How To Polish Deck Hatch Lenses (or how to save a couple of thousand dollars)

Our Bomar deck hatches had seen better days. Despite using hatch covers, 30 years of sun and salt water had done their damage. One of the danged nabbit seagulls managed to hit an uncovered hatch lens with its caustic poop and even though it was on the lens for a brief time before being washed off, it did a number on the Lexan lens. Makes you wonder what they eat. The aluminum frames were in an okay condition but were starting to show signs of degradation.

Since Mark's goal is to not only improve the functionality of Ceol Mor but to also have her looking "like a million dollar yacht" we had a choice to make. Replace the hatches- at over $1,000 a pop. We have 3 large hatches and two smaller ones. Over $4,000 to replace. Next please. Replace the lenses at a couple of hundred bucks a piece for our large hatches. Refurbish them ourselves and hope they seal as well as the original lenses. We are on the downhill side of a massive refit. I no longer am willing to "hope" for anything. Since we want to only have her LOOKING like a million dollar yacht and lack the funds to actually MAKE her a million dollar yacht, we thought the best plan of action was to try to refurbish them ourselves since they were structurally sound, just ugly.

Before. Yuck.

After removing the deck hatches, we sent the frames off to be re-anodized. The quote was $175.00 in total for 4 hatch frames (the bottom frames only). While they are off being bead blasted and re-anodized, it was time to see if we could save the lenses. We could and we did. Here's how we did it.

Equipment needed- Wet Sandpaper in 320, 600 and 1000 grit
                                 A water source.
                                 Makita Variable Speed Electronic Sander
                               PRESTA Ultra Cutting Creme                              
                                Presta- Chroma Ultra Polish
                                 A cutting/buffing pad
                                 A polishing pad

The first step was to wet sand with the 320 grit wet sand paper to remove crazing and scratches. Don't get too aggressive and take your time making sure you have a constant flow of water. You want to remove the scratches, not add new ones.

Once you are happy, repeat the process of wet sanding with the 600. Then again with the 1000 grit. Just take your time and keep the surface wetted. Mark had a hose, with a sprinkler nozzle, to rinse down the work-piece and remove sanding residue throughout the wet sanding.

Once you have wet sanded thoroughly, it's time for power tools. We really like the Makita as it is pretty much a work horse and has been pressed into service regularly and it just keeps keeping on.

We applied the cutting creme directly to the lens, working in small areas. Some folks swear by applying it to the pad itself- many ways to skin a cat I suppose. Having priced out replacement lenses, we thought it best to go slowly and carefully working on a small area at a time. Regardless, this is one time when the brand of products matters. The Presta products really are all that, so if you are going to take the time to do this, take the extra time to source the Presta products. Remember to let the polisher do the work for you and don't apply too much pressure. Slow and steady matters here.

Once you have thoroughly worked the cutting creme, gently clean the lens with water and a non abrasive cloth. Now comes the fun part. Change your pad to a clean polishing pad and once again, working carefully in small sections, begin to polish using the Chroma Ultra Polish. Mark went over each lens a few times to get the level of polish he was happy with. And that's it.

This was probably one of the most satisfying projects. The outlay in materials was not great and while it did take a bit of time, it actually was very straight forward and easy and what a pay off. The difference in the lenses is remarkable. I can't wait to get the frames back and have them reassembled and mounted on the deck. I am going to be able to see clouds with CLARITY! Yippee!
                             

After- HUGE improvement and this is before we cleaned the inside of the lens. Once we cleaned it, wow.

    

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.

Behold! A Spud!

While I have been sanding (pretty much non-stop) Mark has been hard at work refurbishing our turtle shell. This is the fiberglass piece that bolts to the deck protecting the companionway. It not only needed to be repainted, with new non skid applied but since we have decided to mount our instruments over the companionway for easy viewing, of course the project grew in scope. Now it needed to be set up to keep all that wiring that makes the instruments go BING! tidy and away from water. So Mark began the turtle shell refurbishment in earnest.

Mark carefully built custom nav pod mounts out of fiberglass and epoxy. This went just about perfectly. Anytime a small project goes "just about perfectly" we hold our breaths. The refit gods giveth and they taketh away. it's all about balance apparently.


As he started to install the conduit for the wiring, it became apparent that a standard  PVC elbow would not work. The turning radius was too tight and the wires needed to be neatly contained in a tapering conduit. This is not something you can just buy off the shelf and be done. Oh no, that would be too easy. As I sat nearby sanding ( that seems to be all I do these days), Mark informed me he needed to run to the market for a potato.What? A potato. Well, yeah of course.

Once the required tuber was acquired, Mark got busy whittling. Kitty asked if he was cooking. Nope, just  doing some boat work, nothing to see here.



After carefully checking the turn radius and matching the diameter to the PVC conduit, it was time to tightly wind plastic wrap around the potato.  To me, this seemed like a lot of effort on a potato that would not result in fries but I fully admit my opinion might have been influenced by the fact that it was getting close to dinner time. And I was hungry.

Once he had everything to size and tightly wrapped, Mark got busy with strips of fiberglass cloth and epoxy. After a night of curing, we had a custom elbow which would allow the nav pod wiring to be gently coaxed into position, kept watertight and tidy. Success. Now all that was left to do was to core out the potato and prepare it for installation.

Sadly, there were still no fries.

So while I find the whole potato as a refit tool amusing, I have to admit that it worked pretty darn well. Kind of weird, but it works. I wonder if the chandleries will start carrying produce.

With the conduit sized, built and ready for installation, Mark was ready to begin the painting of the turtle shell. Having dealt with an Awlgrip painted hull, we were determined to find a better paint. Paint that does not require a very expensive specialty soap which does nothing to improve the boat because hey, at some point a previous owner had the boat compounded and waxed and you can not compound Awlgrip. So after much thinking and research we decided to go with Awlcraft 2000 which has the enormous benefit of being buffable but- like everything comes with a tradeoff. Namely that it MUST be sprayed. No relatively easy to DIY rolling and tipping. No Awlcraft must be sprayed and spraying is a skill requiring a bit of technical finesse.

Mark carefully followed the manufacturers recs for mixing ratios. He installed a total of 3 inline filters to prevent any moisture from causing runs and orange peel and other painting atrocities. Mark wet down the painting area to prevent any dust from marring the finish. he suited up and put on his respirator and slowly, carefully and methodically began to paint.

The primer coat was looking pretty good. Buoyed by his initial success, Mark continued on the next coat. It looked horrible. Fish eyes all over the paint which means despite his best efforts, our ridiculously hot and humid climate was sneaking water in past the filters and completely jacking up the paint.

As Mark was sanding away the evidence of his painting debacle, he piped up "what we need is a heat exchanger". I made the mistake of asking why and then he went on to what I am sure would have been an enlightening lecture on thermodynamics had I been armed with a notebook and pen. Something about gasses and vapor and temperature fluctuations and "what's the upshot?" I asked. The upshot was we would be building our own heat exchanger. So $70, a few trips to Kemah Hardware and a couple of hours later we were now in possession of a heat exchanger to cool the air which should help reduce the moisture coming through and jacking up our paint job.

 Once again, Mark suited up and primed the turtle shell. Once again, he waited patiently for it to set up before he painted once again, this time with his custom heat exchanger. After careful application of two coats, he stepped back to admire his work. There was about a 95% improvement in the amount of fish eyes. Unfortunately, Mark is OCD enough for this to be unacceptable. After living so many years with the ARE, I got it and decided that yes indeed, we were still not quite there. Yay for more sanding.

A bit dejected, we packed up to have dinner at a get together with other sailors. One of the sailors is an experienced body shop owner. As Mark was relating his painting woes, this wise in the ways of painting let us in on a secret, "Oh, you just need an airless paint gun. You can rent them". While we are so grateful to have this bit of information, we can't help but chuckle. Of course this was a problem with an easy solution. Of COURSE Captain Perfecto had over thought it and over engineered it. This is just how this entire refitting process has been. *sigh*

I am still trying to remember all of the thermodynamic theory. My brain hurts.

The Universe wants to be sure that Mark and I are a unit, experiencing the same tribulations and trials. This means that my first round of varnishing it absolutely HORRID looking and will require a redo which means, more sanding. Ugh. Fortunately, Kitty loves to make videos and I have convinced her she is hosting a DIY refit show which means I can get her to sand for me by telling her we need another take for "her show". I might be a varnishing failure but I am a work load sharing GENIUS. Tom Sawyer has nothing on me...

P.S. Mark thinks that he can achieve that final 5% improvement in the paint job by adding ice to the heat exchanger water to further cool it, there fore making any airless gun rental or purchase unnecessary,. Help me. Someone, help me...

Deck Hardware Mounts Are Sexy

No, really. I am serious. If you've ever had to recore a soft spot in a deck or had to try to work around a winch handle that continually fouls itself on the bimini frame, or man handle genoa sheets that run along the deck in an undulating fashion you will agree with me. Custom deck hardware mounts are DEAD sexy.

I know a lot of people bag on newer production boats, but they do seem to come up with some ideas that make things easier. Things like deck hardware mounts that are molded in, keep the running rigging nice and tidy and with a clean run through the sheaves to the winches and fewer leaks. I love my old, sturdy Nassau but it had the old school method of mounting deck hardware. Namely, putting a teak base under the winches with screws that will inevitably leak and will require maintenance and varnish to keep looking spiffy. Molded in deck mounts are a big improvement. We like big improvements around here.

Planning the new layout

So Mark spent what seemed like forever carefully planning out the deck hardware. Checking the angle of the organizers,clutches and winches. After drawing it up in CAD, redrawing it, moving the winches, adjusting the angle of the clutches, redrawing it again he had The Plan.

With the plan in hand he carefully checked the layout with a mock up of all the deck hardware in scale. Once he was satisfied with the hardware he had chosen and the layout, he began working on the mounts.

Each mount was cut from fiberglass, carefully mounted and epoxied with West System. I got to sand and sand and resand. Every tiny air bubble on the outer side of the epoxy was filled and resanded and resanded again. I am getting pretty darned good with the Dremel though my taping skills leave something to be desired (In Captain Perfecto's OCD world, anyone else would appreciate my attention to detail even if I did choose to lay the tape horizontally as opposed to vertically. :P )

These things are taking a long long time to get perfect but the prospect of having all the running rigging actually RUN unimpeded is pretty exciting. It's exciting because it means that Ceol Mor will be a whole lot easier to handle while under sail. In my heart of hearts, I am a lazy sailor and will take a easy over an old school tug of war any day.

Oh yes, the hand rails are getting new mounts too!

It's time to sand the prime coat again as we work on our painting skills, then its time to paint with Awl Craft and then DEAD SEXY HARDWARE INSTALLATION BEGINS. New red hot deck organizers, new luscious oversized winches and some foxy sheaves.

I call this all DEAD SEXY because the reality is we are working our butts off in late July in the subtropics. We are sweaty, smelly and tired. Quite the opposite of anything remotely resembling sexy but soon, very soon we will be sailing once again and I want to remember how rotten it was sailing with the old deck layout and to remember to appreciate all the long weeks that went into making Ceol Mor the easy to sail boat that she soon will be. Sexy indeed.

Cha Cha Changes....

We have managed to move house. Somehow, despite our best attempts to have Mark avoid the flu Kitty and I had Mark succumbed and was down for 4 days. He was able to help direct the movers but as far as unpacking, arranging, purging etc it was pretty much Maura and I. You think you have gotten rid of enough stuff until you move into a much smaller house and then you realize you have yet more purging to do. We will get there. The good news is that by downsizing now, we have a head start as we will be downsizing even more when we move on the boat this fall.

We've been a bit distracted from the boat as we try to rearrange everything into some semblance of order at The Chandlery. Mark and I have spent the last two days (very very hot days) putting together a storage shed for those items that we just don't have room for and are not quite ready to get rid of just yet as we know we will have to return to land life in a few short years. Boat work is hot, but not half as hot as putting together a metal shed in late July in the subtropics. Once the sun heats the metal sheets up so much that they are to hot to hold, we knock off work until late afternoon when things start to become bearable again.

We have managed a bit of work on the deck hardware mounts. Its still a work in progress but Mark has allowed me to use the power tools. YIPPEE!! These suckers take far, far too much work but I know we will appreciate them later. Fiberglass and epoxy work for days and days. Ugh. For an item so mall in size they sure do eat up a lot of hours, but being able to have the organizers, sheaves and lines all in position with NO FOULING will be a beautiful thing. Minimizing water intrusion by avoiding just popping teak mounts on the deck will also be a beautiful thing. Now if we can just get our fiberglass painting skills up to par we will be able to just appreciate how clean it all looks and how smoothly all the running rigging um...runs.

So we are moving forward. Slowly but surely. If we can just get to a good resting point by late August, when it is just too unbearably hot to do anything we might actually make my goal which is Christmas in NOLA.

Insert Clever Title Here

It seems as if every time I start to think that we are ready to really get into a routine and tick items off our list the Universe likes to throw a curve ball. If I were trying to divine a reason, it would be that we have yet to learn the lesson that there really is no such thing as a plan and schedules are like unicorns. Mythical, elusive and something that people have heard of but no one has actually seen.

I had planned to return from a week in Dallas with Maura and my mom to get the house packed up and moved in a few short days. What I did not plan on was a rare summertime outbreak of Influenza Type A at the Dallas hotel that felled so many people the CDC had to be notified. Who gets the flu in July? I do. That's who.

I managed to escape getting sick in Dallas only to return home and to cook up an impressive case for myself and Kitty. Maura apparently has an amazing immune system and escaped infection. I have been laid low for a solid week. So much for getting anything other than sleeping done. Kitty had the good sense to wait for me to begin recovering before succumbing herself. Fortunately we have some flexibility in our moving date so my viral induced slug like momentum was accommodated.  Mark wisely has avoided contagion by staying on the boat moving the refit forward.

Mark has been painstakingly going over every inch of the deck, seeking out any and all soft spots and crafting a raised base for all the winches. Lifting the winches and mast collar off the deck by just a few millimeters might seem like a whole lot of work for such a small measurement but we are really hoping that this along with bedding the hardware properly with butyl tape will ensure that this time, the deck core stays dry. I am hopeful because I never want to have to go through this again. Like Ever.

Yucky. Seriously yucky.

This week, it was chase down a leak at the mast, recore a soft spot in the deck and tidy up the mast collar. You can see in the photo below that attention to this area has been needed for sometime.

Since I have been holed up all week fighting the flu, Mark thoughtfully did a bit of content creation documenting the before and after of the mast collar project. A big thanks to him for taking the time to grab some short video for me.

So the word of the day is "Spartite" and the theme for the month is "Schedules and other mythical beings" and we continue onward...

Deck Deck WINCH!

Everyone should have a teen on board who is an ace boat washer

We have begun the final big project in earnest. The former layout of the deck hardware was...it was...well, it was crap. Our lines running into the deck organizers and clutches were just off a straight line just the perfect amount to ensure unnecessary friction. Friction is bad. Not just because it tears up your running rigging but also because it makes me have to work just a bit harder to sail the boat. And then there were the winches. Someone has decided that the original plan Bob Perry came up with was not good and they undersized the genoa winches. This once again means I am having to work harder than I actually have to. Again with the sailing being physical enough as it is, Project Rig It For Slackers is now in full force.

We got new Lewmar Evo 55 winches to handle the genoa sheets. This should make things much easier for me. We aren't so soft as to install electric winches but I am seriously excited about the extra oomph the new winches should provide.

We removed the ridiculously tiny main winches and moved the 44s that were previously handling the genoa sheets into their place. Before we reinstalled them, we sent them out for a bit of cosmetic surgery. They were functioning just fine, but time and the elements were beating them up more than we would like. When you start pricing winches, you understand why its in your best interest to protect what you have against corrosion to extend their life expectancy. We had our old winches rechromed by Speed and Sport Chrome and so far, we are very pleased. $270 for 2 winches and the chrome is thick, even and SHINY! Hopefully this will help keep corrosion at bay.

Now that's a shiny winch!

We are carefully checking our layout before installing and so far, it looks like this project is going to be a HUGE improvement in the functionality of the boat. We've got some cute almost miniature Antal deck organizers to route the lines into our new Lewmar clutches. We went with  Selden deck organizers to handle the lines off the mast. We still need to figure out what we are going to do to make the traveler more functional and we've got to get the rigid boom vang installed but I am getting excited. Once the deck is reorganized, we can put the cabin back together and then it's time to GO SAILING.

Yes, I am more than ready to try out the new deck layout.

So thankful Maura is handy with a boat brush and hose

Fishermen, Moisture Meters And Other Liars

Fishermen are known to be great liars. Its not widely known, but moisture meters are also great liars. They will tell you that there is only one small area of wet deck core but once you take the time to fix that one small area, you will discover other  small areas (all under deck hardware) that are wet and need attention. By attention I mean recoring and recoring is a pain in the butt. Anyone who tells you otherwise is also a great liar.

As part of the deck hardware redesign project, the old winches, organizers and clutches have been removed. Once these were removed,  we found wet areas of deck core under them so...remove old core, cut and install dry balsa. Sounds easy until you factor in the hardeners that don't want to play nice so we get to to remove and repeat. Finally get it to a workable state, then pull out those power tools and fair, fair, fair. Soon enough it will be time to start vacuum bagging which sounds straightforward until you remember this is all on the deck, which is the ceiling of the cabin and gravity is always on. Now add in the fact that this is a project lead by Captain Perfecto and so there is no "good enough", it has to be completed to a finish better than new and you see why I say recoring is a pain in the butt. Hopefully soon we have a perfectly dry and sound deck ready to accept the deck hardware. I will tell you that there will be LIBERAL use of butyl tape on all the insertion points so we never have to do this again.

The girls cabin looks like a haunted house right now. Or a work space draped in plastic to keep the dust down. Same thing.

Let me remind you all that we did not buy a project boat. Ours just needed a "little"bit of work. I say this because just today someone was asking whether or not they should take on a boat that the sellers have deemed a "project" boat. If a seller is calling it a project, run screaming in the other direction.

On a happier note, the front cabin now has an installed hand rail and cabinetry on the port side where once there was a cramped head.

Want to make Captain Perfecto's eye twitch? Point out that you can see the teak bungs covering the screws. He spent more time than you can imagine trying to get the grain to match perfectly so they would disappear. It confounds him that they are visible. I told him they were almost decorative and hey, its just craftsmanship on display. I have yet to convince him but he has accepted it somewhat due to other pressing projects.

Visible bungs or not, we have more storage and I LOVE storage.

As Mark was fighting with the fairing of the deck recore, I was washing the boat. It is becoming apparent that it's time to think about having the hull painted. The Awlgrip is just past its prime and is nearing the end of its life and dying a slow, chalky death. While trying to get the boat clean I had a couple of thoughts. One- Awlgrip is crap and I don't know why anyone even bothers with it. Two, even though painting the boat is definitely NOT something we need to do and its on the spendy side of things after all the time and money lavished on Ceol Mor, it would just make me happy to have the hull as beautiful as the interior. Gilding the lily? Yes but at this point why the heck not? It's only money (HA!) and since we have not been bleeding money but have apparently severed a major monetary artery what's a paint job and new canvas really? So I am looking at Awlcraft 2000 color charts and trying to convince Mark that new canvas and hull paint is justified after the huge amount of work that has been done. Stay tuned...

A Little Work Here, A Little Work There

It would be nice to just move from one area of the boat to another, but that's too simple, straight forward and linear. If we have learned anything its that nothing to do withe boats is straight forward and linear. You throw a boat into the equation and you get thrown in many directions at once. So it is with the refit. You get ready to complete a project and then you realize that you are at the mercy of shipping times for necessary equipment so while you wait on delivery, its best to move to another project rather than waste time.

Kitty still loves to "help" Give her tools, any tools and she will happily play for hours

One of the bigger projects is redoing the deck hardware layout. For some reason, a PO thought it would be fun to change up the layout so that every time you need to hoist or tweak a sail. it was an difficult as possible. Perhaps they wanted to make it hard in order to save money on a gym membership but it has not been working for us. The goal all along has been for each of us to be able to single hand the boat. I am a mighty girl RAWR! but not quite that mighty. For this to happen, I need a bit more assistance from our winches and a little less chafe on the sheets.

Armed with his CAD software, hardware catalogs and the original boat design drawings, Mark has been carefully mapping out the deck layout. First up was figuring out the new deck organizers.

 Originally after much research, Mark had really wanted to use Spinlock organizers and clutches so he emailed Spinlock to get more technical information and sizing information. The guy at Spinlock emailed Mark back and instead of answering his questions said " this is over specced for your boat". This REALLY annoyed Mark. Not only did Spinlock not answer his question but the one thing you do not do is tell an engineer that his carefully made choices are wrong. Oh Spinlock, have you not realized that EVERYTHING on our boat is overspecced? So, Mark made a solemn vow to have no Spinlock equipment what so ever on our boat because yeah, it annoyed him and an annoyed Mark can hold a grudge like you would not believe. Bye bye Spinlock, hello Antal, Selden and Lewmar.

We still can not understand why the PO removed the 55 winches specced by Bob Perry for genoa/jib sheets and replaced them with 44s and then really undersized the main sheet winches but this is being rectified. The 44s are being repurposed for the mains and we have shiny new Lewmar 55s on their way. These will be installed once we get the deck under the winches recored.

 That's right, another instance of the infallibility of moisture meters and more cursing at the PO for not bedding the hardware properly in the first place. If you are going to be bedding hardware, please please for the love of future refitters check out this how to from Compass Marine . Do it. Buy some butyl tape from them. Use it. Yes, it does matter because while soft spots can be recored, its a major pain in the butt to do it correctly and you can save yourself from curses being thrown at you from a future owner, a man up to his elbows in balsa and fiberglass.

While we wait for delivery of equipment, Mark milled a new hand rail for the front cabin. We laughingly call this turning dollars to dust because yeah, teak. Not cheap but functional, sturdy, perfectly sized and aesthetically beautiful. No sense in half measures when we have spent so much time and effort on the front cabin. If you want it done right, have Mark do it.

Some see a pile of sawdust, boat owners see money blowing in the wind.

Here's hoping we can get the all the equipment delivered  installed before it becomes unbearably hot around here. Working on the decks in July and August is cruel and unusual punishment so fingers crossed the rest of the shiny bits get here soon, the recoring (thankfully a small area) is straight forward and we can keep on keeping on.

I Was Told There Would Be Beaches And Sunsets.

I never wanted to write a refit blog. What I wanted was a travel blog. A place to write about all the amazing places we were seeing. A place to keep all of those happy memories intact so that we could look back over them in years to come and remember where we had been. The colossal mistakes I made in executing this plan was A: buying a boat to travel on and B: buying a boat with my darling, perfectionist, Type A engineer Captain. Until this fall, a refit blog it is. Le sigh.

Work continues on the front cabin. If you recall, this wasn't going to be on our to do list as we hired a shipwright to do the work. The shipwright was a very charming, affable guy who unfortunately did not possess the necessary skill needed to fit out the cabin to our standards (granted, we KNOW we are picky) nor did he seem interested in doing things in a cost effective manner. Lesson learned. If you want something done right, have Mark do it. Just try not to look too closely at the calendar.

Mark has been finishing out the cabinetry in the front cabin. We had seen a couple of sisterships who removed the cramped, front head to open up the cabin but it seems no one else took the time to or spent the money to improve the functionality by increasing the storage and providing a secure place to sit while underway. We needed more storage, a place to sit to while getting dressed and most of all, a beautiful finish. We are well on our way. The cabinetry work is just about done and soon, very soon it will be time to insulate the cabin roof and install the headliner. Then it will be my turn to have a go at the soft goods to turn the cabin into something worthy of a couple who has lavished care, love, blood, sweat and a whole lot of tears on a little boat.

When you are working with teak, there is a level of anxiety that comes anytime you fire up a power tool or take a planer in hand that you just do not get when working with another wood. Teak is incredibly expensive, a diminishing resource and can behave in unexpected ways. Given this, you can maybe understand why Mark was so very chuffed to have perfectly cut, routed and shaped this piece of molding-

I know, I know. It's a piece of wood and not a sunset on a beach. Sometimes, you have to take the happy where you find it. We were similarly excited about...wood when Mark managed to nail the construction of the fiddle around shelf here.

Sitting on the work bench, it doesn't look like much but once you see it all coming together...

Then you start to think, maybe a refit blog isn't quite so bad after all. Beaches and sunsets are beautiful but you know what? My front cabin is starting to be pretty darned beautiful too.

Jewelry Schmewlry. Hardware a girl really wants...

I know lots of women who think that nothing says 'I love you' quite like a nice piece of jewelry. I like jewelry as much as the next girl, but this week I got an even better materialistic representation of Mark's adoration of me. Houston, we have a water heater. Those of you who are living on land with access to plentiful water at the flick of a tap, dispensed immediately at your desired temperature might not understand my glee at this most recent development, but my fellow boat babes will understand. Testify my sisters! Having the ability to heat water without the use of a tea kettle and stove is pretty darned luxurious living. I can't wait until it is all plumbed in. Yes, I will still be forced to wet down, turn off the tap, lather up, then turn on the taps to shower in an effort to keep our water usage to a minimum but that little spray of water will NOT be cold. This is awesome.

 I was so excited at the prospect of getting this on the boat I did not even mind the fact that I looked like a Clampett family member transporting this huge box in the passenger side of my mom's tiny little car. (My car is in the shop in an attempt to keep the Hoopty running for just one more year....) Kitty was disappointed that such a huge box did not contain something a bit more exciting. She was convinced that such a large box must contain something really amazing and you could see the disappointment on her face when I told her that while said box did not contain a pony, it had something even better- a water heater. Maura also seemed a little dubious as to the awesomeness of said water heater. I think I will let them shower in cold water for a bit so that later they can have an appreciation for how awesome our little Iso Temp really is.

We took break from making template patterns for the forward cabin seat cushion (me, messing up my first attempt) and from redesigning the engine exhaust system (Mark) to rectify what we think are serious design flaws to kick it around the docks with the kids.

Kitty's favorite place to go in all of Kemah is Kemah Hardware. Fortunately for her, they carry so many of the copper fittings, epoxy, etc, that she is pretty much assured of regular trips. This time she was beyond excited because in addition to some copper fittings, we were going to acquire a crab net of her very own and promised to take her crabbing. Mark, thinking he knew better than I- despite never having crabbed in his life insisted that what Kitty needed was a tiny bait net. I knew it wouldn't work but I let it go because Kitty was so jazzed about having a net of her own I couldn't bear to steal her joy.

After procuring the requisite chicken legs (how is it you can no longer buy just the necks anywhere? Galveston Bay- you have changed) we went off with bucket in hand to get to crabbin'. Mark thought all this production would be a waste of time. "You will never catch a crab" he said. "Check my birth certificate" I said. "Hello..SEABROOK NATIVE. I guarantee we will catch a crab. I spent endless hours playing around this bay as a kid and while it was too murky for swimming there were crabs a plenty. Galveston Bay=crabs.I am like the crab whisperer. I'm all Deadliest Catch on Galveston Bay. Trust me." I informed him knowingly.

So off we went. We did not manage to land a crab because I timed it wrong and the tide was coming so our crabs kept getting knocked off the line before we could attempt to net them. I should add that after seeing the inadequacy of his preferred net, Mark went off and added an extension. I didn't mind because I was able to smile the satisfied smile of the correct. Of course, Mark got all Captain Perfecto on us and the extension is a bit more finely crafted than mine would have been but its all good. Kitty can not wait to go crabbing again and she really hopes to land one next time. Maura is happy just to kick it around the water and I am just happy to get to spend a little bit of time with them all wasting time in pursuit of crabs. Soon enough, I shall be able to introduce the girls to the fun of crab drag racing.

Dubious Mark

Now a believer, Mark tried to bring the crab along the dock. I told him it wouldn't work, he did not listen. The crab let go. Hello- listen to the crab whisperer next time. Pull up slowly, scoop quickly. Be one with the crab...

In High Cotton

We fired up the engine. This might seem like a non-momentous occasion until you realize that it has been over a year since it was last started. The fuel lines have been disconnected for a year as Mark began working on the big project marked "plumbing". The plumbing punch list includes not only replacing all of what you would normally consider plumbing- i.e. water lines, toilet lines, etc. but also the fuel lines which feed the engine and generator. It has been an enormous job. You don't realize how big a 42 foot boat is until you decide to totally redo the plumbing lines...or the electrical wiring.

As Mark finished hooking up the fuel lines after his massive over haul of the fuel filtration system, having just finished the seawater lines to the engine and generator, our fingers were crossed. The generator seawater impeller was replaced (more on this later), the engine flushed and the engine was primed using the new fuel pump. It was now or never.

Mark went up to the cockpit, turned the key and...it fired up the very first time. Only sailors who have previously dealt with a cantankerous old diesel engine (are there any other kind of engines?) will understand, but it turned over the first time. The exhaust was not overly smoky, the engine was not belchy, the vibration was noticeably lessened and the exhaust water was sputtering out of the stern as we had hoped. WINNING!!!

Marine diesel repair sounds so simple in the abstract but in reality, every tiny repair or modification is a giant pain in the butt. The simple sounding task of replacing the generator seawater impeller was made incredibly time consuming by just trying to find the right impeller. Our first attempt at ordering one online ended up in us having the absolute wrong one. Turns out we need an Oberdorfer impeller which as far as I can tell is made by one person who lives alone somewhere in the Alps and the parts are delivered to the post only once a month when the snows clear enough to allow the pack goats through. Also, Karl the impeller maker is getting pretty sick of making these so his production is dependent on whether he feels like it or not. So we ordered the right make and the right size, it was the bore diameter which was wrong. We managed to score one on our second attempt and you can bet that we are having Karl whip up another to carry as a spare.

Our dock neighbor Hugh stopped by. Hugh is sort of the Dock Daddy genius, experienced sailor and talented engineer of our dock. His boat, which he designed and had  custom built by Tashing is hands down the most perfect and beautiful vehicle for cruising I have ever seen. To say his boat is well thought out and absolutely beautiful would be a gross understatement. I do not covet many things, but his boat is the one thing I would give a kidney for. I say this so you understand how over the moon and chuffed Mark was when Hugh exclaimed that the fuel filtration Mark designed was the most functional, elegant, tidy and practical installation he had ever seen. What took 3 separate filters to do on Hugh's boat, Mark managed to do with only 2 and to retain every bit as much functionality as the 3 filter system Good on ya Mark. I told ya it was something to be proud of.

So now its time to take a moment to sit back and toast the work done on the engine. I say a moment because well, the generator is generating some consternation and difficulties of its own. Of course. Enough so that its going to get a post of its very own. Like I have said before- boats are really stupid.

 I have been anxiously awaiting 2 things to happen. One for late summer to get here so I could grab a photo of the local cotton crop ( I love cotton ) and 2. For something to go so well that I could use the phrase "In high cotton". I was worried these 2 requirements would not align, but this week they did.