And the real work starts... Archives - Page 4 of 5

September 12, 2015

The Pantry

I have mentioned before that there really is not a lot of room on the Whitby 42. I know that sounds crazy but to those who have owned one, I think you might agree. We ran into Denis and Rosario from Counting Stars a week ago and this subject came up as well. I mean there is tons of “room” but not a lot of storage. I guess that would be a better description.

In an effort to help reclaim some of that room and turn it into actual storage, so began the process of building the pantry. On our last boat Kismet III, the starboard settee back was hinged and you had full access to the space behind. This was a great idea and one I promised to incorporate and improve with Akupara.

On another site that I have visited many times, I also came across the identical idea and decided for sure that we would do this, and so began the custom fitting of many odd shaped pieces.

As you can see, I still have more pieces to cut but we will get there. Each section will be approximately 10″ wide and 7″ tall. This will allow for either several cans or perhaps a few smaller Rubbermaid containers.

The admiral has always complained that there was not enough galley storage so this should help big time. And if she does not like it, I can always use it to store tools or spare parts 😉

August 26, 2015

The aft cabin interior nears completion.

Several weeks ago we had a huge sense of accomplishment as the majority of the vberth interior was finally completed and we are nearing that point with the aft cabin as well. On Saturday we managed to sand install and stain the last cupboard face and the aft cabin door. We still have to complete the sanding, installing and staining of the cupboard doors and drawers but the major interior components are as complete as we are going to take them at this point.

The weather has begun to change and it is getting a bit cooler at night now which of course means not so hot during the day. Although we are sad to see it go we are also anxious to get started on some of the more labour intensive jobs. Okay anxious may not be the right word, but you get the point. 🙂

One of the big jobs that is coming in the very near future is the sanding and painting of all of the interior visible fiberglass. This is going to be a dirty, messy, dusty job and will require holding a sander or in some cases a grinder over our heads for extended periods. Oh well, once it is done and the new paint is applied, we will be able to reinstall the windows and the remainder of the interior trim.

We have decided to work on the heads, then the main cabin and finally the galley. I have obviously overlooked the engine room and nav station in this plan but it is for a reason. The nav station will probably happen last, after the engine install as we still have all of the wiring to plan, purchase and install, but a fair bit of it revolves around the engine and charging system.

We have chosen to attack the galley rebuild as the last, what I will call living space, rebuild for a couple of reasons. Firstly, in a lot of ways the galley is the most important space in Akupara. Well maybe after the wine cellar but at least as important. We have a fair bit of shopping to accomplish in order to get all of the items we want for the galley and only once that is completed can we really sit down and properly organize and layout the galley. In a lot of boats the galley always seems to be an afterthought and although we are not fundamentally changing the layout, we want to ensure we maximise it to the fullest. Secondly, once the galley is complete, I do not want to be grinding fiberglass and sanding wood, thereby covering the newly rebuilt galley in a forever coat of dust. Apparently eating fiberglass isn’t all that good for you.

And lastly I am sure you have noticed that I have glazed over a lot of work that has been mentioned previously or that you may have noticed in pictures or what have you, but we are fully aware that it needs to be completed and we will attack it when the time is right. Right now, the time is about gaining a sense of accomplishment and having a finished interior is giving us that sense at this time so that is the road we are going down.

Finally for today, I am way behind on the Costs page and will try to spend some time this week to bring it up to date. To be honest I have lost count of the man hours but I will make an educated guess in order to at least bring it semi current. The dollars spent should be fairly easy to track as I have the receipts and the history in the bank statements of course.

August 17, 2015August 17, 2015

Old teak versus new teak plywood.

The two worst interior panels on all of Akupara were the two bottom ceilings in the aft cabin. They had suffered the most damage and unfortunately would not be salvageable so yesterday we set about replacing them.

In Vancouver it is pretty much impossible to find real Teak Marine plywood. Perhaps this is the case everywhere and I just do not realize it but either way it is fairly frustrating. So I broke down and purchased Teak plywood that is not marine grade and hopefully if we take the proper precautions it will last. Obviously we are planning on removing ALL ,which we have almost completely finished, and that will help to preserve this plywood, but I will take it a step further and once the visible side has completely dried and is therefore protected, I will remove the panels and paint the backs with epoxy. So why did I purchase the non marine teak ply? Simple, to make it look as close as possible like the originals.

The teak veneer is so thin that there is no way it can ever be sanded, but it turned out fairly close in looks to the aft bulkhead but not the cupboard face. In the previous picture you can see the silver foil bubblewrap that acts as both a moisture barrier and adds some insulation. It is cut to fit and installed behind the panels as well just like in the vberth.

We are getting closer. At least we feel like we are getting closer. Once we have all of the cupboard doors and the drawers sanded, stained and installed, we will have the woodwork for at least the vberth and the aft cabin complete. This is giving us a strong sense of accomplishment and although we still need to sand and paint all of the interior fiberglass on the ceiling which will be a big dirty job, we need to feel like we are getting somewhere and this is allowing for just that.

I am anxious to get started on the main cabin. It will be a slightly different approach as we are replacing the majority of the interior wood for the cabinets and shelving and hopefully it will go a bit faster. The original plywood that was used was 1/4 inch and over 40 years most of it has sagged and some of it has suffered water damage as well so it will simply be replaced. We kept all of the old pieces to use as templates so it is only a matter of tracing them on new plywood and cutting them out.

We still have a the giant job of sanding and painting the decks but we met a great young couple yesterday who just had the decks on their Bayfield 32′ sanded and painted. Wow what a nice job. It truly gave us inspiration to keep working. So I think the plan for now is to keep moving in the direction of completing the interior cabinetry, and making any repairs necessary on the inside as we go along. The electrical and plumbing can be added at any point so I am not all that concerned with that aspect. Once the interior is complete, and the weather cools off a bit, we will get back to re-finishing the decks. I do not want to have a beautiful new paintjob and then ruin it by dragging and moving all kinds of other parts all over it. This will also allow for the re-installation of deck fittings over the winter where we can take our time and make sure they are installed properly.

dddd

August 9, 2015

Why you should fix deck leaks…

I knew the chainplates leaked. I also knew they leaked fairly badly. What I did not know was that the area of deck where the chainplates make their appearance is cored. I also did not know that the original way these holes were created did not include sealing the coring. Well, it did not take long to find all of this out.

I decided yesterday to start pulling the chainplates in the aft cabin before we get too far ahead of ourselves and to fix the rot in the bulkheads. Fixing the rot in the bulkhead is not going to be that big of a job, but nevertheless I have been putting it off, however the decision was made to begin the fix which necessitates removal of the chainplates. First thing I noticed right off the bat was that the bolts holding the chainplate in place, were not even tight. Hmmmm. Second thing I noticed was that there was several layers of what I can only assume was 3m4200 or something very similar. Of course the 5 spare tubes we found in the cleanout also indicate a preference to this goop. Anyway, after cleaning out as much of the goop as possible, and removing all of the snug bolts, I pried from below decks and Andrea pulled from on deck and sure enough they popped out. This of course presented me the opportunity to discover the facts above. It became quickly obvious that an immediate repair was needed, and it became quickly obvious that I can be almost guaranteed that every other chainplate will require the same repair.

My repair process involved cutting out approximately 5″ square of the top skin around the existing holes. As soon as I began cutting the top skin it was painfully obvious that there was water damage. There is a smell that rotting wood has it and it was in the air. In the pictures you can see black core, which is already rotten and the somewhat light brown colour is wet. After removing this piece of top skin I scraped all of the remnants of coring out of the hole, ground it down with 60 grit sandpaper and cut a plug out of 3/4″ marine ply to fill in the section of now missing core. The original thickness of the coring here is closer to 1/2″ which means that my plug is almost flush with the top skin. This is by design so don’t panic. I placed a small piece of duct tape over the original holes on the bottom skin to prevent epoxy from running down inside of the boat, filled the areas that I had dug out underneath the remaining top skin, poured a bed of thickened epoxy into the hole, and placed the new coring in, completely covering it with epoxy. So now I have a solid area about 6″ square around the old holes.

The next step will be to grind the area concave including farther out than the 5″ piece I cut out in the top skin, drill a hole about 3″ in diameter where the chainplates will be through the plywood coring down to the bottom skin, fill the hole completely with thickened epoxy and add a layup of several layers of glass to the entire area until it is slightly proud of the surrounding deck. At this point I am going to take it one step farther. I am going to raise the 3″ diameter hole that has been filled with thickened epoxy, up past deck level by approximately a 1/2″. This will help eliminate any water intrusion as any water that finds its way on deck will run around the raised area. The purpose of the 3″ solid epoxy hole is that any water that might find its way down the chainplates will not be able to penetrate the coring as they will be surrounded by solid glass.

I only have to repeat this 9 more times for the rest of the chainplates and all will be good in the world again. But I will never have to repair these areas again.

A word of advice to all of the Whitby owners out there. Pull your chainplates, and make sure the coring around them is not wet. If it is not, at least seal the holes with epoxy and make sure it never does get wet.

While I was messing around with pulling chainplates and repairing core, I also replaced all of the temporary screws that were holding in any of the interior panels that we have put back. As I mentioned before in previous posts, every screw that is used on Akupara from here on in will be a Robertson screw. For those of you who do not know what a Robertson screw is, it is a square slot as opposed to just a slot, or a Philips which is a star shape, or any other type of screw for that matter. I have always found Robertson screws afford the best chance of NOT stripping them thereby making them removable for all time.

Andrea and Paige began the process of painting all of the bilges and lockers with Bilgekote paint. Andrea wanted white as opposed to the traditional grey, and after seeing the newly painted areas gleaming with fresh white paint, I think she made the right choice. Bilgekote is easy to apply and gives good coverage. It is also very hard once cured and is supposed to be very abrasion resistant. We actually started asking ourselves why we shouldn’t use white Bilgekote to paint the sole in Akupara as well. Abrasion resistant, tough, white, what more can we ask for? I will need to do a little research to see if there is any reason why we should not, but if I do not find anything, I think we have a solution to the 40 year old yellowish floors.

August 7, 2015August 7, 2015

Perfection?

As I have been reviewing the pictures that I have taken over the last little while, I notice that not all of the finished parts of the interior wood are exactly the same and that there are some spots that are a little darker or lighter than others and I thought I should provide an explanation as to why.

Firstly I am not a professional furniture refinisher. Perhaps if I had contracted out the work, the wood would be a little more uniform in colour throughout. I am sure if I paid enough for it, it could be close to perfect. As close to perfect as the day it came out of the factory.

But secondly, Akupara is not brand new. Akupara has almost 40 years of experience under her belt. She has battle scars like any other 40 year old. She also has 40 years of stories to tell about those battle scars. A lot like me. I have a crooked middle finger on my left hand and there is an entire story I get to tell about crushing that finger in a compound sliding miter saw while attempting to cut one of the hardest pieces of wood I have ever seen.

In hindsight, I guess I could have had some kind of cosmetic surgery where they attempted to straighten out the bone, but was it necessary? I can use the finger perfectly fine, just ask many a driver in Vancouver who have cut me off in traffic, so no I do not feel it was necessary to make it perfect, and I have a pretty good story to tell when asked about it. Not to mention that in order to get the full visual, I have to stick my middle finger up at the audience, which is just a fringe benefit. 😉

So when it comes to the wood refinishing in Akupara. Yes we have filled as many holes as we need to, and yes we have sanded the old faded finish off, and yes we have re-stained it, but no it is not perfect. You can still see the lines and battle scars that Akupara has earned and each of which I am sure has a story to go along with it. Soon enough, we will undoubtedly add some of our own scars to her, and for those we will have a story to share, but for the others, Akupara will get to hold her past as her own and we will accept her for who she is now, along with all of her life experiences to which she should be proud of.

July 31, 2015July 31, 2015

Too hot…

It has been one of the nicest summers we have had in a long time and we are not in the water, go figure. It has also been way too hot to work on deck under the greenhouse! So that has left interior work to be completed which is fine as it will all need to be done sooner or later anyway.

On Monday Paige came to lend a hand and she set to work painting another coat on what she and Fynn had completed the week before. Although I am sure it will continue to get scuffed and dirty as we progress and require another coat, it is sure nice to see what Akupara will eventually look like.

Tuesday to Thursday I was by myself and managed to get a lot accomplished. I was able to sand and stain a lot of the interior wood in the foreword and aft cabin.

Sanding the aft bulkhead in the aft cabin.

So what did I use? Well, part of the overall plan for Akupara is to be as maintenance free as possible and to that end I went with Natural Teak Cetol and Clear Gloss Cetol.

I know, I know. OMG. I didn’t use varnish or hand rubbed finishes or mother of pearl or whatever else, but think back to my last statement. Low maintenance. If I get a scratch, I simply have to do a light sand, put a coat of Cetol and then a coat of gloss and I am done. Every couple of years when it starts to look faded, the same applies. It also means that I only need to keep 2 cans of product on hand at all times. IF we have any wood on the exterior, and that is a big IF, it will also have the same products on it.

And yes Joe, I said gloss 😉 even though you don’t like glossy boats. So far I think it is looking pretty darn amazing considering the state it was in when we purchased Akupara.

I challenge all of you javex bottles to sand your interior wood with 120 grit sandpaper and have any wood left at all. Gotta love 40 year old boats when the teak ply was still made with some meat and not just paper thin.

Speaking of sanding, mu random orbital sander bit the dust so I went out and bought a Dewalt Random Robital Sander that accepts a vacuum cleaner hose. Gotta say I love it so far. The amount of dust that escapes is minor to say the least and the majority of it ends up in the vacuum.

I am coming up to a dilemma though and anyone with any experience doing this I would love to hear from you. I will soon need to repaint all of the fiberglass sole. Right now it is a horrible yellowish colour and it needs to be white. I have asked several folks but have yet to get any good advice. I do not want to sand as that would destroy the nonslip.

Another thing I love about these old boats is that all of the panels can be removed by simply unscrewing them. As I come back to do the electrical and plumbing work, this will make it a lot easier.

So the current plan is to continue refinishing all of the interior until it begins to cool down and then we will get back to working on the deck. As well, this will give us a big sense of satisfaction and help to clean out our basement.

July 22, 2015August 10, 2015

Spare parts…

Well I am finally getting around to starting to sort through a lot of the spare parts that came with Akupara and a few things that I had in the basement as well. So far I have managed to sell my 8′ sailing dinghy and the old windlass off of Akupara.

As I continue to sort through all of the goodies and not so goodies, I will continue to sell as much as possible. Hopefully put a little bit of money back into new goodies 😉

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure!

UPDATE:

I have also sold the Icom M710 and AT130 autotuner. I kept the Pactor modem for when I purchase and install the Icom M802.

UPDATE:

I sold the ST2000 Tiller Pilot and remote that was on Akupara as well. Not much use to us as I plan on fixing or replacing the main autopilot aboard Akupara.

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015

8 screws, 20 holes

It never really surprises me, okay it obviously does because I am writing about it, as to how many shortcuts people will take. I have been guilty of taking shortcuts in the past as well but I don’t understand buying 10 opening stainless ports at $500 bucks a piece, ripping out the old windows, and jamming in the new ones without filling the old holes, and then wondering why your windows leak!

I will say that at least they used butyl tape and not 3M5200 to put them in…

Paige and her boyfriend Fynn came to help on Saturday and managed to get a fresh coat of paint in the aft cabin, wow it is like night and day. It is of course going to get all dirty again as we continue to work on all the projects but at least it is our dirt at that point.

We were at Costco on Sunday and I spotted these little beauties. I had previously priced tem at Home depot and they were about $30 each but we got these for $26 for two. These ones are destined for the vberth but the more I think about it, the more I want to go back and purchase them for all of the electrical outlets in Akupara. I hate having some kind of device to charge and not being able to find the silly little wall wart.

It was extremely hot on Saturday so we did not manage to get a whole heck of a lot accomplished but it feels good to be back working at her again. I am also on holidays next week so hopefully I will be able to make some good progress. This weekends plan is to remove all of the rest of the windows and start filling some of those extra holes if all goes well.

And finally I sold our little sailing dinghy last night. I had grand plans of keeping it as a backup tender and sailing through anchorages on warm days but the reality is it would be one more thing to drag on deck, one more thing to store all of the extra parts, one more thing to worry about, and we already have two rigid hull inflatables, how many dinghies do we really need?

July 6, 2015

A small restart.

Yesterday I managed to finally get restarted on Akupara!!

As I thought I was a bit disorganized as we have definitely lost our rhythm. Oh well, I managed to get some more painting completed, I did a fair bit of organization of tools that had managed to grow legs and hide all over the boat. I also got the upper cupboard reinstalled on the starboard v berth. Amazing how you can remove a bulkhead and replace it with a new one in the exact same position and yet somehow the next piece is just a little too big. I absolutely love my oscillating multitool, it comes in so handy in so many different ways and this time I used it to make precision trims of the cupboard!

Since we are starting to close things back in temporarily, it all needs to come back out for the sanding of the liner, I also started making the wiring harness for the new windlass. Akupara came with just enough heavy duty new wire to get this done.

My random orbital sander has died and will require a replacement or two as we will need it in order to continue.

And last but not least we have a few stowaways. A lovely little nest of wasps has taken up residence under the shrink wrap. I will destroy the little stinging bastards this week!

We are in the middle of a heat wave in Vancouver right now but thankfully inside Akupara is not that bad, but it is almost impossible to work under the shrink wrap on deck. The only advantage is that Akupara is as dry as a bone.

May 6, 2015May 6, 2015

Has it really been 6 months???

https://youtu.be/swel19Kn4_o

A photo look back at 6 months of craziness! And yes it feels as fast as the video and just as confusing!! 🙂

A special thanks to all the crew for persevering thus far!

The tide has turned!

Hope everyone enjoys a look into our crazy little world! Thank heavens for the odd comedian to make it more interesting!

Cheers!

May 3, 2015

Rome wasn’t built in a day

It is interesting that yesterday we loaded the truck at home and brought parts of Akupara back to Akupara as opposed to the other way around. I guess that means we are just past slack tide and the flow has begun to go in the other way!

It is a great feeling to be at this point and start seeing some results of all of our hard work. The process of gutting and cleaning was a long one and the biggest part is yet to come, the engine removal, but the tides have definitely turned!

Yesterday I put the finishing touches on the anchor locker by cutting the rubber mats I was talking about to fit and by installing the rode divider. I changed my mind about glassing the divider in as it would make any further work in there nearly impossible so I went with a gigantic screw to hold it in place. This means that when the time comes to wash out the locker, I can remove the divider and the mats and get it nice and clean!

I also managed to glass in the two holes in the cabin that had previously contained instruments. Last weekend we cut the marine plywood plugs and yesterday I took the grinder, bevelled the edges, and glassed them in with 6 layers of cloth and some structural filler in the epoxy. Next time down I will need to grind them flush and fill with fairing filler and epoxy so that there is no trace of them when we paint.

While I was doing all of this, Andrea and Paige were sanding their hearts out. All of the ceiling slats were sanded on the visible side with the orbiting sander and any paint from the back side that dripped was removed by hand. They spent the majority of the day doing this and their efforts were clearly visible based on the amount of sawdust on the two of them.

a sanding we will go... — a sanding we will go…

Strange thing though, my random orbit sander started to act up around hour number 4. It started making funny noises and also had a weird smell of burning brushes. The admiral swore that she had been emptying it and that she had not been hogging it down hard but nevertheless it just wasn’t working well anymore.

Sabotage I say! And if this is the kind of thing that is going to happen on a regular basis, ie I am tired so I will break the tool, I need to revisit the overall budget for this project and increase the tool allowance! Thankfully there is a Lowe’s hardware store about 10 minutes away so the any more of this nonsense will result in new tools 😉

It is starting to get nice in the Pacific North West and under the shrinkwrap it is even warmer! So we broke our own rule of not having beer on the boat until we launched and enjoyed our first ice cold beer on Akupara amidst all of the chaos!

As the ladies were finishing up the sanding of the v berth pieces, I was installing some insulation. Insulation? Yes insulation! There are 3 reasons we are adding insulation as we proceed through this rebuild. 1) As we plan to liveaboard, any heat we can retain will be advantageous as we both hate being cold. 2) When we finally get to warmer climates, the insulation should do the opposite and help to keep the belly of the beast a little cooler. And 3) I have heard a rumour that adding this silver bubble foil insulation actually increases your radar return to other vessels. I am not completely sold on this as I have no direct proof, but anything that increases our radar signature and makes us more visible to oncoming ships in the fog, is a good thing in my mind!

By adding the insulation beneath the ceiling, I have left a 2″ air gap in between the hull and the ceiling. So, cored hull which is warmer than a non cored hull, 2″ dead air space, and reflective insulation beneath the ceiling, should keep us toasty warm and hopfully reduce any condensation buildup.

And after a long day of work on several different projects, we almost have the v berth back to a state of completion.

V berth ceiling with first coat of cetol Natural teak.

May 2, 2015May 2, 2015

The perfect marine head?

As we slowly get closer to completing the v berth, I am beginning to turn my thoughts and research towards the foreward head.

We have been looking at many different ideas as to how to cover, change, update, repair the white plastic laminate on the walls, new taps for the sink and shower and of course now I am starting to research marine heads, or toilets, for those who don’t speak pirate.

It absolutely amazes me that there are so many choices. Manual vs electric, macerating vs not etc etc. Don’t even get me going on marine sanitation hose and the myriad of choices (read costs) there. It doesn’t seem to matter which brand we decide to go with as all of the reviews, yes people post reviews about their marine toilets, have both good and bad comments.

For those who are not in the know, marine toilets are extremely sensitive little marvels of technology. They suck water in from outside the boat through a special hole that you have drilled, at the same time as not sinking your boat. They have a bewildering network of hoses and valves and fittings and pumps and many different ways of disposing of the contents.

The major rule of law is, if you have not eaten it, it does not go in the head. The second rule of law, at least on my boat, is if you plug it, you fix it. I am adamant about this one and so far it has worked in my favor as I have yet to have to unclog any of our marine heads.

I worry about installing the right heads as, since we will be living aboard eventually, it will be subjected to a lot more use than a weekend boat and the last thing I want to do is spend my days repairing heads.

So in my search for the best of the best, most reliable, non clogging, easy to repair, simple to operate, easy to clean, quiet, non smelly marine sanitation system, I have finally found the PERFECT solution!

Now to convince the Admiral and crew!

April 29, 2015

Let there be light…okay lamps!

We have been eyeballing interior lamps for Akupara for quite some time and the closer we get to finishing the V berth, the more important it becomes to have something new for Akupara.

So….I just finished placing an order for ALL of the interior lamps for Akupara and while I was at it, I ordered a new 300′ anchor rode for the primary. I figure 300′ of rode and 250′ of chain on both primary and secondary forward anchors should give us one hell of an anchoring depth.

Anyway, what is it that BOAT stands for, yup, Bring-On-Another-Thousand!!

April 26, 2015April 26, 2015

Small spaces

I am sure that before we are complete with Akupara’s refit I will experience smaller places than the anchor locker, but for now this is probably the most time I have spent in such a small space.

Fitting the new bulkhead was an exercise in patience. The last thing I wanted to do was end up cutting the pieces too short, so there was a lot of back and forth between the anchor locker and the main salon where I was cutting the ply. Shaving plywood is not exactly the easiest thing to do with a jigsaw, but it can be done.

Last part of the story, it is in.

Joints were filleted with thickened epoxy, and 5 layers of glass on all 4 corners. If this bulkhead moves again, I will give up. And I will do everything in my power to make sure that it NEVER rots again!

It is satisfying to have a job done, but the aches and pains will stick around for a while yet, I am certainly not 25 anymore.

While I was at Akupara today I also put 2 coats of Cetol, Natural teak, on the anchor locker divider. Speaking of which, I have been hoarding 3 nice industrial rubber mats that a good friend of mine gave me. They are the kind that you would see in a restaurant kitchen. They are black, about an inch thick, and are filled with holes to allow for drainage. My plan all along was to line the bottom and sides of the anchor locker with these so that air can get around and water can get underneath. Hopefully, everything I am doing will prevent another rust ball like we found when we purchased Akupara.

I wonder if the old girl is starting to feel loved again? She may have thought she was destined for the scrapyard, but with all of the cleaning, painting, scraping, sanding, grinding and a brand new bulkhead, she must know that she is on her way back to being the belle of the ball!

Next will probably be the fore-deck re-coring….this will be interesting!

April 25, 2015April 25, 2015

Marine Plywood and lots of dust

True marine plywood is bloody expensive, that’s all I have to say. BUT, when you feel the difference in the weight of marine ply and standard ply, and when you are cutting it and there are no voids, you begin to realize why it is so expensive. So I started the morning with a grinder in hand and went to town on the area where the old bulkhead was attached cleaning a patch about 5 inches on either side of where the new bulkhead will be. This will allow for a good clean surface to glass the new bulkhead in. Of course that means that I spent the rest of the day somewhat uncomfortable due to the itching but hey, no itch no gain. I also cut out a new anchor locker divider that I will glass in place. I cut half circles all along the bottom so that any water that gets in there, has a way of escaping and it should help let air circulate, thereby avoiding the giant ball of anchor chain rust hopefully. This picture was taken after the next step but you get the idea.

Nest step was to cut a cardboard template so that I could transfer it to the marine ply outside. The rest of the crew arrived with the Admiral around this time and Graeme came to lend a hand once again.

So Graeme and I finished the pattern, took it outside and no sooner did we get there the skies opened up and we had a torrential downpour which turned into hail. We grabbed the marine ply and brought it up on deck with us under the shrinkwrap where we were able to complete the rest of the cuts. The sound in there was deafening. None of us could hear each other speak so it turned into a bit of a break.

While we were busy cutting and fitting the new bulkhead, the Admiral and August and Paige were on deck removing more fittings, grinding previously filled holes, and apparently goofing off just a bit….

The way that I get the majority of the pictures is with my GoPro camera. I set it to time lapse on a 60 second interval and just let it go. Obviously someone figured out the timing.

Since I did not remove the shelves in the v berth, I am not able to replace the anchor locker bulkhead in one solid piece so it is being made out of 3 pieces. I will epoxy it together and reinforce the joint with another layer of ply once I have it fit perfectly.

The two triangular pieces have slid down in this picture as they still need to be fine tuned to fit precisely. Once I have them fit properly, there will not be a gap at the top of course.

We also took a little bit of time to cut two plugs in anticipation of filling the instrument holes in the cockpit. The kids worked on this for about an hour and never actually got them to fit. I didn’t have the heart to take over as they were trying pretty hard but after everyone left, I cut them down to fit and put them in place. Prior to filling with glass and fairing I will need to grind the edges of course but for now at least they are in.

All in all it was a busy day and we made good progress.

April 21, 2015

Things I may have forgot to mention.

There is a chance that I may have forgot to mention the odd little repair that we have completed alongside all of the rest of the work. One of those little things is that while we were playing with epoxy and filler I decided to fill the bolt holes for the rudder gudgeon. Over the years several attempts have been made to drill new holes and what was left was a bit of a mess. Happy to report that all of the crooked holes are now filled, next step will be drill and reattach the gudgeon.

Another one I forgot to talk about was voids. Voids in the deck. So far we have identified and filled 2 substantial voids. One of these was located around the mast collar. I wanted to fill in the existing hole for the mast wiring plug, yes I have no idea why there would be another hole drilled when the mast comes all the way in through the cabin top but anyway it was there and I wanted it filled. So I covered the bottom of the hole from inside Akupara and mixed up some epoxy with structural filler. I repeated this process more times than I care to mention for this particular hole but eventually it did stop taking epoxy and as far as I can tell, I have filled the hole. Another one that we encountered was when Graeme was filling holes last weekend. It was about 2 feet forward from the cockpit on the coachroof and it took a hell of a lot of epoxy as well.

The old rusty Bruce anchor is now painted a gloss black, which probably will not last all the long but at least it looks good for the time being. I keep telling the admiral that if I had my way, I would take it in and get it chromed along with the CQR but there are too many other things coming up very soon to be worried about that.

We have decided, if funds allow, that we will have the forward lifelines changed to a solid rail. Our stern rail, sometimes called a pushpit, is a solid piece all the way up to the forward end of the cockpit. I like solid rails as they provide more mental comfort than the wire ones and I do not think the extra weight is all that much.

This weekend if plans work out, I hope to have the anchor locker bulkhead and the anchor locker divider measured, cut, installed, glassed, painted and stained so that we are complete with that project. I am also hoping that the rest of the crew will have all of the previously filled holes on deck, ground down, wiped with acetone and faired with epoxy. Once the anchor locker is complete, we will finish sand all of the wood and exposed liner in the vberth, paint and stain and reinstall all of the ceiling. Hopefully by the end of April we can say that the vberth is completely finished. We will then close it off with plastic sheets and continue on with the refit, slowly working our way towards the aft cabin. Having one cabin finished will be a big mental gain!

I think spirits are still high, and the Admiral and crew are persevering, but I know how overwhelming this entire process is and any milestones we can claim as complete, will go a long way to seeing us through to the end.

April 19, 2015

Life’s too short!

Wait a second, what? Yup that’s right, life is too short, too short to spend hours upon hours grinding and hacking and getting pretty much nowhere when somewhere in this fine world is the right tool to get the job done. 15 minutes on te internet, 15 minute diversion on the way to Akupara, 1 hour of work and the rotten ole bulkhead was finally history.

I guess I should back up a bit here and fill in some of the missing details. When we bought Akupara I had a strong suspicion that the anchor locker bulkhead was rotten, given that the chain was primarily a big ball of rust and the rode was a sopping mess and Akupara had not been in the water in several years. Hmm doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out. How rotten it actually was, I wasn’t exactly sure. So my first attempt at using a grinder was not exactly successful. It’s not that it wasn’t getting the job done, but the dust that was thrown into the air resulted in everyone leaving the Captain to deal with this issue on his own. Not until several cat calls of something to do with “Breaking Bad” and all that. The Captain wasn’t impressed.

Needless to say, this did not last long. I would have had to have gotten the rest of the Breaking Bad attire in order to make it threw this one, and I had forgotten my safety glasses, so all in all it was a failed attempt.

So a quick trip to Lowe’s this morning and a new power tool was on board. And regardless of what the Admiral tells you, I did not make her sit down and watch online reviews of oscillating multi tools. Ok maybe 1.

Dewalt won the review challenge by the way.

On several of our last boats I have done things the hard way. I have made do with inadequate or improper tools and eventually was able to get whatever task was at hand finished. I must be getting old because my patience have simply run out and in this case anyway, this tool is worth its weight in gold! I have already thought of about a dozen different ways I will be able to use this in Akupara’s refit!

Back to the bulkhead. The new tool cut through the fiberglass with a lot of ease and best of all with a lot of precision. There is a learning curve to the variable speed and the stock blades that came with it are crap as I burned out 2 of them, but I will purchase new blades next time around.

Of course like any good boat project, you must twist, contort, climb inside of, pry beat, kick, pull, push, swear, sweat, give up, cry, yell, give in, try again, and then once you have completed the entire ritual, sometimes you win.

So, after all of that, Akupara is now one bulkhead short. In the process of all of this, it became clearly evident that either I am somewhat superhuman in strength, or the bulkhead was for the most part toast.

A couple of coats of paint later and all is good. Next week comes the fun part. Grinding, cutting, swearing, staining, fiberglasing etc etc as the new bulkhead goes in.

On another note, we have been discussing a lot of interior design ideas and the one thing we keep coming back to is installing dark corian counter tops. Since we had a can of old black paint kicking around, I decided to see what the whole dark countertop idea would look like so I painted the tops. Don’t worry, either way, the countertops were being replaced so not a big deal.

We kind of like the look. Of course it won’t be high gloss black, but you get the idea.

April 12, 2015

Add some paint and take some away.

Today was a bit of a slower day as I was by myself and went down to Akupara more to check on our progress from yesterday than with an actual plan. I checked all of our filled holes and out of all of them, I think there might be 5 that we will need to redo, not bad. I removed all of the duct tape from the inside and once again looked at the off yellow fugly paint job on the main cabin bulkhead. If there is one thing I hate it is taking a beautiful teak bulkhead and covering it with a fugly paint job. I just can’t comprehend why people feel the need to do this. I have been worrying since we purchased Akupara that there might be a big fiberglass patch or some horrible repair job that was covered with paint and there was only one way to find out.

And since it was cold today I thought sitting with a heat gun might be a good way to spend the afternoon and so I started.

Well like any good boat project, what you originally estimate to take only a couple of hours always needs to be multiplied by 3. In this case I did beat the rule of thirds but only just.

Still need to get a lot of paint out of the grain but happy to see that there is no big repair that was covered up by the paint. 🙂

Here’s to teak bulkheads!!

April 12, 2015April 12, 2015

Filling holes.

We managed to get a lot of much needed work completed yesterday. Once again Graeme joined us, and the 5 of us set about on our tasks and we hustled for the majority of the day. Paige being the smallest, climbed into the anchor locker and painted the entire thing while August started with the second coat in the vberth. In the pictures you can see many pieces of duct take on the ceiling. Each one of these is preventing epoxy from flowing through into the cabin and will be removed.

Andrea went to work with wood filler and sealed about 200 tiny screw, nail, and other such holes in any of the wood that will be left exposed. I asked Graeme to start by over-drilling any of the holes on deck that I had missed and I started mixing epoxy. Graeme soon ran out of holes to drill and he joined me in mixing and pouring epoxy.

Filling holes with epoxy — Graeme filling holes with epoxy

As the day progressed, Andrea ran out of wood holes to fill, so she went and applied a second coat of paint to our bruce anchor, At least that is what she told us she was going to do.

See, the admiral has the uncanny ability to strike up a conversation with anybody and in my opinion, maybe get a little distracted from what she is doing at the time. She on the other hand, always reports back that she has been performing research, or learning the ways of the locals, or making a future needed connection. She also has this way of explaining it to you with a heavy serious tone that makes it sound like she has been on some sort of secret spy mission and the outcome of that conversation will help to save the world or some such thing. Yet typically, the look on her face when you catch her, gives away the perhaps not so obvious motivation behind said spy mission. Proof in point, Take a look at the picture – facial expression – serious with a note of oh crap – busted! Sky behind – hmmm turning blue. A bit of shadow in the picture – hmmm warm sun perhaps?? 😉

Saving the world again I see?? ;-) — Saving the world again I see?? 😉

I will add that Graeme and I were on deck filling holes with epoxy and had heard every bit of conversation for the last half hour at least.

August and Paige ran out of places to paint and joined the epoxy crew on deck, and eventually Andrea did as well. So the net result of our day is that every hole on the cabin top, both aft and main, have been drilled, and filled with West System epoxy and structural filler, we have a 2nd coat of paint on all of the areas we previously painted, as well as on the bruce anchor, all immediately visible holes in the wood bulkheads have been filled, and I managed to start filling some of the holes on the interior exposed fiberglass. We are almost at the point of being watertight!!

Holes left to drill and fill with epoxy – all of the stanchions, chainplates, and about 5 deck fittings that are giving us a hard time. As well, we still need to address holes on any vertical surface, as I only had slow cure epoxy hardener which would have resulted in a huge mess. As well, we need to cut wooden plugs to fill the instrument cutouts in the cockpit beside the companionway so that we can epoxy and glass them over.

April 9, 2015

Amazing what a coat of paint will do…

Well, so much for best laid plans. I don’t think we ended up doing anything on our list of to do’s over the weekend but we did get a fair amount of work done nevertheless.

I think it is time that we just give in to the fact that in order to make ourselves feel better, and to provide a solid starting point, and to truly make Akupara ours, we need to completely finish stage 1.

Neither one of us has admitted how much the dirt and grime has been bothering us, that is until we made the first brushstroke with fresh paint! Wow what a difference! Now we are on a mission and I think we will focus on this aspect until it is completed.

So on the weekend we set to work painting all of the never seen areas of Akupara’s v berth and part of the main salon. Never seen areas as in behind the wooden ceiling in the vberth, and inside all of the hanging lockers and cabinets in the foreward head. We have not started painting the actual interior liner yet, that will come later, as well as the bilges, which are surprisingly clean.

This was not technical precision painting with delicate lines and lots of masking. This was get as much paint on as possible to give all of the dark recesses a fresh new look, and at the same time I guess it could be called the last stage of the cleaning process. 2 more coats coming this weekend, and hopefully the rest of the hidden areas in the main salon.

I am not going to post too many pictures until it is all finished and then I will do the before and after thing.