Couch Comfort

Okay, the single best improvement I've made so far. The couch….

Anyone familiar with boats can tell you that manufacturers don’t exactly put a lot of effort into creating comfortable seating down below. And Bayfield owners do not escape this unfortunate problem. Some of it is due to compromises, lets face it, how do you make a seat that makes a good bed, a good sea berth, a comfortable upright position for sitting at the table, and a lounging position for relaxing. You can’t… Well, maybe some kind of lazy-boy, but then how do you put something that big in a little boat.

On our Bayfield 29, the seats(settees on a boat), were shallow front to back, and had a steep back on them. Fine for eating dinner at the table, but very uncomfortable for sitting any longer than that. Then, the back swings up on hinges and locks in the upward position providing a wider area for sleeping, all the way to the hull. Large beds (berths on a boat), indeed, but really wasted space.

As we are going to be living on board, with both of us having back issues, and the potential to be stuck down below for longer than the dinner hour, we needed somewhere comfortable to lounge. On the Bayfield 29, the seats are also used as beds, so that needed to be taken in consideration.

The finish product was a 25” berth, a 21” couch, properly sloped back, a comfortable place to sit, and a great place to sleep, as I found out last night. In fact, I am sitting on it right now while I write this in complete comfort, drinking my morning coffee.

Procedure:

1. Remove and discard the lift up back.
2. Cut the 2” lip off of the shelf that extends out to allow the back of the seat to be lifted up.
3. Spend a inordinate amount of time trying to figure the most comfortable angle for the back cushion, allow enough space for the bed, and work within the confines of the existing space. I mentioned compromise earlier, right!
4. Once I had it all figured out, I made the new back and installed that, complete with large openings for stuffing things behind. Never enough storage on a boat.
5. Extended the base of the couch as far as the existing cabinetry in the boat would let me.
6. Cut cushions from existing cushions, since we went from 4 beds to 2 during this refit.
7. Covered them with our new upholstery fabric, (that we got for $5 a yard, sweet).
8. And tada…..   only 20 hours of work or so.

But man is it comfortable. I don’t imagine it will make a good place to sit at the table, at least not without lots of cushions behind. I am not yet done trimming it out, staining,  making covers for the storage access ports, or installing lee cloths. But that’ll come in time. For now I am just going to enjoy the small little success.

 I brought the kick plate out as far as I could while still keeping it inside the door frames on either end. Added over 5" of space on the aft end, and 1 3/4" on the forward end. Also gave us a little extra storage down low. I'll have to put some canvas covers on the holes after everything is all stained up and the trim is on.

The cushion covers look a little loose. The foam was not the right size for the berth, close, but not perfect, so I made the cushions covers to fit the seat, in case I replace the foam. After all, they are 30 years old. Plus, I had intended to cover the cushions in a layer of quilt batting to increase the comfort of the seats, but I like it just the way it is. Of course there is the irritating fact that the fabric, although nice, is a bitch to sew. The top is a little fuzzy, so it slips in the machine, where the weaved back does not. I tried everything on my machine but could not compensate for the slippage. I guess I'll just have to keep that in mind when I do the rest of the cushions.

By the way I started sleeping with the back cushions in place, last night, and although it would do in a pinch, taking them off and gaining the extra 4” was invaluable. Mind you I am rather large guy, 6’1”, 230 lbs, so I need a little more space than some. For a proper sea berth, the experts call for 22”, so the 21” with the back cushions would probably be better for most folks, but now we have the option, and can quickly change it depending on which crew member is off watch.

TTFN

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….

Back At Er...

Kid in a candy store.

Tuesday last week we put our house up for sale. We had originally planned to keep it and cruise, while our son looked after it, however, due to the nature of the house, and the nature of 19 yr old boys, we figured that we would be better off selling it. What that really means though, is that the house is done, and all my focus can be put toward the boat.

So, Wednesday I went down to the boat to give her a good cleaning, spend the night, look over everything and fall in love with the project again. It is amazing how overwhelming a project of this magnitude can get when there is no consistency to the plan. So this was a re-evaluation as much as anything else.

I started writing a list of everything that needed to be done, but after three pages I needed to give that a break. I figure the list is about half done, if I am lucky.

Things progressed slowly on Thursday and Friday, just trying to find the motivation. By Saturday I had it back. Built the new battery box, worked some more on the fridge box, finished the propane lockers with temporary tops. After I install them I'll design the real lids, but they will be built with a female mold I'll build.

I recharged all of my batteries. The Trojans I bought for house batteries were almost dead, but they were sitting in the garage since January. Note to self, don't do that again....

Anyway, there are so many little projects going on right now that it is hard to discuss just one. I'll try and finish something and then put the process on here.

Cheers for now.

Still Tied to the Land

Wow, I can't believe it has been 2 months since I last put an entry in this Blog. Life has been so screwed up this summer that the boat has gotten neglected far more than it should. I have seen it once in the last 2 months, just to make sure it was still floating. It was, and although she misses us, she still looks pretty on her dock.

Its a long story, and not all that interesting, but we are actually moving forward. This weekend we are off camping for a week in the US, because we just need the break. Then as soon as we get back we are putting the house up for sale. Once it is gone, there is nothing left except the boat. And the travel trailer, but that is part of that long story.

I have managed to get a bunch of stuff done in the shop, the fridge box, the propane lockers, cockpit table, windlass mounts, anchor locker, etc..... But it shows no progress on the boat. September is beautiful for sailing around here, so I have to get her out, and try out the new sails before lift out the 3rd week of Sep. I also have to finish all the cabinets, because it is hard to make doors and cabinet frames without a workshop.

Anyway, we are not gone, just absent on life.

Until later....

Staysail Rigged

At the boat again yesterday, after a 2 day break to take care of some other things. I wasn't going to work too hard though. Its becoming painfully obvious that it will take the rest of my lifetime to finish this refit.

I installed the secondary anchor and bow roller. I put on the rode from the main anchor, so I only have 130', but I needed it to be legal, and that is plenty in the Bay of Quinte, where we hope to be sailing soon. I didn't take pictures, but they'll show up when I do the whole ground tackle installation, eventually.

Then I moved on to the staysail. I needed to measure it up for a new deck bag, figure out the length of the pennant that attaches the tack to the deck, and install the reefing ties. I made a pennant out of rope for now, until I can get my buddy Red to throw one together for me. He has the swage tool and stainless wire for making them up. Found out the shackle is too small for attaching to the reef points, so I'll have to get one with a deeper throat. But otherwise it worked well. Set the reef ties, and tried them out a couple of times. The sail is still really stiff, so it doesn't roll the best, but it'll get easier in time.

Full sail.

 Reef #1

 Reef #2

The only other thing I did was to wipe down the interior a little, to get rid of some of the last fiberglass dust, and put the cushions in the main setees. If I ever get all of the other things done that need my attention, I'll be moving onto the boat to get this refit moving a little faster.

The next couple of days I am in the shop, sewing, working on the anchor locker, getting the truck ready for the big family reunion, etc.... I am hoping to get down to the boat next week, but the weather man is telling me bad things, and we have to leave on Thursday. Guess we'll see.

It could be worse, I could still be working and trying to get this done. I amazes me how little time I seem to have, I can't for life of me figure out how I ever managed when I had to give someone else 50 hours of my time every week.

Live each day to the fullest!

Boom Extension

Anyone who has ever sailed a Bayfield 29 with wheel steering can tell you that the mainsheet was designed specifically to throw the helmsman on their butt whenever they make a mistake. If the mainsheet was centered, then it ran right thru the helmsman. It drove me nuts that first two times I sailed the boat, and I knew that their was no way I could live with it.

A neighboring Bayfield says that he just leaves the mainsheet out to either side depending on the tack, which leaves the helmsman free, but he admits that it diminishes sail performance, and has to be moved around when tacking. Other than that, there seems to be only three ways to combat this poor design. One is to add a few inches to the boom so that the sheet is farther aft. It still interferes with the helmsman, but not as bad. Second is to move the mainsheet to the cabin top, with an attachment on either side, basically two mainsheets that control the boom. The third, and probably the best idea, is to convert back to a tiller. They all have their pros and cons. My preference would have been to go to a tiller, and maybe one day that is what will happen, but for now I took what, to my mind, was the simplest and least expensive solution, I extended the boom by 16".

It was hot yesterday too. Temp 29 degC, humidex 34 degC, sun screaming right at me the whole time. After 6 hours in it, I was done. At least I wasn't fibreglassing.

Started by fishing the boom so that I could put the reefing lines, toping lift, and outhaul in. I am not happy with the current set up, but I'll change it later when I figure out what I want. I just wanted to have those lines in the boom because it would be so much easier to fish them through while the end of the boom was missing.

Then I mocked everything up, figured out what I was going to do, and dove in, drilling holes and filling them with bolts or rivets. I had had a fabricator make the extension for me in the spring, out of 1/8" aluminum. Two 16" inserts for the boom, and then a two piece unit that went over them, and then welded before it left the shop. I had looked at the way others had extended their boom, and then used their ideas to come up with a design that I was happy with, and this turned out better than I had expected.

 Here is the inserts. The first 8" slides in the boom, and is riveted on to the sides of the boom in three places. Everything fit so well, that I don't think the rivets are providing any real strength, they just make sure it doesn't slip around.

 Then the tag lines go through the extension, and it goes over top of the two stiffeners.

 With the end cap and rollers riveted on, and the mainsheet attachment bolted, we have boom extension.

 And here it is done. All riveted, and the lines run. It turned out much better than I had originally expected, and that makes me even happier. I still need to figure out how to rig all the lines in a way that I am happy with. I think I may put all the mainsail handling lines to the cockpit, and all the headsail lines to the mast, but no decision has been made yet. I personally like everything at the mast, but the argument for staying in the cockpit during rough weather is wearing on me.

Its hard to see the old attachment point. I left it on there so that if anything structural ever happened to the extension, I could revert back to the original setup really quick. Also makes a good attachment point for preventer, maybe, it is a bit farther aft than I would like. But more importantly, the mainsheet is 16" aft of where it was, and you can tell by the picture what a difference this is going to make.

While I was doing all this stuff yesterday, the mainsail was up, to make it easier. But I noticed that there was a big pucker in my new sail. That would be really bad since I sewed it. I had accidentally left my tack shackle on my old main when I sold it, and the one I put in its place temporarily is a little long, so that seems to be what the problem is. Worse case scenario I have to resew the tack corner after removing some material, but I don't think it is that bad. Releasing a little tension on the main halyard made the pucker go away, so cross fingers, its a simple fix.

Off gallivanting for couple of days, but hope to be back at it by Friday. The way things have been going, I'll be lucky to get the boat out this summer. Ughhh.... I want to sail my boat, damn it!

We're Back...

Well, the house is done, or at least everything that needs to be done before this fall. In fact when I look outside today, I should find little grass seedlings popping out of the topsoil on the last piece of lawn that we seeded. I even cut the grass last night for the first time, at least on the parts where the grass was tall enough. So that means all my focus can now be put to the boat. The problem is that I am having a hard time shifting gears from house to boat.

We did go to the boat for a few hours yesterday though. Finished up the rigging, tightened it up, and bent on the sails. The new sails look nice. The staysail looks a little large, but I'll check that out a little later.

This is an older pic from when we stood up the mast, but never got on the blog. Serena insisted on taking this one so that I wouldn't forget. I spent about an hour pounding on the pin for the backstay before I finally got it to let go. Then I had to take a drill to it to ream out the hole. It was like someone had glued it in, but I think it was just years of crud buildup. The pin was completely mangled and accidentally fell in the drink on purpose.

So yesterday I started out by attaching the rogue backstay. I had to cut the extension to the right size, after all, I only needed an inch. Then installed it. Problem was that the backstay was bent around the pushpit bar. I can tell by the scratches on the bar that it has been like that for a while, but with the extension, it was that much worse. So I had to cut out the bar. I will have to get a new piece, and some fittings, then put it back in. There is no strength in the pushpit without this bar. As far as I can tell, the pushpit has been bent a few times,  and is not longer where it should be. Oh well, into ones life a little rain must fall.

Then I managed to get the rig tightened up using my handy dandy tension gauge. I set the backstay to 750 lbs and the shrouds to 500 lbs. I'll try that out sailing and then adjust as required. It should put about 850 or so on the roller furler foil, but I'm not interested in do the math.

 Our new mainsail. So excited.

 We got the boom attached. But we were missing the shackle that attaches the mainsail to the mast. I think I left it on the old sail, which I sold to another Bayfield owner in our club. I'll have to get that back, or find a replacement. The boom isn't rigged though. We added an extension to it, but it hasn't been properly attached or setup yet. Thursdays job maybe! I think I will have to grease the slides a little, as the sail didn't want to come down on its own. New slides I guess. It went up really smooth though.

Then we put the furling yankee on. Silly me, when I put the sail on, i didn't check how much rope was on the furling drum, and some had come unraveled during storage, so I had to manually feed about 8 turns into the drum so that it had enough length to furl the damn sail. Pain in my, @$$. But we got her up, furler works good.

Then the staysail. This sail seems bigger than I remember, but it measures the same. It hoisted nice, but with the new stiff/heavy fabric, there was no way it was going to fit in the bag, so I will need to make a new bag here, very soon. Maybe this weekend. I also realized that the old staysail had a wire extension from the tack to the deck, to lift it just a foot, and keep it off of the deck. So I need to get one of those made up. Also, the usual way of attaching the sheets won't work, because we need to be able to move them to the reef points. The only thing that bothers me about that is the steel shackle that will be flying around the deck looking for my head. I'll figure something out, I've dealt with the flying shackles before.

So, all that is left is to finish rigging the boom. Install all of the reef ties for the main and staysail. Make a bag for the staysail, add the wire extension for the staysail, and set up the mainsail reefing lines. I will also need to put an anchor on the boat to be legal, and then we can sail. I'll worry about the lazyjacks at a later date. My goal at the moment is to make the boat sailable, then I can move on to liveable.

And here is the before and after pictures of the life ring. I went with the expensive floating rope instead of the crappy poly. It helps having a rope manufacture right here in town. I was tempted to put SS Minnow on the life ring, but not only is that not the name of the boat, but I thought I might be tempting fate a little too much.

Oh well, onward and upward. Today is in the shop working on boat projects, and taking it easy.