Sunday, June 24, 2007

Sanding and more sanding, inside and out!

aChris and Tyler have gotten the hull sanded down to the final two layers of old bottom paint. They are taking care and are going down through the layers slowly. They alone have done the boat from the waterline down and have been staying with the project and are doing a great job. THANKS GUYS!! They have kept me motivated and on task on the interior while they sanded the hull. I used a Dewalt 60 grit Zirconia Flap Disc in a 4" electric grinder and sanded down the old tabbing on the interior. The flap sander made it a simple task although it did make for a lot of fiberglass dust. I'm starting from the bow and working my way aft.
I used an air DA with 180 grit disks to sand the gelcoat in the chain locker. It made a lot of fine and heavy dust that drifted down the hull and gathered in the V of the bow. I stopped often to vacuum it up. The dust clogged the filter of the shop vac very quickly. I had to stop and clean the filter more frequently than I would have liked. The gelcoat dust on the filter was so evenly dispersed it resembled frosting on a cake and formed a layer 1/4" thick rendering the vacuum useless after only a couple minutes use. I wanted to reinforce the hull-deck joint from the inside with West system epoxy and biaxial cloth. To do this it required the removal of the gelcoat and a good scuffing-up of the glass that was not gelcoated. The area is hard to get up into with power tools. I tried a variety of tools without success, they were too big or chucked at the wrong angle to allow the bit to get into the small space. I purchased a 120 degree die grinder and tried a variety of accessories (pictured above) to get into the space. The large wheels (upper left) where too much for the die grinder and immediately stalled it out. The die grinder would operate with light pressure with the medium sized flap wheel (lower left) but the pressure was not sufficient to get the desired results. The wire wheels (lower right) worked very well but tended to cut groves along the edges of their diameter. I finally settled on a one inch diameter flap wheel (pictures in the die grinder); it worked very well, was easy to control, and wore itself into the shape of the area I was sanding which made it easier to control.

 
We have been using 3M respirators with particulate cartridges when we sand (pictured above) and change the cartridge type when we use resins etc. We wear Tyvek overalls with hoods and buy the XXXXL size. Even the skinniest guys on our crew prefer the largest size. Yes, they are baggy when worn in the warm season (without coats on). But they allow for a lot of air movement inside the suit to help keep you cool and we rarely tear the crotch out of them when bending or stretching into awkward places (an all to often occurrence with the smaller sizes). Head socks and rubber gloves complete the ensemble.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

We'll sand the hull for Monsters!

I was sanding the topsides the other night when my stepson Ty (16) and his buddy Chris (18) stopped by and found out I had a few Monster brand energy drinks I had bought for the road and had not drank, to me they taste like paint thinner. They love them and said they'd sand one side of the hull for two each! They reacted just like Scooby-Doo getting a Scooby snack! "we'll do the whole boat for Monsters!" They offered to sand the boat while I was at work but I didn't want them hitting the hull when I'm not there to watch,.......or else they would probably think; if 180 grit is good, 80 is better, and 40 is best!! They'd flatten her round bits in no time! They arrived the following evening as scheduled and got busy. Ty on the DA sanding the hull and Chris on deck removing the cap rail. When Ty realized how much work was involved in sanding the hull there was talk of a mutiny and I had to think fast and get some pizza's coming to quell the uprising. They both did a good job and within a couple hours we had the entire rail off the boat and a good portion of one side of the hull sanded.


This is a picture of Ty doing his first bottom job when he was eleven years old. He's a good worker and I sure appreciate having him around to lend a hand!

Monday, June 18, 2007

Interior blues


This is a picture Kim took of me getting a feel for the interior layout.
The drawings were provided by Hugh McCormack; a fellow Alberg 30 owner (hull #39) from Newfoundland Canada. Thanks Hugh!! The drawings have been a tremendous help, I had them laminated and refer to them daily!


The interior looking aft

The interior looking forward

Sanding


With the cradle lowered onto the ground I started sanding the hull to remove the Grey primer from the waterline up. I still have to level the boat and support the front of the cradle,...but I just had to get started and unmask her boot-stripe and previous paint scheme.

Unloading the boat (photo's by Carl Riegert)


The cradle has been lifted off the trailer using the "yard arm" jacks and the trailer moved forward and out of the way.Lowering the cradle onto the ground.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Going to get the boat!

June 6th, 5:37 pm. Hitting the road for the long drive to Cleveland Ohio to get the boat.
The weather forecast suggested we would encounter extreme conditions; snow, high winds, rain, hail, lightning, and tornado's!

Going over the first pass the temperature dropped to 32 degrees and we found ourselves entering a blizzard. The visibility soon dropped to only a few feet in front of the vehicle.

Almost halfway there! The weather is torential rains, lightening, and high winds.
Gary transferring diesel from the 100 gallon tank in the pick-up box.
I measured the wind speed with a hand held gauge; 40 knot's sustained, gusting to 50!
Frank, the previous owner of the vessel met us at the marina to transfer the boat from his trailer onto ours. He is a kind and generous man who refused the offer of payment for bringing the boat to the marina and helping with the transfer, even though he had to drive a good distance to get there!
The travel-lift operator was a shirtless obnoxious fellow who appeared very put off and inconvenienced by the prospect of actually having to get off his ass and do some work.
When he did the lift he was often confused and got his "right and left" mixed up and had one hell-of-a-time performing this simple task. He compensated for his apparent incompetence by shouting obscenities at us, the customers, and at one point told us we looked "F****** retarded!" while we were pointing in the direction the boat needed to go to be lined up straight on the trailer,......which was of course the opposite direction than he actually moved it.
The large tip I had taken from my wallet and placed in my front pocket to give him when we were done stayed in my pocket.

Ready to lift




We got the boat loaded onto our trailer. The lift operator asked if we could strap the boat down in the lot across the street. We had just finished strapping her down and the heavens opened up and let loose a torrential downpour!

We had drove straight through from Idaho to Ohio and after loading the boat. Gary and I were very tired. We drove a few miles to a local hotel, got a room and got cleaned up. Gary bought us a celebratory dinner in the hotel restaurant and we feasted on gourmet foods and toasted the successful first half of the journey.

Halfway home we had a blowout on the trailer and had a 30 minute pit stop to change it out.

When the tire blew it threw rubber onto the hull. You can see the black marks in the picture where the rubber bits bounced off the hull.

Along the way we watched several truck drivers bounce off the rumble strip as they dozed at the wheel. This fellow (lower right in the picture) went right off the road and dug a deep furrow in the meridian. Fortunately, he was able to keep the truck upright.

They were trying to figure out how to get him "unstuck" as we passed.

On the home stretch! The weather is beautiful.

We made it! Home at last!




























Building the cradle Part Two


June 2, 2007

We set a departure date of June 6th to fetch the boat and got busy finishing the cradle.

tack welded
Cradle mock-up inserted into trailer
Welding the cross beams

Laying the rails.

Friday, June 1, 2007

May 28, 2007

We managed to get half the shop done but still have to insulate and complete the other half.



Had a little cash burning a hole in my pocket and thought it's be a good time to go shopping for tools! There were plenty of memorial day sales and Kim and I grabbed the flat-deck trailer from work and headed out to Lowe's, Home Depot, Sears, and various other stores looking for good deals. We bought a 14" band saw, a table saw and stand, miter saw and stand, a router, circular saw, a variety of clamps and misc small tools, some OSB boards and peg boards and hangers.
We spent the weekend putting up sheets of OSB and peg board and assembling the tools.


May 25, 2007

We sold the ol' 1971 Parrothead motor home to make room in the yard for the Alberg 30.
It was priced to sell and the first person that saw it bought it!


I Have painted the boat to scale (more or less) in the grass in the back yard to get a feel for the "footprint" and placement once we get it home. My wife Kim and I have placed patio chairs in the "cockpit" and sat there chatting about the sea and the boat. "It's not so little" she says, walking down the painted companionway. I admire her positive attitude and am so glad to have her as my wife. We plan to sail the vessel offshore. I don't think many woman would have positive things to say about the prospect of moving out of a house and into a space that is not much larger than the bathroom in our home!




May 20, 2007

We have the steel all cut and are ready to build the cradle, but just have not had the time.
Hopefully we can start on it soon. There is not much time left before the long road-trip to go and get the boat.