What's on the agenda?
We have been pretty busy so far. We have removed the entire head system, four thru hulls, and more. My wife has an on going blog of the work we have been doing, check it out if you have the time. Would always appreciate any thoughts or advise from anyone who has done a bit of refitting on an older boat, thanks in advance. So what do you have going this off season?
adventuresontheclub.com
Thank you for posting. Looks like I found another blog t follow when Im not out working on mine. Winter has slowed me down a bit but Im not at a stand still. Looks you like you were making quite a bit of progress yourself through the fall.
Good Luck :)
oh, you know how it is....one minute you're drinking coffee and looking at boats on ebay. your mood is pleasantly heightened by the third cup. You throw out a bid.... The next day you're driving Indiana to Michigan with an empty trailer to pick up a winter O'Day 26 project. code named "Fuelless Romantic"
Cold air and rain has slowed us down as well, hope to start the sanding on the port side of the bottom this weekend. Spring is not that far away, can't wait to get her back in the water.
Lance, did you get your new boat home? :)
Winter projects on Seeker include making the pullout double berth a bit bigger, and more permanent with drawers. I need new foam for the bunk (too thin and worn out) and cushion covers (dry rotted after 30+ years) so this seems like a good time for the project. I'm going to make the cushion out of one piece, too, to eliminate the annoying gap between cushions. While I'm at it, custom sized sheets seem in order.
I'll be installing some new carpeting as well. Carpeting used to strike me as a silly thing that made cleanup a bit harder; but now I recognize its' dirt capturing ability helps keep the bed sheets clean.
If time allows, I also have some ideas to rebuild the hanging locker to take advantage of unused space, and build in (actually modify) a toolbox storage area.
Quote...one minute you're drinking coffee and looking at boats on ebay. your mood is pleasantly heightened by the third cup.
Sounds awfully familiar....
We're working on shortening/fitting a used sailcover we bought a while back and installing a Dickinson diesel heater. Also looking at adding another solar panel or possibly using a wind generator that was given to us. Need to tweak a small autopilot that I put in a few months ago, as well as many other projs.
Adam, we have a pull out double berth as well, what is your idea on how to make it a little bigger? I would be interested in your thoughts.
Quote from: Pegu Club on January 18, 2016, 01:18:51 PM
Adam, we have a pull out double berth as well, what is your idea on how to make it a little bigger? I would be interested in your thoughts.
Easy enough, I guess. I earlier demolished the centerline table in the cabin. It got in the way a lot, and was seldom used, so I removed it, opening up the cabin.
There isn't a v-berth on a Bayfield 29. The only double bunk is a pull out on the starboard side. It mostly stays pulled out and is used as my primary bunk. Since I spend a lot of nights aboard, I wanted a newer, thicker, single cushion for comfort, so this was a good time to make a change. I am simply removing the plywood piece that extends the bunk, and am instead building a permanent cabinet there. Since the table is now gone, I can comfortably widen the head of the bed by five inches or so, AND add some drawers underneath which should help greatly to organize cloths stowage. It's nothing fancy, just a funny shaped box with drawers.
I thought about the previously for one of my boat projects...
Have you thought of buying a half decent "memory foam" mattress?
If you got a queen...you could cut it to fit.....
Probably both cheaper and better than buying 4 inch foam.
You can cut thin underlay plywood...about 1inch smaller all the way around.
Take material and turn it over...wrap the corners...pull tight on the sides as you staple it onto the plywood from undernieth. Use SS 1/4in staples.
Looks pretty good when done...cheap n easy
I haven't come to a decision regards the foam, yet. Still researching. I hear that some people find memory foam to be too hot. I've used it as a mattress topper without trouble. I'm not sure.
I have thought about stapling the cushion to a plywood board; but I think it will become a problem when I need to remove the cushion for whatever reason.
We have a folding bulkhead table so that is not an issues for us, i would have to have a bit of a look at things on our new to us boat before i could make such a change. I don't believe there would be space available to widen our bunk in such a manner, thank you for the info. On to hoping for a forty degree Saturday or Sunday so I can finish sanding the hull, holding onto a sander at below freezing temps for hours is not my idea of a good time. :)
If you do use plywood, you'll probably want to seal it up really well with paint or epoxy. We stored a big scrap of 1/4" plywood under our mattress for awhile and it quickly became moldy and nasty from all the condensation under our cushion. I assume cushions made with plywood bottoms would stay similarly wet.
I wonder if with a plywood bottom using thin slats under the cushion for ventilation would work better?
I still don't think I'll go that way. It would be impossible to bring the cushion home in my tiny car when emptying the boat for maintenance or winter layup (not often). But...maybe I could strap it to the roof. Hmmm...
I had resolved not to do much this winter on our boat. Then while we were away in November, we returned to learn that our broke had been broken into and the vandals had been living aboard. Housekeeping was not their strong suite. Apart from looking as though it had been through a hurricane, the damage was relatively minor. However, the soft headliner around the forward hatch is now torn. After 6 weeks of heartbreak, I am now ready to start tearing the entire soft headliner out. This is pretty much the only thing I have not renewed. I will be replacing it with white plastic panels and teak trim. They look smart and are much easier to remove for inspecting the wiring that runs to the mast.
Thats not a good thing to come home to, Hope the work goes easy for you.
@Godot: On the topic of soggy cushions, on our previous boats, we had all-cloth cushions and the bottoms of our sleeping cushions were always wet, sour, and stinky in the cold months. Removing the covers and washing them was a tricky job. I shrunk a few into oblivion. Our current boat came with cushions that are vinyl on the bottoms and woven cloth on the tops and sides. The vinyl still gets wet, but it doesn't stink and it's easy to wipe clean/dry. If you're planning on making a new cushion for your sleeping spot, it's worth considering making the bottom and sides that touch the hull out of non-absorbent material.
Well the weather in coastal CT looks good this weekend. We hope to continue with the sanding below the water line on the port side, hope the forecast holds up.
Finally got the sanding done for the bottom job, Mother Nature relented, and gave us the opportunity to get it done. Now onto the many other things that can be done before the air temps heat up enough to apply the barrier coat, very happy that it's out of the way. :)
Thought I would post an update on my two winter pet projects, both mostly finished, though not quite. I will have to knock out the remaining details when I return:
1. Diesel heater install
I removed our Cozy Cabin Propane heater and bought a used Dickinson Newport from a friend. Installation was pretty tricky. I had to cut a 5 in diameter hole in our deck, plumb stovepipe, make a heat shield out of stainless and mineral board, and install a gravity drip day tank for fuel. Last think is to add a small overflow fuel container. Once done, it will hopefully provide reliable warmth in winters to come. Darn it, now that I'm finished, it's starting to warm up again!
Old heater:
(http://imgur.com/9y511nG.jpg)
New heater
(http://imgur.com/tYj8R9j.jpg)
2. More solar power
We bought a second panel to match our old one. Same size, 25% more power. I guess 10 years of R&D will do that. Anyway, I had to make a new mounting arrangement, so I got the local bimini shop to bend a tube and fabri-cobbled some fittings together to make a stainless arch on our boomkin. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see the same old aluminum pieces re-used to make the new dual-panel mount. Still need to run another wire to the new panel and make some prop sticks to hold it all up.
Old panel:
(http://imgur.com/5u0Cppe.jpg)
New frame and panels:
(http://imgur.com/DvzypX8.jpg)
(http://imgur.com/Nfg6z4z.jpg)
It's amazing how long you can stretch a project out if you really try ;)
Nice job! 8)
The heater install came out looking really nice!
How did you finish the deck penetration for the flue?
Dickinson has a proprietary deck fitting that I bought. After discussing the issue with one of their engineers, he reassured me that flue temperatures were not hot enough to require a water iron. The flue pipe is 3" diameter and so I cut a 5" diameter hole to give 1" air clearance around the pipe. On deck, there is an H-style charlie noble cap. I finished the underside of the deck with another stainless heat shield, backed by high temp insulating mineral board.
It was a pretty tedious project, with lots of complicating factors, but next winter I'm hopeful its worth will become apparent. Maybe we'll be able to stay on the hook instead of tying up at a marina for the winter months.
Your heater install looks really good!
Nothing so glamorous here, just installed the Composting head, counting the days till we get launched :)
A day at the boat where we achieved almost nothing :) started to do several tasks but were thwarted by wrong parts, a little to cold temps, and to many trips to harbor freight, and defender, must have angered the gods in some fashion or another :). Tomorrow we will try again, going to install LED bulbs among other things, wish me luck....
Don't get too discouraged. It's always like that. It's rare that any job gets completed without at least one, and often many, side tracks and problems to be overcome. Winter temps make things tough too. Just be happy you're not living on your boat and have a separate space to work and store tools/materials :)
As they say, ain't that the truth. :)
;D
Replacing the entire deck and cockpit while you lived aboard got a TAD wearing eh?
Would for me too ;D
Ya'll did great
If the weather holds for this weekend we should be able to apply one or two applications of barrier coat, sure hope mother nature works with us, fingers crossed.
Quote from: Pegu Club on March 10, 2016, 10:17:39 AM
If the weather holds for this weekend we should be able to apply one or two applications of barrier coat, sure hope mother nature works with us, fingers crossed.
Living dangerously? You'd be better to wait for stable weather when the night temps aren't dropping to 30. I know a few days of warm weather & I've thought of taking the cover off my boat but this time of year, I know better:)
r
According to the weather reports it should stay warm enough, we will keep an eye on that though. Fingers crossed.
Hope it works out for you brother!
Not warm enough long enough, so we did some other things. Going to clean out water tanks today, install the new deck light bulb (LED sealed beam type) then wipe down the whole interior and vacuum up the detritus of the past projects. My girl has made new winch covers, and we are almost done putting new foam in the cushions covers. Still need to install the new chain plates, going to buy new hardware for that, did not want to use the thirty-eight year old nuts and bolts. Splash date is seven weeks away :).
Up date time, work is progressing, the new chain plates are in, except for one, had to do a small bit of wet core removal and pump some west systems epoxy into a 4"x"4 area around the chain plate hole, waiting for it to to cure out then re-cut the hole for the last chain plate next weekend. We did a final tightening of all the deck hardware we rebedded, replaced the alternator belt and impeller, gave the interior a good wipe down with "Pure Ayre" sent remover, (stuff works real well) the old head system we removed had left a foul sent in our boat, it is finally altogether gone :) We have all but finished installing the water tank hoses to the sinks in the head and galley. Oh and we removed both of the cockpit and sink thru-hulls and seacocks, and have installed the new backing blocks for all four, the new thru-hulls and seacocks are going in over the next couple of weeks. The "Defender sale" is coming up and we will get a bunch of stuff for the must finish projects. SPLASH is on schedule for April 29th. Hope all is well for all of you!
Glad to hear things are coming along on your end. The month will be over before you know it.
Spring is here! Or mostly....we sat out a full gale today in Manteo and along with catching up on sleeping and eating, I finally got to test run our new diesel heater. I'm typing this from our (very) toasty cabin while the north wind blows 20 outside and the temps are in the low 40's.
Weather tower at Manteo
(http://i.imgur.com/bKEAIyz.jpg)
Mona at the free dock
(http://i.imgur.com/29zQy5e.jpg)
It ain't all fun and games out here. Got woken up at 0430 as the norther blew in and pinned our boat to the dock. Took us almost two hours of fussing in the cold, rain, and 40 kt winds to get her pulled far enough off so she wasn't smashing into the pilings. We had to cobble together several lines and long anchor rode and float it downwind from a dock more than 100' to windward of our boat. After much trial and error, we succeeded in getting the line over, only for me to fumble and drop it into the water, straight from my numb fingers. Much cursing ensued and we had to repeat the operation, this time with a little more precision.
Hold on tight to those lines, folks.
Having chainplates on the hull can be heck with a tall dock. As that norther blew the water out of the harbor, our rail dropped below the fixed dock. Our shrouds would have sawed that dock to pieces as the boat heeled if we couldn't have got her off. Having lots of line (floating and otherwise) and an electric windlass saved the day. Woody and I hauling on that line meant nothing in 40+ kt gusts. We're blocking on of the marina fairways, but I'm pretty sure that daysailing catamaran wasn't taking anyone out on a day like today. If we want those 20 kt SW winds, we've got to take what comes after em.
I like the simple boat life and all, but I was reflecting tonight that our boat is a lot more comfortable after spending the winter doing some projects not directly related to seaworthiness. With our second solar panel, we're easily getting 7A when the sun is up. For just our lights, LPG solenoid, and chartplotter/radio, this is more than enough. Our alternator isn't working, but the batteries are still getting charged. I was skeptical about the heater since it consumed most of Woody's time this winter, but it's pretty freakin nice in here. No smell that I can detect. Just lots of heat and pleasant flickering atmosphere. I have my socks off. I made a curtain to partition off the head and V berth, which helps it stay extra toasty here in the main cabin. I haven't finished my galley project, yet, but that's been nice as well. It was so rotten and gross and it's so clean and nice that I rebuilt the area around the sink, built a new cabinet, and redid the counters. I'll post pictures when I ever get it all painted, trimmed, and looking sharp. Anyways, those were three projects we thought weren't strictly necessary, but it sure is nice in here tonight. I'm feeling happy about how we spent our time.
I have so many more things I'd like to work on this summer, but we won't have any 110V for powertools at a mooring. I'll need to make sewing friends who'll let me lug my machine over.
Been in Manteo-Good grocery about 5 blocks away. Enjoy amigo
Quote from: ralay on April 05, 2016, 09:05:20 PM
[ I'll need to make sewing friends who'll let me lug my machine over.
Rach- knowing you gal, that should be no problem at all ;D
Oh, and I have internet back after almost two weeks !!
Congrats on that. We're headed north today - should make Norfolk on Friday. Hope everyone is finishing up and getting out on the water soon!
Woody thats a darn nice looking boat, what is she?
Glad to here your fingers are working after the excitement, :)
Quote from: Pegu Club on April 06, 2016, 09:03:44 AM
Woody thats a darn nice looking boat, what is she?
Glad to here your fingers are working after the excitement, :)
They may be underway and not online-so-
Mona is a Westsail 32 Ralay and W00dy have pretty well re built, while living aboard her.
Here's a couple of pics of part of the "during"
Wow! thats one heck of a job, and well done.
That is definitely a project. God love ya!
Another update, all four new Groco 1 1/2" seacocks, thru-hulls, and backing blocks are installed. We as well installed a new exhaust hose, installed all the new drain hoses for the cockpit drains and galley, the head will be done tomorrow we hope :). The first two coats of barrier paint go on tomorrow, the new lettering for the name on the stern is on the agenda as well.
Hope all is going well for all of you.
Good luck- fixed that problem. Took every single thru hull out(below waterline) and glassed over the holes.
I sleep peacefully:)
Congrats on the progress. Keep it up...the good weather is here!
Your mention of sink drains reminded me...I replaced our aging valley sink hose and sink drain this winter when I redid the counter. The PO had used a regular chromed steel sink tailpipe. It had a solid salt water connection to the bronze thruhull. It was shiny on the outside but crumbled as soon as I grabbed it. I replaced it with and outrageously priced marelon drain piece with a hose barb. So this is a PSA reminder not to be tempted to use regular sink parts.
Quote from: CharlieJ on April 16, 2016, 10:58:58 PM
Good luck- fixed that problem. Took every single thru hull out(below waterline) and glassed over the holes.
I sleep peacefully:)
We had eleven thru hulls when we bought the boat, we removed four and glassed them in, we currently have two sink drains, two cockpit drains, a raw water intake, and a depth and speed thru hulls. In the future we will likely remove the speed and depth thru hulls, and use a shoot through depth gauge, and our garmins for speed, always more work to do :)
I'm looking to do the same. Seal up the head in and out thru-hulls (no longer used with the advent of the composter), remove the speed (never works all that well, anyhow) and depth thru-hulls and seal them up. Shoot thru hull seems to work well enough to justify removing a sink-the-boat point. I'll still have two sink thru-hulls, one wash down pump thru-hull (I really like that one), engine intake and the two cockpit drains. It's hard to get rid of all of them!
Charlie, what do you do for your galley sink? Do you have a lift out one? Or a graywater tank with an above the water pump out?
It's a stainless steam table tray, and lifts out to dump
Do you have trouble keeping water from getting under the sink? Do you use it underway? And how many pieces of silverware have you dumped out? ;D
:)
Never have had that trouble that I know of. The edges sit on a raised lip made of teak
Have used it underway, yes. Not all that often though
None that I know of. If so,, only one or two.
Nice part is I can take it into the cockpit to use on nice warm days, and I do carry an exact duplicate stowed away in case the sink itself gets dropped :) By the way, the restaurant supply place sells them for $18.50
CharlieJ, your sink set up is frankly ingenious, gotta love the price :)
Quote from: CharlieJ on April 23, 2016, 07:02:43 PM
:)
Never have had that trouble that I know of. The edges sit on a raised lip made of teak
Have used it underway, yes. Not all that often though
None that I know of. If so,, only one or two.
Nice part is I can take it into the cockpit to use on nice warm days, and I do carry an exact duplicate stowed away in case the sink itself gets dropped :) By the way, the restaurant supply place sells them for $18.50
Grog for that!!!
It's not winter any more but... Our bottom job is done, only have to put the ablative paint where the popits are, and that will be done this up coming wednsday. It's been a long haul, the boat gets splashed this up coming Friday. Me and my lovely wife have been uber busy since last August, it is about to pay off, could not be happier. :)
We hope all is going well for all of you.
This has not been a good year for boat projects for some reason. Most winters I spend much more time on the boat. This year, not so much.
However, the cabinetry and extension for the bunk are pretty much finished. I still need to build drawers. And new cushions.
Up date, we splashed this morning !!! 😄 Very happy 😄
Hope all is going well for all of you.
Quote from: Pegu Club on May 06, 2016, 02:07:51 PM
Up date, we splashed this morning !!! 😄 Very happy 😄
Congratulations! Guess this means you're spending the weekend on the boat :)
Congrats Pegu!
Now is the time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Hope you two have a good time on the boat this summer.
Why yes Misfits we are,🍹🏝⛵️😎
Pictures..we need pictures...
Have fun kids ;)
I will post pics here for certain, more will be on the blog :)
Congrats, and a Grog to go with it! ;D
glad to here that your boat is in the water, I know your happy
Pulled the winter cover off the boat today, it was nice to see. Had my daughter set he extension ladder up so I could climb up to take a peek. Couldn't bring myself to step off the ladder into the boat. That would involve twisting & it's only been 5 weeks since surgery. Becca popped open the companion way & took a look around. She said it's dry inside & everything looks good. Can't ask for anything more.