Getting Her Ready

I have been working on designing the dodger and it isn't going as well as I thought it would. The curves on the tubing are not tight enough and make it look like a bubble on top of the companionway. My engineer told me to make a jig and fill the tubes with sand which will allow me to bend tighter corners. I did find all the hardware I needed on ebay and far less than the marine stores. I plan on using brass screws to mount the frame to the teak atop the companionway. I will try the fit again tomorrow.

Next is to bring all the stuff up from the basement and get the boat back in shape. The cushions, potti, sails, signal flares, life jackets, etc. Once I have everything in the boat, I can see what more I need to stow the gear properly.

I need to do a little cosmetic work in the cabin, but that will be about it. The outside is just about done with the exception of the touch up to the bottom paint. It seems every year they power wash the bottom and some of the bottom paint just blows off. I try to scuff up the surface to get good adhesion but the end of the season, another area will be off. Being the bottom paint lasts a few years and only requires me to touch it up, I am going to have to take it all off one day and prepare the bottom better then the person before me did. I have been using the Micron CSC, but just found Cukote by Sea Hawk which according to them is better. The cost of the product will be the deciding factor.

That's it for this writing.

Plugging along

This past weekend I worked on the teak wood of the boat. The exterior has the toe rail along the deck, the hand rails on the cabin, and the companion way hatch trim. All of these areas were sanded and polyurethaned. Yes polyurethaned! I have tried the teak oil and that actually needed to be done twice during the season, tried marine varnish and that pealed off of the teak before the end of the season, so I needed to try something different. Yes, I heard pros and cons about various products, but it is what works for you. So this year we purchased a super strength poly to try. I'm not one who is interested in keeping the teak oiled, I just need it to remain durable and not require any work until she is back home for the winter. The boat sits on that mooring in the glaring sun all summer and there has to be something that will not wear out before the end of the season.

We also worked more on the deck to try to stop any water infiltration from the rain. After working on the boat this weekend, we had some rain and I did not find any drippings inside the cabin. I hope this means that I cured the problem. I'll check again after the next rain. This was my biggest problem last year. Last year I siliconed the windows thinking it was them, being it isn't, I will peel away the silicon used last year.

I need to work on the mast antenna and mast light. Not really sure how to attack the problem, but I must figure something out. I put a plug in line for the mast, but the marina evidently doesn't check for plugs and takes the mast down without unplugging the wire and breaks the wire. Maybe there is something out there already designed and made for this type of problem.

I plan to build some more storage inside over the nex couple weeks. I need storage so things are not loose in the cabin as healing over throws loose items around. I also think I want to place a carpet or something on the floor to make it look a little homier.

That's it for this week, we'll keep you posted.

The boat still needs a good cleaning and that will be the last thing before we bring her to the marina.