Lackey Sailing | tim lackey

Monday

The owner of this 14′ Handy Cat had a short list of small items he hoped to address this season. We’ll get to the list of projects later in this post, but perhaps the most significant of the jobs ahead was to track down and solve a mystery the owner had observed during previous seasons’ use. This particular boat had been modified from original at some point in the past: the original molded interior liner, which had incorporated floor and seat bases, had been cut out aft of the foredeck, and a new permanent sole glassed in place, along with knees to support wooden seat slats. This new installation was supposed to isolate the bilge sump from the cockpit, but the owner had observed that when the boat was in the water, water got into the sump somehow anyway.

It wasn’t clear where the water came from, but the owner wondered if it was coming up from around the centerboard slot, or centerboard pin, or thereabouts. However, while I had the boat in outdoor storage for some weeks leading up to the project, during which time the boat filled partially with rain (and snow) water, I noticed that water was slowly draining out of the cockpit, and dripping ever so slowly from the sump drain in the keel.

Repeated observation (helpfully, it rained and snowed frequently during this period) showed no signs of water leaking from outside the centerboard slot in the bottom, but I did notice that there were a few small cracks in the tabbing where the new cockpit sole had been glassed to the centerboard trunk, mainly on the forward starboard side. With the way the boat sat on the trailer, with a bow-down orientation, these cracks remained below the surface of the water, and water kept slowly draining out through the sump. Never did the drainage stop, since with frequent rain the level never dropped below these cracks, so to that extent I couldn’t confirm that the cracks were the culprit, but this seemed the most logical starting point in terms of stopping the problem. I planned to inspect the bottom around the centerboard slot as well, hopefully to eliminate that as a further possibility, but it seemed likely that reglassing the centerboard trunk ought to help the problem.

In any event, with the time at hand to bring the boat indoors for the project, my first step was to drain out the water in the cockpit, and in the sump as well, so I lifted the trailer high and pumped out the cockpit with an electric sump pump, and allowed the remaining water in the sump to seep out as well. Once the boat had drained, I moved her indoors.

With the front end of the trailer propped up enough to bring the boat more or less level on her waterline, I mopped out any remaining water from the two narrow sumps built into the cockpit sole around the centerboard, and cleaned up various pine needles and other debris left behind.

The wooden slat seats had suffered some damage on the forward port side, where the inboard-most board had been broken off, and badly “repaired”. These seats were built from a softwood of some sort–it looked to me like cypress–and the damage to the seat was from a combination of factors: weak wood; a curvy design that was unsupported at its outboard edge; and stock that was thinner (1/2″) than it probably should have been. The starboard seat still had the original shape of its innermost board for comparison. Repairing the broken board, and changing the shape of the starboard seat, were on my to-do list, though for the moment the owner wanted to refrain from completely rebuilding the seats in a more appropriate material–a possible job for another time, but not now.

I found that the seats were easily removable: there were four exposed screws holding the seats in place to the knees beneath, and the three seat slats on each side were held together independently by additional cleats beneath. So in short order I had both seats out of the way, which would not only make repair easier, but also opened up access to the inside of the boat for the centerboard work.

Among the other jobs on my list were to install a brass (no one makes bronze half oval) half-oval trim on the rubrail to replace one that had been damaged and removed previously, and to install new gudgeons for the rudder, which the owner had ordered and had on hand. So I spent a few minutes determining what was needed for each job and ordering the required materials, since in our new world shipments tend to take a few days longer than in the past.

In the woodshop, I removed the broken board from the port seat. I found that the slats were also glued to the cleats below, with Gorilla glue, but I didn’t have much trouble getting the slat off without damaging the cleats beneath. I wasn’t worried about the slat itself, though I did manage to get it off in a whole piece.

Leaving the starboard inboard slat in place, I laid out a new shape for its forwardmost end, creating a new curve that was less wide at its extreme, and cut and sanded the new shape as needed. I planned to use this plank to pattern the replacement on the port side. I temporarily removed the wooden base for the boom crutch from the aft end to allow me to more easily pattern the new piece; as it happened, this block was already half-loose, as one of the nuts had fallen off sometime in the past. I had to slightly cut back the support cleats in way of my new plank shape, bringing the ends back 1/4″ or so from the edge.

Because of the owner’s stated wishes, and the fact that these seats weren’t something worth spending a lot of time on with their questionable construction and oddball materials, I had to make my repair appropriate to the existing conditions–a type of work Larry Pardey would have called “cheap and cheerful”. As it happened, I had some red cedar deck boards on hand–hardly my first choice for boat seats, but red cedar would soon weather gray in keeping with the existing condition of the seats, I had it on hand–thus it was cheap and available now–and it would do the job for a finite period of time while the owner decided how better to proceed in the future. I didn’t have any more suitable material on hand, wasn’t sure where I could source cypress, and it didn’t really seem important to match the material that closely anyway.

A single board wasn’t wide enough to handle the curves at the ends of the seat slat, so I with epoxy I glued up extra width forward and aft as needed to make the final shape required, and clamped the assembly together overnight.

Total time billed on this job today: 2.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation: Mostly cloudy, 40°. Forecast for the day: Becoming mostly sunny, 54°

Thursday

With the project now complete, and the boat scheduled to be launched in another week or so, I moved Skeedeen back out of the shop.

Total time billed on this job today: 1 hour

0600 Weather Observation: 40°, cloudy. Forecast for the day: Chance of showers, 60°

Back to Skeedeen

Wednesday

Now that the varnish work on the companionway doors and hatches was complete, I reassembled the pieces with their hinges and reinstalled them on the boat. I chose to replace all the original slotted bronze screws in the hinges and elsewhere with new Freason head screws, as I had long tired of fighting the old screws’ shallow slots.

This wrapped up the brightwork, and the bulk of the project overall. I inspected and checked over all the through hulls and seacocks for the owner, and installed the batteries he’d brought along with the boat. The boat would be going straight to launch when she departed here in a week or so. I found that one of the plastic battery hold-downs had been broken, perhaps during removal or at some other time, and part of the hold-down screw was broken off inside the threaded hole on the battery tray itself. I was able to remove the broken plastic stud by hammering in a flathead screwdriver and then removing the screw. I ordered a replacement, but it wouldn’t arrive for a week or so in our new world of longer, old-fashioned (and somehow strangely tolerable) shipping times.

After buttoning up the boat for the most part, the final job remaining was to paint the bottom. After masking off the boottop with some gentle-surface tape (which I hate, but I didn’t want to risk real tape on the fresh boottop), I applied two coats of green antifouling to the newly-stripped bottom.

Total time billed on this job today: 4.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 28°, clear. Forecast for the day: Mostly sunny, 60°

Tuesday

With at least two maintenance coats of varnish on all parts of the windshield, the usual prescription, and no issues with the last coat I’d put down, I could call this year’s maintenance complete and remove all the masking tape and clean up any gunk in the corners and so forth.

During much of the rest of the rest of the morning, I worked to reinstall hardware that I’d removed for the varnish maintenance, including canvas snaps, bow frame, the masthead light, anchor roller and anchor, bronze chafe guards, and some of the removable trim pieces in the cockpit.

The companionway hatch and bifold doors required a light sanding and another coat on their main surfaces, which I hoped and expected would be the final varnish on these pieces for now.

To finish up the day, I replaced the worn shaft and rudder zincs with new ones, and installed at the owner’s request a line cutter on the shaft just forward of the propeller. This was a split version that allowed installation without removing the propeller, a much more convenient alternative (especially since I was prop puller-challenged at the moment, having broken my puller when I tried to remove the propeller from another boat a while back, and had yet to replace).

Total time billed on this job today: 5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 42°, partly cloudy. Forecast for the day: Partly sunny, 54°

Monday

I began as usual by lightly sanding all the brightwork currently underway, now mainly the windshield and the companionway doors and hatches, as many of the other small parts were now deemed complete after their two maintenance coats. Because the narrow cockpit edge trim pieces were continual trouble spots, I decided to continue and apply additional coats of varnish as long as I was also varnishing other parts of the boat.

As always, varnishing the first (back) side of the louvered doors created some drips beneath that I now had to scrape and sand clean so I could complete the maintenance coats on the main side. I also masked off various areas of the doors so that any stray drips as I worked on the top side would not sully the completed varnish beneath.

After vacuuming, solvent-washing, and, eventually, tacking off, I applied another full-strength coat of varnish to all the trim pieces, and to all surfaces of the windshield inside and out.

Total time billed on this job today: 4.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 45°, mainly cloudy. Forecast for the day: Clouds then becoming mostly sunny, chance of a shower, 60°

Friday

After the usual preparations, I applied a second coat of gloss white paint to the boottop. Later in the day, once the paint had tacked up, I removed the masking tape.

In the woodshop, I lightly sanded the small parts as needed to prepare them for their second maintenance coat of varnish.

After final cleaning and tacking off all parts, I got to work on the windshield, applying the first all-over maintenance coat to both sides and all surfaces.

Then, I applied the second of hopefully two maintenance coats to the various small parts and cockpit trim.

Total time billed on this job today: 3 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 45°, fog and showers. Forecast for the day: Rain, 52°

Thursday

After two coats of new varnish on the various trim that was already in good condition–coachroof handrails, forward hatch trim, anchor platform, and the helm and companionway trim–I deemed this year’s maintenance on those areas complete and removed masking tape to the extent possible.

I was ready to start applying full maintenance coats to the windshield after 4 or 5 initial patch coats on the isolated bare areas I’d scraped, but since the fresh varnish on the nearby trim was still young and on the delicate side, and there was no way to reach the windshield without leaning over, into, and even on the fresh trim, I reluctantly decided to wait another day before continuing with the windshield, which still required 2 or more maintenance coats over the whole thing.

Instead, I turned to the bottom and boottop. The boottop was in poor-ish condition with old and worn–though mostly sound–paint, and required a spruce-up for the season, although with plans to paint the entire hull (including the boottop) coming up for next winter’s round of maintenance work, no heroic measures were needed on the boottop. The media blasting of the old bottom paint had left a narrow strip just below the boottop that still required removal.

To begin, I scraped away the remnants of bottom paint, not worrying particularly if I scraped a bit of the boottop paint in the process. I removed the loose and thick layers of old bottom paint–probably a buildup since the boat’s construction in 1987–as far as the gray barrier coat, which was still sound. With plans to sand and paint the topsides during the 2020-2021 winter, I knew I’d be able to further sand and clean up this area then. Once I’d removed the bottom paint and cleaned up the messy spoils, I lightly sanded the boottop as needed to accept new paint–paint that just had to work for this season, so my level of preparation reflected the immediate future plans.

After cleaning up the boat and shop, I turned to the day’s coat of maintenance varnish. This time, I applied another coat to the after piece of engine box trim (which I’d stripped bare a few days earlier), a second coat on the back sides of the bi-fold companionway doors and overhead hatch, and a first coat of maintenance varnish on the remaining small parts: rod holders, binocular case, cockpit trim pieces, and access hatches.

Next, I masked off both sides of the boottop and applied a coat of gloss white paint, the first of probably two total coats needed.

Total time billed on this job today: 6.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 37° Forecast for the day: Cloudy, 48°

Wednesday

I got started by sanding the new varnish I’d put down last time, including the windshield patch repairs; handrails; forward hatch frame; anchor platform; helm trim; companionway; and the engine box trim. Once the sanding was complete, I vacuumed and solvent-washed as needed.

Later, after final preparations, I applied another coat of varnish to these areas.

In the time between sanding and varnishing the trim on the boat herself, I worked in the woodshop to clean up the shop and benches and vacuum and solvent-wash all the companionway and loose trim parts that I’d sanded earlier. With things thusly prepared, I applied a coat of varnish to the back sides of the louvered companionway doors and the companionway hatch covers. I left the remaining small pieces for another time.

Total time billed on this job today: 4.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 30°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 58°

Tuesday

I finished up with the masking around the inside of the windshield, helm area, and the engine box, then moved out on deck and masked the windshield as needed in all areas. With that complete, I could lightly sand the small spots of varnish I’d repaired in various areas, and apply a second coat. I hoped to get a third coat on later in the day.

Meanwhile, I finished up the masking around the forward hatch, handrails, and anchor platform.

After final surface preparation, I applied the first maintenance coat of varnish to the helm and companionway trim, handrails, engine box, forward hatch, and anchor platform, along with a third spot coat on the windshield repairs (and aft piece of engine box trim).

To finish up the day, in the woodshop I sanded all the loose trim pieces I’d removed earlier, preparing them for their own maintenance coats of varnish in the near future.

Total time billed on this job today: 7 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 30°, cloudy, light dusting of snow overnight. Forecast for the day: Cloudy with chance of rain or snow, windy, 53°

Monday

Picking up where I left off, I began by stripping, then sanding smooth and clean, the port toerail. The owner was seriously considering leaving the toerail bare, as he was intrigued by the combination appearance of some bright/some natural (not to mention the ongoing problem with the toerail varnish failing at the deck edge), so I over-documented the condition of the rail from various angles to show the condition and character of the bare wood.

To augment pictures from last time of the starboard toerail:

Similarly, the owner was contemplating whether to also leave the eyebrow bare, so I took additional photos of the trim’s condition on both sides.

Moving on, I worked next on the handrails, forward sides of the windshield, and the forward hatch surround, sanding these as needed to prepare them for maintenance coats of varnish. I had to scrape away a few small areas of failed varnish on the windshield, mainly at the wood seams near the corners; this coating was getting rather long in the tooth after 11 years since the last total re-do, but the owner wanted to stretch it out for another year or two based on his long-term plans and upgrades to the boat, so I planned to patch in these small bare areas before recoating the entire windshield with several maintenance coats this time around. This treatment was far from idea, but it was what was needed at the moment.

I also removed the anchor roller and sanded the varnished anchor platform, which we’d decided to leave bright, as needed to prepare it for maintenance coats, though I didn’t seem to take any pictures of this.

Continuing, I moved into the cockpit and worked on all the necessary prepwork on the inside faces of the windshield, plus the companionway trim, engine box, and adjacent areas as needed. I had to strip the after piece of trim on the engine box, as this was in poor condition, and also spot-scraped a few small areas on the windshield, much as I’d done on the forward sides.

After vacuuming and solvent-washing all areas, I got started on some of the masking, beginning with the tightest, most difficult areas on the aft side of the windshield and behind the helm area, along with the engine box trim and some of the other windshield areas.

After a while of this, and with the day growing short, I wanted to get a sealer coat of varnish on the various bare patches I’d scraped and sanded on the windshield and elsewhere, so before knocking off I took care of this. I wanted to get several spot coats on these areas before I started with full maintenance coats.