In the Yard Day 4.....Bowsprit and caprail

Today I spent floating between 2 projects. Because it was Easter Sunday I didn't want to make a lot of noise drilling so after my morning Joe, I went to work on the caprail.

I cleaned it up, removing 20 odd screws and removed the genoa track.

I had to use vice grips on top and underneath inside the boat.

As you may well guess, I gave up on a couple of them

At this stage I felt like a morning cup of tea, so I fired up my new stove and made myself a cuppa!

Don't look too closely because there was so much dust in the air I switched halfway through to bottled fruit drinks and green tea.
Next I unscrewed the damaged caprail and cut it off cleanly.

 Time to switch jobs. I had to drill my epoxy sheet for under the bowsprit and cut it to fit.

That stuff is rock hard. Thanks to Dani and Tate of Sundowner for the tip.  Their URL is      http://sundownersailsagain.com/return-of-the-bowsprit/ on the internet.
I tried to stick it down with 3M 4200 first of all but the new tube I had must have been old because it didn't flow. So I switched to Boat life life seal.

Here is the second sheet on the under side of the deck.

As you can imagine, the holes didn't line up so I had to do some more drilling.

So now I switched again, back to the caprail project. Now the damage meant that the bulwark was an inch away from the hull so I used my car jack and some clamps borrowed from a kind neighbor to close the gap.

So now I needed to put screws between the two and I used a special bit, and butyl tape.

Look closely at the profile of the left hole and note that there is plenty of room for the screw and seal.

After screwing about 20 screws in, I poured epoxy in all the gaps and left it to set.

I inspected the bowsprit again and the the parts were all loose so I had to bring out my secret weapon to anchor it all together.

It is supposed to rain to night so I ran up to Wally World for some long rubber bands to seal my leaky port holes. Unfortunately they didn't work so I improvised with some steel wire.

We will see tomorrow how well they work out. Meanwhile I am enjoying some real greens for dinner for a change. Salad and frozen vegetables followed by blueberries. What a treat!

Epoxy, Upholstery, and Stove

OK today is day 3 in the yard. I had a bad headache from all the sun yesterday I think. I normally never get headaches but I my forehead felt a little burnt so I took a couple of baby aspirins about 9am. It still hadn't gone away by 10am so I took another couple and that got rid of it.

So anyway, the upshot of all that was that I really didn't feel like going outside in the hot sun so even though the bowsprit is a priority, I chose an indoor task. Anyway from what I have read, epoxy penetrates into wood better when it is hot so the afternoon is a better time to do that task. So the stove. Firstly, I am scared to death of propane gas explosions so I was ultra careful. I spent $200 yesterday at West Marine, buying a solenoid and a 10 foot propane hose but it wasn't enough. I still needed another part. So I needed to go searching. Trouble is, my 250,000 mile '96 Saturn is idling at 3000 revs. So before I could do anything I had to fix it. Looked up the web for 30 minutes and discovered that the problem was the engine coolant sensor and that all I needed to do was disconnect the battery. So I did that and I was on my way to Ace hardware. It took me 30 minutes to find the part and then I went to the RV center around the corner and bought some butyl tape and I was back to the marina before 10am.

So here are all the parts with the stove upside down to work on.

I wanted to rig it up first to test it out and when I turned it on I could smell gas so I shut it off. At that stage I was going to take it outside however I went over all the connections again and found one that I hadn't tightened down. So I tried it again and success! It worked!

So now I had to run the propane hose through the back of the stove and up into the cockpit.

What a pain that was.

How is one supposed to crawl up in there?

So anyway at least it is working now. I actually am looking forward to brewing my first cup of tea.

By the way, the task is far from over. I have yet to hook it to the fiberglass tanks, in the plastic locker you see on the caprail and there is the solenoid valve to hook up yet.

So anyway on to the next task.....Epoxy. Do I look scary or what?

Now I have never done this before so I laid out all the parts on the ground so if I spilled anything it wouldn't matter.

I had intended to use penetrating epoxy but in the end I just used the ordinary $15 stuff from Home depot. 

So my technique for the drill holes was to pour epoxy down the hole into a container and use a fat brush inside the hole.

I did it twice, letting it dry in between and pouring from the other side on the second time.

Next ..........Upholstery. My cushions inside the boat are wet, with torn backing, moldy and have had it. So I went and saw Dorothy, a Canadian American here at Green Cove Springs Marina and she came and looked at my cushions and said if I reused the foam and ordered the fabric online she could begin work on them. 

So I ordered 20 yards of crypton texture earth light brown ribbed from new toto stores for $275

Hope it looks OK. Ok one last thing........ I have 3 barometers in the boat. Three. Not 2, not one, but 3.

Now only the weems and plath seems to work........so why on earth are the other 2 here? Its not just them but the whole boat is full of stuff.....broken stuff. I am reluctant to throw out junk just in case I need it......but I am fast getting to the point where I am going to clear out half of the stuff in this boat.

Bowsprit day

Today was the day for replacing the bowsprit. First the Tiger 555 Windlass had to come off.

Next I had to take remove the half inch bolt that passes through the samson posts either side of the bowsprit.

Ended up being a real challenge and thankfully my kind neighbor lent me a long wrench so that I could get some leverage. I used my screwdriver as a punch to extract the bolt.

When you are working by yourself, these vice grips come in handy. Picture is upside down.

Two of the items that were needed most for the job were a cushion to rest on and my neighbor's wrench.

I dropped some nuts and washers into the bottom of the chain locker and nearly lost them in the trash.

I finally got the old one off.

I used the old one as a template and marked a piece of poly-carbonate with a sharpie to transfer the hole placements to the new bowsprit.

Next we took the bowsprit to a drill press here in the yard and drilled 2 holes in it.

Then we took the bowsprit back to the boat and put it in place to check for alignment.

Fortunately they fit perfectly. Then we went back to the drill press to drill all the other holes.

Now I need to go over all the holes with penetrating epoxy, so it is off to Home Depot. I also stopped off at Sailor's Exchange and West marine for some propane parts.

Now it is late and I have to have some dinner. A can of baked beans, corn an orange and a juice should do the trick.

In The Yard

Spent the day working on the boat. When I arrived at the marina, the trailer for lifting the boat was broken down so it wasn't until 4pm that the boat was moved from storage to the work yard.

Here is her new home for a couple of weeks

Everything was soaking wet inside the boat so I took a lot of cushions outside to dry off. Fortunately it was dry and rain isn't predicted until Sunday.

 I had set up the bilge pump with an automatic float switch before I left last time. Needless to say the bilge was full of water.

Onto plan B.

One good thing is the new bowsprit looks fabulous so tomorrow hopefully it will be fitted.

Just for kicks and giggles, I filled the old lamp in the galley with lamp oil and lit it. It stinks a bit but makes the place feel warm and friendly.

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Unfortunately the crane to take the mast down will not be here until next week, so I will have to go ahead and replace the bowsprit with the mast up.
Dinner tonight is a can of sweet potatoes, a can of peas, a bag of carrots, a handful of almonds and a bottle of green tea. I have yet to hook up the stove.