Plumbing

The plumbing is moving right along. I tee'd off of the head intake pump and ran a line forward into the anchor locker for a deck wash-down and ran a line to the head sink for a seawater tap. There is no discharge anywhere near the intake thru-hull to contaminate the water. The toilet discharges into the holding tank and then the holding tank will have a discharge thu-hull and deck suction fitting aft near the cockpit.

The fresh water tank is located under the V-berth and I needed to vent it but did not want the vent outside the vessel and possibly contaminated with salt water etc. I ran the vent to the head sink and plumbed it into a brass spigot at the sink, that way its inside the boat and if the tank is overfilled the overflow goes harmlessly down the sink. We installed a whale foot pump for the head sink. We could not reach the lower fastener on the foot pump to install it so we cut a thin piece of aluminum and mounted it to that and then fastened the aluminum into place. 

We plumbed it to a chrome plated spigot at the head sink.

V - Berth

The V-berth is coming along nicely.

We cut Jatoba planks and used a thickness planer to clean them up and get them to a uniform size.

They were sanded up to 320 grit disks then several coats of Poly Wipe was applied, sanding with 600 grit every three coats thereafter. We have all but the little pieces installed now. They were screwed into place without any compound so that they can be easily removed to access the wiring and plumbing behind when required.

A fresh coat of paint was applied to the berth and the hatches were installed.

Cabin Sole

We had kicked around the idea of making a nice floor out of strips of Jatoba with iridescent wire laid between the strips for a nice lighting effect. We have all the materials on hand for it but decided that while it would look really nice, it would not provide for good footing at sea. So we decided that a good utilitarian floor with non-skid would be better suited for the task and set about installing one.

We made templates of the floor and transferred it to 3/4 inch plywood and cut it out. Hatches were cut out of the floor to allow access to the holding tank fittings and bilge spaces and the pieces were sealed with a coat of epoxy. Once cured they were laid into place with a thin strip of foam around the edge to prevent a hard spot against the hull and a strip of glass tabbing was applied along the edges bonding it to the hull.

The floor was faired and then a coat of Kiwigrip non-skid deck paint was applied. The non-skid will provide a good grip underfoot while at sea and a small strip of carpet runner can be used in port to "gussy" her up a bit and provide for a softer footing. The only thing I've never liked about an aggressive nonskid in the cabin is that its a bugger to clean when the cook loses a pot of custard (an offshore favorite of mine) onto the floor......but better to have a tough cleaning job then an injured crew that slipped on a slick floor with a pot in hand.

Rudder Tube

Once the rudder was off the boat we were able to inspect the tube. There was a "hole" in the top of the tube below the packing gland near the bottom end of the tube. The bottom of the packing gland fitting was clearly visible. They had used some kind of putty or sealant that was blue in color and had become soft and degraded over the years and was falling out in little chunks. The area was picked clean of marine growth, shell remnants, dried algae, etc. and sanded as best we could given the tight location. The old compound was picked out  so new material could be added. West system epoxy was used with a 50/50 mix of colloidal silica and graphite powder and was pressed into the void to fill the hole and renew the flange seal.  A wooded dowel that was the same diameter as the rudder stock was coated with a mold release agent and pushed up in place of the rudder stock.

Once the epoxy was cured the dowel was removed and the repair inspected. The graphite and silica mixture provides a low friction bearing surface against the stock and has filled the void nicely.

Propulsion System

The old propeller shaft was a little worse for wear so a new Aquamet 22 shaft was ordered to replace it. The Stern tube assembly was removed and the old cutlass bearing was pressed out and a new one installed.

I wanted a dripless coupler but could not find a stock one with the correct shaft to tube sizing so I called the folks at Fisheries Supply to see what they suggested. They gave me the number for PYI, the manufactures of dripless couplers and suggested I give them a call. PYI said "can do" and had a custom one built for me at no extra charge and sent it out within the week. The old stuffing box will be tossed in a locker and kept as a spare.

 I'm going electric for the propulsion system and needed to replace the propeller but was unsure of what pitch I should use. I emailed Michigan wheel, a popular propeller manufacturer and gave them all the specs for the vessel and drive system. They had their design team look at it and a week later they came back with the response; use a 12x10 machine pitch propeller with a 7/8" tapered bore to fit my shaft requirements.

The machine pitch style has nice big rounded blades that are ideal for vessels under fifteen knots.

I asked our local prop supplier to get one for me. What showed up was a used beat up speed prop that looked like someone had taken a hammer and a grinder to it. The only thing it was appropriate for would be a door stop! I sent it back and specified new and gave the specs provided by Michigan Wheel. They are a Michigan wheel dealer so I figured it would be an easy sale for them. They stopped by a week later to drop off some props for another vessel and told me mine was a "Bastard child" and not available and the only way I'd find it was if someone had an old one on the shelf for years they would love to get rid of ......good luck finding it.

I told him that I thought that was an odd response given that Michigan Wheel had just spec'd it out so it must be available. He shrugged his shoulders as he headed for the door "I don't know what to tell ya, we don't have it and cant get it".

As soon as he left I went online and Googled it. Two sites came up with good results, one was in Portland Oregon and one in Florida. Deep Blue Yacht Supply Inc. in Forida was more than a hundred dollars cheaper for the same prop so I gave em a call. They were very knowledgeable and said it was no problem getting the prop however it is a special order and will take six weeks to get it made and shipped. I ordered the prop and shaft from them.

The shaft arrived promptly and looks good. I would have prefered the keyway to have radius corners and the end ramped but it seems hard to teach and old marine machinist  new methods......they want to stay with what they know works dang-it! I'm sure my shaft won't be the odd one that fatigues and cracks from the non-radius corners.....and the prop wont bind on the non-ramped keyway.  Once the prop arrives we will install the shaft and lap the prop to the shaft.

Sue Nelson has been working on the design of the reduction pulleys and drive belt for the system. Sue is an Application Services Specialist with Veyance Technologies Inc. They deal with power transmission products. Sue spec'd out the appropriate components for the system and we should get them ordered next week.  We are using a belt system with two pulleys and an idler and two to one reduction.

Gary made a template out of plywood  and the motor mounts, test fit it and made a few reference marks on the hull for their placement. Once he was done I climbed aboard to make the foundations for the motor mounts. I used some five minute epoxy and glued some foam blocks to the hull under the marks. Once the epoxy had set I used various sanding tools to contour the blocks to the hull leaving the tops flat for the motor mounts to rest on. Bi-axial fiberglass and roving was laid up over the blocks leaving the tops open. Once cured the foam was pried out and the fiberglass "cup" that was left was filled with west system and west 404 high density filler. Once that was cured the top was sanded flat and bi-axial cloth was laid-up down the hull, over the top of the mount and down its side to the hull again, tying it all together. Stainless steel inserts will be fit into the base and the motor mounts threaded into the inserts making for a very strong assembly.

Removing the rudder

To get the rudder out we needed to either dig a hole under the boat or lift her. I didn't think the boss would approve of us jack hammering a hole in the shop floor so we set about lifting her instead.

We fabricated some lifting tabs and welded them onto the cradle to make it easier to pick up with the yard-arm jacks. The rudder fittings were removed and the vessel was lifted about fourteen inches to give the necessary clearances to drop the rudder. We cribbed the vessel in place and supported her well with boat stands.

The rudder was being stubborn and did not want to come out easily so we sanded the stock above the packing gland with 220 then 320 then 600 grit and sprayed some silicone lubricant down the stock. A hydraulic wedge was placed above the rudder and used to gently coax the rudder down and out.

Once out the rudder was placed on the table and sanded down and filled and faired where required.

The "pin" at the bottom of the rudder was completely corroded away, the rest of the fittings were in pretty good shape considering their age.

welding on tabs

going up

removing rudder

down and out

sand, fill, and fair

cockpit lockers

The past few weeks I have not had as much time to work on my boat as I'd like. The boating season is starting early here this year. Its a good thing........last winter brought record snowfall and the season started very late. That short season combined with the recession caused three boat shops here to close their doors this winter. We managed to hang on and are still here but it was a tough year. And although it means a greater market share for us with the other shops gone we will miss the people who worked them. Northern Idaho still has a friendly, small town feel and the shops would help each other out if one had a part in stock the other needed etc.

I have been focusing on finishing the inside of the cockpit lockers.

It seems that I crawl into them and do a bunch of work and at days end I declare the lockers to finally be finished! .........only to poke my head in there the next day and see "one more thing" that I should do before I paint, and back in I go.

There was evidence of the vessel leaking water between the liner in the little compartment below the forward winches. We climbed into the locker and cut out the poorly fitted fiberglass that was used as the bottom of the pocket and then used a small sanding disk in an air die grinder to clean up the pocket.

There was a significant gap in the forward end of the pocket where water had been leaking in so we mixed up some west system epoxy with west 403 chopped fibers into a snowball like consistency and pressed it into the gap. When mixed like that the epoxy doesn't drip and can be handled and formed easily and when compressed into the gap it oozes some resin out of the edges making it easy to tool and adheres and seals really well.

Once the epoxy had cured it was scuffed and two layers of bi-axial cloth was applied.

We laid up two layers of cloth into sheets and while waiting for it to cure we made templates in the locker for the new compartment. We made them deeper, angled slightly aft and put a drain in them. Once the sheets had cured we cut out the pieces and hot glued them in place and filleted them with west systems on the inside and glassed the seams on the outside of the pockets. 

Several holes were filled and repaired where gauges had once lived and the flange of the starboard locker was rebuilt where someone had decided to rough cut the opening to enlarge it to fit something into the locker that was larger than the original opening.

A thru-hull pad and assembly was made as described in an earlier post and one was installed in the aft portion of each locker, the lockers were painted and the deck and winch pocket drains were plumbed.

winch pocket with drain