The Periwinkle and Stargazer Blog

Starting on the thru-hulls for Stargazer

Sat, 19 May 2012 08:31:00 -0700

Next week is a big week as the boat is going to come out of the water near the end for about a week or so. There are a pile of things to do and in that pile there is the issue of getting the current head thru-hulls moved out of the way for a holding tank to be put in. Here is the area that the thru-hulls are now: Both of those are going to be moved into the head area for more convenience and to open up that compartment to fill up with the holding tank. Last time I was there I needed to take a template of both ends of the tank area due to the shape of the hull. It's hard to get the exact shape with just measurements, so a template with cardboard for each end is way more helpful to pass on to the manufacturer. With that I needed to cut one of the hoses out of the way. The bad one... Turns out, there wasn't any water in it (sits above the waterline at that point) and there was nothing more to think about that. I moved the hose out of that area and fit in my cardboard which I could then carve up to be the shape of the hull. With that done, it was time to move into the head area to see what needed to be done there: As usual, the vinyl on the hull was old, moldy (on the back) and peeled off without much of a fight. I'm not sure what went on in here before but there is a long cut line going diagonally from forward to aft there. Either way, all that will come out too. I'll probably take the head out as well and give myself more space to beef up the hull with some fiberglass before drilling through and putting on the new thru-hulls and valves. Lots of work to do..

When you go looking for trouble on a boat...

Fri, 11 May 2012 08:53:00 -0700

When you go looking for trouble on a boat, it's usually not hard to find it. With more interior stuff going on, the galley has ended up looking like this again: It's a catch-all area for stuff that I don't know where to put temporarily. Everything needs to have a place and that's one of the things I worked on this day. Which lead to cleaning up the v-berth. One of the things I want to do is finally get in a holding tank. Not the funnest job on the planet but it has to be done. While scoping out a good spot to put one in, I decided to look around a little and see how things are. As it goes, you never have to look far on a boat to find things that need to be done. Here's a shot of the forward area where the anchor chain comes in from the deck. It seems that whoever put the hole in the deck didn't seal up the edges properly... it wouldn't surprise me if I found rot in the deck around the anchor chain entry hole. It also seems that there was some hardware used that wasn't stainles... either that, or it's just plain really really old. Either way, I'll be working up there soon. Works out well though as I was going to redesign that area anyways as it doesn't have a proper drain for the water that sloshes in when the bow goes under (on big waves) or the drip from the chain and rode that gets stuffed in there after pulling up the anchor. From what I could tell, there is a really old sponge grabbing the water. Yikes. In fact there is rot in the bulkhead just below the anchor chain area due to water buildup I think. Not to mention the piece that is holding the chain back is looking pretty worn out. I want to hide all that and yet still make it accessible. Last in this post, but not least. Guess what this is: If you guessed a tow point, then you would have been correct. Sadly. It's the tow point on the bow that is a large u-bolt. Turns out that due to the drip/moisture from the anchor chain and rode, the nuts have rusted right off the bolt! It looks too that the previous owner just painted right over it. Then of course it's not like I was diligent enough to notice this before and do something about it. So, that needs to be done soon. Although I don't suspect I'll need a tow anytime soon. I can only imagine what would have happened had I ever needed one. Would have ripped right out. So, lots to do and more updates coming in the next bit.

New mainsail for Stargazer

Wed, 09 May 2012 23:47:00 -0700

A quick post to show a nice new crisp mainsail that got put on the boat today: It was incredibly windy today, which is rare.. probably the windiest it has been in a long time and will be for a long time. What a crazy coincidence. The sales guy came down to deliver the sail to the boat and help me put it on and hoist it. I would have taken a picture but the wind was nuts.. so, no chance because as soon as we had it up we had to take it down. I could hear the creaking of the lines and cleats with the pull of the wind on the sail. All in all though, looks great. Very white, very crinkly, the sail cover no longer fits on the sail! It's too bulky now as it doesn't lie flat when on the boom like the old blown out one. The old one actually still crinkles, but the battens are long gone and it does look stretched. I always wondered why no matter how well I was sailing it seemed like everybody else was faster. Most likely this new mainsail should help in that department. Next up will be a few updates on the interior.

Gettin' some glass in

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:00:00 -0700

Copy and paste from Terry's email: Saturday's project was putting the fiberglass mat and roving reinforcing into the keel area. I was intending to put three layers of mat in today alternated with two heavy roving, which is where the strength is. However, getting the stiff awkward roving to conform to such a complicated shape as the keel recess before the resin started to kick off proved very difficult, although I (barely) managed it. The problem with roving on concave shapes is that since the shortest distance from one side of the hollow to the other side is through the air, and the strands run full length, as you press one side into the corner the other side wants to pull away, and you have to pull the strand from the far edge to get some slack. As the resin starts to get a bit stiff, this becomes very difficult. The short strands on the mat enable it to conform to any shape without a tight bend, but it is not nearly as strong as the roving. This is one layer of mat and one layer of roving. The mat adheres well to the existing hull and provide a much better bond than the roving; hence the alternating pattern. The mat absorbs a lot of resin and the roving is rolled dry onto the mat, absorbing the excess resin from the mat and enabling you to press the air bubbles out of the mat. Almost all the resin in this roving came from the mat layer underneath it. Here is a closer view down into the reel sump, which is about 8 or 9 inches deep. The white areas are epoxy putty that was used to fill small holes and fillet the corners before laying in the fiberglass. This photo looking aft gives a better idea of the complex shape of the keel sump. I will cut the next three layers in half and lay them in as alternating pairs overlapping along the centreline instead of trying to make such a large piece conform to a complex shape before the resin starts to cure. It will be much easier to do one side at a time, although for structural reasons it is nice to have at least one layer of roving that runs side to side.

Patchwork on the Periwinkle II

Tue, 08 May 2012 21:00:00 -0700

An update on progress from Terry on the Periwinkle II. It's coming along piece by piece to a state of perfection: Progress inches along. Tonight I reglued the wooden strip along the top of the galley/quarterberth side which was broken away from the fiberglass moulded side. Here a chisel holds the strip away from the fiberglass while a clamp stops the split away area from spreading forward while I apply the glue. And here the glued pieces have been clamped together to cure. Next, time to reinforce the last remaining filled-in through-hull patch on the inside. The through-hull was already patched and faired in on the outside, and appears as a dark coloured donut ring below, with a white epoxy filler in the center. Here the reinforcing patch has been applied. Three layers of mat interspersed with two layers of woven roving, wrapped up the forward cabin bulkhead. Still in the head, some Marine Tex epoxy filler has been applied to some rough areas along the hull-deck joint to make a fair surface with no nasty sharp edges. And finally, a bit of an overview of the portside of the head where the work was going on.

Stanchion repair, finishing work and cleaning.. on Stargazer

Mon, 07 May 2012 21:52:00 -0700

So, within my lately-busier-than-heck schedule, I managed to get down to the boat to do some minor stuff. Well, I wouldn't say it was all minor, I finally wanted to tackle a leak that has been bothering me since I owned the boat. That's a redundant statement obviously.. all leaks bother me, this one just so happens to be particularly bad because it leaks directly on an area with a couple of cushions rather than hitting a table or countertop and making a puddle. Anyways, on the starboard side as I've shown in a past post, I have a stanchion that leaks. I tried to patch it but it was unsuccessful and the only way to do it was to do it right. So.. off with the stanchion. What a mess... As you can see, those bolts have been in there for a while. Rusting for a while too as can be seen, if looking carefully, by the pitting. As usual, the previous owner also thought this area may be suspect as I found silicone on there.. The thing about this particular leak was that it didn't leak down directly under the stanchion. The backing plate was on tight enough that the water had to travel once it made it down the bolt. So, I had a leak through one of the holes where the old shelving use to be. There were two bolts that went through the deck to hold the shelving to the underside of the deck. Here is the post about that. So, all cleaned up here: As you can also see, I drilled out the holes a little bit and then countersunk the top. As mentioned in past repairs of this type, this is a good idea because it allows the sealant to get in there and make a good bond to the hole rather than have a sharp edge. Reattached and cleaned up: To get that on by myself I had to use a box wrench on the top side and sort of jam it against the stanchion in the direction that the bolt was going to turn when I turned the nut on it below. Worked very well. I was rather impressed with myself for coming up with the idea and was very lucky I happened to have along my entire wrench set... A small finishing item I wanted to do was replace the hooks and holders for the table. It turned out that the hooks were fine, so I left them, but replaced the hook holders that attach to the wall: This is what the old ones look like: I couldn't put that back in... A final shot here of the underside where I replaced the stanchion bolts and put on new washers and nuts too. I also wanted to show the hole that was leaking water as I put pressure on the bolts holding the stanchion on. Literally, water was dripping out as I tightened things down. I finally put a paper towel in it to draw the water out. I went through 2 of those and the one in the pic is the third. As you can see, it's half wet already.. Lots of water in there. I'm hoping the osmosis will draw the water out much faster than just trying to let it dry out. I'll head back soon and tighten things up a bit more but I suspect that one day I'll be making a good fix around there with more fiberglass and possibly a larger backing plate. I'll see how the core holds up from here first though. At last, I was able to do a whole bunch of cleaning and here is my galley, all back to normal again and able to be used. It's so nice.

Finished grinding on the Periwinkle II, for the time being..

Sun, 06 May 2012 09:00:00 -0700

Great progress by Terry. I'm not even remotely envious of the next job after this update that he has.. I hate fiberglass and the smell of resin makes me ill.. bleh. Here we go: This is the general area for my second night of fiberglass grinding. The area ahead of and to the right of the vacuum cleaner, and through the door in the head where the grinder and vacuum pickup head are. I am in cleanup mode here after 12 hours of grinding in various awkward spots where I had to be careful not to bump the spinning grinder disk into wiring or other 'do not accidentally hit' spots millimeters from what I am grinding while blinded by the dust buildup on the inside of my glasses. Here I am vacuuming up the dust in the head, or toilet, compartment, between grinding bouts. Since the dust buildup quickly hides what you are trying to see and the fan on the grinder blows clouds of dust around, you have to continually stop working and vacuum up the worst of the dust before carrying on grinding. Grind, vacuum, grind, vacuum, etc. The dust quickly turned the black vacuum white. I positioned a clamp at the base of the vacuum so it wouldn't keep tipping over the edge of the floor. Maneuvering the 2 1/2 inch diameter vacuum hose in the small confines of the boat is like wrestling with an Anaconda. Here the main cabin floor is all vacuumed out and ready to glass. The hull below the galley is now ground and vacummed, ready to reinforce the main cabin bulkhead which supports the mast, and to add the new bulkheads that will support the galley countertop and shelves. The head is vacuumed out ready to reinforce the bottom and lay in some reinforcing patches over the old through-hull hole and where the new through-hulls are going. The machine shop got the new rudder bearings made and I picked them up on Tuesday. They did an excellent job of a very difficult machining job on the thin bearing side walls, and they fit perfectly, just snug on the rudder shaft and the recesses in the rudder post pipe. Talvan Machine Shop: 604-594-1141 or mark [AT] talvan.com (making it a bit harder for spam spiders to grab that). And here the new lower rudder bearing is inserted into the rudder post pipe. The original builders did not grind a flat spot at the forward end of the pipe nor build up any support at the aft end, so I ground a recess into the fiberglass hull flush with the bottom of the pipe at the forward end so the bearing flange could sit down flat on the pipe, and built it up on the aft side with Marine Tex epoxy putty so the flange is supported all around and not just touching at one point at the forward end. I'll clean off the excess epoxy putty later. The putty is not intended to hold the bearing in place; only to support it on the after side. The bearing itself is removable (I hope) ;-) And that is it for today's edition. On to the fiberglass work now that the preparation grinding is done for the moment.

Life can be a grind part 2

Sat, 05 May 2012 09:00:00 -0700

Another of the many updates from Terry: Got in the first outdoor dinner at the picnic table for the year today. Chicken Salad. And then it was on to the grinding. Not fun. Sort of like itchy snow. Got the back half from about where the cabin sole starts aft done today before running out of time. I'll do the forward half tomorrow. This was the ugly part as I had to lie on my back on the quarterberths and grind directly over my head under the cockpit coaming to get rid of various sharp nasty fiberglass edges left over from the original construction, and to prepare the underside of the cockpit coaming for glassing in reinforcing patches under the sheet winch and where various holes had been left by removing superfluous hardware. The vacuum nearly drove me crazy as it is a 'wet and dry' type which has a ball float intended to block the airflow from the collection tank to the pump if you are vacuuming up water and you fill the tank to a point where the ball floats up and blocks the entrance to the pump turbine before it can suck the water through the motor. Unfortunately the designers made the ball much too light, and after a few seconds of operation the airflow would suck the ball up and block the pump, forcing me to shut the vacuum off and wait for the ball to drop clear of the pump, and then it would suck in again after a few seconds of operation, as soon as the airflow reached full velocity. I didn't want to have to take the vacuum apart before completing the job as it was full of fiberglass dust, but eventually I was forced to stop working, empty it out, pull it apart, disassemble the "safety" mechanism, and throw the useless ball in the garbage. After that it worked properly. A typical example of a useless "safety" device that actually renders some tool more dangerous to use, or just plain useless. On most of my power tools bought in the last 20 years I have had to remove or disable some irritating "safety" device that got in the way or made it impossible to use the tool. Like the various "safety" guards that are supposed to prevent you from cutting your fingers ( or anything else) with a saw, but actually prevent you from seeing what you are cutting, or force you to release your grip on a power saw to press some "safety switch button" just as the saw is about to start with a jerk. My rant for the day. Finally, I ground the paint off the upper side of the cockpit coaming where I am going to reinforce it under the sheet winches and at the same time securely cover some old mounting holes left over from hardware that was removed long ago.

Life can be a grind part 1

Fri, 04 May 2012 08:00:00 -0700

The next update from Terry: Having done most of the hammer and chisel work to prepare the areas that need it for grinding, the next step was to isolate the area that was going to be filled with fiberglass dust from the rest of the boat, and cover up what couldn't be isolated to keep the worst of the terrible itchy glass dust out of it. Here I have taped some plastic across the doorway from the head into the forward cabin to keep the dust out. An hour of covering up and blocking off adjoining areas can save hours and hours of clean-up time later. Here I have covered the fiberglassing tools and materials on the port settee with plastic. And ditto the seatback storage on the starboard side, this time with newspaper as it was the appropriate size. This photo also gives a bit of an overview of the two quarterberths and the are under around the hanging cockpit. The engine will go immediately aft of the vacuum cleaner, which gives a good idea of the excellent access to it. The picture also reminds me that I need to cover off the hole below the seat before I start grinding. Before starting the interior grinding tomorrow, I had a number of items on the exterior of the boat that needed grinding, and as it was late at night and I had the shop to myself, I decided to start there so I wouldn't be annoying other people working in the shop and could sweep up all the dust before the day shift arrived the next day. Here I have been grinding the lazarette hatch cover and the tiller box that goes in the aft cockpit bulkhead to provide a recess for the tiller head. I am just starting to sweep up the nasty dust from the workbench and floor. And here are the lazarette hatch cover and the tiller box moved to the fiberglass cutting table. The lazarette hatch cover had been cut away by a previous owner to enable the tiller to protrude through the hatch cover, greatly weakening the hatch cover in the process. I am rebuilding it back to the original specifications. The tiller head box needs some strengthening also. Here I have ground down to the white gel coat in an area of the bow that had a hollow in it. I did this in part to determine whether the hollow was the result of a collision that had been sloppily patched or whether, as turned out to be the case, it was a flaw in the original mould or layup. I was delighted to find the gel coat under the paint, indicating that it was a flaw in the mould and that the hull had not been damaged by a collision. I will fill the hollow with solid glass to fair it out. And here is a self portrait of myself in grinding gear. I also wear light gloves to help keep the glass dust out of my hands, but it does get embedded in my forehead and cheeks. The large glasses help keep it out of my eyes, although they could use 'windshield wipers' as they quickly get coated with dust and everything gets foggy. And here is the workbench and floor where all cleaned up again. For any MBYC members using the shop that might chance to be reading this, this is how you are supposed to leave your work are looking after you are done for the day. All swept up and vacuumed off, ready for the next person. And finally a bit of an overview of the boat in the shop and the freshly swept floor. The Mud Bay Yacht Club has a wonderful facility here at Wards Public Marina in Elgin Heritage Park. It took a lot of work over the past 27 years to get this facility built in partnership with the Surrey Parks Department, and I put a lot of personal work into organizing the boaters into a yacht club and, with the rest of the members, helping build the workshop with "sweat equity". It's nice to be getting some personal use of the facility that I put so much effort into. Makes it all seem worthwhile. Tomorrow: Part 2 of "Life is a grind" - moving into the boat and grinding the interior.

Part 2 of More chiseling and grinding and drilling on the Periwinkle II

Thu, 03 May 2012 11:30:00 -0700

Terry is back to sending more updates than I'm finding time to get on the blog! Excellent! So here is the first of a few: Still working on the hammer and chisel cleanup preparing the fiberglass for grinding.Here I am cleaning up the asbestos & fiberglass mix that was used to top the ballast before laying the glass over it to seal it off. There is a fair amount of chipping away at the rough surface to level it and get rid of the little ridges that create bubbles when you try to lay fiberglass over them. Here is an overview of the hull in the head. While cleaning up rough fiberglass I notice that the patch covering the forward end of the ballast was poorly laid up and loose, so I removed it and prepared the hull in that area for a replacement ballast covering. Here I am prying up the loose fiberglass patch over the ballast in the floor of the head adjacent to the main bulkhead. And here the patch has been removed exposing the top of the ballast. I spent an hour cleaning up the area with the hammer and chisel, stopping to sharpen the chisel a couple of times, but forgot to take a photo of the completed area after vacuuming up the debris.

More chiseling and grinding and drilling on the Periwinkle II

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:10:00 -0700

Terry has a new update for the blog. Big one too as he has been saving lots of pictures up due to lack of time to get them all organized with some quick words and descriptions. Here it is: Having gotten the first permanent section of cabin sole in place on my last entry, seen at the bottom of this picture, I have moved on to doing all the hammer and chisel preparation work required to remove various blocks of wood and other materials before grinding the areas of the hull that need reinforcing with new fiberglass. Here I am prying up the old cabin sole supports/floors so I can access the bilge area above the keel. Some of the fiberglass locking in the top of the ballast was not properly bonded down and needed replacing. Here I am removing poorly laid up glass. And in the head, there is a lot of old flooring, wiring, and blocks of wood to be removed. Here I have unbolted and removed the plywood sole pieces to expose the wiring and floor supports. The old floor supports were pretty crudely glassed in. Here the floor supports have been removed and the fiberglass covering the wiring has been removed, and I am working on removing some ugly old plastic laminate from the forward bulkhead. I have to say that the old contact cement held really well, forcing me to remove the ugly old laminate in bits and pieces, taking quite a bit of the top veneer of plywood with it. Now to get these blocks and bolts off the aft head bulkhead. The bolt heads are all buried under paneling on the opposite side of the bulkhead which I can't easily remove. After removing all the securing screws and light fixtures I was able to pry the panelling far enough back enough to pull the bolts out with the help of vice-grip pliers. The paneling was spaced out from the bulkhead to make room for the bolt heads and provide a home for mud wasps. Next I drilled a couple of larger limber holes at the deepest part of the bilge for drainage and to enable the bulge pump pickup hose to get from the sump to the pump. The forward hole, where the drill is, also gave me access to an otherwise inaccessible spot under the false floor in the forward cabin. And here I am using the iPhone camera to peer through the limber hold at some of the debris that has accumulated there over the past 35 years. I managed to remove most of it with various tools and a vacuum. The iPhone camera is proving extremely handy for looking into areas that I can't get my head into or other see into. Since it has a bright light right beside the camera lens, it can illuminate and photograph otherwise inaccessible spots and then I can check them out on the screen to see what needs to be done. Most of these rust coloured blobs are rusted bolt heads or nuts that have fallen off into the bilge and rolled under the false floor. Here I have managed to grasp some cardboard that had slid under the forward cabin sole and pull it out through the new limber hole. And here is the bilge under the false floor after cleaning out the cobwebs and debris. Here I am starting to remove the block of mahogany bolted to the forward head bulkhead. This once held a sliding seat cover over the head. In the process of removing the rusted bolts my vice grip pliers slipped off a nut and slid under the false floor in the forward cabin where they would have been lost had I not fortunately drilled the larger limber hole an hour earlier. And here it has been removed. Note how the plastic laminate took much of the top veneer of the plywood with it when I pried it off the bulkhead. Lots of cleanup work to be done before I can grind the hull in preparation for laying in new fiberglass.

Almost able to take Stargazer out now

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:30:00 -0700

Good progress the other day on the boat that I thought I would quickly post up. We've been a bit sparse here for a week after a marathon of updates on a daily basis, but it doesn't mean that progress isn't being made on both boats. Talking to Terry briefly he has let me know that he is hard at work but just hasn't had time to get the updates to me. Understandable, it takes time. So, here we go. This update is a good one I think as I finally got a lot of the interior back together and holes filled in nicely. My first item is that the tracks are finally in place permanently: These were a pain as I had tried to use the original bolts but they were too short and had to be removed. Clean up of the duct tape still hasn't been finished but I'm sure after a couple of good sunny days it will be dried out enough to just brush off. The tracks are now on really well with 5200 sealant and the holes are plugged up too with some and the bolts bolted on tightly with the new backing plates I had made up here locally: New hardware sure looks nice. Makes the rest of the hardware coming through the deck look bad.. Here's another quick shot. It turns out that my "temporary" sealing job on the stanchion didn't work. I'm not that surprised but disappointed. So that has to come off next and get bedded down again with the 5200 I have on hand now. While I'm at it, I may do the ones on the port side before I put in the new shelving. Just makes sense to do it before shelving gets in the way. Some nice new shiny backing plates that are slightly bigger than the current ones would be a good idea. While the ones there are good, I think they are minimum size for what stanchions do or can be made to do in emergency times. I also got the table in place finally! What a difference it makes to have the interior back together. A place to sit down, drink coffee, work... eat! The ceiling is in nicely and screwed into place and I managed to get a new main electrical wire behind there in the case I want to have a new connection up forward, or need to replace another one. I put it in behind the plywood to hide it and just wrapped the wire up for another day. A nice shiny white interior without mold and mildew gives a really nice feeling. I can't even remember what it used to look like until I look back on pictures (when I originally got the boat): and: Now looks like this from the other angle: Lastly, I removed the tape that I had on the window to hold the epoxy in the cracks when applied the last time I was there. While it does look a bit messy, the port side is now watertight and the starboard side one only leaks when a hose is sprayed directly on it at the top. I guess the epoxy dripped down from the top a bit and didn't fill it in.. oh well. Better than before. One day when I get the money and inclination, I'll just replace them completely. Watertight is good enough for me though at the moment. Next up is electrical, stanchion backing plates and bedding of them, final clean up, get the new main sail on (which comes in a couple of weeks supposedly) and bottom cleaned. I do need to schedule time to get the boat on the hard, get all the paint off and repaint the whole hull... but that's a big job and needs to be figured out carefully around work and family. We'll see. All in all, great progress, I look forward to finally enjoying the boat rather than just working on it.

Milestones reached on the interior of Stargazer!

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:59:00 -0700

Good progress for this update. I left off on the last post with the interior ceiling piece all done with vinyl. I carted that down to the boat and painted the back of it on the boat as I had left the paint on the boat instead of bringing it home.. I didn't want to wreck the vinyl by putting it on the cement to paint it, so, there it is. On the lifelines. Worked out just fine though, all painted and sealed to reduce the risk of rot or mildew anytime soon: Moving on from there, I tore off all the duct tape to get the hole redrilled for the tracks. I discovered to my dismay that the duct tape would not come off easily and in fact had already deteriorated enough that I was peeling, prying, scraping and wiping it off with acetone for an hour before being able to get any real work done. This one was one of the worst, the others were a bit better. Port side did better it seems, probably got less sun.. Either way, I had now decided that I wasn't going to put duct tape back on the deck of my boat EVER.. and needed to get on with putting the tracks back on with sealant. I picked up a tube of 5200 for the job and got on with getting everything prepped to stick the tracks back in place. While I was at it, I had an old tube of sikaflex that hadn't gone hard on me yet, so I temporarily fixed a minor leak at this stanchion point. This is very very temporary but I have to stop the slight drip that gets in here and leaks down into the boat through the core and down the holes that used to be there but are filled in from above. Those holes slightly down from the stanchion in the picture used to be screw holes for a bracket that held the shelving up. The shelving no longer goes that far back.. so no bracket needed anymore. Leaked anyways. I wasn't aware at the time that it leaked from the stanchion though. That was discovered after I filled in the holes and there was still a drip coming in. Moving on to another annoying leak.. Once I drilled all the holes through for the tracks, I mixed up some epoxy and coated the inside to see if I could get the core and fiberglass sealed up. It's hard to tell how good of a job I did, but I suspect it should help. With that, I took some extra and stuck it in the cracks that I have in the windows. Both sides have a long crack that goes from top to bottom and of course they leak water in. This one is larger than the other side. There is some silicone on the top and bottom from a solution that I tried last year, but since the crack has seemed to have widened, I'm trying this new idea. I hope it works.. The green tape is on the inside of the boat and is there to stop the epoxy from just running right into the boat. While the epoxy smear and the crack itself don't look that great, I'm looking forward to a dry boat for now until I can replace both windows. In the interior where the milestones were finally met, I got on the last coat of paint on the underside of the deck and all the bolts are pushed through with the tracks in place. I put a whole bunch of sealant on each hole after I pushed the bolt most of the way through and then squished the whole thing down in one go once they had all been applied evenly. They stay down pretty good without bolting them down with the backing plates, I'll tighten everything up soon and do a water test. I've read a lot of articles on how you don't tighten everything down before the sealant dries, that way when you do finally tighten it down you are really creating that tight fit with the sealant acting like the gasket. 5200 is pretty tough stuff too, so I expect it to work well. The next interior item that was big for me was the ceiling piece. Being that the aft end part was a slight bit of mickey-mousing.. I had to gingerly put it into place to not exacerbate the line that can already be slightly seen. I also didn't see the gap on the forward end when building this piece at the bottom there, but I'll deal with that in another way I think. I also need to slightly adjust the aft end so that there is a bit more angle to push the bottom in on the forward end. Should be ok. Will definitely look better with the cushions and table back in place. Looks bare now. Shelving too of course. From the cockpit: Last but not least, here are my brand new backing plates I'll be putting in for the tracks. I had these made up at a local machine shop that got them to me the day after I ordered them and dropped off the tracks to cut the holes from. They have a lot of experience with boat stuff so I really didn't have to say much. When he asked me if they should polish them up or not, I responded with a "it doesn't really matter" as I would have never guessed that 316 stainless would polish up so nice as to look like chrome! Like a mirror actually. Amazing job done in quick time at a reasonable cost. My next post will have some before and after pics I think. I'm so used to the new interior now that I have forgotten what it looked like.. Something like this I guess:

Fresh coat of paint looks good inside of Stargazer

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:25:00 -0700

It's that time, time to paint. Finally. I feel like I've been drilling, sanding, fiberglassing, cleaning and prepping for months to get to this point. Seeing it in person seems to be so much better than pics, but let's see if this can do it some justice. First up is the final prep of getting some tape up so I can make a straight line of sorts along where the old, original vinyl is still up. Starboard side too: I even managed to clean up where the old bracket was above the shelf. I think I said it before, but I'll put in again.. I wish I had done this right the first time before getting in my nicely finished galley. What a pain working on it compared to the port side with nothing in the way to get some push on the sanding or fiberglassing etc. There's a difference, that's for sure. Either way though, all cleaned up, holes filled, old vinyl removed, sanded and cleaned to be taped and prepped for paint. Here is the first coat, not bad, good improvement: I also painted the area below the forward seat for a second coat, looks much better: The starboard side: If you look on the right side of that pic it becomes so much more obvious the shoddy workmanship of the fiberglassing job. I'll fix that one day.. not this time though. Forward of that: Sure was a pain working around my nicely varnished woodwork.. crap. I have to go back and do little bits here and there around the edges. I'll leave that to last when I can get the boat cleaned up a bit more so I'm not leaning on tools etc while concentrating on areas that are hard to get to and are slow to work on. I also did the final fitting of the ceiling piece and took it home to put vinyl on, I've already documented the process I go through when I did the starboard side, here are a couple of pics showing it done in the evening. Both pieces prepped and ready to bond with contact cement (make sure to use wax paper between them when you put them together so you can roll it out in stages, otherwise you'll get bubbles for sure): All done: Next up is to get to the boat and get it in, remove the duct tape, clean up, drill out the holes for the tracks, paint one more coat of paint on the underside of the decks and get the tracks on. That's the next post I'll be making.

Working on the sole of the Periwinkle

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 23:29:00 -0700

Terry has a new update for me to post and it has to do with the sole of the boat. Now, this seemed ripe for a good joke of some sorts about the soul of the boat.. but, it's late, I don't think I can do it justice. Either way, here is the update as written by Terry: **** The last couple of days I have been getting the aft end piece of the cabin sole (floor) made and installed. This will make it easier to move around in the boat, particularly when getting in and out, as this section of cabin sole is at the bottom of the companionway (main hatch). The first task was to get the plywood sole board cut to approximately the correct shape for test fitting. I first determined where I wanted the finished sole to end up in terms of elevation, or height, and then where a line at that level would come on the inner side of the hull both at the top and the bottom of the 3/4" thick plywood. From there I measured the distance from the centerline to where that line hit the hull every two inches, and drew a curve through the points to get the rough shape for the top and bottom of the plywood piece. Having traced those shapes on the top and bottom of the plywood, I roughed it out with a jigsaw, and then planed it to the approximate shape for test fitting. The next step was to test it in place and see whether my cut was approximately correct, and make any necessary adjustments to get a good fit against the hull. I used my iPhone camera to look at the underside since I couldn't get my head into that location. Here it is fitting about as desired for sitting on the fiberglass mat that will secure it to the hull. The strange bridgework structure above the plywood is looking up at the rafters of the maintenance shop through the open engine room hatch. Part of the fitting was to ensure it was level and lined up with the old floor support pieces that are being replaced. With the test fitting and fine tuning to the exact shape of the hull completed, I fiberglassed the underside of the plywood and secured the support board for the removable section forward of this permanently fixed piece to the bottom of it. The curves on the right side of the plywood reflect where the hull is a bit thicker over the backing above some filled in through-hulls which were removed as part of the refit. While I was working on the cabin sole, Marlise was giving the lazarette a light sanding to prepare it for painting. Here I am laying out the fiberglass fillets that the plywood will be bedded down into. And finally here is the aft cabin sole piece permanently mounted in place and faired into the hull with fiberglass fillets along the sides blending the edges of the plywood into the hull. The semi-circular cut-away at the aft end is to allow any water or fuel spills from the engine and fuel tank further aft to make their way forward to the sump in the keel recess below the cabin sole.