Progress; They Call It.

Wow, I am so far behind on the blog, it isn’t funny. No, its not funny, its giddy, because so much work is getting done on the boat. Finally, making some serious progress. The next few posts will jump around a little, because to be honest, I don’t remember the time line in which it all happened. Must be old’timers setting in.

However, here is a rather brief synopsis of everything that happen in the last three weeks.

We went sailing. Woo Hoo….. Yes, it’s the only time we got out sailing this year. My son wanted to go out on the boat with his girlfriend, her never having been on a sailboat before. So we went out for a couple of hours and tooled around the bay. We were rusty at first, me with my commands, and the crew with their understanding of what was going on. Okay, fine, it was all my fault, and I said I was sorry. Why is it that the captain is always responsible for everything that goes wrong, and the admiral always takes credit for everything that goes right. Me thinks me gett’d ripped off in this deal.

I have been spending a lot of time at the boat. Living on it for 2 or 3 days a time, putting as much effort as I can muster into getting through the projects. If I don’t get this refit done, Serena is going to kill me, or force me to kill her, I am not sure which, but neither of them seems like a successful outcome, for either of us. The rest of the time I am taking care of domestic chores, (shopping), or working in the shop.

I finally finished the fridge box. In fact Thursday morning I put a coat of 2 part polyurethane pant on it before I left for the boat. I’ll cover the specifics in a later post, but hopefully it will be going in the boat soon. I have to add all the insulation while it is in the boat, because it won’t fit through the companionway otherwise.

I finished the couch, so now I have a comfy bed and a great place to sit and relax. A comfortable place to lounge is worth its wait in gold, especially for those of us who have broken some of our parts over the years.

The battery boxes are glassed into the hull and there is a new top on the port side quarter berth. Now I can design and install all the electrical panels and controls. Finish the nav table and associated cabinets.

Made a new screen for the forward hatch. The original had a broken frame, so I made a new one out of ½” marine ply and a supper fine heavy duty nylon screen. Although I noticed last night that the screen was pulling out of the one side, so I will have to put some adhesive in there to keep it in place.

Replaced the screens and all the rubber seals on the all the opening ports. I was a little apprehensive about doing it, with the cost of parts somewhere around $500.00. But, it was a complete success, if a pain in the butt to get it done. I had to tape the seals in place while I got the rubber placed in the groove, but the manufacturer warned me not put tape on the rubber as it would peel off the first layer. So I put a piece of 1” masking tape across a 2” piece of masking tape creating a 1” strip with no sticky part, and used that to hold rubber in place while I set and closed the port. Okay, I used lots of those pieces of tape, dozens, and had to make it wider on the corners. The forward hatch had to be completely covered with none sticky tape because there was so much pressure on the seal when the hatch was closed that the siliprene glue was squeezing out.

The propane lockers are finished, except for paint, and dropped into the afterdeck of the cockpit. I am going to finish all the cockpit glass work after the boat comes out next weekend, do it all at once, that way I am using the same batches of gelcoat and not 6 different color variations.

And cleaned the boat. Oh boy did I clean the boat. Inside, and out. Although, you wouldn’t know that the outside every got touched. The inside is still pretty good, and I try to keep it cleaned while I work, after all, I have to live here too.

On to the next project….