vaguely bedded at deck level anyway (going back years to the previous iteration of the project that led to this project).  These appeared to be the original bronze chainplates.  For now, I set them aside, though they’d require assessment later.

Over the weekend, the owner and I had come to a plan and decision about how to proceed about the cockpit in particular; the cockpit was in poor condition, with widespread and wholesale paint failure, numerous repairs required (icebox hatch, engine gauge holes, and more), and in addition the original Triton cockpit sole construction was weak and flimsy underfoot, which condition had only been exacerbated over the years.  So after discussion, we decided to refinish the entire cockpit area now, as well as reinforce the cockpit sole with add-on coring and topskin, which would greatly improve cockpit use going forward.

To this end, I began by removing a round plastic deck plate at the forward end of the cockpit; we planned to install a larger, stronger, aluminum hatch here later.  I also removed a completely ineffective (as well as rotted) wooden brace that someone had bolted to the bottom of the cockpit in an attempt to stiffen things.

To augment the electric motor planned for the boat, the owner had purchased a small portable generator with the idea of storing it beneath the poop deck when not in use.  To assess this possibility, as well as other options, I made some basic measurements to determine the fit and feasibility.  Space in the lazarette was limited, but it looked to me like the generator could fit within, and beneath a modest hatch, especially if the storage was slightly angled to use the deepest part of the locker forward of the backstay knee (which, along with the angle of the transom, conspired to greatly limit depth in the aft end of the compartment).  The depth wasn’t there at the aft end, unless the locker was built to extend well above deck, but with a slight angled approach I thought it looked possible here.

Another storage option could be the two cockpit lockers.  The openings here were just a bit small, but with minor modification might be made to work.  The generator required roughly 11″ width by 22″ width (and about 22″ height), and while the forward end of the locker opening was plenty wide, 22″ aft it was about 1/2″ too narrow–but this could be opened up by cutting some of the overhanging lips built into the gutter system.  So I felt either cockpit locker could be a viable alternative as well.

With my clean work done for now, I turned to the day’s ration of sanding, starting with the transducer housing, which I lightly sanded to clean up and prepare for another round of fairing that brought the protrusion to nearly its final contours.

With the leftover filler, I filled the old through hull hole in the engine room, which I’d prepared from outside previously.  I’d masked over the hole from inside while up in the cockpit earlier.  A bit later, after lunch break, I installed two layers of fiberglass over the hole, and two layers over the adjacent (and previously filled by others) small through hole just behind.

Now I used a grinder to remove all the paint and gelcoat from the cockpit sole, down to bare laminate, as well as a couple inches up the sides all around–this to prepare for installing new core over top, and then a new top skin that tied into the well all around.  While the nonskid paint tended to flake off in large sheets (having never bonded well with whatever was beneath it), the gray primer beneath, as well as the original gelcoat, required substantial sanding to remove.  With immediate plans to make a cutout for a larger access hatch at the forward end, I left an appropriate area unsanded rather than waste time removing the paint from there.

During what remained of the afternoon, I got started on the paint removal and surface prep in the rest of the cockpit, getting most of the starboard seating area and inside coaming sanded before the end of the day.  Here, I worked my way down through the paint layers with coarse paper, leaving dribs and drabs of the old coating as I reached the original gelcoat; then, with finer paper, I finished up the general paint removal.  I planned to continue in a similar vein next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  4.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  -3°, mostly clear.   Forecast for the day:   Increasing clouds, 29°.  Snow beginning overnight.

Friday

I lightly sanded the area around the transducer installation as needed to smooth the epoxy and prepare it for subsequent steps.

After cleaning up, I applied additional epoxy, continuing to shape and form around the fixed positions of the fiberglass plate and adjacent hull.  In particular, I focused on the leading edge, where I had to build up a fair amount of material to create the sort of shape and flow I wanted when all was said and done.  To keep the epoxy from overheating, as well as to prevent a gravity-induced failure, I planned to build up the shape over several applications.

Back in the interior, I went over the overhead and cabin sides in all three cabins with slightly finer paper, just to dress up these most visible areas and better prepare them for primer and paint.  With that, I hoped the worst of the major interior sanding was mostly complete (equivocate much), and to allow me to work in and around the boat in the coming days without a respirator, I took the time to catch up my cleaning with broom and vacuum, getting the interior back to a better state of things.

By the end of the morning, the first round of epoxy on the transducer had cured sufficiently to allow me to make a second application for the day, green on green, and continue the shaping.

Total time billed on this job today:  4.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  10°, clear.   Forecast for the day:   Sunny, windy, 22°

Thursday

After a morning appointment away from the shop, and which inevitably took much longer than I’d intended, I got back to work on the transducer installation.

To help create the integral fiberglass housing that would accept the transducer on the hull, I cut some prefab 1/2″ fiberglass to fit the transducer, and just slightly larger all around.

After some final assessment, I settled on the cut lines at the leading edge of the keel, marked here with numerous arrows.  I transferred the lines to the port side of the keel as well to aid in cutting.  Then, I used a grinder and a cutoff wheel to score the lines and cut as deeply as possible before finishing up the cuts with a reciprocating saw.  The aft end of the cut was just a little bit into the lead ballast keel, which was surprising on one level and totally predictable on another.  The cutoff would make a unique paperweight and weighed around a couple pounds.

With the bite taken, I prepared the hull all around the area by grinding away the paint, barrier coat (gray), and gelcoat in a wide area, preparing for fiberglass and fairing compound.  I cleaned up the cutout as necessary.  During an initial test-fit of the transducer, I found that I needed just a bit more room at the aft end, so I pared back the vertical face of the cutout as needed to allow the transducer and its fiberglass top plate to fit.

The plan to secure the transducer, generally speaking, was to build a fiberglass housing that would extend over the red prefab fiberglass and as far down as the black portion of the transducer, covering the stainless steel body of the unit.  This would leave the transducer itself (the black portions) free and clear for its visionary needs all around, while securely holding the transducer in place within the molded housing (and well-bedded within as well).  I don’t know why transducer manufacturers insist on placing stickers all over the transducer face.

To start this process, I first had to secure the fiberglass plate to the hull, so after final cleanup and preparations I pressed it into a thick bed of epoxy adhesive.  Using extra epoxy, I began to shape and fair in the protruding plate, though for now it was just a base coat, with plenty more to come to create a fair and generally hydrodynamic form at the forward edge and elsewhere as needed.  I initially registered the fiberglass plate with a short length of 1″ diameter tubing through the hole in the hull, as seen in the first photo, but removed this once I had the plate epoxied and taped in position.  I left the initial application of epoxy to cure overnight.

Total time billed on this job today:  3.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  30°, cloudy, light snow shower.   Forecast for the day:   Light snow showers, then cloudy, 33°

Wednesday

The last major portion of the interior left to sand was the forward cabin, and I spent the morning completing the surface prep there, and in the chainlocker.  Much of the paint here was in fairly poor condition but was easy enough to remove down to a sound substrate.

After a break to take care of some plowing, I turned to the various settee and underberth lockers, sanding these as needed.  Access was limited through the small hatches, but fortunately the hull surfaces within were already in quite good condition, and a light sanding was all that was needed.  These areas were not particularly photo-worthy.

The cockpit would require additional work soon, but for now I worked on preparing for patching several old engine instrument holes, the old icebox drain hole, and a hole leftover from some other installation, grinding away the paint and gelcoat and exposing the laminate beneath to accept patching and fairing.

Meanwhile I continued with the cockpit lockers and spaces aft of the cabin, all of which were relatively accessible now.  There were a couple old supports from something or another still in place on the port side, but these were easy to remove with light hand pressure.  Afterwards, I scuffed all the surfaces to prepare them for future work, including repainting.  As with most of the other “hidden” areas of the hull, these surfaces were in decent condition to start with and didn’t require major sanding to prepare.  Afterwards, I spent some time cleaning up from the week’s efforts:  I’d kept ahead of the worst of the sanding debris each day, but with the worst of it now behind me, and quite a lot of leaves and other debris from the after lockers, it was time to go a step further, both inside the boat and on deck, where I cleaned up the bulk of the dust that had settled there.

There was more surface prep and the like ahead, but for now I needed a change of pace, so I turned to the transducer installation for the owner’s new electronics.  We planned to install this large, rectangular transducer forward of the keel on the centerline, and this location would require a sort of “shark bite” cut in the leading edge of the keel in order to mount the transducer properly.  This location was preferable as far as the transducer’s efficiency was concerned, but in this case there was also a lack of better options to begin with, and, as I’d done a similar installation many years before, working with the forward centerline location appealed to the owner for all these reasons.

Inside the boat, in the forwardmost section of the bilge, I determined the location for the transducer stem, using its fixing nut to ensure appropriate space in the flat spot in the bilge.

I marked the center of the nut, then used a long drill bit to drill through from inside; I wasn’t sure how thick the keel was at this point.  With the bit all the way through (and slightly off center on the exterior, though that could be fixed with the larger hole and the shark bite cutout), I marked its depth so I could ensure that the transducer stem was long enough to work here:  It was, with plenty of room to spare.  The existing thickness was roughly 3″, and this would actually be reduced once I made the cutout.

Next, I drilled a 1″ hole through the centerline from the inside out.  This was the size required for the transducer stem.  I dropped a length of tape through the hole to allow me to attach the transducer cable and pull it through, which I needed for the next step.

I rough out the shape of the cutout required, I pulled through the transducer cable and then inserted the transducer stem in the new hole, which gave me the angle and orientation of the transducer housing  as dictated by the through hole and stem.  I transferred this line to the hull with a steel rule, then began to guesstimate how I should cut the hull in order to partially insert the transducer housing.  I’d have to research the directions more thoroughly, but I suspected that most of the black part of the housing needed to be exposed, assuming the transducer included side-scanning capabilities.  So I needed ultimately to find the right balance between how deeply into the keel to set the housing, versus how much of the housing had to extend exposed anyway.

I’d work that out soon, but in any event once I made the cut in the hull I planned to build a fiberglass housing into which the transducer would fit the appropriate depth, and then glass and fair the whole arrangement into the hull as smoothly as possible.  For now, I’d gotten along far enough, and in any event I didn’t have the blades I needed to make the keel cut just yet, so I’d fine tune the details as needed and proceed once I could.

Total time billed on this job today:  6.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  28°, cloudy, 2-3″ snow down overnight.   Forecast for the day:   Light snow, then cloudy, 35°

Tuesday

I spent the day working on interior surface prep, starting in the main cabin on the port side below deck level.

I continued by sanding the cabin sides and overhead.  These surfaces were in poorer condition to start with and required somewhat more aggressive sanding to remove loose and suspect material and provide a sound substrate for new coatings.

After lunch, I got to work in the head, sanding all surfaces including inside the various storage lockers and shelving.

Now, after sweeping the bulk of the dust and debris out of the bilge, I lightly sanded the bilge (which had been previously painted and was in almost startlingly good condition), then the floor boards and settee front panels from the head aft to the engine room.

After cleaning up the bulk of the spoils, I had a bit of time left in the day, so I tried my hand at cleaning up the varnished paneling on the main bulkhead, starting outboard on the port side.  In the short time remaining, I stripped the outer two planks, and would continue with the remaining parts of the bulkhead in due course over the next few days.  This solid wood paneling was in fair condition, with some splits and other issues, but ought to clean and finish up fairly well.

Total time billed on this job today:  7.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  14°, clear.   Forecast for the day:   Sunny, 32°

Monday

After a meeting with the owner at the boat over the weekend, mainly to discuss aspects of the project scope, I was anxious to get to work.  This boat had a checkered history, but about 10 years ago the previous owner had some structural and cosmetic work completed by another yard somewhere, including some deck core repairs and new paint on hull and deck.  Then, for reasons unknown, he left the unfinished project to linger in various storage yards before the current owner obtained the boat at no cost from its last and final storage yard, whose proprietor was anxious to free up space for paying customers.

This long period of inaction and neglectful storage had taken its toll on the “new” paint, and the decks in particular were filthy from their time exposed, and there were various current and forthcoming issues with the deck paint (and possibly underlying structure, but more on that later) that, alas, we largely wouldn’t be able to deal with during this phase of the project, since the original project scope and goal was to get the boat back in the water and sailing in a usable and safe condition for the upcoming season.  With limited time and shop availability, the project would have to focus on the more pressing requirements.  The deck paint was in fair condition despite its neglect, but there were signs of ongoing or pending failures that pointed to insufficient prepwork during the last round of work.  The filth would clean up with a solid application of elbow grease outside of the scope of this project in most cases.

For now, what we did plan to accomplish on deck was the following:

1. Install new, modern forward hatch to replace the original wooden shoebox type
2. Patch the old icebox hatch in the port forward corner of the cockpit
3. Install new access hatch in the cockpit sole (for access to the shafting, stuffing box, and the like)
4. Patch several old and now obsolete instrument and control holes in the cockpit well
5. Refresh the cockpit cosmetics to take care of the repairs and to deal with the failing paint
6. Install deck and sailing hardware

Most of the upcoming work list revolved around the interior, including basic systems work and installing a new propulsion system.  The interior in “as-arrived” condition was pretty typical for the class, with a mishmash of past work, paint coatings in fair to poor condition, and most of the demolition work, as the current owner had removed the old galley, engine, and icebox during the past year, leaving these spaces empty and nearly ready for new work.  But the interior and bilges were mostly clean (relatively speaking), lacking at least the usual oily mess, water, and other substances that so frequently begrime old boats and especially bilges.  The large fixed deadlights had been removed sometime previously, but the six bronze opening ports were still in place for now.

Work planned for the interior and systems:

1. Surface prep and painting throughout, including bilges
2. Remove small shelf from starboard side of main cabin
3. Renew scupper hoses
4. Install electric propulsion motor, shafting, and related wiring
5. Determine location, and build boxes for, 4-12-volt propulsion batteries
6. Determine location for 12-volt house battery
7. House wiring as needed and possible
8. Conceive, layout, and build replacement galley and other interior components to the extent possible

After getting set up with lighting, power cords, and various tools, I got started on the opening ports.  The owner had previously removed the small screws securing the exterior bronze trim rings in place (and which also secure the port bodies), but he reported he’d been unable to remove the ports from there.  Since initially I wasn’t sure if this meant that the ports had been installed in permanent sealant/adhesive, I kept expectations low for their removal, but decided to start with the two forward-facing units in the main cabin, replacements for which the owner had obtained from a salvage yard.

Fortunately, I found that the ports weren’t that hard to remove–just well-bedded in sticky, but still pliable, butyl-type sealant from many years past.  So in fairly short order, and with a bit of judicious prying as needed, I removed first the forward-facing pair from the main cabin, then the remaining four from the head and forward cabin.  I set all these ports aside for the owner to recondition and prepare for reinstallation later in the project.

To make getting around the cabin easier, I’d tried to put in place the various small bilge access hatches, but found that the supporting cleats were largely in such bad condition and loose that the hatches were more dangerous than the openings.  I hadn’t intended to do much in the bilge just yet, but in removing the damaged cleats so I’d not be at all tempted to step on them, I found that two tabbed-in old wooden blocks that had been part of a dining table leg arrangement (and which the owner had told be he had no plans to use) were quite rotten and that the tabbing was loose enough to pull out by hand (polyester), so in a stream-of-consciousness I removed these blocks, the tabbing, and the piles of black, rotten wood remnants, freeing and opening up the bilge satisfactorily.  I also removed a plastic strainer/mount from an electric bilge pump that the owner had had trouble removing.

The upper part of the hull in the forward cabin, and the lockers outboard of the head on the port side, had some questionable paneling/insulation installed, some old material that was vaguely fibrous in nature and which, under any circumstances, needed to be removed.   Unsure of its makeup, I wore a respirator during its removal, which fortunately was straightforward enough since all this old material was apparently just a friction fit, though there were small wooden blocks visible on the back side that might once have been attached to the hull with spikey fasteners projecting into the insulation product.  I didn’t know and didn’t care, since the old material was, and had to be, gone.

Continuing my quest to rid the cabin of all unneeded old materials before I got into the surface prep, I removed the old scupper hoses from the cockpit, including both sets of the sidedeck and seat scuppers at the forward end (old, dry, hard hoses in need of replacement), as well as the two main scupper hoses leading from the cockpit well to the hull.   With the owner’s plans for the boat, and assuming that the original fiberglass tubes were sound (to be determined in due course), the plan was to maintain the original setup with no changes other than replacement hoses.  I removed even a newer hose that the owner had installed so that it wouldn’t be clogged with debris during the cockpit and nearby work, and to ensure that in the end all hoses were sound and fresh.  The fiberglass tube attached to the starboard sidedeck broke right off near its top when I removed the hose (this was the worst, oldest, most brittle hose of the four), but I’d be able to reattach the tube to its stud later in the process.

Now it was time to get into things, and to begin I used a cutoff wheel to remove the forward hatch coaming, the first step towards its replacement with a new, modern aluminum hatch.  Once I got the new hatch on hand and built its wooden support/coaming, I’d cut the deck opening to its final shape and size.

In the cockpit, I cut out the little raised coaming from around the icebox hatch and ground the area flush to prepare for patching sometime later in the project.  Belowdecks, I ground the underside as well.

Next, I cut the tabbing that was securing the plywood shelf on the starboard side of the hull, and removed the shelf.  While I was at it, I used the grinder to remove two old through hull stubs (fiberglass tubes glassed through the hull in the engine room and head), and also cleaned up some tabbing remnants leftover from the original galley installation.

With the roughest demolition now out of the way, I used what remained of the day to begin some of the surface prep in the main cabin.  I started with the underside of the starboard sidedeck, then worked my way down the side of the hull and the top of the settee platform before the end of the day, preparing and as needed removing old paint and coatings.  In this area, I found that much of the paint was sound and well-adhered, so I saw no reason to strip everything back to bare fiberglass.

The underside of the deck here showed the bottom side of a deck repair (as did the underside of the deck in the starboard forward cabin).  This patch was still shiny and smooth from whatever molding material someone had used to support it from beneath, and the edges were a bit rough from oozing resin, but I cleaned this up with the sander as much as possible and scuffed away the shininess.  I might do a bit of basic fairing work there to improve the potential final appearance.

Much more sanding and bulk surface prep to come in the days ahead.  But for now, that was all I had time for.

Total time billed on this job today:  7.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  14°, clear.   Forecast for the day:   Sunny, 31°