Sail drive boot

Where the sail drives exit the boat, there is a hole in the hull that opens up into the under side of the sail drive.  To create smooth flow across this exit hole, Yanmar provides a rubber boot that is intended to be glued over this hole.  Research has shown that this boot doesn't really want to stay on; no matter what glue is used.  As a precaution,  I decided to make stainless steel straps that will screw onto the edges of these boots to hold them on.

here are my straps

I've heard that's it's best to rough the surface of rubber before any sort of bonding......works for bike tubes.

here's my work site

I decided to use 3M 5200 because it's tenacious stuff

I applied 5200 to both the boot and the hull

I screwed the perimeter straps in place

then primed everything with Primocon then hit it with Trilux antifouling just for good measure.

finished results.

We'll see if they stay on.  I'll get back to you in a few years.

Apple tree taking it for the team

To clear a path to the road for the boat, one of the apple trees needed to go.  I hooked my Ferguson tractor to the base of it with a chain and yanked it out of the ground......There was no way around it.

There are still about seven apple trees on the property and this particular one had been damaged by a freeze so it really needed to go any way.

anti-fouling the saildrives

Interlux seems to have cornered the market on out drive paint because most people seem to use their product for this purpose. Like lemmings, I did the same.

They specify 80 grit;  then a metal primer called Primocon, followed by Trilux 33 anti fouling paint.

That's my boat.

click here

Took the doors off the shop today.....this is the first time I could see the whole boat.  The boat hauling people are supposed to meet me for a preliminary visit tomorrow to scope out the scene. 

centerboard caps

Here's a look at the starboard side centerboard case.  I'm just now adding the "caps" or the top portion of the cases.  I am told that at speed, hydrodynamic pressure can build up inside these cases which could make for a wet ride.  To prevent water from splashing up out of these cases, I resin infused two covers

and lined the top edges of the cases with a high density closed cell "weather" stripping.  I will screw these covers down with plenty of screws.

starboard side centerboard case.

centerboard case cover

Board control pulleys;

starboard side looking towards the stern.

a walk through

click here to see a walk through

finishing touches on the centerboard cases.

I wanted to launch with the centerboards in place so that reminded me that I hadn't drilled the holes for the guide pulleys and the 1 inch stop bolt.

Drilling extra long holes required extra long drill bits so I had to use the TIG welder to add on to the shanks of the bits.

Here's the centerboard control block that contains the guide pulleys for the lines that control the boards.

drilled the holes....

now the 1 inch diameter stainless steel bolt that provides a stop for the boards

since it's a cat........I had to do the other side.

starboard side work area looking forward

running the halyards

West Marine store had 30% off all ropes so it became time to order lines.  25  "boat bucks" later ( one boat buck = $100 )  and I have my sheets and halyards. .....and that's with the 30% off; mind you. Halyards are 1/2 inch Technora , Sheets are 1/2 inch endura.

white with colored flecks for my halyards

corresponding solid colors for my sheets

seemed to make sense to me.....

I used my nylon "messenger" lines to run the halyards "up" the mast

Halyard inspector Tang. ( He's actually sitting on the topping lift line )

Snaking the Messenger strings

To get the halyard and topping lift lines into the mast, I got a 20 ft section of 1 inch PVC pipe and ripped it three times with the table saw.  This set me back three bucks and produced three twenty foot plastic sections that approximated the characteristics of a tape measure.  I taped them end for end to create a "snake".  This allowed me to tape a length of nylon string to the tip of it and push it all the way into the mast from base to tip.  I then used a bent welding rod to fish the ends of the line through the sheeve boxes.  When I get my lines, I'll use the messenger string to pull all the internal halyards in place.

I'm not sure how they do it at the spar builders shop, but this worked like a champ.

messenger strings

PVC pipe "tape"

stern view

Tang on the port side boarding steps.

one foot forward

In order for the boat mover to get a trailer under this cat,  I needed to move the boat forward about 20 ft.  To do this, I built four cradles with casters.  Each caster is rated for one thousand lbs so this gives me a safety factor of a little less than 2.

With the cradles in place, three people were able to easily move the boat forward one ft. I did this just to test out this method of moving the boat.  It worked.

the skids

port side aft cradle

port side forward cradle

port side forward cradle

Airhead composting toilets

I chose to use Airhead composing toilets ( http://www.airheadtoilet.com/ ) both port and starboard.  These units are well made and are completely self contained.

Special note:  after finding that I was missing a vent fitting, I contacted Geof from Airhead and they quickly mailed me the fitting without question.  Customer support is outstanding for the Airhead product.

Here is the external vent for the electric air circulating fan  This component did not come with the Airhead package but I found this nice vent cover while visiting Australia.  It is Sea Bird vent item # RWB 125 from R W Basham pty ltd Australia

 a close up

This is a rather blurry photo of the fitting that houses the small fan

Here is the final install of the forward starboard side composting toilet.

360 gallons of epoxy

When cleaning out the shop, I needed to get rid of my empty epoxy containers so I put them on my flat bed trailer to count.  In addition to the containers seen here, I also used two 55 gallon drums of resin making it a total of 360 gallons of resin in the boat.

ethical delima

So the boat is 23ft. 1 inch wide and my shop door is 22ft. 6 inches.   That means I need to chop about 18 inches off the door jam.  However, a bird made it's nest in the tin around the door and in order to widen the door, I would have to evict three baby birds.

 

The beam of the boat is wider than my shop door.......
















Baby birds in the tin siding. 

Locating a safe place for the Propane tank

For safety sake, I chose to locate the propane tank on the outside cabin bulkhead.  I fastened a bracket to support the base of the tank along with four eye bolts to strap the tank in place.  This provides a safe and secure location for the tank.

Down side up

I painted the flat portions of the underside of the boat with a safety orange paint mixed with non skid granules.  My thinking is that in the event of a capsize, this would help increase visibility from the air if we ever face the need of an air rescue. The non-skid feature should help provide a safe place to hang out in case we find ourselves upside down........or in this case, down side up.

Coating the boom

Rather than paint the raw aluminum spars, I elected to use a product called Nyalic.   This stuff is said to provide a UV coating that is superior to conventional  paint and it can be applied and touched up with relative ease.

http://www.nyalic.com/

 the coating

end result

Mast track install

The installation of Harken CB mast track required the drilling and tapping of 160 holes in the tailing edge of the mast.   With the help of a pneumatic drill and a couple of brand new taps, this went faster than I expected.

lower section of the mast near where the boom attaches

base of mast

tapping tools

looking down from the top of the mast.

Chain stopper

at anchor,  a chain stopper is usually used to keep from loading the windlass. This is a big beefy model that is mounted in place with a big aluminum backing plate atop a block of solid expanded PVC to keep it in line with the path of the chain.