The past two days were productive and I am paying for it now (I am very sore). I managed to bottom paint Saga, install a new anchor light, and do a few more minor projects to get ready for the season. I have also secured my slip for the season.
The end result is that Saga will be splashed May 1.
Anyone else close to ready?
no.
she's still in indoor storage until may.
spring cleaning the house/yard/garage
Better get moving...Spring is here!
I hope to get a shakedown cruise completed before my long cruise in May. It would be nice to test systems and to get everything broken in for a nice overnight cruise somewhere.
I'm saving the outside housework for after the boat is splashed...I got priorities!
-Sanded and sealed the brightwork and cockpit grate with Semco.
-Varnished the bowsprit.
-Replaced main and jib halyards.
-Coated lifelines with plasti-kote (still in good shape - just yellowed - I'm too cheap to replace just yet).
-Had the mainsail serviced by Sailcare.
-Repaired the main sail cover and genoa UV cover.
-Ground off the decals and painted the outboard cowling. I was amazed when the motor started instantly after sitting for 5 months so I though it deserved some love.
-Still need to scrub the decks and rebuild the Bosworth Guzzler.
Our slip isn't available until May 15th but hoping to get on a mooring ball before that.
I, umm...thought about my boat. Does that count? All exterior teak is removed (lie!). Well most of it is and will be sanded to bare wood and finished with Cetol Teak color with gloss overcoat.
Can't wait to sail!!! I need it!
Aiming to launch high tide on 4/29, 1124am. She's undergone a bunch, as the previous owner wasn't into upkeep. New: halyards, lifelines, main sail, mainsail cover, scuppers, bronze bushings for pintle, refinished teak, bilge pump wiring, changed cove strip color from brown to blue with gold striping, bottom paint, wind indicator, anchor, Yamaha 4hp, and a few rounds of compound, polish and wax. Previously the SV Jolly Roger, now SV Barnacle. I'll post pictures at launch. Still need to rig jiffy reefing, and a boom lift.
Much stuff on the ole farm not happening quite yet, other priorities ......so in her slip, got topsides washed and waxed, dodger and bimini back on this trip , sitting in cockpit - O'Beer thirty!
My HDC will be splashing this weekend! Would have gone in last weekend, but it was too far back in the storage facility to get out.
Rob
I have made a bit of progress, but have some hull work to do. I am sailing from the hard for awhile, so that won't stop the sailing. I do need the hull to dry before spraying with the acidic solution that will dissolve the remains of the barnacles. Am to take my motor off and get the club guy to see about the carburetor, which I think has a jet that is clogged.
Next up would be the deckpipe, change motor mount. Who knows when those things will happen.
Oh, and I did buy three things: a flotation device (got the kent A 33), a danforth style secondary anchor, and I ordered a straw hat that comes with a solar fan. We'll see about that one.
Doing some gearification on my WindRider 17 also.
Sounds like I am not alone in the progress.
I am so glad that the bottom is done. I dread that task every few years. It is hard work and it is heavy work when I jack the boat up to get the bottom of the keel.
Funny but my old boat rarely had barnacles on the bottom of the keel even when you scrape the paint off by running aground. My Compac had a few barnacles there and I am not sure why. Maybe it is the difference in depth. I did run aground in the compac and I scraped some paint off of the keel on a sandy shoal.
No matter how shallow my draft I still find a way to find the bottom with it!
Heave, did you get any pictures of the process of jacking up the keel? My keel had barnacles on it, and I couldn't get to them. I did launch & retrieve once since then, and it looks like fewer of them, but hey, I'd like to get them off. Can get a diver once he comes back from vacation.
My main issue is having time to get to the boat to work on it.
If you search the site you will see the pictures that I posted from a few years ago.
I used two jacks between the rollers. In between the jacks and the keel I placed a 2x6 on top of a 2x4 that were cut to the exact distance between the rollers. I jack one end up a few inches and then the other end up a few inches. The jacks sit on a 2x6 that runs the length of the rollers since I was on dirt. I also remove one of the bunk boards to help in painting. I made 4 small blocks out of 2x4 to sit on the painted ends where I could paint under the bunk boards before I jacked the boat up to steady the boat.
Here are a few of them:
(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm199/HeaveToo/boat%20jack%204_zpsjuavajk7.jpg)
(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm199/HeaveToo/Boat%20jack%201_zpspeyzph34.jpg)
(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm199/HeaveToo/Boat%20jack%202_zpsgssofzyg.jpg)
(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm199/HeaveToo/boat%20jack%203_zpsgktet6at.jpg)
Here is the finished project with two coats of ablative paint:
(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm199/HeaveToo/Compac%2023%20bottom%20paint_zpscfcue8vu.jpg)
This is the season of paint, epoxy, and other stuff that likes to stay on your hands. A quick solution to a lot of that stubborn stuff is a concoction of 1/2 cooking oil and 1/2 dish detergent well mixed. I Just came in for lunch and mixed some in the palm of my hand. I've also kept a small container on hand and remix it.
It's easy to have mixed feelings about boatwork. There are so many possible interesting and fun boat projects. (just found an old copy of Bruce Bingham's Sailor's Sketchbook). Brenda B' appearance would be much improved with a coat paint topside and the brightwork would look much better if it were bright. If the boat lived on a trailer rather than a mooring, if the season here in Maine were longer or if other demands could more easily be set aside I might be a little more gung ho about those things. Instead its just basic maintenance and also repairs as needed.
This year it's replace the motor mount, repair the tiller where a previous owner installed a tiller extension socket without drilling all the way through to let water out, put on a new coat of bottom paint, put lockdowns on the cockpit seats, clean her up, rig and launch the boat and go sailing. At least that's the plan.
End of season? What do you mean? How can you tell when the season is over?
It is always 'in season' here in sunny NC. Just have to pull the boat every two years to redo the bottom.
regards charlie
Charlie,
Yeh, I know, I have family with a place in Atlantic Beach who call and always seem to ask about the weather up here and a best friend in Northport Fl who tags every email with "Where forty is freezing and 70 is cold not old." Year round sailing would be a joyous thing but I do get to sail in one of the finest cruising grounds, in and around Penobscot Bay. Rather then fans and air conditioning my old Vega had a little Dickenson solid fuel stove and I just got a Little Buddy heater for the CP. Sailing is very fine here in September and early October.
Phil
Must admit, given the work we do here on our little farm, help run a brewery here, and general activities of life, we agreed when we got back into sailing that we would be wiling to pay for certain tasks on the boat and bottom painting is one of them. We live three hours from her so can't just drive over to the boat when i wish. Our little 16 is dry sailed and only is in the water at the floating dock when we are down there, pulled back out when we leave and then brought home for the winter. She has never had any bottom paint. Interlude on the other hand cost the equivalent of $70 bucks a month for the year to have me call them and say haul her. They haul her, power wash her put her on the hard for winter storage (free if you let them paint), sand the hull, paint it, and put her back in her slip in the spring. For $70 a month, you bet Ill find a way to either save $70 or make it. She is about 12,000 lbs of I just don't wanna do it!
For those of you who hate it, it's gotta cost even less than our boat to let someone else do. I used to change the oil in all of our cars and equipment.......used to. :)
Just trying to help get you all in the water earlier!
12X70=840. Interesting. What is slip for the year? Add taxes and then other maintenance costs. Finally add the necessary upgrades for the year.
You can see how boat ownership really adds up.
Here is what my expenses look like:
Slip fee = $80 a month for 5 months. $400
Trailer Tax = $8 a year (no boat tax in Prince William County). $8
Bottom Paint and stuff to do it = Approx $200
That is not taking into account the upgrades that I may have to do during the year. This year it was cheap because I just did an anchor light and I had other parts handy for it.
Still, this is just fractions of the budget for the Catalina 30.
Oh no doubt a 23 is gunna cost less in all areas than a 31 foot anything, though high quality build does generally mean lower ownership costs whether a boat, car or home! It is also a fact that size does matter as our mainsail alone, for example, will cost more some day than an entire suit of sails for a 23. Remember our situation is a bit different. Firstly we are in a different place in our lives with no boat ownership costs for the past 26 years prior to last year and now have both the time and resources as a result to own one now. Mostly the big difference from our 23 is that Interlude is also our home there. A 23 just cannot be, which is why even though I loved her, No Mas had to find a new home. You may recall we had talked about renting an apartment or something down there and keeping No Mas but those same monies got us Interlude, put her in a slip, and paid her taxes and insurance. Said it before, you can sleep on your boat but ya can't sail an apartment. It also provides some tax benefit as she truly is our second home. There is no way to financially justify ownership of any boat that is not used for your work. I jus don't do bottom painting anymore kinda like I jus don't do oil changes. Would rather save it or earn it!
Do have sore arms from hours of "wax on, wax off" over the past few days! Still like to do that!
Ya know spring chores are mostly the reason have not been to the boat in over a week. It's what i get for ignoring chores on the ole homestead with this whirlwind return to boat ownership. One boat in water the other still watching me do first field cut of season. Every so often Susan and I look at each other and wonder what living in a micro space would be like. Every time you bring something new aboard, something old's gotta go. There is really little accumulation space.
Bottom line.....still doing chores, not sailing yet. It does put a smile on my face knowing some of you are out sailing even as i type this!
I too have finished the spring work on the "Wyatt C". Last projects were to bottom paint the rudder because the boat stays in the water all summer, and I built a new companion way hatch. Now if Green Bay (the body of water) warms up, the winds die down, the clouds dissipate and the temps hit 60...I will launch.
Happy Spring,
Gerry
I made it to the water, cleaned the boat, organized the cabin, and did a few other tasks. I am still waiting to sail but it blew hard the last few days and sailing in gusts to 40knots just doesn't sound like fun!
I go to my boat tomorrow; weekend cruise. I have some more things to take to it and remove from it, some more hull cleanup, deck cleanup again, etc. The hull still needs the barnacle residue dissolved, and I may not get that done this trip, due to rain on Friday.
Next thing I will hopefully do will be deckpipe, but again, not this trip.
Some time in the summer, I need to take the sliding cover off and re-glass under it to strengthen it where there were some cracks put there somehow by a PO). That's been waiting for 3 years, haha.
We'll see.