Dalloway: Grampian 26 in Progress

YouTube

2011-10-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

I finally signed up for YouTube. Not much to report just yet but posted my first video. It is from September. http://www.youtube.com/user/1973Grampian26

Dalloway is out on the hard now for about three weeks. Opportunity to haul out presented itself on the nastiest saturday we had in October. The bay was muddy from all the rain and storms we had this summer. The channels were marked with floating debris, and nobody was out there but us. The current was running so fast that sailing upriver, we went a mile backwards in two hours.

Anyway, our spot from last year somehow shrank about six inches so we had to try out a couple of other ideas before we found somewhere she would fit. We actually got a phenomenal spot with a view of the water. The boat slipped in the sling though and was bouncing really hard off of the fore stay against the front of the lift. We checked the forward casting, that slmunimum mess that haunts my nightmares,and it looks ok but the fore stay is kinda loose now without very much play left on the turnbuckles. I looked at replacement castings on holland marine. 900.00 for the same item but in polished stainless. Oh how beautiful. Oh how ridiculous.

Launched-better late than never

2011-09-13T18:57:00.001-07:00

She went in last Saturday! A smashing success. Still missing a few things but we have the basics.

Like a galley

And a dinette

And a dinghy

-- Post From My iPhone

The mast raising

2011-08-24T12:20:00.001-07:00

Using a lift with a tall arm, plus four guys, the mast has been raised.

The lift, poised for action

-- Post From My iPhone

Dramatics

2011-07-09T10:29:00.001-07:00

-- Post From My iPhone

Seriously is this the same boat?

2011-06-15T13:13:00.001-07:00

Interior paint is almost done. All that's left for the exterior painting is the nonskid. Goal- be ready to raise the mast by July 4th.

-- Post From My iPhone

Coat number two

2010-10-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

Is looking pretty sweet. See the shine? Awesome.

-- Post From My iPhone

Still too hot

2010-08-28T10:03:00.001-07:00

So much for the cool weather. We came down to put on a coat of paint but it is still about ten degrees too hot. We will be sweating into the paint. Decided on how to put doors in the vee berth and the head.

Also found a great article in good old boat about fabricating your own odor proof sewage holding tank out of PVC pipe, which will put a real head back on the list of projects for this fall.

Is anyone interestedin a six foot wooden dinghy as seen under the bow? Free to good home.

-- Post From My iPhone

PS

2010-08-07T11:55:00.001-07:00

If you are going to post a comment, please post in english. Thanks.

It's Confirmed, staying dry this year

2010-08-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

We decided to wait to launch until next spring. The Perfection came up so nicely on the hatch covers that we feel that waiting for the cooler temperatures of this fall to put the final coats on will make a tremendous difference. Even with just the primer on, the fairing Matt did was so good that it looks like a new boat. Can't wait to do the hull and the interior! This is amazing!

You can see your face in it. The paint is absolutely amazing.

Also, we ordered four toe rail mounted stanchion baes from Holland Marine in Canada about a month ago and they finally came in. The should open up our little skinny gunnels a little bit, thank goodness. We are also plotting to sneak our own materials in to the West Marine to use their complimentary swager for the lifelines. They said if I bought the cable there I could use that. Could I pretend I thought they meant $4.00 keychain, or perhaps, two feet of cable instead of 40?

Products

2010-07-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

I realize now that I haven't mentioned what we are using for paint. We're doing the decks with two part Interlux Perfection. The primer for that is a two part primer called Interlux PrimeKote. Hard as nails. Even with just two coats of primer on some parts the fiberglass feels stiffer and is amazingly glossy. And, per Interlux, once this primer is cured you can slap epoxy on top of it and it will bond. Amazing. Chemistry is just amazing.

The interior will be one part Interlux Brightsides, which we are also using for the dinghy. I'm not sure what the primer is called for that. It's the corresponding Interlux product.

Next spring we'll be painting the hull, and will most likely use the Perfection for the hull, with the Brightsides on the bootstripe.

Also, I just ordered toe rail stanchion bases from Holland Marine, made from the Grampian mold. I think this will make a tremendous difference.

Fairing and priming

2010-07-18T13:50:00.001-07:00

She is looking sharp with a cost of primer in the cockpit.

She is starting to look like a different boat.

I made winch covers. Well, a winch cover, for our new size 16 barient winches, the second one defeated me. This multilayered three dimensional sewing thing is much harder than it looks. Thanks for the half assed instructions don Casey.

I used shock cord to make them fit really tightly to the waist of the winch.

Still quite a lot of swing left, and tons more priming.

Post From My iPhone

Fairing fairing fairing

2010-07-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

With about twenty coats of fairing compound she is starting to look pretty good. The cockpit sole is nice and solid and smooth, the cabinhouse no longer flexes when you walk on it, even with the bulkheads still out of her, and we are almost ready to start applying the fairing primer.

Just have to cut the holes for the windows and thicken up the fiberglass around the openings to make sure they are nice and flat to make a good seal. First we held the window frames up and traced the interior shape with a sharpie, then Matt did the deed and cut PERFECT openings with a jigsaw.

Here is the interior shot.

Can't wait to see it with the primer on. It already looks fabulous.

Matt even glassed over our mis-placed through hull and fixed the fiberglass we had to cut out in the hanging locker so we could fit the seacock into the limited space. Now the through hull sits right under the sink so we can seriously reduce the amount of nasty hose we have to use.

The primer is starting to go on. Can you imagine, but the boat had a pink tint to it before, which we never noticed because we had no basis for comparison.

All the hatch covers laid out on the ground with their first coat of primer drying.

Also throwing some more alkyd enamel on the stowage lids since some of them never got more than one last year and still looked pretty rough.

Coming Next -- Pics of the new handrails, companionway ladder, and misc woodwork.

Random picture

2010-07-14T08:37:00.001-07:00

Matt met a fellow sailor who happened to get a picture if his own boat with us in the background. Sigh. Hopefully soon we will be out there again!

-- Post From My iPhone

Long Time No See

2010-07-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

I have been remiss in my postings, but the progress has been tremendous.

To address some questions we've received about the cockpit sole, I'd like to say that we knew we needed to do it because about one third of the sole was squishy and produced a sound like water been squeezed in a sponge when pressure was applied. Water was seeping up through the rudder post shaft also. There was about one quarter inch of very alarming flex back there. It was really really apparent. When Matt cut the first hole in it at the very stern, about a gallon of black putrid water gushed out. Again, it was really really apparent. If you're in doubt, I'm sure you're fine.

As to why we are pouring so much energy into this boat, we think about it this way -- we paid 500 dollars for a customizable hull and are now customizing it to be what we want. Also, we are having a crash course in yacht repair, cabinetry, and just about everything else.

In my last post the cockpit sole had just been opened up. We lifted and scraped all of the wood out until there was just a one layer skin of fiberglass in the bottom. We could no longer stand in the cockpit but had to stand inside the lazarette openings on the inside of the hull.

Matt laid a series of squares of plywood down in a bed of thickened expoxy, so each one is isolated to reduce the chance of the entire sole rotting away again.

Meanwhile at home we are working on the bulkheads and the split rudder.

I don't have step by step pictures of the rudder, but I taped up over the split, clamped the two sides tight and poured straight epoxy down into the crack. I did this probably ten times before the crack was completely filled. I sanded it back to its original shape. Now she needs to be covered in Barrier Kote and repainted with bottom paint.

More later, I need to upload additional pictures.

Cockpit sole=open

2010-04-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

Nothing but rot under the Fiberglass.

-- Post From My iPhone

I am Lazy

2010-04-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

Matt spent two days grinding off the neven surfaces and beveling the portlight openings to prepare them to be glassed over. This apparently resulted in such a cloud of dangerous particles of fiberglass flying around that we needed to upgrade the shopvac and put a filter on the fan that ventilates the tarp enclosure. So sad I missed all that.

Structural fairing compound goes up right onto the lexan windows we installed last year.

Meanwhile, my job is to clean the adhesive and paper off of the bowmar windows we bought at Bacon's, which allows me to stay home and not in all the fiberglass. Sweet. Also, I made a cover for the tiller. I think the diligence score looks something like this: Matt: 400,000 Carrie: 2

Getting ready to paint the decks

2010-04-03T06:26:00.001-07:00

In order to glass over the existing windows, remove all the deck fittings a repaint, we have to keep her safe from rain. Probably should have started sooner than march, but there has been a lot of snow. Went to Lowe's and picked up about thirty PVC pipes and joints.

It starts to go up.

It starts to take shape.

We hang the tarp up.

Pretty neato. We used zip ties, which didn't even last a week. We came back to find the whole thing lying in the mud. Went back to the old drawing board, put it back up with bolts and nuts and used PVC pipe cement. So far so good, she made it a week.

Now that things are a bit more secure, everything is coming off and out, hatch covers, sliders, handles, instruments .. .

Seems like going back to square one.

This is the color of my broken heart. My teak faced bulkheads are out. Rotten on the bottoms. Not doing much good, were they? We lost all the nice trim boards that were attached to them, too.

Head, meet dinette. Hanging locker, meet galley. Looks big inside now, and it also looks nearly as creepy as it did when we bought it. Nothing like demolition to make you feel really fricking sad. And fill your yard up with bulkheads and bow rails and stuff.

-- Post From My iPhone

Plans, plans and more plans

2010-01-26T16:50:00.001-08:00

If it doesn't snow too much, this weekend we are building a PVC frame to hang a tarp on. I'm taking my new Sailrite Ultrafeed down to the club and we're going to sew it into the correct shape (hopefully). If I have time I want to put some covered screen vents on and maybe a door. Let's see if the execution can keep up with the idea . . .

Split Rudder: Step One, Remove Rudder

2010-01-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

Completed without incident. Hope the rest of the repair goes as well. Much to my surprise, the whole assembly did not plop out at the speed of gravity once the retaining pin was removed, but had to be slowly pulled out. The whole thing was very reassuring, and surprisingly still well lubricated.

2010-01-23T14:12:00.000-08:00

Just for laughs, I found the email that the prior owner sent us to try to convince us to buy the boat last year. Let's call him Mr. Smith to simplify it. I didn't change anything, seriously. And the pictures below are the ones he included.

Hello Matthew,

This boat can become a beautiful sailing machine. Any of the work

that needs to be done on the boat itself can be done by the average

handy person. However, materials and sweat (man hours) will need

to be invested. Other sailors on the yard often are generous in

giving advise and there are books that can help as well. Keep

this in mind also: I will be showing this boat to an interested

party this weekend. If you would like to see it please call me

at ###-###-####. I hope the images and information below

is helpful to you. Thanks for your interest.

Jeff

Found: Boat junkyard of sorts that has sailboats huzzah!

2010-01-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

Drove all the way to Annapolis yesterday to visit Bacon's, but apparently they aren't open Saturdays in the winter (maybe ever?). Took a trip to Sailrite, where we had the most astonishing customer service. Matt remembered once passing something that looked like a boat junkyard while driving down the Eastern Shore so we left and crossed the Annapolis Bay Bridge. We drove south for another hour and found a little tiny establishment with twenty or so junk boats. Feeling like we had found Christmas we ran inside a little shed/garage that was chock a block full of motor parts, refurbished antique outboard motors, odds and end and a dusty counter top. The owner came out and greeted us. We asked her if she had any bow or stern rails, at which she expressed some reluctance to part out the boats out front, but agreed to sell us parts from one particular boat. We're waiting on her email with a price for the rails we want. While we were looking around a young man asked for a price on a 22 foot wreck on a trailer and she told him she would take five hundred, so we are optimistic that the price for the railing may not be too bad.

Amidst the crowd of sad old boats we spotted a Grampian 26 in relatively good condition and asked to go aboard. We climbed up a rickety extension ladder, over the mast, and then through the companionway hatch as the doors were struck in place. The cabinhouse liner was completely intact as were all the original shelves, galley counter and table. All the plywood had significant water damage but it was very interesting to see the original layout and placement of the teak.

Beauuutiful

2009-12-26T07:14:00.001-08:00

Matt got me a pair if stainless opening portlights for the boat!!

And I made us new sail bags and a rigger's bag.

-- Post From My iPhone

One step forward one step towards weeping openly on the boat yard

2009-11-28T16:48:00.000-08:00

The rudder split this year. Not irrepairable. But not good either.

-- Post From My iPhone

Action shots

2009-11-22T15:31:00.001-08:00

I forgot to post these, but a friend from the club was able to take these while sailing past, sometime in august I believe.

-- Post From My iPhone

Hauled out

2009-11-22T12:02:00.001-08:00

We had her pulled out at the end of October. The mast was strapped down onto the dubious bow rail for three weeks when we went down and lowered it

onto some saw horses. She looks strange, and it feels even stranger to stand on the cabinhouse roof.

-- Post From My iPhone

Storms and the Coast Guard

2009-08-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

We invited my mother to go sailing with us. It was a weekend of many misadventures including many groundings, near drowning, lighnting, squalls and the coast guard hovering over us twice in a helicopter. Nothing to give you performance anxiety like a dude staring disdainfully down at you from the air.

Captains log

2009-07-26T19:13:00.001-07:00

We brought a book on board to try to keep a proper log, but there never seems to be time. We are too
Busy having adventures to stop and write them down, but we learned something very important. Do not jump overboard without a life jacket while holdng an anchor.

-- Post From My iPhone

Sailing and a raft up

2009-07-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

Cartopping a seven foot dinghy, that was also covered in wet alkyd enamel. It's definitely going to need a re-paint. We had several misadventures all rolled into one. Matt rowed out to the boat, got the engine started, came over and docked so we could load up with provisions. Then I took the tiller to pull away from the dock. It was too close, and I was going to hit another boat on the dock, but Matt pushed Dalloway away from the pier and fell into the water with his Iphone in his pocket. I motored around the mooring field and came back around to pick him up. Bill and his wife were there and caught the dock lines for me while Matt dove back into the water after his keys, still with his Iphone in his pocket. It was an expensive mistake.

On the bright side, we heard news that our ladder is safely in the club garage, we just need someone with keys to help us get it out.

We motored three hours south to raft up for fourth of July with friends on the "Sea Dove".

Saturday was a good windy day, we had the mainsail and the jib up but the app on my Iphone that was supposed to gauge speed wasn't working. We were moving faster than we did with the motor on though. One of our friends cried because of how far we were heeled over. I won't name names.

To her credit, we did lose both the registration number placards, they were ripped right off the boat. We'll have to hang off the decks to put new stickers on.

Sunset over the flotilla that night.

We took turns taking the dog ashore for potty breaks. Too bad the paint was still wet on Sunday.
There was no wind at all on Sunday, so we had to motor the whole way back. I hit poor Matt on the head with the boom by accidentally jibing, and then he accidentally put the motor into reverse on high throttle and it kicked up and hit him in the head again. Then later he hit his head again inside the cabin. Poor guy. I'm surprised he wasn't passed out on the deck, but he's a trooper and he was OK.

Sails!

2009-07-08T11:51:00.001-07:00

We got the sails up last weekend and really got her rocking and rolling. It was AMAZING!! The mainsail and jib are original to the boat. The mainsail looks good, but the jib shows some wear and bad staining, probably from laying in dirty water back when the boat was a bathtub.

-- Post From My iPhone

Launch, Re-launch, Victory!

2009-06-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

Originally we were under the impression that high tide was at three PM -- so we went down Friday night, with an appointment to have the boat launched at "high tide". We were scrambling along trying to get a few last minute jobs done that really required electricity when Bill, who had agreed to launch us told us he would put us up in the hoist at noon so we could paint the bottom of our keel. This sounded like a good plan, but as always we were running a little behind and really needed to finish packing our gear onto the boat and unloading our tools onto the ground when around 11:30 we were faced with the business end of the boat lift. I hastily threw our pile of food, sails, clothes etc from right next to the boat to a spot out of the way, and Matt handed down the drill and extension cord. With help from a few other members we hung bumpers on the starboard side and prepared to be moved. Bill, handling the lift was a pro, only took once and he had it lined up perfectly. She was in the slings and in the air in about ten minutes.

I dabbed paint on the rusty keel bottom while Matt finished attaching the handrails up top. The jack stands were all heavily set in old dry mud and grown around with vines. After about forty minutes Bill announced that the water was there and we were ready to go. Again, we shifted all the gear we could and we were off.

Another skipper helped Matt knock the stands down, as they had to be wrenched free of the vines.

Just one hitch -- since she'd been put there 7 years ago the trees got a little taller.

A few quick turns had her free though.

Everything looked hunky dory here, so we got some help from Dale, another kind member who took pity on us and helped us start the motor and power over to the loading dock. We were tied there for about ten minutes when Matt announced that our solitary through hull was leaking. He went to find some caulk to try a quick fix when a 35 foot yacht and another member in an inflatable dinghy cruised up to the dock with very little control and collided with the outside of the Dalloway, crushing both our boat and the other boat's owner between the floating dock and the larger boat. Thanks to the quick responses of two other members, to whom I am exceedingly grateful, disaster was narrowly averted as they pushed the larger boat back to release the trapped owner and back the yacht off of our bow.

After a subsequent conference with several senior members, it was determined that the original through hull needed to be removed and re-bedded with an improvised backing plate. This called for another ride in the slings, which ended with us climbing back aboard with the lift parked behind the clubhouse. In a record time of less than forty five minutes Matt fabricated a backing plate, removed the old through hull, rebedded it with 4200 and reattached it. In the hustle, I lost our extendable ladder and 50 foot extension cord, but we got the boat back into the water, and floating nicely. Again, with help from other members, we took a brief but awesome tour of the area, and then settled at our mooring for the evening.

Double time under a deadline

2009-06-24T18:56:00.001-07:00

We're planning to launch this Saturday! I finished up the last two cushions today and Matt is working until all hours trying to finish the dinghy. I think it's taking longer than projected, but when it is done we will have a seven foot dinghy with two skegs and wheels to make it easy to launch. We still don't have charts, but I'm going to give the Iphone INavX app a try. It's only fifty bucks and has great reviews as a chartplotter/gps.

Everything is coming together

2009-06-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

The water tank is installed and plumbed, the sink and faucet are installed and plumbed except for one fitting that just came in the mail today. The curtain tracks are in and the curtains are up. The running lights are hooked up and Matt fabricated and installed an instrument bezel for a cockpit light, the switch for the light and the running lights, and the depth meter. He also sewed the new halyards onto the ends of the old ones and put them over the mast so we now have completely rope halyards. He even put eye splices on with all new shackles. We have a lot of old blocks, some very high quality old ones, some mediocre newer ones. All but one appear salvagable. The chainplates are back on and bedded in butyl tape, but we didn't re-attach the shrouds yet. Matt also installed the sole in the head and I painted it with alkyd enamel. He ran the wire for the transponder for the depth finder, and installed the puck up at the front of the keel.

Last but not least, the bottom paint is now on, and I shined up the hull with vertglass.

I finished the curtains

2009-06-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

Booyah!

Fairing Compound Finally Going on

2009-06-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

Matt applied 4200, barrier coat, and fairing compound to our gnarly keel joint in that order, this weekend. It's looking pretty flat now, so if we can get down there some evenings after work this week we might be able to finish it up, but with work and all we probably won't be down this weekend.

The clouds rolled in though, and things started to look bad, then worse, then extremely wet.

So we did some stuff inside instead. I added some more spar eurethane to the new bulkheads, teak oil to the old ones (until I ran out), put in the quarterberth cushions. Matt wired the bow running lights and would have done some plumbing but we can't get the through hull for the sink drain attached because the stowage is too tight and it won't turn to screw in.

And last but not least, I got the name decal attached. It was dark so the picture looks a little creepy.

Electrical is not my area

2009-06-07T12:34:00.001-07:00

Good thing matt had lots of practice when we were working on our house. He fabricated a little hinged panel for the fuse box. Nothing hooked up yet but the bilge, but that's really the most esssential thing right?

-- Post From My iPhone

It's allliiive

2009-06-07T12:31:00.001-07:00

-- Post From My iPhone

The bilge pump

2009-06-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

Is installed and so is the float switch, well, almost. We got a battery and a fuse box and now all that's left is to get all the wires in. Meanwhile my little job was to finish painting the window frames and the bootstripes.

-- Post From My iPhone

WTF

2009-06-02T15:19:00.001-07:00

We got a package today.

It is a ten foot piece of PVC with tape over the ends, containing my curtain tracks.

-- Post From My iPhone

Galley counter

2009-05-30T17:27:00.001-07:00

Galley counter of the future, meet the galley counter of today, aka the companionway door.

-- Post From My iPhone

Contrast

2009-05-30T17:25:00.001-07:00

-- Post From My iPhone

Speed stripe is done

2009-05-30T16:53:00.001-07:00

I finished the speed stripe today. Matt installed the table and some shelving. He also varnishes the galley counter. Looking good in there!

-- Post From My iPhone

We have a secret product, says matt

2009-05-30T16:15:00.000-07:00

I found a new magic thing, forget about the rubbing compound, this stuff is really the cat's meow. I put it on the transom and now, instead of chalkboard we have mirror.

See, that's me, taking a picture of my reflection. Wow.
-- Post From My iPhone

Bow rail is kind of fixed

2009-05-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

-- Post From My iPhone

Sewing progress

2009-05-21T18:41:00.001-07:00

Finally bit the bullet and finished the vee berth cushions.

-- Post From My iPhone

Defender marine warehouse trip

2009-05-17T07:23:00.001-07:00

Since the weather is so crappy, we're heading to Connecticut to check out the defender marine warehouse store. We still need a toilet, halyard line, closed cell foam and hoses maybe.

-- Post From My iPhone

I don't have a job this weekend

2009-05-16T10:16:00.001-07:00

The weather looks like it will start raining any minute, so I can't varnish or paint and matt is using power tools so I can't really scrub the decks. I did sneak in and snap a picture of the galley counter he fabricated. I have to say, itlooks fabulous. He used cedar for the fiddle rails/grab rails and leftover bamboo flooring for the counter.

-- Post From My iPhone

Dalloway

2009-05-13T19:06:00.001-07:00

We chose the name because of this passage from the novel, Mrs. Dalloway,
"She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged. She sliced like a knife through everything; at the same time was outside, looking on. . . .far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day."
Is it too fatalistic? Perhaps. But we already bought the decals so we're staying the course.

Bulkhead pictures

2009-05-13T18:24:00.001-07:00

Just for fun, here are the rotten bulkheads:

And out next to the replacement, look how much was gone:

While he's been working on those, I've still been scrubbing away at the hull:

She keeps getting closer and closer to being a nice green instead of a chalkboard. But unfortunately this time I discovered the remains of her last name -- Chastity. It really could have been anything, and I would have been less annoyed -- "Slippery Hook" or "Sharky" or "Artificial Reef" even, but Chastity?

Bulkheads are in

2009-05-03T05:39:00.001-07:00

The bulkheads are installed and tabbed in with fiberglass, but the chainplates aren't attached yet. Saving that scary job for later. Did some more scrubbing of the hull. It is coming along. A few more passes and it will be ready for the vertglass. We're going today to order the name decals and pick up fabric for the curtains. Matt needs to order the halyards soon though, time is getting away from us.

On the bright side matt put in the drain for the bilge and replaced the corroded and leaky old scuppers with PVC pipe. He took some liberties with the sealant, hopefully it will hold.

-- Post From My iPhone

Companionway has a door

2009-05-03T05:33:00.001-07:00

Matt completed the mahogany door and the cedar frame. The guys at the club seem to think it is crrrazy thick, but that was the only solid mahogany we could get.

-- Post From My iPhone

Another slacker weekend for me

2009-04-28T06:07:00.001-07:00

My husband spent the weekend on the boat. He worked on the companionway door and the beadboard for the places where the cabin liner was cut away. All three rotten bulkheads have been replaced. I have some great pictures to put up later!

-- Post From My iPhone

Cool indoor lumber yard

2009-04-14T20:14:00.001-07:00

-- Post From My iPhone

Portlights/deadlights/bulkhead of doom.

2009-04-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

We bought our marine grade plywood in Jersey, at 98.00 for fir faced in 3/4 inches in a four by eight piece we felt like we got a pretty darn good deal. We're not ready to put it in yet, not till next weekend, but the lumber yard has funny hours so we wanted to be sure we could get there while they were open.

This weekend the main order of business was to finally sort out those windows. Matt had tried sheets of acrylic held up with just 4200 but we didn't allow enough time for it to set and they popped off under test pressure. We went back to lowe's and bought stainless steel bolts nuts and washers, large sheets of lexan at 68 dollars a sheet, and polyurethane caulk. We also had to search high and low for butyl tape. Wound up going to some huge crazy rv superstore in Swedesboro to find it.

Matt used a router to cut the windows to size (I think this has to be the third batch of windows he cut out) and we held them in place and drilled through the lexan and the fiberglass, then lined the holes on the cabin with the butyl tape, bolted the lexan in place over that and finger tightened the bolts to compress the butyl tape into a gasket. He used the butyl tape to make little gaskets for each individual bolt. Then we put masking tape around the windows and applied the polyurethane caulk. By that time it was after ten pm, and pitch black. We're hoping everything is OK down there, as we were too afraid to put the tarp back over the cabin for fear of it getting into the caulk and making a huge mess.

The bulkhead should be the next order of business, and from everything we read on the Grampian owner's website we can do it with the mast up if we loosen all the stays.
Can't wait for Saturday so we can find out how things are holding up . . .

Doom doom doom

2009-04-11T05:51:00.001-07:00

Omg. We have to replace the forward bulkhead.

-- Post From My iPhone

Cushions and playing hookey

2009-04-10T06:19:00.001-07:00

We both have off today but I couldn't face the possible disaster down there so matt went without me. I'm stating home to work on the cushions. So far we have one down and about twelve to go.

We found an upholstery shop at Berlin auction, a giant indoor outdoor flea market. They custom cut foam for all the berths including lining the hull walls for only 300.00. I bought 20 yards of heavy fabric to cover it with. We stuffed it all into my mothers monster suv. On the way home we had a mr wizard type experience where the giant mass of foam stuffed in the back and middle of the car muffled all sound so we had to shout to hear each other. Very cool.

Anyway I'm working on the quarter berth but cut it a little too short so now I have to do some improvising.

Matt is supposed to make templates today to line the cabin with bead board where it was cut away. We also need to figure something out to replace the foam that used to fill the gap between the bulkheads and the cabin ceiling. Booyah. Could there be anything else? Oh wait, there is. We have some questionable wood holding the chainplates the hold the stays for the mastabd a possible leak around the rudder.

-- Post From My iPhone

Portlight fail

2009-04-06T05:23:00.001-07:00

It took a day and a half to get all the rotten plywood down from the cabin walls. The remaining half day just wasn't enough time to cut the acrylic for the windows and get them up with 4200. It was supposed to rain last night so we had to make a late run to walmart for a giant tarp to cover the gaping giant holes in the cabin. Not being great with tarps we created sort of a wrinkled ball tied down over the boat. I hope it stayed on last night. It wasn't the easiest thing to try to engineer in full dark.

We lost a lot of time gossiping, too. Our neighbor sold his boat on eBay to this guy: garthkiser.com. Based on his blog he and his girlfriend appear to be professional knockabouts with a fantasy of sailing. The club launched the boat for them but they had a ten minute sailing lesson, no dinghy to go ashore, no food , no water, and no acquaintances in the area. They had bicycles they took aboard also for land transportation. Just to be clear the boat they bought is 27 feet long. Good luck you two, hope you make it wherever you are headed.

-- Post From My iPhone

Rubbing compound is magic.

2009-04-04T17:46:00.000-07:00

No really, I think it is.

-- Post From My iPhone

The big ones

2009-04-04T04:35:00.002-07:00

The v berth almost hits the ceiling.

-- Post From My iPhone

Cushions

2009-04-04T04:35:00.001-07:00

We bought 300.00 worth of foam for the berths. Good thing I can sew.

-- Post From My iPhone

Demolition Work

2009-03-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

On our first weekend as boat owners we took title and then went to the yacht basin to take inventory. After chatting with some of our neighboring skippers, we learned that the companionway door had been left open for approximately 6-12 months and that the motor had not been run or maintained in six years. Our immediate neighbor pointed out a rather large pile of wood under the boat, which turned out to be some of the teak trim that the prior owner had kindly removed from the interior for safe keeping.

Inside it seemed that the galley had been cut out, the dinette removed, and the area where it would have been had been covered by a permanent installation of pressure treated two by fours-- which incidentally covered two stowage areas that had subsequently developed significant mold growth. There remained no plumbing, electrical wiring, holding tanks, fixtures, lights, trim -- in short the interior had been gutted and kind of sort of converted into a giant sleeping area with no head. Additionally and terrifyingly, all of the fiberglass lining of the cabin was cut away around the portholes. The two large portholes were badly framed with plywood on the outside, but the two fore portholes were replaced with plywood with round vents that let in quite a lot of rain and many many insects. The companionway door was gone altogether, replaced with a too short piece of plywood that simply leans against the fiberglass to keep out the water.

Outside the decks were all sound except for one slightly spongy area in the cockpit where a mushroom covered piece of ply wood had been left for many years, preventing the scuppers from draining properly. The bow rail was seriously damaged, the running rigging was allowed to decay and grow things on it, but the standing rigging looked to be in good shape and many of the blocks were still kicking around.

Whatever compound was applied over the iron keel had cracked around the seam and blistered pretty badly.

Impulse Buying (That's what we do)

2009-03-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Day 1: A friend who owns a sailboat texts my husband with a link to an ad on Craigslist for a free sailboat, sitting on jacks in someone's yard in Maryland.

Day 2: My husband finds a boat for sale on Craigslist for 599.00 with theoretically operable motor that is already at a yacht basin.

Day 3: We drive to Maryland to look at the second boat.

Day 4: We make an offer to purchase.

Day 5: We take title and possession.

At first I didn't really understand why all the other boat owners were so interested in us, but the more time we spend with her, the more it becomes apparent that something was amiss with the prior owner's ultimate vision of his sailing future.