Cal 20 restoration - "el cielo"

[el cielo]

I thought you small boat aficionados might enjoy poking around my Cal 20 restoration project. There's still a long way to go, but she's going to be a beauty when she's done.

http://sagehobbs.com/

Since multiple updates to different sites can be a bit of work, I'll post teaser intros here with a link to the entire post. I hope you enjoy.

[el cielo]

11. Let's Get Horizonal

Well, my riblets have healed enough to allow me to crawl around inside the boat again. I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing, though. I had to fiberglass the seams of the bulkheads that I replaced, and once I'd glued them in, they effectively divided the rear of the boat into little 3' x 3' boxes. I then had to climb over and into these bulkheads with about 1' of headspace. The inhumane contortions necessary to crawl around back here are difficult to imagine. You're either curled up in a fetal position or you've got a bulkhead cutting into a random body part. And then your thigh cramps up. Having fun yet? And then I had to lay fiberglass tape and epoxy it all. Thank god epoxy takes time to cure or I would be a permanent fixture in here. If boats could speak, I'm sure this one only knows curse words. Read more...

[el cielo]

12. Raising The Roof

When I went to reinstall the deck support beam, I realized that the deck had seriously sunk and I was going to need to jack the sucker back up if I ever hoped to get the support poles back in place. Using my car's scissor jack again, along with a scrap piece of steel conduit, I was able to raise the beam back to its original location. I temporarily attached some of the fasteners to make sure that the beam stayed in the correct location. I really don't want to drill more holes in the deck. I was quite surprised by the amount of force needed to lift the beam and bend the deck back into shape, but I'm really glad that I rebuilt the lower support structure now! Read more...

[el cielo]

13. Working Vacation

I needed to see some serious progress so I took a week of vacation to work solely on the boat. First up was sanding and painting the bottom. I'm not sure if you can imagine what it feels like to hold a sander over your head for hours on end. My arms ached and cramped so badly. I even resorted to pressing the sander up with my head and only using my arms to keep it in place. Seriously. This went on for hours and hours. Why did I decide to coat the entire bottom with fairing compound? Was this meant as some sort of Zen moment of learning to push through pain? I really started to think perhaps I could go to an employment agency and hire some desperate people to do it for me. Nope. I got myself into this and I'll darn well see it to the end. Read more...

[Chattcatdaddy]

Looking good! Cal20`s are great little boats. What are your intentions with the boat once all the work is done?

[CharlieJ]

LOL- on another computer I have a pic of Laura with grinder in hand Under the boat working away. Also several others taken while we were doing the bottom.

She said, and I concur- "been there, got the Tee-shirt ;D

Wait'll you do it on a 35 foot trimaran! You'll really appreciate that 20 footer :D

Looking good by the way.

[el cielo]

Looking good! Cal20`s are great little boats. What are your intentions with the boat once all the work is done?

I plan on sailing the heck out of her! :) She'll be on Beaver Lake in Arkansas for a year or so. Our goal is to move to Puerto Rico in a few years and she'll be following us down there.

[el cielo]

LOL- on another computer I have a pic of Laura with grinder in hand Under the boat working away. Also several others taken while we were doing the bottom.

She said, and I concur- "been there, got the Tee-shirt ;D

Wait'll you do it on a 35 foot trimaran! You'll really appreciate that 20 footer :D

Looking good by the way.

Charlie you have no idea how much I've come to love her small size! This little boat has been so much more work than I expected. I can't imagine what it would have been like with even a couple more feet.

[evantica]

Nice work!