7:00 am on Tuesday 21 Feb. The sun reaches over the trees behind me, lighting the tree tops, painting the sky and water with a hint of pink. The water was glass, as you can see. The perfect reflection of a gull is mirrored as the bird swoops low.
Sander Restorative
I tried to take apart my sander that quit, only to find out that the central axle screw which holds the shaft and bearings together wouldn’t budge. After buying a new sander, I realized that it too was slowing down and beginning to squeal. The dust created by bottom paint is very fine, and apparently, it doesn’t clear the bearings very well on this make of sander. So I had a thought: what would happen if I sprayed lubricant into the bearing race of the old sander? What have I got to lose? After 5 minutes of spraying and manipulating, I restored the sander’s motion to functionality. Another 5 minutes of operation and it was slowing down again… But I repeated the spray procedure, and it stayed loose and functional after that. Success! So now I have an extra sander – for any friend who would like to help!
I also discovered that the new sander I bought – the exact same model as the one that quit – requires a different sized star driver to disassemble! So to keep the new going, I had to buy a different screw driver. Who knew?
Why would they change the size?
New elastic brought my respirator to better-than-new condition. It fits far better with the new elastic, and I can actually remove it now without destroying the straps or my head. $3 at Joann Fabrics.
New elastic does wonders for wearability.
Oh yeah – I actually got most of the port side sanded today too. A small patch at the stern and the port side of the rudder, then I can begin on the starboard side.
Port side almost done
Sorry for the glare in that photo (pesky sun). I’ve become concerned with the amount of sanding dust I get on me. Although I wear long sleeves, long trousers, and wear a respirator, still get it all over my hands, in my hair, and all around my eyes. I have a coverall sanding suit with a hood that I will also wear, and sanding goggles from now on. No sense in poisoning myself.
I got quite a bit done today, until my sander packed up. The foot of the sander is supposed to vibrate vigorously, and therefore remove paint when in contact with the work surface. However, there came a time when the foot simply spun as fast as the motor would turn it – it’s not actually supposed to spin like that – and it stopped vibrating. Now it’s simply a circular sander. The sander was squealing, and I knew the bearings were complaining, but I thought I would get a little more time out of it than I did. I will take it apart tomorrow and see if I can rescue the seized bearings and get a little more work out of it.
Failed sander
Paint removal progress
One other piece of gear failure – the elastic on my respirator jammed and I had to cut one of the straps to get the thing off my neck. New elastic tomorrow.
Wimpy, jammed elastic
Probably two more sanding sessions and I’ll be done with the port side. However, this includes the most difficult part – underneath the stern counter. Sanding that part will make my arms fall off.
Stern counter
Another spring-like day in Maryland. Temperatures were near 50 degrees and the sky was cloudless. Early this afternoon I walked to the boatyard to sand off more bottom paint, and ground off another 2.5 linear feet old antifouling paint. I would have done more but ran out of sanding discs. A check at the local hardware store revealed they didn’t carry the gauge I wanted (36-grit), so I was done for the day after a couple hours of sanding. That’s about right anyway. Repetitive motion injuries are really easy to get when you pass 55 years. Notwithstanding, here is photographic evidence of my labor.
Sanding Progress
While I had the camera with me, I took a few shots of the next interior project: a new galley stove installation. The old Princes or Hillerange (I can’t remember which brand it was) was installed in the galley counter top. Here is a photo of the cut out and another of the filler piece I installed when I threw the old stove away.
Starboard side - old stove cut-out
Counter cut-out filler
I know everything is a compromise on a boat, but having the range in the counter like this has never made sense to me. With practically no counter space on a boat anyway, why fill any usable space with a stove? The stove makers usually provide a cutting board to fit on top of the burners so that you can use is as a work area when the stove isn’t in use, but I don’t like that either. It’s just not that hard for a clever designer to come up with a more elegant solution.
I threw the old pressure alcohol stove away because it didn’t work and the rebuild kit was outrageously expensive, if you could find it. Until last year, we used a propane camp stove set on the counter top. It stored under the counter (you can just see it on the right side of the photo above). I’ve become uneasy about propane appliances that are not rated for indoor use. They are a safety compromise at best, if not down-right unsafe, and I have anecdotal reasons wanting to stop using the camp stove. The propane had to go, but that meant I had to decide where to install the new non-pressure alcohol stove.
The answer: Watkins Yachts included a chart table on the port side that folds down. It is nearly useless for chart work as it’s too small. If I ever did chart work below, it would be at the dining table. However, the old chart table will make a great storage and in-use place for the stove.
Port side - chart table deployed
The storage position for the stove will be next to the hull behind the folded-up table top. I will install a substantial fiddle aft to keep it in place while underway. While in use, it will be moved out on to the table, again secured in place by appropriately located fiddles.
Chart table in storage position
Here is a photo of the stove. According to the measurements I’ve taken, it will fit perfectly in the storage position, and there is ample room for it in the in-use position. This leaves the galley counter top clear for food preparation, and preserves the storage area underneath the counter. We keep a lot of stuff down there when we’re cruising.
Origo 3000
And now for something completely different: a few words and images (mostly images) of boat names I don’t understand or can’t believe. These are always fun ponder… “what does that mean?” or “why would anyone name a boat that.”
C Queen (?)
Yeah… I’m not sure I get it. I mean, I get the play on words (C for Sea) – but… is there more to it? On to the next one:
Catnip...
This is a charter boat on the creek, and I see it often. But I gotta confess, I don’t get it. Just seems like a mixing of subjects that don’t really work together.
No boat work today. That’s scheduled for tomorrow. I spent most of the morning photographing my wife’s art, but was only able to keep half the images. I’m still learning how to do this, so I make mistakes that don’t show up until I upload them to the computer for editing. If they are out of focus, all the “sharpening” in the world isn’t going to fix it, so I deleted all of those. You would think in the age of autofocus that this wouldn’t be a problem. AF doesn’t really work for photographing art at this quality level, so I just need to learn where to focus each painting, and what detail to look at while I’m doing it.
We took a walk in the late afternoon and I caught a few images – again, about half were out of focus, but I still got some that are interesting enough to share. First is from our side of the water, looking just past our house over the creek.
Spring in February
The next photo was taken a mile from our house on the bay-side of the creek – just east of where we live. Swans winter over in this area and canvas the waterfront for food.
Swan fleet
I was late afternoon and the light was that golden yellow.
No matter how you sand, scrape, strip or slice it, this is just a lot of work. I’m taking off the top 4 layers (or so) of paint – it’s all the black stuff. There are actually more layers of paint at the water line, leading edge of the keel, skeg and rudder because these are the areas that accumulate growth faster. Where the black paint is only four layers, it comes off pretty quickly.
Black paint abatement program
I managed to sand off about 2 linear feet of hull today in 1.25 hours. Still pecking away at it. Fortunately this still mid-February and I have a lot time before launch.
A few tools of the trade pictured below: Sander, shopvac, and respirator. They must all be used for obvious reasons.
Tools for avid boaters
Tool for self-preservation
The tides on Rockhold Creek are profoundly influenced by wind strength and direction, perhaps even more so than lunar gravity. Low tide occurred at approximately 1340 on Sunday. It was not predicted to be an extremely low tide. However, with winds from the west and northwest at 15-20 mph, the result was an exceptionally low tide. Rockhold Creeks runs northwest to southeast, so this was the perfect wind to blow water out of it.
Low tide - the boats that wintered over in the marina were grounded
Sorry for the photo with glass glare. It was too cold to go outside without my coat. What you see here is 20 – 25 feet of mud beyond the bulkhead. This is why I don’t leave my boat in the water through the winter. The bottom is fairly firm in my slip, and it’s one of the deeper slips in the marina. But with only 2.5 feet of water under the boat during a tide this low, she’s going to list pretty far towards pilings, which inevitably means damage to something. So out of the water she goes in December, to return in late March.
Dawn on Rockhold Creek, with a dusting of snow on the ground
This photo was taken at about 0715. I love the light at this hour, and I love how the sun falls on the upper stories of houses and tops of masts as it rises over the trees behind the camera.
I’ve done no boat work since my last entry. We’ve been out of town – drove to Florida for a family reunion, with a stops in North Carolina to see my daughter and granddaughters – one brand-new (see below).
But there is a lot of work to be done on the boat. Must-do projects include:
Engine mount lag screw – When I repowered 6 years ago, the tech didn’t evaluate the engine bed. Consequently, he fastened one mounting bolt into a portion of the engine bed that had rot, and wouldn’t hold the threads. I did a make-do fix at the time with a gap filler and a larger lag bolt, but the time has come to do the job correctly. That means over boring the hole, filling with epoxy, and tapping the cured epoxy filler for a machine screw. Lots of work on my hands and knees in the bilge.
Finish sanding the hull and repainting with antifouling – Just plain work.
Recommission engine – Routine, but takes about half a day to get all the systems ready to test run the engine.
Flush and rinse water system – not hard to do, but must be done thoroughly. Didn’t do such a thorough job last year and grew a water tank full of scum. That took several hours to remediate, so I’ll be sure to do a better job this year. It was quite smelly and unpleasant.
Finish sanitation system installation – Last fall I replaced the entire system (except for holding tank). Replaced all hoses, marine toilet, and diverter valve. I re-plumbed the system so I can empty the holding tank at sea. Trying to save a dollar, I bought a used hand-operated waste pump for emptying the holding tank. All the hard work is done, but the pump needs a rebuild kit, and then installation to complete. It is usable without the pump (keep the diverter valve towards the closed system), but it’s an unfinished job at this point.
Routine varnish and Cetol – I varnish a few parts and Cetol the rest. Cetol is much easier to keep looking reasonably good.
Dismount anchor platform and pot mounting holes – When I installed the platform last fall, I epoxy sealed the bolt holes. However, I don’t like idea that there is a small chance the holes aren’t completely sealed from moisture. So I will dismount the platform, overbore the holes, fill with thickened epoxy, and redrill the correct size. All this for peace of mind.
Install new alcohol stove – I’m officially done with camping bottled propane gas. Again, all for safety and peace of mind, I don’t want gas on the boat. My wonderful wife gave me an Origo two-burner stove for Christmas. So I’ve identified the best place for mounting, and need to do that this spring.
Fabricate a seahood – This isn’t a must-do project. It’s really a “one of these days” project. I don’t want to go off-shore without one, and it makes washing the boat down much cleaner inside, as the water on deck will no longer make its way below through the gap between deck and companionway hatch.
And now for something completely different: Moon set over the creek.
This photo is looking right across the creek from my house. As you can see, the water was glass, with the objects above reflected, and the moon curiously more orange than what you see in the sky. I left the photo fairly large so that when you click on it you can see that the black dot by the moon is actually a bird.
And I have to show you a photo of my granddaughter, born on Saturday.
middlebaysailing 