Revival of hull #7

[Dannyboy]

Well, it's been a long year with hull no. 7 (re-christened Pyxis). After purchasing her for a song in the fall of '13 we set to work with gusto last summer. As is the case with most hopeful endeavors, I thought it would take far less time to get the boat seaworthy. Part of the issue was that the boat had obviously taken on water at some point. It didn't take us long to figure out that the water was coming from above, the boat acting more as a rain funnel than a vessel. First item of business, then, was to redo the hull to deck joint, which was a bear. I've (hopefully) included some photos of that below. Most of the water seemed to be coming in through two main areas: the stanchion area and back around the head and galley area.





In some places, we could pull the old caulk out with our fingers... We devised various time saving methods such as using a dremel with a little grinder disk and wedging the joint open. Once through with the old caulk removal, we laid in 4200 around the stanchions and 5200 everywhere else, clamped 'er down. We did a little dance the next time it rained and saw no leaks through the joint... Dry, dry, dry... except for the portholes, and that's another part of the same story.





We finally splashed the boat in mid-June into Lake Michigan and kept working and working. When my Dad and I took the first sail on her and the sails filled, we were both floored with how well she sailed. We've since said that if it weren't for how well she sailed and how comfortable she is below, that all the time, money and scraped knuckles wouldn't have been worth it.

For your reading pleasure, here is a list of things we've done this far:

Strip Boat of all moldy carpeting and  hull liners
Clean interior spaces with detergent and spray with chlorox
Install two new hatches that were attached to cabin top with blue tape
Removed all upholstery, soaked fabrics in Oxiclean, foam in Chlorox 2 and dried
Removed all spare parts, inventoried and packed for future use
Compound and buff hull
Paint bottom
Removed rusty fuel tank and installed new poly tank left by previous owner
Inspected fuel system, tightened or replaced leaky fittings and lines, replaced 12v lift     ?pump, checked oil and fluid levels, replaced oil filter and fuel filters.
Installed new bilge pump,switch, wiring , check valve and discharge hose
Installed new battery charger
Repaired damage to bow pulpit, anchor roller bracket and bow light. Installed new roller
Repaired mailsail and genoa – replaced UV shield on Genoa
Replaced entry hatch with new mahogany marine plywood panel
Repaired rotten ice box covers with penetrating epoxy, epoxy fillers and new formica ?surfaces
Removed and rebedded one bronze portlight
Removed old portlight gaskets and replaced with new gaskets made of fuel hose (this worked great!)
Replaced missing teak plugs on cabin top hand rails
Cleaned remaining teak interior with two part formula
Removed and repaired teak cabin sole inserts
Pressure washed exterior teak surfaces
Boat yard repaired damage to keel, installed garboard drain plug and painted
Install new 12v electrical panel left by previous owner
Install bus bar for all negative leads
Replace wiring as necessary
Fabricate and install interior hull liners and teak trim
Replaced Uniden QT 206 display head
Repair Sail Cover


Repair Navigation Light Circuit
Repair Steaming Light
Service spare injector pump and nozzles and install
Varnish all interior teak surfaces
Refinish interior of bronze deck dorades
Replace all battery cables
Install Oil/Air Separator in crankcase breather line
Fabricate Ice Box shelf to hold ice or frozen water bottles

Whew! I'm tired all over again just reading it. I probably still have 5200 under one of my fingernails.
Next summer, we're looking forward to hitting all of our favorite Green Bay Spots a wee bit longer and earlier.

[frank]

Congrats on "jobs well done"   Keep us posted with further upgrades

[Restharrow]

Would like to hear more about the hull to deck repair.  I have a CP25 hull #5 and suspect a water leak in this area.  I'm thinking of making wooden rub rails and it looks like maybe you did.  If not how difficult was it to get the rubber rub rail attached again.  Any insight would be much appreciated.

Steve
CP25
Lake Champlain and Coast of Maine

[deisher6]

Hey Dannyboy:
Nice looking boat. 

You have certainly earned some sailin' time.  You should keep the sailing to work ratio greater than one since you have the boat floating. 

You didn't pick up this boat from a yard north of Milwaukee did you?  We looked at one there about 18 months ago that was very reasonably priced.  The owner had purchased a larger boat to make his girl friend happy...still had the C-27 and the larger boat but not the girl.

Interior pictures...

Again nice work.

regards charlie

[Dannyboy]

Charlie, yes, I believe this is the same boat. Got her in Manitowoc from a guy who had bought a '39 Pearson, which, I recall, had a 7' draft or something like that. If the boat had a huge chunk taken out of the keel, then that's the same boat! He ended up taking half of his asking price.

As far as the interior goes, I'll post a few things. We gutted everything except for the bulkheads which, by the time we're done may be more epoxy than wood for at least a half foot in from the hull. We also played around with some paneling options, since all interior paneling was rotten.

So, Steve, about the hull to deck joint, here's the run-down. We spent a ton of time just cleaning it out. Time well spent. The chainplate and stanchion areas took a great deal of attention. We used a variety of dental pics and dremel tools to clean it out, and if memory serves, I also used a coping saw blade to really get behind the chainplates. By the time we felt satisfied, we could see right through to the interior of the cabin where the plates go through the joint. We then used blue tape to catch the 4200 fast set, made sure one guy was in the cabin to catch drips and help it pool into the cavities, filled the screw holes again, daubed the screws, put them back in and then clamped it down.

To make sure the pressure was equally distributed, we used 1"x2"x10' sleepers as clamping bars. We wrapped them in wax paper first, had them ready, then worked from bow to stern in ten foot segments, pulling the wedges out as the other guy (in this case my dad aka the boat whisperer) filled it in with 5200 fast set. When ten feet was up, we clamped the sleepers together until the spaces between the screws oozed out.

Happily, the wax paper worked and pulled right off. Reinstalling the rub rail went well. It was an 80 degree day and my brother and I tugged on the rail as my dad pounded it back into place. Me had a heat gun handy just in case, but didn't need it. We may have (can't recall exactly) put down a bead of 4200 on the inside top lip of the rail near the head and galley due to the pooling that often happens there.

General moldy looking adventure.


A chunk of keel seemed to be missing when we bought her:


Old port berth:


The new port berth details:


Amazing ice shelf made by the boat whisperer:


A photo of a re-stabilized, bottom side of cabin sole.




More to come.

[Dannyboy]

Here's before and after of the head. The old counter was rotting away from, well, everything. New one made by the boat whisperer out of starboard.
Old:


New:


And snazzy revival of head door (interior)



New view of galley. Further updates for that galley space coming this season, but I'm looking for suggestions.

[deisher6]

Hey Dannyboy:
Yep! That is the boat, it is the only one that I have seen with an aft facing port over the galley.  Now I REALLY admire what you have done.  You have done a great job of bringing back a a boat that had been badly neglected.  Keep the pictures coming.

Have you done any work on the shaft log?

regards charlie

[Boat Whisperer]

 Danny Boy has included me in the credits for reviving Pyxis (Hull #7).  I'm not sure "Boat Whisperer" accurately describes my interaction with boats, but I do confess to being seduced by them regularly.  Why, would a gimpy 74 year old want jump wholeheartedly into a boat revival project? I believe the answer lies in the following quotation:

"There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."
- Spoken by Ratty to Mole in Wind in the Willows a children's book by Kenneth Graham