First coat of primer is on the mast step.

Despite the rumbling of distant thunder, I pushed my luck and proceed in applying the initial coat of primer to the mast step.

 In anticipation for this winter's project of painting the decks with new non-skid, I expanded the area we will paint to include the hatch in the head.  Future coats will include the area aft of the salon hatch, but I needed to fill some cracks and dings prior to painting the area.

Unfortunate surprise in the lazurette leads to a new project.

Today's rains prevented any progress on the above deck projects.  I did spend some time connecting the new stern anchor light and and re-connecting the wind generator in the electrical panel.

Mid afternoon, Mike from L&M Marine arrived with our Beta Marine order.

Have I mentioned that we ordered a new instrument panel and wiring harness from Beta Marine?  A few days ago in an effort to better access the wires in the lazurette we slid aside our propane locker and were appalled at the rust & corrosion on the back side of the instruments.  The entire housing for our oil pressure gauge was paper thin.  I am amazed the ignition switch was still working with all the corrosion on the terminals.

I'm guessing the area took a soaking during last fall's rough five day crossing from Wilmington, NC to the Abacos.

When taking green water across the decks an occasional stream ran past the cockpit combing and down the back side of the cockpit near the main sheet traveler.  This water likely found it's way to the backside of the instruments via an insufficient seal around the  instrument panel.

Well the old panel is now history.  Mike took the housing back to his shop to install the new panel.

When Mike removed the old panel there was no caulking around the housing.  To be sure we will remedy this when the new panel is installed.

Like any good boat project this is growing larger by the minute.  A new panel has new gauges.  New gauges require new sending units on the engine.  It seems the new gauges do not speak the same language as the old sending units.  Well new sending units require a new wiring harness.  Oh yes and while we are getting greasy lets replace and relocate the raw water pump.  And so goes the creation of an new list of projects.

Before the rains began to fall

With rain forecast to begin falling by late afternoon, we worked to tick off as many outside projects as possible.   We started the day by re-installing the dodger and bimini.  These will better allow us to continue working on interior projects during the rainy days.  Both the dodger and bimini were removed in early summer to limit UV damage  and reduce our windage during hurricane season.  While the dodger was off the boat, Tony at Beaufort Canvas replaced the leather wrap along the top, aft edge.  This part of the dodger frequently serves as a hand hold while in the cockpit.  Over the course of 4 years we had worn through the original leather wrap.

Once the bimini and dodger were re-installed, I went back to work sanding and fairing the mast step.  Anne focused on pulling the new coax wiring for the AM/FM antenna and for the new anchor light, both mounted on the stern wind generator post, to C'est la Vie's electrical panel.

I completed fairing the mast step just as the rain drops began to patter on the deck.

By this time Anne had completed running the wires and moved on to assembling the wind generator blades.

Rain is forecast to continue for the next 36 to 48 hours.  Looks like tomorrow's efforts will be limited to interior projects.

Arts and Crafts day on C'est la Vie - part 1

With all the standing rigging down the time is right to tick off a long time resident of the projects list - rebuild the chain plate deck fittings.    I'm unsure of the technical name for these things, but they serve to keep water from intruding into the cabin where the chain plates pass through the deck.  They perform this task in two ways.  First, they are raised so thin sheets of water running across the deck will pass round the structure.  Secondly they have a recessed reservoir that when filled with caulk and compressed by a metal top plate forms a water tight seal around the metal chain plate. C'est la Vie has four such fittings on her deck.  The aft fittings are doubles and accommodate the cap and aft lower shrouds.

Visible in the image above is a green outline of what I envision the for the shape of the finished product. The forward fitting is a single chain plate that serves the lower, forward shroud.

 In the images above the metal fittings are the chain plates.  The yellow modeling clay is filling the reservoir and extends above the height that I plan to build up the new fittings.  Surrounding the modeling clay are the eroding remnants of the original fittings.

At the the stage of the process pictured above, I have drilled out and refilled with epoxy the four screw holes used to tighten down the metal top plate.  With these holes filled the next step was to create a mold for the new deck fitting.  Modeling clay works well as a mold for epoxy, but how to create nice round ends and straight sides?  I searched around the boat for a something that looked to be the appropriate radius.

Can't use the can, but the lid will do nicely.

I cut the plastic lid in half vertically for use as a guide, and then molded the clay around the lid.

Once the round ends were complete, I used a straight edge and a box cutter blade to clean up the sides of the mold.

Repeat this process on each of the four fittings and it is time to pour the epoxy.  I used West System epoxy thickened to a consistency somewhere between honey and ketchup with high density filler.

Allow epoxy to fully set... see part 2

Arts and Crafts day on C'est la Vie - part 2

 Epoxy cured, chain plate removed, and modeling clay removed; I sand down the new fittings with 80 grit sandpaper and a Dremel tool.

The battery powered Dremel with a rough sanding drum saved a great deal of time and effort when addressing the interior edges of the reservoir.  Initial sanding complete it is time to add the fillets (rounded edges) and remedy any gaps in the initial round of epoxy.

I refilled the reservoirs with model clay and  re-taped the surrounding area before mixing up another round of epoxy.  This time around I used a fairing filler to thicken the epoxy to a consistency similar to petroleum jelly.  The fairing fillers are easier to sand down and this application is more about cosmetics than structure.

No clay molds on this application.  The epoxy was added to the fitting using a stir stick and a 3" spreader.  Before the epoxy fully set, I used a razor blade to cut through the skin across the top of the area filled with modeling clay.  Once cured I removed the clay and tested the height of the new fitting by inserting the chain plate and attaching the turnbuckles.  It is a very important test the fitting before continuing on to painting.  I found that I had  raised both forward fittings too much.  The forward fittings did not allow enough clearance for the shoulders of the turnbuckle.  I removed to excess material from the top of the fitting, approx 3/32", using an orbital sander armed with 80 grit paper.  The aft fittings did not require any material removal.

Another round of sanding with 80 grit paper followed by a round with 120 grit paper preceeded the application of primer.

What is hidden in your mast?

The newly fabricated compression post arrived late last week.  The 3 1/2" stainless steel pipe capped with a 1/2" thick stainless steel plate certainly appears stout.

We were surprised by small diameter, approximately 1", tubing that is meant to pass all our mast wiring through the plate an into the boat.  Only 1"?  The wiring for all the lights on the mast consisted of seven 12 guage wires housed in a 3/4" section of flexible conduit.  Add to this the oversized VHF coaxial cable plus the new NMEA cable and we realized replacing the old electrical wiring in the mast is the only option.

Thanks to the efforts of the previous owner all of the wiring in the mast runs through a 2" section of PVC.  The  PVC pipe is riveted to the mast.  Running the wiring through the pipe eliminates wires slapping the inside of the mast, reduces the risk of wires chafing, and greatly eases the addition of new wiring.

Anne and I converted all the mast head, steaming, and deck lights to LED a couple a years ago.  The low draw of the LED bulbs allows us to reduce the gauge of the wire running up the mast. We decided to run separate sections of 16 gauge, 3 strand wire.  One wire to the mast head lights and a separate wire to the steaming/deck lights at mid mast.  Fortunately Barbour's Marine Supply in Beaufort had a 100' spool of 3 strand, 16 gauge boat wire.  By lunchtime we had made our assessment and had all the supplies in hand.

Since fishing wire or rope through the mast is always a two person job, I elected to move on this project while Bud was  visiting.  We disconnected all the wiring and attached messenger lines to the wires at the masthead and midway up the mast.  Pulling out the existing wire and messengers should be easy, remember the PVC pipe that serves as a conduit through the mast?  Bud took station at the base of the mast and pulled the wire with such force that the mast began to slide across the saw horses.  What?  We did not wish to damage the new NMEA cable or the VHF coax with our struggle to purge the old wiring.  We attached additional messenger lines to the NMEA and the VHF cables.  With a little difficulty midway through the mast were retrieved the NMEA cable.  The large VHF cable gave more struggle than the NMEA the wire, but finally pulled through the masthead.   Now with no additional wiring left in the mast to damage we returned to the bundle of electrical wires.

I grasp the spreader mounts to keep the mast in place.  Bud heaved on the wires.  After a brief game of tug-o-war the wires released.   With ease  the remaining seven wire bundle, towing two messenger lines, slipped free of the base of the mast.  And to what should our wondering eyes behold?

A woven wire Chinese finger trap of a device used in industrial settings to pull wire.  This definitely explains why we struggled to pull additional cables through the PVC conduit.  Now we are home free!

But, wait - where is the masthead messenger line?
You tied it off right?
I thought you tied it off!
Well you were working up there!
&%#@!
@*&%, break out the fish tape.

"If there is a will there is a way", and we were successful in re-threading the new wire through the masthead.  The other wires all had messenger lines in place and installed easily.  By days end we had rewired and tested  a new mast head tricolor/anchor light, the steaming light, and the deck light.  We also tapped the attachment screws for the Garmin wind indicator on the mast head, re-installed the NMEA cable, and re-installed the VHF coax cable.  Thanks for your assistance Bud.

Here is an image of the current state of the masthead.

The hole in the mast with two lager rivets on either side is the attachment point for the removable inner stay. In the background is our growing pile of salvageable metal.  This pile now includes the lower mast section; the boom; and, the latest addition, 350 feet of 12ga braided copper wire.

Final steps on the step?

Sunday, Oct 4, Anne had the day off work and joined me on the boat to apply the final 2 layers of mat on the new mast step.

After laying up the cloth on the step we turned our energies toward the wind generator post.  We pulled new coaxial cable for the AM/FM antenna.  The existing wire was loosing it's insulation due to UV exposre. We installed a Davis Mega Light that we will use as a second, lower anchor light. The mega light has a built in photo eye that automatically cycles the light on at night an off in the day.  Immediately upon purchasing the light we ordered an LED bulb for the unit from Sailor's Solutions.  We cut the cigarette light plug off the end of the Mega Light and plan to wire the light directly to a switch on our electrical panel.  The combination of a Davis Mega light $45 and a LED bulb $20 gives us a unit equivalent to what Lopo Light, Orca Light, or Allied Signal would sell for $300+ dollars.  We will provide a report out on the endurance of the light in the future.

I returned to C'est la Vie solo today, October 5.  Before opening ports or hatches, I suited up, grabbed the grinder, and ground level the mast step.

While in full fiberglass grinding mode I also ground out an area of deck on the port side that looked as if it was allowing water intrusion.  It discovered a wooden plug in what must have been the original waste pump out fitting.  I also used the disc sander to prep the area around the windlass and the chain plates for some epoxy repairs.  By the time the dust settled, I had nine different spots on deck that were prepped for fiberglass repairs or filling.  The projects ranged from filling screw holes to repairing the deck to fairing the mast step.

Here is a shot of the faired, smooth, and level mast step just before climbing down the ladder and calling it a day.

A new counter top the centerpiece of our head rebuild

After of morning of running about town to purchase boat supplies (see our last blog entry - The Day the Resin Died), I got late start on C'est la Vie projects.  Despite the delinquent start, I made great progress and completed all the plumbing below the counter top.    Now two of our ongoing projects conflict.  The access to the chain plates (metal work that joins the mast rigging to the hull of the boat) is obscured on the port side by the upper head plumbing.  Since we still have work to do on the deck fittings for the chain plates unfettered access to the below deck hardware is important.

I could not resist the urge to install the center piece of our efforts to refinish the head. Using both liquid nails and #10 wood screws with fender washers, the new counter top went into place easily.

We never used the sink in the head -the water pump has been broken for at least two years and we keep the sink drain closed to prevent flooding when heeled to port.  Thus we removed the sink and incorporated the cut out into a hatch to provide better access to the lower plumbing and storage below.

With the afternoon waning I carried the momentum through and installed the doors on the lower lockers before calling it a day.

If anyone is interested in a more detailed pictorial of the creation of the countertop check out our photo album: Refinishing the Head - Summer 2011