Spring Work on Sarah (LONG)
John F. Hughes
In preparation for this, I went on the "boat work and anxiety" diet,
which I intend to patent. All you need to do is to write four SIGGRAPH
papers, get married, and try to re-do all your brightwork....
Here's the winter/spring work that I did.
I removed all the brightwork from the cockpit, plus the shroud
rollers, the taffrail, and the spinnaker sheet turning blocks, and
brought them home. Heat-gunned and sanded them down to bare wood, and
re-varnished with 5 coats of Schooner varnish, following the advice of
Rebecca Wittman's book "Brightwork". Her advice on varnishing "in
plaid" is wonderful: this means that you lay on the varnish (using a
foam brush) against the grain of the wood, and then tip it off along
the grain. I got great results, only a very few drips, and it went
quickly. I did the varnishing in the basement, where I set up a "shed"
made of plastic dropcloth, which meant that there was almost no dust
in the varnished surface.
I took out the engine (2nd year in a row) at least as far as the main
cabin, and removed the xmission (which got repaired at a local
xmission shop---funny noises turned out to mean "damaged planetary
gear assembly") and the bell housing and flywheel and coupler plate,
so that I could replace the rear oil seal. I also took the coupler
plate, with the starter motor in it, to a starter motor shop, which
replaced one of the terminal posts, whose threads had gotten stripped
by the previous owner. Flushed out the heat exchanger, in which there
was lots of gunk from the remains of last year's zinc. I obviously
need to replace it more than once a year. I replaced the exhaust
manifold-to-exhaust-riser gasket and the five studs that hold the
riser in place too.
While the engine was out, I put formica panels in the engine
compartment to brighten it up a bit, and mounted a water filter on the
countertop that covers the engine (it was previously mounted under the
nav table) so that now I can remove that countertop by just
disconnecting three quick-release fittings on hoses: the hot and cold
water supply and the galley sink drain hose.
I also cleaned off the region behind the engine, including the fuel
tank, re-lubed the steering cables, and took the various things that
had fallen down behind the engine sump pan and pushed them forward, so
that I could extract them from the bilge. Then I vacuumed back there,
built a support for the prop shaft (holding it in place for when I did
the alignment), and re-wired the ground wire for the fuel fill.
With a friend, I reassembled the engine and dropped it back in place,
and tested that it ran OK just one week before the launch date (this
is where the anxiety came in). Then I reattached all the cables, etc.,
like the tachometer, and the prop shaft (after a painful alignment
session, to be repeated after a week or so of settling in the water),
put on a new shaft zinc, and put the batteries in their new locations:
one in the old battery compartment, and another at the back of a very
deep compartment next to the engine. The space freed up in the old
battery compartment gave me room for a new Groco raw water filter
(about 4" diameter by about 8" tall), replacing the "metal plate with
quarter inch holes" filter on the outside of the hull. The thru-hull
fitting for this raw water intake turns out to have been just a piece
of brass pipe that was glassed into the hull as it was built (!), and
I drilled it out and replaced it with a Marelon seacock, after
re-building the fiberglass in and around the hole left by the drilling
out. (This last stuff happened 3 days before launch).
I replaced the fuel fill with a new one that says "Diesel" rather than
"fuel".
I replaced the forward hatch, which was basically a boxy frame of teak
supporting a 3/8" thick acrylic window, with a Lewmar hatch that I got
from Bay Marine (they sell used or on-commission stuff really cheap)
for $100. This involved building up a new bed for the hatch, whose
shape was slightly different from the old hatch hole. I did this with
some airex foam core, and WEST system resin and fiberglass, and a lot
of sanding. This sanding to shape was done on the launch day, in the
AM. The hatch is in place, but not bedded down or screwed in yet. I am
hoping for settled and dry weather for a few more days.
I purchased a new backstay (the old one had a bit of a kink from some
not-very-controlled jibes in its former life, and signs of corrosion
at the terminals), and a new vinyl mast boot.
I cut up an old truck-tire inner tube to replace the gaskets in one of
my portlights that has leaked since day 1. It turns out that the
screws that held the inner frame in place, and the gaskets and the
glass in place, had mostly corroded against the aluminum frame, and
when I unscrewed them, the heads came off. So I drilled and re-tapped
them, with decent results. For those thinking of making gaskets from
sheet rubber, here's the trick: score the cut you're going to make,
using a very sharp razor knife. Then cut all the way through at one
point, and then *tear* along the score line that you've made. Result:
a nice smooth cut, in contrast to the ragged edges you get with
repeated passes of the razor knife, or from using scissors.
I replaced the strum box on the intake for the big (manual) bilge
pump. (Strum boxes are also called "navy strainers"; they're the
things on the ends of the intake hose that hold the end down and make
it suck water from the very bottom of the bilge.) The old one was just
a thin elbow made of brass, with some windowscreen over the end.
I finished up the interior trim on the new hatch that I installed in
the main cabin last year.
I made up new slides for the companionway hatch, because the old ones
were a poor fit, and fell apart when I tried to scrape them for
varnishing. In removing the companionway hatch slide, I found I had to
remove the track on which it slid, and that the little screws that
held it in place had corroded, so that most fell apart as I unscrewed
them. The ones that didn't fall apart were useless anyhow, because
they have square-drive heads, and the square rounded out the moment I
applied any torque. I replaced them with philips head stainless
fasteners, in new holes.
I took off all four big winches and serviced them, removing the old
grease and putting new stuff in, and replacing some pawl springs too.
In taking them off, I managed to mangle the teak winch bases for the
primaries, which I had always hated because they looked like painted
teak. So I made new bases, too.
I made a couple of teak trim pieces to hide some bits of wiring near
the mast, but have not yet installed them.
I tried to figure out how to get to my icebox so as to improve the
insulation. Despite lots of comments and help from Mike Hughes, I
never got the countertop off. I have to assume that it is actually
glassed into the hull, as it appears. So now I'm thining about
alternative plans, like filling the space around the icebox (which
currently seems to have about 1" of insulation, from what I can see
from a tiny locker blow) with styrofoam peanuts. I'll do some
experiments at home to determine the R-value of these things before I
do it, though.
Installed a new toilet-paper holder in the head. Tried to install a
proper holding tank system (following Wayne Simpson's recommendation
about the SeaLand TDX-S), but the one I ordered from Defender must
have been the same one they shipped to Greg Bullough. It was a mess,
with major parts missing and others damaged. I sent it back, and
called to confirm that they had another they could send me. Yes, they
said, they had one and would cobble together one complete system when
mine reached them. What actually happened? They *didn't* have one
after all, and therefore I couldn't get one. I assume some other poor
bastard will get the wreck that they sent to me and Greg someday.
Defender Marine seems to be deeply incompetent at anything except
store sales. All three times I've ordered from them, they've gotten
something significantly wrong (the TDX-S, they sent the wrong hatch in
another order, and left out two items from a third order). Considering
that West Marine, which has never screwed up an order for me yet, will
actually match Defender's prices, I will henceforth only order from
West when possible.
Did some spot touch-up work on the topsides paint. I found an Interlux
paint that's a pretty good colormatch for the Awlgrip. I managed to
hide some scratches by applying paint with a fine artist's watercolor
brush and then wiping it off with paper towel. The stuff in the
scratch remained, the other wiped off, and all was well. In a couple
of places I had to actually make small patches of not-quite-perfect
color; the worst was one where someone rafted alongside me on my
mooring (when I was not there) and somehow left a 4" x 4" patch of
scratches near my waterline midships on the port side. Grrrrr.
Sanded the bottom, painted with one coat of Petit Unepoxy (standard,
not Tropical), and greased my prop with a coat of SuperLube, which kept
it barnacle free last summer.
Unfastened the toerail bolts at a place where there's a scarf joint (a
new piece of toerail was scarfed in at some point in the past) to see
if I could get the scarf joint to look better---the rail has begun
to spring back, and the joint looks rotten and the varnish has split
badly there---but I saw no easy solution. Maybe next year I have to
replace some of the toerail (gak!). I intend to strip the rest of the
toerail during the summer and sand it and then oil it, instead of
trying to get 5 coats of varnish on it during times when I want to be
sailing.
During the last two weeks before launch, I did the five coats of
varnish on the brightwork, got the engine reassembled, installed, and
running, put in the new thru-hull and raw water filter, painted the
bottom, installed the new forward hatch, cleaned up the mess inside,
and got the winter cover off and stored. I also did the formica work
in then engine compartment and the small bits of work on the mast. And
(here's the clincher) lost 7 pounds.
The nice finish: on Wednesday, at 5:30 PM, Sarah went into the water
at Mattapoisett, still more of a "boat kit" than a boat. My wife
Cynthia and I took her out to a mooring, installed some more
brightwork, including the thing that holds the mainsheet traveller
track, rigged the boom, did a temporary installation of the primaries
(without their bases---still need to drill the mounting holes in the
new bases), and hoisted a jib. Then, at 8:30, with the sun setting and
a chill in the air, we went below and heated up a Cornish meat pie for
dinner, and were alseep by 9:20. Thursday morning, we bent on the main,
took her up to the pier to let us make a couple of phone calls and get
a jug of water and some food (the fresh water system is still filled
with antifreeze), and then, on a light northerly, sailed out past
Angelica point, where the wind filled in from the Southwest, 4-6
knots, and we had a leisurely reach all the way over to Sippican
Harbor, where we arrived about 2 hours later, with nothing broken, all
systems working, and ourselves slightly sunburned. We'd made a top
speed of about 4 knots, with average speed more like 2.9, but we'd had
a great sail, and picked up the mooring under sail. Then we put the
Seagull onto the dinghy, gave it a couple of pulls, and it started
right up. Came ashore, and drove back home, exhausted but happy.
-John
Greg Bullough
>
>Installed a new toilet-paper holder in the head. Tried to install a
>proper holding tank system (following Wayne Simpson's recommendation
>about the SeaLand TDX-S), but the one I ordered from Defender must
>have been the same one they shipped to Greg Bullough. It was a mess,
>with major parts missing and others damaged.
can't screw you, they'll screw the next guy.
> I sent it back, and
>called to confirm that they had another they could send me. Yes, they
>said, they had one and would cobble together one complete system when
>mine reached them. What actually happened? They *didn't* have one
>after all, and therefore I couldn't get one.
They told me the same lie, at one point. Interestingly Wayne reported
that one of his acquaintances acquired the advertised item out of the
Defender store, after they finally decided that they didn't actually
have a system for me. So who knows where truth is?
> I assume some other poor
>bastard will get the wreck that they sent to me and Greg someday.
>Defender Marine seems to be deeply incompetent at anything except
>store sales. All three times I've ordered from them, they've gotten
>something significantly wrong (the TDX-S, they sent the wrong hatch in
>another order, and left out two items from a third order). Considering
>that West Marine, which has never screwed up an order for me yet, will
>actually match Defender's prices, I will henceforth only order from
>West when possible.
If I were Noah, and it was starting to rain, and I was short one
thru-hull, I STILL wouldn't order it from Defender. They are an
absolute horror story.
Greg
Roy Smith
> A great demonstration that Defender is basically dishonest. If they
> can't screw you, they'll screw the next guy.
I don't know about dishonest. Incompetent at dealing with mail
orders, perhaps, but not dishonest. Never attribute to maliciousness that
which is adequately explained by stupidity. On a walk-in basis, I've never
had any trouble bringing something back when I got the wrong item and
exchanging it. The guy in the rope room seems to have infinite patience
with us waffling about which kind of line to buy, ditto for the guy selling
blocks and cleats and stuff like that.
From the environmentalist point of view, Defender does their
catalog on newsprint while West Marine does 4-color glossy on heavy coated
paper, sends out frequent "updates" which are really just subsets of the
full catalog we already have, and has repeatedly failed to service our
request to drop one copy of our name from their mailing list so we don't
get two of everything they send.
--
r...@wombat.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith)
Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
"This never happened to Bart Simpson."
Greg Bullough
>gr...@netcom.com (Greg Bullough) writes:
>> A great demonstration that Defender is basically dishonest. If they
>> can't screw you, they'll screw the next guy.
>
> I don't know about dishonest. Incompetent at dealing with mail
>orders, perhaps, but not dishonest. Never attribute to maliciousness that
>which is adequately explained by stupidity.
mail out the wrong item, knowing full-well that what you are advertising
is not what you are shipping, you are being dishonest. An honest merchant,
when he found he was shipping something radically different than what
he had advertised, would have gone to his stock and changed the sales
pitch or straightened out the stock. A dishonest merchant keeps trying
to pass off the same garbage on the next poor sucker.
> On a walk-in basis, I've never
>had any trouble bringing something back when I got the wrong item and
>exchanging it. The guy in the rope room seems to have infinite patience
>with us waffling about which kind of line to buy, ditto for the guy selling
>blocks and cleats and stuff like that.
That's fine. When you can make the decision based on what-you-see-is-
what-you-get, they don't have the opportunity to screw you. Handling
walk-in orders properly is sort of basic. That doesn't alter the fact
that they lie to their telephone customers.
> From the environmentalist point of view, Defender does their
>catalog on newsprint while West Marine does 4-color glossy on heavy coated
>paper, sends out frequent "updates" which are really just subsets of the
>full catalog we already have, and has repeatedly failed to service our
>request to drop one copy of our name from their mailing list so we don't
>get two of everything they send.
On the other hand West Marine has dropped styrofoam "peanuts" as a
shipping material, and replaced it with bio-degradable material.
Greg
John F. Hughes
>> A great demonstration that Defender is basically dishonest. If they
>> can't screw you, they'll screw the next guy.
>
> I don't know about dishonest. Incompetent at dealing with mail
>orders, perhaps, but not dishonest. Never attribute to maliciousness that
>which is adequately explained by stupidity. On a walk-in basis, I've never
>had any trouble bringing something back when I got the wrong item and
>exchanging it. The guy in the rope room seems to have infinite patience
>with us waffling about which kind of line to buy, ditto for the guy selling
>blocks and cleats and stuff like that.
They have a lot of patience in the *early* Spring. Later in Spring, when
*everyone* in the world is coming in, they get less patient, because they don't
hire additional staff at their crunch times (or so it seemed two years ago).
> From the environmentalist point of view, Defender does their
>catalog on newsprint while West Marine does 4-color glossy on heavy coated
>paper, sends out frequent "updates" which are really just subsets of the
>full catalog we already have, and has repeatedly failed to service our
>request to drop one copy of our name from their mailing list so we don't
>get two of everything they send.
Jamestown Distributors is great in this regard: newsprint, but with very clear
images. A smaller selection than Defender (no mermaid-shaped fenders from those
guys), but actually far superior when it comes to fasteners and boatbuilding
supplies.
I *still* like West Marine, but I am concerned about a new trend: they are
opening stores in multiple places, and *clothing* has moved to the front of
their catalog. I felt it was a real sign that these folks had their priorities
straight back when the first thing in their catalog was anchor and chain. Now
that it's t-shirts and sunglasses, I fear they are headed the way of E&B
Marine, James Bliss, and even Land's End (which *used* to sell boating stuff, a
long time ago in a galaxy far far away). Then, my only choice will be Johnson
Sails, in Florida, which really *does* stock everything, but at higher prices
than Defender or West.
-John
Paul Osborne
>In article <1992May15....@cs.brown.edu> j...@cs.brown.edu (John F. Hughes) writes:
>>
>
>A great demonstration that Defender is basically dishonest. If they
>can't screw you, they'll screw the next guy.
>
>>that West Marine, which has never screwed up an order for me yet, will
>>actually match Defender's prices, I will henceforth only order from
>>West when possible.
>
>If I were Noah, and it was starting to rain, and I was short one
>thru-hull, I STILL wouldn't order it from Defender. They are an
>absolute horror story.
>
I too have had problems with Defender and will not order from them agin.
Your right that West seems to have the right order dept. that does not
screw up. Another place that I have had good results from is M&E Marine.
The cataloge is good but the lay out is a bit hard and The prices are
good. Service is friendly and with no hassles. If the item is out of stock
they don't hang on to your money for a back order unless you tell them to.
They have 4 sale fliers that are good too.
paul
Ellen Murphy
>
>I *still* like West Marine, but I am concerned about a new trend: they are
>opening stores in multiple places, and *clothing* has moved to the front of
>
West Marine is a wonderful company to deal with, but their shipping
charges to the East coast make them considerably more expensive for us
than Defenders and other suppliers, so I usually save them for things I
can't find anywhere else, or for orders where one item is less expensive
enough to justify the shipping (that doesn't happen often). Now they've
gone and opened a store on Long Island. The store is too far away to be
useful (2.5 hr drive or an all-day sail), and they still ship all mail
orders from the West coast (I was told it would be about 2 years before
they had an East coast warehouse up to speed). So now I get to pay
*both* the inflated shipping charges *and* sales tax, which around here is
8.25%. A $20 rope order (it's not on the boat yet, so it's still rope :-)
ended up costing $26. It adds up.
>Jamestown Distributors is great in this regard: newsprint, but with very clear
>images. A smaller selection than Defender (no mermaid-shaped fenders from
> those guys), but actually far superior when it comes to fasteners
> and boatbuilding
I'll second this. Jamestown sells stainless hardware by the hundred for
less than it costs to go to the local chandlery and buy 12 of something
(I am not exxagerating). My only complaint with them is that they'll
back order stuff without informing you on the phone.
Which version of Murphy's law is it that says that no matter how large
and random a collection of hardware you have, you never, ever, have the
right size for the job at hand??
Ellen Murphy
mur...@cytosine.phri.nyu.edu
J/24 #649 Don't Panic
Will Howard
Hughes) writes:
>I *still* like West Marine, but I am concerned about a new trend: they are
>opening stores in multiple places, and *clothing* has moved to the front of
>their catalog. I felt it was a real sign that these folks had their priorities
>straight back when the first thing in their catalog was anchor and chain. Now
>that it's t-shirts and sunglasses, I fear they are headed the way of E&B
>Marine, James Bliss, and even Land's End (which *used* to sell boating stuff,
a
>long time ago in a galaxy far far away). Then, my only choice will be Johnson
>Sails, in Florida, which really *does* stock everything, but at higher prices
>than Defender or West.
It's too bad that it's so difficult for these outfits to stay in business
selling marine equipment only. Land's End used to sell serious racing sailboat
hardware only. Their catalogs were full of good rigging ideas: they would do
"showcase" articles on different boats. Of course this was supposed to sell the
product too. Now that role has been taken up Layline, a N. Carolina mail-order
outfit. Anyway, Land's End saw the (profitable retail) future and it wasn't in
sailboat hardware. Ironic that such an expensive sport should be so
unprofitable!
Benjamin Ellsworth
> ... [West Marine as the supplier of choice] ...
I found that Boat/US was usually better priced and had reasonable
service. West Marine's mail order service is noticably better, and any
time I'm ordering something that I'm not sure about, I go with West.
If it's something standard I buy from Boat/US.
---
Benjamin Ellsworth b...@cv.hp.com
Ken Koellner
and mail-orders houses and/or is there a FAQ for this group
with that info?
I'm a catalog junkie and would like to order any that are available.
--
Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control
a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not
crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our
government was founded. - Abraham Lincoln
Gerard Bras
>I tried to figure out how to get to my icebox so as to improve the
>insulation. Despite lots of comments and help from Mike Hughes, I
>never got the countertop off. I have to assume that it is actually
>glassed into the hull, as it appears. So now I'm thining about
>alternative plans, like filling the space around the icebox (which
>currently seems to have about 1" of insulation, from what I can see
>from a tiny locker blow) with styrofoam peanuts. I'll do some
>experiments at home to determine the R-value of these things before I
>do it, though.
IMO, styro peanuts are not going to work very well for you. The problems
are that they will still allow air to circulate around your box and that they
will absorb moisture, drastically reducing their R value. So, when you
experiment, try using soggy ones to see what difference it makes.
I got some two part spray UFFI this year. I've not yet gotten to drilling
all the holes required to install it. I'll let you know how it turns out.
One of the problems built into my boat if that part of the iccebox
faces the engine compartment. I put some insulation on this area so I expect
some improvement. The other problem is that I have dark colored topsides
and they absorb frightful amounts of heat in the summer. My intent is to
foam in between the box and the hull. I've already put insulation in the
lockers and it seems to make a difference.
cheers,
gerard
Larry Swift
>I'll second this. Jamestown sells stainless hardware by the hundred for
>less than it costs to go to the local chandlery and buy 12 of something
>(I am not exxagerating). My only complaint with them is that they'll
>back order stuff without informing you on the phone.
Sorry if I missed it, but does anyone have an address or
yet an 800 number?
Larry Swift la...@pdn.paradyne.com
AT&T Paradyne, LG-132 Phone: (813) 530-8605
8545 - 126th Avenue, North Gulfstar 37, aft cockpit
Largo, FL, 34649-2826 She's old and she's creaky, but she holds!