Hatches, I've Got Your Hatches Right Here

The installation of the newly refurnished and revitalized hatches has begun in earnest. Boy oh boy does having shiny hatches make a difference. The refurbishment project was undertaken in an attempt to protect the frames from deterioration but is it okay to just be a bit shallow and admit that the fact they look beautiful makes me happy?

The fact that they are being installed on a freshly painted cabin top helps with the aesthetic appeal. The down side to this is that there is still painting to be done on the deck and bow so what we have now is a shiny cabin top which makes the rest of the decks look really, really tired. This means more taping (which takes a lot longer than you would think), more painting (again with the time sink) and yet more polishing and waxing of said paint. 

It is my secret fear that all of this obsessive spit and polish will result in a deck so slippery that we end up shooting crew members off the side of the boat like penguins on an iceberg,

 Oxidized paint is ugly but its also grippy. I do think we will be revisiting the nonskid sooner rather than later as with the rest of the deck so pristine and slick, I want the nonskid areas to REALLY be nonskid. 

The good news is that either way, the cabin top is just about ready to have the turtle shell and deck hardware installed and that is another milestone to tick off our list.

Meanwhile, Kitty likes to check up on the progress and tell us what she thinks of the work thus far. She also likes to provide commentary on her dad. She will proudly tell you that her daddy "is a worker". She holds workers in high esteem whether they be her family, or boat yard workers, road construction crews basically anyone who uses a tool in their daily work is a "worker" and she holds them in very high regard. Anytime she has a toy or household item which is damaged, she brushes it off and says it's okay because "Daddy can fix it, He is a good fixer. he can fix anything." Now to help her see that SHE can be a worker who fixes things too.

Hit The Deck

We arrived home from the airport and were back at the boat within an hour. We had a bit of a breather but now it was time to address the last big topic on the refit- the deck layout.

Ceol Mor is a really great sailing boat. Bob Perry knows a thing or two about designing a boat which is balanced, comfortable and sure footed. Previous owners of Ceol Mor ostensibly purchased her because of the way she moves under sail. So why exactly did they undersize the winches then add a Bimini top whose frame fouls the winch handles constantly and, run lines so they aren't in the most direct line, have a track that does not allow the genoa cars to be adjusted without a set of power tools and a hammer and have a traveler that is pretty much inoperable? The only thing I can figure is they like a challenge. I like challenges too but fighting my boat just to adjust the sails is not one of them. Also, deck hardware options have a come along way since the 1980s and just the progress of line clutches alone warrants some redesign work on an old boat, Fortunately, Captain Perfecto feels the same and as a bonus he has mad engineer skills so after a long design process, it was time to get busy.

Painted and prepped and ready to go

With Mark's spudly wiring conduit and mounts installed to support the new NavPod, the turtle shell painted and polished, it was time to address the traveler. We removed the track and end blocks and had them re-anodized. Once we got them back, Mark began putting together his new design for the traveler car.

Stainless steel mounting plates made by Mark with, you guessed it- his beloved angle grinder.

 Being Captain Perfecto, he of course had to make his own part (which we will call a thingamabob) out of a stainless steel bolt. With an angle grinder. By hand. I am both proud of his design and craftsmanship abilities and terrified at his enjoyment of a successful outcome. No Mark, I do not want stainless steel davits hand crafted by you. I want to go sailing already. They would undoubtedly be beautiful and perfect and would take months to construct so...no.

From this, to this. No one can ever accuse Mark of not being patient.

In preparation for the installation for the deck hardware, we prepped the cabin top deck area for painting. No sense in mounting the hardware on a beat up deck that will have to be removed again soon for painting anyway, just get on with it bit by bit from the get go.

 We removed the hatches to have the frames bead blasted and re-anodized and started taping. It sounds like such an easy thing, taping. In actuality it took hours and hours to get it all done just so. The actual painting it self, using Awlcraft 2000 went fairly quickly. Thanks to the ability of Awlcraft to be sanded and buffed, we were able to get a finish we were happy with. Getting the spray gun to give a finish took a bit of time and patience but again, one of Mark's strong qualities is patience. We are giving it a bit of time to get a good cure on it before we get finicky with the paint line edges in preparation for painting the lower portion of the decks once we are ready to address the genoa tracks.


We had such a (ahem) good time spending countless hours taping, that we got to retape the deck in reverse to freshen up the non-skid areas. We used Awlgrip as that was there originally. We maybe aren't 100% happy with the amount of texture we got with the Awlgrip and Griptex. I think we made an error in going with the fine but we can make do for now. Just have to remember to wear proper shoes with grip until we can readdress this down the road. I think we are going to do a bit more research on Kiwigrip as we have friends who have used it with great success. The best is the enemy of good enough so we are moving on...

With the hatches out for refurbishment, it was time to address the hatch lenses. They were cloudy from UV damage, scratched from years of use and stained a bit from determined birds. It took a bit longer to get the lenses polished up, but polished up they are now. They look like new. Can't wait to get the newly anodized frames back, reassemble and rebed them. The difference in clarity and light through the lenses after attention is massive. Unfortunately, now the Sunbrella hatch covers are looking really sad so it's time for me to sew up some new ones.

We've gotten Kitty into a morning preschool twice a week and she is really liking it. When she isn't at preschool, she spends a lot of time on the boat with us. She spends a lot of time drawing pirate treasure maps. She gives them out to dock friends here and there, admonishing them to keep it secret. She's been through enough of a refit to wisely tell the potential treasure hunters that she will help them find the treasure by sailing with them on THEIR boat. Hang in there little one. We will be able to sail to find treasure with Ceol Mor very, very soon.



I can't see us having the boat back together in a month, but we are making steady progress and there is light at the end of a seriously long tunnel. I can see us having Ceol Mor back together, in tip top shape and ready to sail very soon indeed.

Technically Speaking....

When I say that we are up to our eyeballs in technical details, I'm not kidding. Some sailors/old salt types kind of wing it when making modifications to their boats. You know the ones of which I speak. They are the MacGyver's of the sailing world and seem to be able to figure out workable, if not elegant solutions to problems presented. While I fall squarely in the MacGyver camp, Mark is Captain Perfecto so any solution must be elegant as well as functional. There can be no winging it for it would break his little Engineer's heart to rerig the boat using duct tape, dental floss and paper clips, which is what would happen if I were left in charge.

Our boat is a Nassau 42. Its the same exact boat as the Tatoosh 42, just imported under a different name. Sort of like the VW Passat/Audi A4- same exact thing, different badge. She was built at the same yard that builds Tayanas and was designed by Bob Perry. One of the nice things about owning a Perry boat (besides knowing that it is a design fit for purpose) is that Bob Perry offers consulting services for those either in the market to purchase one of his designs or those in the process of refitting. Since we love our boat- she sails beautifully, is well balanced and we trust her to take care of us, it only makes sense to trust the designers opinions when you start setting up the rigging, moving deck hardware, adding weight, etc.

We had the opportunity to get a full set of technical drawings for the boat from the Perry office. Talk about making Capt. Perfecto happy. When the tech drawings arrived by post, it was like Christmas morning for Mark.  Details! Specifications! Precise measurements! HURRAY! He was able to see exactly what Mr. Perry designed the deck layout to be instead of the "inefficient tangle created by some previous owning prat". Previous owners had moved things about, removed winches, changed where the sheets and lines ran, etc. We knew that the current set up wasn't ideal but there are so many different ways to skin a cat its hard to know what is the right course to take. Now we know what the designer intended, and its a good idea to" dance with the one that brung ya".

Mark spends what precious little leisure time he has carefully going over all the drawings, doing research on deck hardware, etc. We are in a little bit of fast forward mode here as we are getting ready to have the running rigging replaced with Dyneema lines from New England Ropes and ideally we'd like to have it all planned out so that its pretty straight forward. The tech drawings are invaluable in planning our attack. Besides, tech drawings make Capt. Perfecto very, very happy indeed.

Now armed with the boat's blueprints, its on to figuring out how to improve upon our set up. Currently we have slab reefing and have to go to the mast. The goal is to keep us in the cockpit as much as possible so we're looking over the different options and currently, I'm liking the looks of the Dutchman system. Then we have to sort out the traveler, boom vang, outhaul, topping lift, sheets, lines, etc. I'm actually a bit excited about this because its finally starting to feel a little less like an enormous home improvement project and more like getting a boat ready to sail where ever the winds take us....


Ever her father's daughter, Kitty digs tech drawings too



Bob Perry is our Corpus Callosum

 

 

Bob Perry is our Corpus Callosum

 
A friend asked me how Mark and I came to an agreement on a boat when we are so very divergent in our tastes and personalities. Here in lies the story.

Our relationship works because we balance each other. Mark is the quintessential Left Brain. An engineer by trade and by personality, Mark is analytical and obsessed with order, performance, suitability for the job at hand (be it a boat or a tool), tidiness, symmetry and form. Me? I'm the epitome of a Right Brain. Creative, a bit chaotic, with a big imagination and a deep love of beauty be it audio or visual. That's why I slogged away all those years with music as my profession.

As we began our search, we did this the way that we do everything. I started researching, then started looking and if I found something I thought would work then we would bring out Mark. I think there were many brokers who were put off by the fact that it was just me doing the initial viewing. No, I am not going to bring "my hubby" out to tire kick. I know what boats would possibly work for him, no sense wasting his time on ones that won't meet his criteria. I looked at many boats. Many, many boats Morgans, Babas, Irwins, Gulf Stars, Tayanas, Beneteaus, Isalnd Packets, Catalinas, Cabo Ricos, Passports, Jeanneaus, etc, etc.

 At this point I knew nothing about designers, just features that were a must. While Mark loved big open cockpits, this was a no go for me. My overactive imagination/ chicken baby tendencies would kick in and I could imagine 100 different scenarios where in we were all swept overboard from that big open cockpit. Mark loves the lines of the newer European boats. I imagined hull slapping making me go insane and me taking everyone with me. I like the charm of more traditionally styled boats, Mark doesn't care for charm, he's the sailor and he wants a boat that sails well. I want a boat that makes me feel safe because I am not the sailor in the family. I am a willing crew member, but I wouldn't call myself a sailor- yet.

  The first boat that really made me pay attention after 2 boats failed survey and sea trial was a Passport 40. It met Mark's criteria for beautiful lines, reputation for sailing well , logical use of cabin space and deck layout. I liked it because the cabin felt like a home and the cockpit seemed "safe". Alas, this particular boat was not in good enough condition to even warrant further investigation but I did note the designer listed on the paperwork for the first time- Robert Perry.
*photo above is a sister ship and was not taken by me. Notice how similar her lines are to Ceol Mor.

 The next boat that I was interested in, I deemed to be too small for our family but once again it met the joint criteria of both Mark and I , the Tayana 37. Beautiful, logical and that important quality to me- it made me feel safe. It wasn't a fit for us at this time but hey, there's that name again. Robert Perry.

We looked at a few more boats. Ok, we looked a a LOT more boats. One of the brokers mentioned that he had a boat I might be interested in and would I come take a look?

Before we made a formal offer, we did a bit of research. Where was she made? What type of steel was used to make her- Chinese or US? What was the hull speed? Sail plan? Displacement? Tankage? How many of these boats are out there? What are the owners doing with their boats? And finally, who designed this boat? The answer to that last question - Bob Perry.

We didn't become fans of Bob Perry because we read that more of his boats have circumnavigated the globe than any other modern designer. We weren't swayed by his many awards or his accomplishments. We became fans of his work because of the work itself. Work that we saw first hand through neophyte eyes and which captured us both, for very different reasons. I think this is what all artists hope for, for their work to be appreciated for itself.

* Photo from www.perryboat.com
 After living with Ceol Mor for a bit, I looked up some information on Bob Perry. It turns out that he not only studied engineering and naval architecture but he is a musician as well.(ok, he's a bass player but we will give him credit ) If Mark is the left brain of this relationship and I am the right brain then Bob Perry is our corpus callosum. Thanks Bob. You've managed to design a boat that makes us both happy.