A lot has happened since my last post in May, unfortunately none of it involved Akupara. Let’s see, I took a last minute trip to France and Germany with our youngest daughter (3 weekends spent). Our youngest daughter graduated from high school (2 weekends spent). I built a new deck at our house (2 weekends spent) The Admiral and I took a quick roadtrip to Osoyoos (1 weekend spent). Yup that pretty much sums it up.
The hardest part about having a rebuild project that spans several years is keeping the drive going to finish it and finding the time to do so. Life has a way of getting in the way! There are household chores, and family commitments, and all other kinds of things that constantly distract you from completing it. I am not going to make anymore statements about when we are launching, or that I am back at it now. Seems every time I do, I end up getting swamped with “other” things.
If I make it down to Akupara this weekend, and if I have time to do anything, there are a few small projects I need to take care of like re-bedding some stanchions, and getting the engine ready for removal. I need to completely disconnect it so that the yard can simply pull it out and then I will have the room to renovate the engine room prior to the new engine going in.
Unfortunately as well, the Admiral is out of commission due to a bad back so I am working solo once again. Of course that means everything takes at least twice as long, but oh well, Rome wasn’t built in a day!
On Saturday we decided to cut windows in the shrinkwrap.
On Sunday, by the time the Admiral arrived, I had half of the shrinkwrap off!
2.5 years! Akupara’s decks have not seen the sun (rain) in 2.5 years. Almost makes us feel like we are making progress!
My god it feels great to stand on deck and not have to bend over under the top. Almost like we have a real boat now. Of course there is still a hell of a lot of work to do but by the looks of it, this weekend will be spent addressing an issue I inadvertently created for us, which you can read about in the new section entitled “WTF was I thinking? And all my other screwups!” I will add the story soon so keep checking back!
Next weekend I hope to divide between finishing some deck repairs so my are ready for paint, and detaching the engine so it can be hauled out and we can put some much needed work into getting it ready for the new engine!
Once again I find myself typing a blog entry on the verge of May. A quick check and this is the 3rd May that I have done this.
The bad news – we are still way behind schedule. Loads and loads of work to get done before we are in a position to launch Akupara.
The good news – the weather seems to be changing now finally. The temperature is up during the day and the rains are trying hard to come to an end.
The plan – This weekend the plan is to get back into the game. To create a final list of to-do’s, prioritize them, plan them out, and back at it.
Vision’s of humming sanders, the smell of Cetol and epoxy, the whirring of sewing machines, and the sound of a new engine (soon I hope) are starting to fill my dreams again.
The admiral and I just returned from 14 days in Mexico, so we should be well rested to jump back into this and we both decided that we must wrap it up this year. It has been too long since we felt the ocean swell under our feet and we need that to balance out the chaos in our daily working lives.
Almost impossible to add stories for everything that we have worked on for the last 4 months, so I will instead let the pictures tell the story!
A high level overview is, we had a very bad winter for Vancouver, we installed a Cubic Mini Woodstove, we purchased a Sailrite sewing machine and we continued work in the galley. That and 1000 other things!
In case you think that we have abandoned our blog or our project, you are only partially correct. Truth be told, Akupara’s refit continues however I have been much more active on Instagram as opposed to here. I ran into a few computer issues and it is just easier to post on Instagram but i promise I will get the blog up to date!
I know, I know. It has been a long time since I have written a blog post. If anyone reads this page anymore, you might be thinking that we have given up and sold Akupara, or that she has just become another statistic in the graveyard of dreams. Well, things have definitely been slow, but no, Akupara is not destined to rot in the back of the yard. We are still working on her. We are still thinking of her, and we are still determined to get her finished and in the water.
I try to keep my Instagram account up to date. It is easier and quicker to post there and at least I am keeping some of the work updated.
But the holidays are over, the snow is going away (better not be coming back) the temperature is slowly coming back to seasonal norms and hovers between 3-8 degrees now. Almost bearable to work with the heater on of course. So as the hours of daylight increase, and the numbers on the thermometer increase, so will the amount of work that is being completed. We are actually very close now. Ppppffft, keep telling yourself that buddy, ok closer than we have been before. There are still a thousand jobs that need to be completed.
If we tallied up all the time we have spent in the last 2 years, we would barely be at 4 months I would guess. So in all actuality, the refit is going quick 🙂 Now if we could just get the next 4 months to be closer to 4 months, all would be good!! 🙂
When a man takes that last step off of the dock, and onto his yacht, he changes.
Not only does he change on the inside, but he changes on the outside as well.
It doesn’t matter how big the yacht is, it only matters that he is Master and Commander of all he surveys. His chest swells, his muscles tense and his vocabulary changes with the introduction of long lost words like yardarm, and hawsepipe, and fathoms.
He gets the 1000 yard stare in his eyes. You know he has been there. He has survived horrors on the high seas, the kind of which fill the terrors of your dreams.
His quiet confidence strikes both fear and calm, all at the same time, and most women grow weak in the knee around such power.
If he happens to catch a glimpse of a reflection in perhaps the black death called a Great White’s eye, the picture he sees is very much like the one I now share below.
Of course, there are always 2 sides to every tail, and his greatest fan of all, his wife, has a much different perspective!
Holy crap there is a lot of work in renovating a kitchen! Now I understand why kitchen reno’s are so expensive! The galley on Akupara is gigantic compareds to a lot of boats, but miniscule as compared to a home kitchen, and yet the amount of work feels the same!
Epoxy coating
So far I have placed and removed the 2 countertops at least 10 times, I have placed and removed the cupboard panel at least 10 times. I have gutted the shelf, built a new one, sanded, ground, painted and epoxied, and we are still not complete!
Laying out the pattern
Dry fitting
Last weekend we took the plunge and started installing white subway tile as a backsplash both behind the sink and behind the fridge/freezer. I have never done tiling in any way shape or form but thanks to the internet, home reno shows, and advice from my neighbour, who also loaned me his tile tools, I think I managed to do a decent job.
not too shabby
This weekend we are going to attack the grouting. Hopefully it will work out ok and hopefully I have watched enough youtube to do it properly.
I am spending a little extra time on the galley. I really want to make sure that it is “perfect” for the Admiral. I don’t mean that in any condescending or sexist way, I truly want her to be happy there. And to back up my claim of not trying to be ignorant, she has said the exact same thing to me. She wants it to be “perfect” for her as well. As she says, if it meets all of her needs, and she enjoys being in the space, she will use it. If it is a hole, she won’t. Makes perfect sense to me. I make her the best galley I possibly can, she enjoys it and spends lots of time in there, she does lots of cooking and baking, and I get fat! It’s a win win situation 🙂 ok I fell off the puritan wagon didn’t I 🙂
Just needs the grout
The galley in Akupara as I said above is a really big galley for a 42 foot boat in my opinion. It is located midships as close to the center of motion as possible. It is narrow for and aft which makes for a safe workspace while underway, the list goes on and on. But. It also has its drawbacks. You need to lean over the top of the stove to get into the cupboards. There is a gigantic bottomless pit underneath the counter beside the stove that again you have to twist and contort over half of the stove to access. It only has 3 small drawers, 1 drop down compartment which is half used by the sink, 2 slightly bigger drawers on the end and another drop down access. It can be improved. The issue is, I am not an interior designer or a master at re-architecting and re-defining useable space. I am also confined by the layout of the galley itself, which I do not want to change.
I have a dream for the galley but I will need to see if the budget allows for it. Last year at the boat show we visited a booth that blew our minds.
These people seem to have a solution for everything! Oh the improvements that could be made, the happiness of the Admiral, and the fresh banana cream pies that could be had….. 🙂
I am so sick and tired of spam emails in my comments that I am considering disabling this feature. Arghhhh, no I don’t need viagra, (well at least not yet, might want to keep one of these links for later in life) and no I don’t need my site to go viral, and no, your automated content gibberish does not need to be in my site. F@#$ O## to all of you spammers!!!!!
ok rant over.
If you are actually posting a comment, please be sure to use a real email address and at least a name that resembles a real name, otherwise I will just delete it. thanks
If you have been following this project since the beginning, you would have noticed that I have not been as active maintaining this blog in the last year as I was in at the start. Apologies for that.
In October of 2015 my father was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and at that time was given 3-6 months to live as it had already spread to his kidneys, lungs, bladder and liver. They performed a colostomy at that time. Over the last year I travelled back and forth to Northern Ontario countless times to be with him. He was in and out of the hospital and his overall health seemed to go up and down. At first he responded well to the radiation treatments, and it looked like he might be making improvements, but then that changed and they had to stop. Every time I went, I could see his decline and in the end we were just waiting for that final call.
I was lucky enough to be able to go and spend a week with him in August. He required 24 hour care by that point and I am honoured that I was able to be there for him, even though it was only for a week. My younger sister spent 3 months as the primary caregiver and by doing so allowed him to stay in his home as long as possible, which was his wish.
My father always dreamed about sailing off to the South Pacific. As he grew older and his dream grew farther away, he became negative about the concept in general, saying things like, the beaches are all ruined with garbage and the ocean is all polluted, and it just isn’t the same anymore. I believe this was simply his way of dealing with never having achieved his dream. One of the last conversations I had with him while I was there in the middle of the night, he asked me what it was really like out there. I told him how incredible it is to be sailing through the night with dolphins playing at the bow, and luminescent creatures rising up from the deep, and the thrill and fear of surfing down monstrous waves. These were my experiences and I was able to share them with him when he needed them the most and I pray that he was able to come to peace with it, and that he was able to dream again.
My father passed away November 11th, 2016 at approximately 11pm at night. He fought an incredible battle, but in the end cancer took his life at 77 years of age.
I think I am going to stop calling this site a boat refit site and start calling it a home renovation site. The farther we go down this road, the more it seems fitting. I mean hey, I’ve watched a few home renovation shows over the years and what is the overall plot. Search for the right project. Do a bit of planning, gut the thing, move a few walls, insulate, re-wire, re-plumb, finish, paint and voila, admire the end product. Maybe we should have Akupara TV! It is the exact same thing, just in a different shape, however we have the added excitement of once we are all done, we have to see if the damn thing floats or not. That’s more drama than the average house reno, they don’t have to pass the float test at the end of the day.
So I was talking to a gentleman at the boat yard, both of us are in the midst of a complete gut and rebuild. He is re-doing an old powerboat, but essentially the same deal. We see each other quite regularly and at the same time we see a lot of abandoned dreams in and around our 2 projects. The conversation turned to how long the Admiral and I have been at this and I told him a little shy of 2 years now and we still have 8 months left at least. He has been at it for about 6 months now. Why are we still plugging away at it? What makes us keep at it? Why haven’t we walked away and let the dream die like so many others have done. It would be more than easy! As the lyrics in the song Southern Cross attest to, “And we never failed to fail it was the easiest thing to do.” Why do I waste my Saturday’s and Sunday’s going to a dirty, smelly, boat yard filled with undesirables. Always being dirty and choking on dust of some sort whether it be wood or fiberglass. Spending ludicrous amounts of money to maintain and attempt to improve this old boat. Hell, for the amount of money we have spent so far we could have bought a very nice, ready to go, 30-35 foot sailboat. And we still have a lot of money to spend. (speaking of which, I need to update the cost page)
I don’t really have the answer to any of these questions. Perhaps I am too stubborn, perhaps I simply don’t want to be called a failure. Perhaps I have nothing better to do with my time and money. Perhaps I am a wee bit off my rocker and actually enjoy all of this rebuild stuff. Or perhaps I have had this dream for so long, that it is so deeply engrained in me, that if it took 20 years to finish the project, I would keep going. I really don’t know. Of course the insanity part is a given, you would have to be insane to start anything like this, let alone continue it.
Well, in any case, I am not abandoning the project any time soon so I guess I had better finish my morning coffee, put on my old work clothes and head down to the boatyard. Maybe one day we will actually be finished.
Well, the Admiral gave the final nod, the credit card was whipped out, the laptop thrown open and in a rush the order was placed, before there could be a changing of one’s mind.
I have to admit I truly feel bad for the owner of this boat. I am not sure exactly what the make and model is but there is a very nice sailboat in the yard next to me now. It looks well kept and well loved. The top sides are spotless, the hull sides above the waterline are shiney and at first glance it is a really nice boat. Obviously as you can see in the pictures, the owner had quite the unfortunate encounter with something pretty hard. There is a big impact spot on the bottom leading edge of the fin keel and an associated large crack along the hull keel joint. This is why I do not like fin keels. If I am going to hit something and let’s face it, there are only two types of sailors, those who admit to running aground and those who lie about it, I don’t want the long heavy thing that keeps the stick end up to be ripped off. There was a letter written to Whitby Boat Works by an owner of an Alberg 30 if I remember correctly, that basically told the story of how the owner had run aground time and again and had not suffered any damage. The advice given was to move to an area with a softer muddy bottom. I am paraphrasing but it was quite humorous. The point being that the A30 was built extremely tough and the A30 and the Whitby 42 come from the same factory, at least the early ones. But I digress, I am getting a wee bit off topic.
What really makes me feel bad for the owners of this particular boat is the large chunk of hull that fell off. Yup, fell off. I took a closer look at the bottom and was quite shocked to see the state of it. There has to be a million blisters ranging from dime to silver dollar size. Most of these blisters appear to be deep. As well, there are a couple of other older war wounds and when you step back and take an overall look it becomes clear that there is a serious layup issue. I am not a master fiberglasser or whatever you call it, but I do know that there is a proper mixture of glass and resin that needs to be obtained in order to have a strong solid build. Too much resin is as bad as too little in that the build will then become brittle whereas too little and you can end up with dry glass in the laminate. This particular boat suffers from the latter in that there are pockets of dry glass just waiting to be knocked off. It really concerns me that the owner of this boat apparently is going to fix the localized obviously damaged areas and move on when in my opinion the entire bottom needs to be peeled and reglassed if he really wants to fix it properly. That being said, I can only guess how costly this would be and I can also guess why they are not doing it. Unfortunately the blisters will continue to eat away at the hull and eventually they will be left with a beautiful top sides and no hull.
Honestly I really feel for these folks. I am not sure what I would do in their shoes. All I can say is I am extremely thankful that the previous owners of Akupara dealt with the bottom properly by having it sanded down and epoxy coated a long time ago. If Akupara’s bottom looked like this poor boat I would have never made an offer to buy her. I have enough work to do without a complete bottom rebuild as well.
Anyway I wish these people well and hope they don’t hit anything else knocking off chunks of the hull.
Just to be clear, I am not making a connection between fin keels and blisters, it just so happens that this boat suffers from both and both of which I don’t like.
Well I am starting to wonder if we have somehow cursed ourselves. Every time we start back at it something happens that pulls us away. It is a struggle to find the time to get work done but if we have any hope in hell of hitting a launch date in June, we better figure it out quickly.
I have obviously watched one too many home renovation shows because it just didn’t seem right to not carry the bamboo countertops into the heads for continuity. Now I guess we will also have to carry the subway tile theme to match as well. Anyway, one more little job done, the forward head countertop is cut and dry fit. More next week I hope!
At times it feels like we are making great progress and at other times it feels like we are making none or very little at least. I guess in reality any progress is good progress.
During our last surprise inspection I noticed that the eyes of one of the inspectors kept gazing towards the ceiling in the main salon. Hmmm not a good sign. I will admit that it looked pretty bad. So that decided it. We would tackle the ceiling. Now truth be told we had been putting this off as in order to paint it we needed to sand it. 4 hours of holding orbital sanders with 80 grit paper above our heads was not fun let me tell you but we powered through it and managed to get it done. We also had to cover all of the wood with drop cloths of course and created a scene right out of Dexter.
Another episode of Dexter?
2 coats of gloss white paint later and it feels like a new boat.
1st coat
So. In order to complete the main cabin including the galley the major projects left are to finish the galley cupboards, countertop and tile. The main salon needs to have the pantry painted and we still need to make a firm decision on the starboard settee.
fresh paintAll painted
The last and biggest job to complete will be the sole. It had been painted at some point with a lovely off white and of course with the refit now has a myriad of paint and stain drips and is very dirty. This will wait until all of the interior construction is complete.
We still have a lot of customizing to do inside lockers and what have you but those types of jobs will not prevent us from launching. Our goal as I said previously is to launch in June and at least Akupara will be back to original even is the custom jobs are yet to be completed.
This weekend I think we will work on completing the galley and maybe the electrical wire will be run it would be nice to have that job done as well.
As we approach the 2 year mark the Admiral is still smiling. Hmmm maybe we should buy a bigger boat?
Sometimes I wonder if we had just saved all of our dimes and nickels for all this time, we probably could have a bought a working version of Akupara by now. But then again, we would have an unknown boat with all kinds of yet to be discovered issues. At least with Akupara we will be 100% intimate with every nut bolt screw wire fixture fitting piece of wood rope material and know for sure that if and when there is an issue exactly how to fix it.
Wow so it is September already. Where did the summer go? The leaves have begun to change colour and the weather has certainly altered course. We are back to a typical rainy Pacific Northwest. I guess the good news is that with the cooler temperatures we can get back to the hot dirty work of sanding the decks and getting ready for painting but I sure wish we were already done. The last few days have made me long for a nice cozy fire on the boat. I love being aboard when the temperature is cool and the rain is hammering the deck with a hot cup of coffee and a warm fire. Of course I love the idea of being onboard in the tropics just as much but we will take what we can get. ?
Last weekend was the first time in almost 2 years of working on Akupara that I got fed up and had to walk away. We were working in the galley and had a surprise inspection. Of course it never fails that everything is a giant disorganized mess when this happens and the progress does not show but in any event, I think we passed. ?
After they left we returned to work, completed what we had been doing and started trying to run some wire on the port side. For whatever reason, something that should have been super simple turned into a nightmare of events. I realized that this just was not going to happen and whatever else I attempted that day was just going to result in the same thing so I threw my arms up, gave up, packed up, and we left.
Strange how a week later I am still worried about a repeat of events. Not sure if I will work on the wiring today or not. Might be better to have a minor accomplishment first before returning to complete this job. In any event, fingers crossed that we have a good day of work and that things go a little better.
I am not sure of the exact date that I last sailed Kismet, our previous sailboat, but I know it was around the end of August. I have not sailed on any other boat during this time either. As a matter of fact, I have not been on a boat underway of any kind since then. I have had lots of invites but I will wait until Akupara is in the water. Both the admiral and I miss it tremendously. We miss our friends at the marina. We miss packing up Thursday night to be ready for Friday. We miss waking up on the boat Saturday morning. We miss being underway in the early morning and anchoring out at night. We miss the escape it provides from the hectic day to day life.
For many many years now I have dreamed about retiring and cutting the dock lines to sail away. The strange part is that I can see perfectly how it will go down. I can see us sailing away from the marina to start our great adventure, but I cannot see beyond that. Perhaps it is just too great of a dream to be able to capture it all in my thoughts but it could also be that this is the exact reason I have wanted to do this. No plans. No responsibility no deadlines or emails or text messages or phones ringing or having to finback to work Monday. Maybe it is best to just let the winds guide us to our destination and be content knowing that we have managed to break free of the chains. Every time I raise the sails I have this feeling even if it is fleeting for the time being.
Damn I can’t wait to feel that again!
Our new launch date goal is June 2017 which will make it 2.5 years since I last sailed a boat. Hopefully we remember which way is up!
They say a picture is worth a thousand words! Hopefully these pictures will tell you what we have been up to as of late.
We have also made progress on the electrical with all of the 12v and 120v starboard wiring forward of the nav station strung, as well as a good portion of the port side. We need to run the rest of the wiring from the aft cabin to the nav station but with only 12v lights a 120v plugins, this part is easy. Next will be to wire all of the plugs and lights.
Out with the old sinkOut with the old counterOut with the other counterThis one was a little bit stubbornOut with the cupboardsIn with the new countertopCutting the new countertop to sizeDry fitA shelf perhaps?Varathane bar epoxy sealerA bit of heat to remove the bubblesNow as long as they stay this shiny!
A short time ago you may remember me speaking highly of a certain Captain and saying things like “no matter what, they never seem to get dirty” well I may have made mention of a fabled rumour of polishing fenders. Ha, now I have the proof!!
This is the first time in 18 months of owning Akupara that we have hired out a job, with the exception of the shrinkwrap. Let me tell you is it ever nice to show up at Akupara and the job has been started, worked on, and completed and we didn’t even have to get dirty!!
I was also able to start on the internal wiring a little bit. Kind of a disorganized day but every little bit counts.
