2025-09-21 - 7 more days on the hard

 

We are still on the hard, still working.  Dean has the hulls so shiny you can use them as a mirror, well it is shiny.  Let's hope it lasts a while.  The under side is all overhead and neck breaking work, only dolphins and turtles see it, but we don't want any complaints about it being dirty.

Dean is the master buffer and waxer.  3 coats on all the hulls.  Very shiny now

When Kris drained the sail drive oil, she found the starboard oil was slightly milky, not bad – but need to replace the seals.  In addition, we saw that the lower hole that the zinc attaches to on the sail drive lower bearing race and seal holders was elongated.   We ordered new holders.  This is the part that has the seals to keep water out and oil in, and also holds a bearing race for the propeller shaft.  After we ordered them and got them in, realized that each holder is dimensioned and shimmed so the propeller shaft gears properly seat.  We did not have the tools to do that, so we fudged a bit, and measured and compared the old holders to the new to make sure all would be well.  Think we got lucky, and no shimming changes needed, but time will tell.

Removing the hold parts was easy.  

Taking the seals and bearing race out of the old holders was not hard, but really was not worried about damage, as we were going to use new holders.   Putting the stuff back in correctly without damage – that is trickier.  Not having the “right” tools, we made some.  All worked well, and we hope no leaks.  We also took the old sleeves off of the propeller shafts and re-sleeved them.

Our homemade collection of tools to remove and install the shaft sleeves, seals and bearing race

We have an issue with one of the stern steps, with the access hatch in it for access to the steering quadrant.  The foam filler has detached from the top fiberglass, making the step around the hatch soft.   We put in a support underneath to stiffen it up, but the flexing allowed water ingress, and cracked the epoxy around the access hole.   So we ground a good bit of foam out, sanded and re-epoxied the area. 

Epoxy in, letting it cure.

We got the props and hubs painted and installed, had a bit of an issue as we painted before putting the prop blades into the hubs, which made the pins too tight to fit, so a bit of sanding off the new paint was needed.   Won’t make that mistake again.

Next time, paint after installation

The sail drives are sanded, primed and painted.  We went with green this time.

Green sail drive really stands out against the black hull

We took off some of the thru hulls on the underside of the boat, that have white rings with flappers for draining the anchor locker and the lockers adjacent to it.   It always seemed to drain, but leave dirty marks down the hull when it did.   So we installed the new flap holders with the built-in drip edge that our son Derek made for us on his 3D printer.   We will see how they work.

Hope the drip edge works, and no more ugly drip lines down our now very shiny hull

We also cleaned out the old sealant around the bow locker drains, and smoothed and faired with epoxy, and then put in new sealant.  Removed and installed new bow locker lid drain thru hulls as well.

Dean made some custom parts for the boom vang, there was a bit of slop in where it attaches to the mast that developed an irritating clicking noise when sailing and the boom would bounce up and down a bit.   Some stainless bearings, new bolts, and some drilling and fitting and no more slop, so hopefully no more noise.

We installed a new shower control.  The old one was original to the boat, and still worked, but the handle did not have much movement to go from really hot, to cold, and it was getting a bit still to move.   It was hard to find a new control, where you could adjust volume and temperature in one handle, but we did.  Of course, had to modify the supports for it to fit on the boat, so a 1-hour project became a 3-hour project.

We also got our new jib in – so excited.  Until we installed it, and found some issues, so will have to contact the sailmaker next week to see what is to be done about that.   Issue is with how it fits onto the camber spar.   We can work around it, but should not have to with a brand-new sail.

The front edge of the sail rubs on the forestay because the grommets for attaching the camberspar are set too far back.

We are scheduled to go back in the water on Tuesday – finally.   We are both feeling our age after 10 days straight of work.  It will be nice not to take the long walk to the bathrooms.  It's about 1000 ft to the steps, and then up the steps to the top of the hill to the bathroom.   Getting tired of those stairs.

Dean is about 1/2 way up the stairs to the top, where the bathrooms are.

The trip back down the stairs isn't as bad, if only the steps were even spaced and height, it would be even better.