In the yard day 9

Started out raining pretty hard so after dealing with lots of pots catching water inside the boat I came up with a leak proof solution that worked like a charm.

Then I installed a couple of carriage bolts on a stanchion.

Then I went below to wok on a seacock in the head and came across this guy.

He is a recluse spider and they are everywhere on the boat. He is the reason I slept in the car last night. I bought 4 foggers at the store tonight that kill spiders and I got home and read that they do not kill recluse spiders! I continued on finishing off the bowsprit and needed some parts. Meet Steve who buys wrecked boats and sells parts from them. I bought a clevis pin and a whisker pole from him.

Here is the boat that Steve lives on that broke a pin on it's mooring in the same tropical storm Beryl that messed up my boat.

Bowsprit and LED's

I started out the day installing my sampson posts.

The the bolt that hold the staysail boom.

Next the rear most bolt to hold the bowsprit ears in place.

Next I rotated them forward.

Then I took a break and headed up to the marina where I picked up my superbright LED's for the cabin that  I ordered.

Here you can see the light from the old incandescent lights.

And here you can see the light from the new LED's.

OK back to the bowsprit to finish it off.

Next I installed the tabernacle.

The two whisker stays.

There is not enough room so I will have to cut some wood away.

Finally the bob stay and I am missing a pin to connect it.

Stopping leaks, machine shop, inside bobstay fitting.

Rain is in the forecast so I went around the boat stopping up holes. There must be at least a hundred holes in the deck of the boat where someone at one stage had drilled a hole, installed a fitting, and then later on taken it out.

Wasn't sure what to do so I just stuck some butyl tape inside to seal it. Didn't notice the diesel filler caps holes until I went below and looked up.

The cockpit floor seal needed replacing.

Then I started fitting the hand rail on the cabin top and ran into a problem. One of the nuts inside had broken off so I needed a machine shop. Chuck runs a tight ship here at the marina and he fixed some nuts I couldn't put on fittings as well all for a princely sum of $20.

Thanks Chuck! Back on the boat I had a mad fit of cleaning with chlorox wipes.

Then it started to rain and I found where the real leak was coming from.

I didn't have too much luck with a bilge pump operated by a float switch so I have installed an automatic one. We will see if this new one works.

Finally I worked on the inside of my bobstay fitting, cleaning it out and getting it ready for some epoxy.

Progress!

Started out the day going to Sailor's Exchange. There I bought some nuts, some loctite, a scupper hose and two stainless steel hand rails for my fore-deck all for $105.

Getting the port scupper hose off was a chore.

The old one was blocked with leaves.

Then Craig came over and helped put on the bowsprit. Wahoooo!

Here is the part under the deck. The windlass bolts still have to be installed.

Then I went below and had a siesta to recharge my batteries during the heat of the day. After that I spent the rest of the day trying to take down the furling gear.

 I gave up and climbed to the top of the mast at dusk and managed to take the split pin out but couldn't disconnect the halyard......so came back down again. Oh well........."I'll think about that tomorrow" as Charlotte O'Hara says in "Gone with the Wind."

Bowsprit, caprails, power cable and propane locker

Do you ever have one of those days where you go one step forward but 2 steps backward? Well today was one of those days. First I worked on the caprail putting down a layer of "devil's glue."

It looked pretty good when I finished.

But it takes a week to cure so guess what?

Next I moved onto the bowsprit and cleaned all the old caulk out of the channel between the deck and the hull.

Then I started on putting down the 3M 5200, but guess what?

I ran out of it just after starting.So I proceeded to lay out the bowsprit.

Checking all the fittings, I noticed a crack in the 3/4" nut that held the fitting for the staysail boom. Now that part would take a visit to the local Ace hardware store so I moved on....... To my morning cup of tea on my new stove! I turned it on and went outside. Big mistake! Five minutes later the water had evaporated and we were headed for disaster. Rule from now on is never leave the stove with an open flame. Next project on the list is what? This time to our 30 amp power cord which wasn't providing the boat with power. I couldn't find continuity between one end and the other so I cut one end off. Turned out to be the wrong end. The problem was at the other end. So what was needed was  a drive this time to Home depot. So off I went

So even though the 20 amp black and white plugs that I bought from Home depot look exactly the same as my 30 amp yellow ones, they are not. There is about 1/8" difference in location of the plugs. Back to square one. While I was at Ace, I bought some stainless steel U bolts for the propane locker.

It mounted OK except the bolts are too long and I have to trim 1/2" off the ends so they don't stick into the aluminum tanks. I still have to run the hose through the bulwark and also mount the solenoid. I finished up the day with vegetables for dinner but to cap it all off I just poured half a cup of frozen blueberries into my green tea. I am going to bed!

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!