Scraping the remains of the caprail varnish on a hot Savannah Saturday
It’s been a
while since the last update here – a little more than three months – so today’s
post is going to be a game of catch up. It’s likely to get a little long as
well.
For those who would prefer a condensed version, here’s an
update of the last three months in one paragraph: the wayward mast and boom
finally arrived, more electrical work has been completed, the water tank and
waste holding tank lids have been removed, the tanks cleaned/repaired, and new
lids fitted. The bottom was sandblasted, more joinery jobs were completed, and
JO BETH is being prepped for her hull topsides painting. Lisa and I have
finished removing the majority of the old and degraded varnish and pulled off
the anchors and chain for maintenance. That’s it in the proverbial nut shell.
Reading that
paragraph will tell you what has happened in the past three months, but much is
lost without the details. A good portion of that time has been extraordinarily
stressful, easily the most worrisome times we’ve had in this entire process.
The bulk of this stress was centered on the delivery of our new mast and boom
from the manufacturer in California - more on that in a moment – but the
discovery of new work necessary to be done, the expansion of projects already
underway, and unexpected material acquisition issues added to the mix.
With the
painting of the hull now beginning, the portion of the refit in which the
visible transformation of JO BETH will become apparent is underway. Once the
paint work is completed, she’ll be fitted with her new mast and rigging, the interior
work will be completed, and her new canvas and cushions will be delivered. Make
no mistake though, that is still a lot of work to be done. Stress is to be expected
in a job of the magnitude and depth with which we are doing. We were hoping for
a launch date of the end of this month, and to be back in our home marina by
August. Now, it’s looking more like the fall before we’re aboard full time.
Our new mast, nestled in amongst other masts, in the Hinckley rigging shop
Spar Delivery
If you’ve read
this far, then I’m presuming you’re interested enough in knowing the details of
the past few months. The obvious starting place is the mast and boom. I’ve
written in previous posts about the damages and wear on the boom. After much
consideration, we decided that putting a 30 year old mast in the midst of a
brand new boom and rigging just didn’t make sense. So we bit the bullet and had
the spar builder, LeFiell Manufacturing in Santa Fe Springs, California, build
a new mast. In hindsight, that was the easy part. Shipping the mast and boom,
which are essentially long and skinny aluminum tubes, from California to Georgia
proved to be a huge challenge. Every boat hauler we spoke with didn’t want to
handle just the mast and boom – they wanted to move the entire boat. We
considered shipping the spars on a LTL basis – less than trailer load – on a
flatbed carrier. Basically, the driver will bring the spars on a flatbed for a
minimal charge, provided there’s room to do it safely.
We thought
this was in the bag – LeFiell had located a driver they’ve used before for LTL
carriage who happened to have a run to the east coast – and he agreed to bring
the spars. Unfortunately, when the driver arrived to pick up the spars, there
wasn’t enough room on the trailer. Back to square one.
After doing
some research on my own and getting some recommendations from others, I located
a driver. He agreed to move the spars for the LTL rate, which was a bargain, as
the per-mile charge was ½ of what we were expecting to pay for a dedicated
load, meaning our spars were the only freight being carried. We agreed on a
delivery time and date, and the deal was done.
Or so we
thought.
The mast and
boom were picked up in California as arranged. Then, they and our driver
disappeared. Aside from one or two text message exchanges, he was AWOL. For
nearly 8 weeks, we had no idea of the whereabouts of our mast and boom, despite
our repeated efforts to find our spars, locate the driver, and secure the
delivery of the mast and boom. We only had brief and evasive replies by text
messages. Eventually, we were forced to involve our insurance company and law
enforcement. Then, out of the blue, the driver appeared at the Hinckley
facility in Savannah. Mast and boom delivered, only slightly worse for wear,
but with no explanation or apologies.
The driver
we hired is a man named Daniel Steadley. His company is Big Dog Marine Transport,
based in Charleston, South Carolina. Mr. Steadley came highly recommended, from
people I trust and have done business with. I researched him before contracting
with him for the delivery, and found only a few negative comments spaced out
over a few years. Nothing very alarming popped up. As time wore on, I did my own checking into
Mr. Steadley and Big Dog Marine. The company business address in Charleston turned
out to be a UPS Store mailbox. When all was said and done, the delivery of the
mast was six weeks overdue.
But,
delivered they were, and mostly none the worse for wear. There were a few paint
abrasions on both of the spars and one or two deep scratches on the mast,
perhaps because the packing tubes sealed by the factory were disassembled and
resealed with an inferior tape for reasons only the driver could explain, but
he didn’t. A cleat was pulled free from the boom. Some touch up paint and
reattachment of the cleat, and things will be good.
Our LED steaming and foredeck light, newly installed on the mast
The arrival
of the spars meant that work could continue. The Hinckley electrician began
dressing the mast with navigation lamps, wind instruments, and cabling for the
VHF radio transceiver. The joinery shop is making pads for the halyard (lines
used to raise and lower the sails) winches to be attached to the mast. The pads
will be made of teak and prevent the aluminum mast and bronze winches from contacting
one another, thereby causing corrosion. More work on the task list.
Two views of our aft water tank; above is the tank before cleaning and re-coating; below is how it looks after repair and re-coating
Interior “Head” Aches
Our water
tanks, long contaminated and unusable, have been refurbished now, and the new
lids fitted. The old lids were wooden, coated on their undersides in an epoxy
coating, and as they deteriorated from age and wear were the primary cause of
the tank contamination. The new lids from Pacific Seacraft are fiberglass and fit
the tanks perfectly. We also discovered two cracks in the forward water tank. The
tank interiors have been refurbished, the cracks repaired, and the interiors completely re-coated and sealed. The same was done with the black water/waste holding tank.
Then there’s
the head (toilet). In an earlier post, I wrote about how we decided to replace
the entire system, bowl and pump assembly, since it only cost $100 or so more
than a new pump alone. When we received the new head the interior and rim of
the bowl were unglazed. Everyone was dumbfounded as to how this could get by
two QC checks (one at the porcelain factory and one at the head manufacturer).
The on-line dealer, of course, offered an exchange for no extra shipping, so we
sent it back. Weeks later, after having received a full refund, we are notified
that the manufacturer is “experiencing supplier issues” and the dealer has
discontinued the item indefinitely. Just
buy it from someone else, you say? Well,
just so happens we got this one on sale at a really good price. Having to pay
almost half again as much caused us to rethink our choice of head.
Several
years ago we had discussed changing the whole system to a La Vac, which uses a vacuum
created by a pump to empty out the toilet bowl. Hydrodynamic physics, plain and
simple. The theoretical advantage is fewer moving parts to break and clog. I’ve
now done some research and found an electric La Vac with manual pump back-up
can be had for less than the price we had paid for our unglazed replacement
head. Also, Lisa has confessed she would like the toilet seat to be a little
lower to the sole (floor) of the head since her feet don’t touch when she is
seated. A La Vac would definitely be
lower than our original head. I’ve also placed a call to Pacific Seacraft to
see if they can help us find the original head and or pump for a reasonable
price. A final decision has yet to be made.
Much of the
interior electrical work is finished, or nearly finished. The electrician was
impressed with one of our favorite boat show purchases, the light over the
galley sink that uses touch to turn on. Swipe it one way and the white lights
come on; swipe it the opposite and you get red to protect night vision. There
is plumbing work still to be done, along with mechanical work and joinery
projects. The canvas work is just now getting started. A good portion of the
work remaining can’t be done until the boat is off the ground and back in the
water. Even then, we will be conducting sea trials to test new systems. There is
still much to do.
Cover & protect materials going on in preparation for painting
Sandblasting and Painting
Lisa and I
also decided to sandblast the old layers of the anti-fouling bottom paint from
the hull bottom. The paint build up was noticeably thick, and was getting to
the point where additional coatings would not likely adhere. The boatyard has
no sandblasting equipment in house, but had rented a unit to do the same thing
to another boat’s bottom. Originally, we were going to put this off until the
next haulout for maintenance. In the end, it may sense to do the sandblasting
now, might as well, so we did. Better
now than with the new hull paint. The sandblasting opened up some minor
blemishes in the hull which have to be repaired as well. While many of these
jobs weren’t planned or budgeted, they did need to be done, whether now or
later. The bulk of them will not likely have to be done again for as long as we
sail JO BETH.
JO BETH before her bottom paint was sandblasted away, above...
...and after; her new bottom color will be a deep, brick red
The painting
of the hull is a big milestone. This represents a huge transformation of the
boat. We are using the paint color cards, trying to determine whether we want
Oyster White, Off White, or Eggshell White as the hull color. Then there’s the
striping. Navy Blue or Flag Blue? Dark Blue or Aristo Blue? Decisions!
The first of many steps to prep the hull for primer and paint
One of our
future projects is the installation of a windvane self-steering system on the
rear section, or stern, of the boat. We have an electric autopilot, which
consumes a lot of power when in use, and on long passages can be a detriment.
The windvane system uses the wind. However, to install it, we have to remove
our boarding ladder. Removing the ladder before painting was another “might as
well” decision. We’re now shopping for a side installed ladder, which will fold
up and stow when not in use. One we are considering is made by a company called
Mystic Stainless& Aluminum, of Mystic, Connecticut.This is how budgets get blown
away. And as I said, decisions!
As the work to remove oxidation, contaminants, etc., from JO BETH's hull progressed, her former name, PUFFIN, emerged
Progress
will begin to move rapidly once JO BETH
leaves the paint shed in a month or so. Still, countless decisions remain to be
made. But, by middle or late July, with fingers crossed, JO BETH will be afloat
once again. Stay tuned!
