Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Big Update

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I've been way too busy lately, and haven't had a chance to do project/daily updates, so heres the big one!

DECK:

Sanding the primer to prepare for paint. This takes a LOT more work than I thought it would. The primer went on quite well, but to make a good base for AwlGrip it's got to be sanding to 400 grit and level. The process for this goes something like this:

Hand sand around coamings, partner box and any other areas that the DA sander won't touch. I used 320, then 400 grit to get this like glass. Heres a rather dull photo that illustrates the difference between sanded and unsanded deck. The unsanded areas look slightly pebbly (orange peely)

Draw all over the deck with pencil. This gives a guide to how far you've sanded. Sand with 320 grit on the DA. When done there should be no pencil marks and no areas of shiny rough surface


Sand all areas that aren't nonskid (nonnonskid?) with 400, as 320 scratches will show through.

Attach scotch brite pad to DA sander, and sand entire deck (again!). The scotchbrite works great at scuffing the surface and making it even more paint friendly.

Wash everything within sight. I spent 3 hours washing the boat, the walls, the floor, the etchells next to us, the trailer, the boat some more, then the floor again.

Tomorrow we spot prime a few areas where I sanded through, and will hopefully spray the glossy areas!
Kristian 30hrs
KEEL:

The neverending keel is going ok. We've got fairing compound all over the keel joint and rudder fairing strips. I did 2 layers and Mick thankfully did the last one, which is hopefully the end of it. When in doubt, have a pro do it! I can muddle through stuff like this, but it takes him about a third the time. He's been a huge help through this project, and I've picked up a ton of tips. He doesn't so small jobs (do not hand him $20 and ask him to touch up your dinghy), and only takes on projects that are worth his time. That said, if you've got a boat that needs structural or finish work, and you want it to be great, call Mick at Lakeshore Marine! 708 207 1512 Here he is at work on our keel


Kristian 8hrs
Mick 2hrs

MAST: Niki and I got a bunch of mast work done. This round of mast work involved: installing new rigging, fixing problems, and making upgrades.

We installed the new standing rigging and strapped it to the mast. The new halyards were run, and we checked the routing to make sure there weren't any crosses (miraculously there werent.) Kristian 2 hrs
Niki 2 Hrs

To make the boat a bit easier/faster to sail, we moved a couple things around. The jib halyard now exits on the stbd side, where our clutch is mounted on a special bracket (see earlier post and eventual rigging recap). The spinnaker halyard was mounted above deck, at a comfortable height for Niki to jump the halyard and lock it into the 2 Harken 150 cam cleats we've got on the mast now.

Kristian 3 hrs
The topping lift was also relocated, and an exit cut in the mast. I'm going to hold off mounting the topping lift cleat until the mast is up so we can perfect the lead. A couple notes on this:

We opted for clean exit slots vs exit plates. It actually takes more time to make the slots perfect, but I like the look better and it's one less piece of hardare on the mast. My process for this is: scribe a line, drill holes at either end, connect them with a jigsaw, use coarse and fine files to make it smooth, then sand the inside up to 400 grit. The result is something that won't tear the halyards up. It also passes my "white glove" test, which is where you put a cheapo West latex glove on your hand, and feel around inside the slot. If the glove tears (which is easy, they're the most fragile things i've ever seen) you keep sanding!

We also installed a fixed gooseneck to replace the sliding gooseneck.

I sailed with both, and it's such a no brainer to make this part static. The sliding part is always riding up and requires it's own downhaul. Like all SS parts I install, the backside of the plate is coated with mylar film and all fasteners are dosed with duralac. This prevents galvanic corrosion, which is a problem even in our sweetwater sailing area.
Kristian .5 hr
Niki .5

While we were at it, we fixed the result of someones sloppy install of a vang bail. The vang bail is throughbolted with a 3/8" bolt, and since it was loose, the bolt chewed up the mast, making a ~3/8" hole oblong, and more like 3/4".
Kristian 2hr
Niki .5


I asked my buddy Bam (http://www.bammiller.blogspot.com/) what to do, and he suggested a backing plate. Him being him, and me being me, this escalated into him milling up some fancy Shields shaped plates. Until I installed them, they sat on the bench and people kept playing with them, and I'm pretty sure the local boatyard bandit almost walked off with a pair. We need to find more uses for these!

To mount these to the curved mast took a little redneck engineering, in this case involving a bench vise, the old teak rails and several different sizes of pipe scavenged from the yard. We got a pretty good fit. Add some mylar backing and some rivets and we had our fix! I think this is going to interfere with our partner box shims, but it should be an easy milling job to fix that.

Kristian 2hrs

WOOD:

Lots of good wood things happening: My father made us a really really beautiful taffrail, and fixed/replaced our toerails. The taffrail is the curved piece of wood that sits at the back edge of the deck. Usually Shields taffrails are 1 piece, and they always seem to crack (like our old one did) For Shields 90, my dad made a nice 4 piece one, which was planed to fit the curvature of the deck (the shields has a cambered deck that has a 3/4" rise at the back) For our boat he really outdid himself and made (not kidding ) a 10 piece laminated taffrail. I don;t know what I was trying to illustrate in this photo, but it looks so good that I want to varnish it! For those that know me, thats saying a LOT that I would want to put up with varnish. We've also got new/rebuilt toerails. The aft pieces are replacements, and the front pieces have been worked on so they look just like new.

Victor: MANY hours

Niki and I finished up sanding the interior wood pieces today (floorboards, seats) and got a couple coats of oil on there. They sure look great!

I found another use for the Fein Multimaster. This thing proved invaluable for redoing the structural tabbing on the hull, and today it made short work of the usually tricky sanding of the benches. I did the stbd bench, and it took hours, the port one which was done with this tool took 45 minutes!

While I was doing that, Niki started putting on the Teak oil . We selected oil over varnish as the maintenance required to keep teak looking good is more than I want to do during summer. Oils much easier to keep going, and looks better than bare teak. The end result looks pretty good to me, and I can't wait to get them back on the boat!
Kristian 2 hrs
Niki 2hrs

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