Grab rails

The grab rails that came with the boat were pretty much a lost cause. They were worn through in a couple of places around the bolts and were in generally bad shape. My original thinking was to have starboard replacements made but the cost of doing that was a bit much. Someone suggested steel and the price for those was about the same. Luckily I found some at the consignment shop for $25 each! So we pulled the old rails off and filled in the holes with epoxy. We drilled new holes larger than they needed to be and filled those in with epoxy and drilled the proper sized hole in the epoxy. If water gets in there then it won't get into the wood core. For some more info and cutaway pictures see here. Lots of other good information on this site as well.

The final result does not look as good as the teak grab rails but they will require less maintenance and took fewer holes into the deck. So I am going to learn to live with it. Also it will be less likely that I bash my toe on these. :)

Port windows

Got the port side windows replaced. Pretty much the same story as far as rotten wood underneath except there was more of it. Also looks like the jib traveler needs to be rebedded as that looks like it may be leaking too. The details are
pretty much the same so I will just post before and after pics of the exterior.

Before After















In the after picture the grab rail is also removed. I got some new steel ones from the consignment shop. They would not have been my first choice but the price was right so I went that way. They will also require fewer holes to put in so that is a good thing.

This is something I forgot about. I replaced the Signet knotmeters paddlewheel and videoed the water rushing into the boat when the plug was removed. Quite a lot comes in so be quick!

Windows etc.

Been quite awhile since I have posted anything here. Not that I have not been doing things but I have not managed to finish anything. :) Story of my life I guess. But here is a summary of what has been done so far.

I got a new radio. An Icom m422. Linda took the Coast guard ABS class and decided she liked the idea of have a DSC distress button. She got a %100 on the test btw and I am still hearing about that. The radio we had was just a basic radio and would not even scan through channels. I still have to get the gps hooked up to it so the distress button sends out location information.








Got a motor for the dinghy. A Yamaha 2.5 horse. The Dinghy is rated for up to 5 horse but weight was a big factor and the 2.5 is light enough to lift up onto the back of the boat. Its a bit of a trick in steady water I am sure it will be quite a feat to do it in waves of any size.







We got some vinyl lettering to name the dinghy as well. I am sure the humor is somewhat diminished by not being able to see both boats together. The dinghy still has a leak in it someplace. My patch job apparently did not quite take but I guess having wet feet is all part of the charm.

I am still trying to find oarlocks for the dinghy too. So if anyone knows anything about BoatUS branded dinghys imported by Severn let me know. I am just about to the point of rigging something up with zip ties because I can find almost no information about it.



The big and still not quite done project involved replacing the leaking windows on the starboard side. The original windows were set in a plastic frame that was glued to the side of the boat. I found quite a few people who were replacing their windows and using screws to hold the windows onto the fiberglass. This is the main story I followed on how to do windows this way. I could not find a place to get the neoprene used so I used butyl tape from RV Wholesalers. They don't sell the same stuff anymore but they sell something called Tacky tape that looks to be similar. It was a several week job to get the windows on mostly because of poor planning.

Once we took the vinyl off the wall to take here is what we found. Over the years water had pretty much rotted the wood to dust. The dark strip at the bottom was where a grab rail was attached. It was basicall a trimmed down 1x2 and it was basically like styrofoam. You could push a toothpick through it and not break the toothpick. We used a dremel and cut out the bad parts and scraped it to the fiberglass. Linda turned out to be quite good at getting rotten plywood off of fiberglass.


Here is a closeup of that wood along the bottom. I found someone on craigslist to cut a 1x2 down the funny angle you see. Above that you can see the good job Linda did of getting the rotten and some not quite so rotten plywood off.







The next part was filling in the spots we had cut out with some nice new plywood. I was looking for some marine plywood and could only find one place that sold it. They had the kind that is used for a finished surface. I planned to veneer it but I bought it anyway. When I do the next side I plan to get exterior grade plywood and put penetrating epoxy on it. I put west marine branded penetrating epoxy on all the plywood I put up anyway. I was kind of worried about it setting up properly but it hardened up just fine.

This is the end result. As you can see the plywood we got has a finished surface and looks pretty nice by itself. We used posterboard to make templates to guide us in cutting the pieces. For the window holes we made them a bit big and then trimmed them up. We attached the plywood with west systems Gflex epoxy.



We filled in the gaps with west systems epoxy and the 410 fairing filler. We sanded and tried to get the surface as smooth as possible. As it turns out the veneer is not too finicky about the surface. So next time we know not to put quite so much effort into it.







I used the same plywood and expoxied pieces along the bottom. The dowels and other wood are holding it up in the correct place while the expoxy sets up. We are working on getting another peice to put under thier to cover the wires and other bolts. It will be held up with barrel head screws so it looks good and you can still get in there if needed. Once that was in place we went on to putting up the veneer.




Not much to say about the veneer. We used posterboard and pieces of paper to make the template to cut the pieces. Stuck them up with contact cement. I used a utility knife to cut the windows out and trim up the bottom. I got the veneer from cabinetparts.com. The rest of the boat is a dark mahogany and I needed to make sure the boat did not end up too dark so I picked this light mahogany.



Once everything was trimmed up we could finally put in the new windows! That took pretty much a day because we found we had too few screws and then we needed some longer ones so Linda made several trips to west marine to get screws, bolts and different kinds of washers.
We are going to make a piece of trim to put around the window and cover the bolts as well as provide a place to attach curtains. The original plan was to have the trim made prior and attach the bolts with barrel head nuts so it looked good. However not having the trim and the fact that barrel head nuts are about $1.24 each and needing close to 90 of them dampened my enthusiasm for that route.


So this is the result as it is now. We put a piece of rope trim along the top to hold the headliner up and put the rail along the bottom. The curtains are held up with zip ties. I am finding quite a lot of uses for dowels and zip ties. When we do the other side we will get more trim and finish the piece that is missing.







Here is a picture from outside and how the new windows look. They look a lot better than the old windows in my opinion. Plus they are water tight so that is a big plus!








Some of the things I learned in this process:
Next time I would make the windows larger. I told the guy at the plastic place to cut the new windows a half inch bigger than the old edge of the framed window and put the screw holes a half an inch from the edge. That only gives half inch of plexi from the screws and I think more would be better. Also next time I will have him use 3/8ths plexi rather than 1/4. If I had extra money I would like to have another layer of plexi glued into the window hole for extra strength assuming it could be done without having bubbles in it.

Polishing brass

While I was waiting for Mack Sails to come out and replace my main halyard I polished the brass towel holders by the sink.

I polished a couple of the hoops and the whale in this picture. As you can see they were really cruddy. the one in the upper right was the worst one as it was right by the window and must have gotten quite a bit of salt water on it. Its quite a difference that a few hours of polishing makes. I still have the hoop for the worst one yet to go but I can probably get that one done tomorrow. After I was done concragulating myself I realized there are 2 more behind the door and one is by a window and pretty bad. I think I will get a drill attachment for those and the last ring.


I went to grab some lunch when Mack Sails showed up so they were already pulling the new halyard through when I got back. They replaced it with Techron 2 line. They said it would not stiffen up and get wider like the old one did.

Here is one of their people up on the mast checking the block and lubricating it.













This is the reason I called them to replace it. The only way you are going to get me up there is if there is a big suitcase full of money.

They did a good job and were very quick. I think it took longer to write up the invoice and pay it than they took to get the job done. They should look into fixing that. :)









Someone caught some fish and were cleaning them at the fish cleaning station. the pelicans were looking for a free meal. I took this picture because I thought they were kind of cool. I am sure in a short time I will feel like everyone else and hate them like people hate geese in Minneapolis.

The guy cleaning fish is right behind the pole.

The sailboat you can see in the back is the Heather Anne. It came into Mariner Cay today. Its flagged Canadian but I am sure they are nice people. :)

Replacing a Groco HF head

When I got the boat there was something wrong with the head(A Groco HF marine toilet). Water would back up into the bowl so there would be about 4 inches of it in there. The previous owner said it had always worked like that and the manual said the flapper valve being dirty could cause that and cleaning it would fix the problem. I figured as long as I was taking it apart I would get a maintenance kit for it and just replace the replaceable parts. Well things did not quite work out as well as I had hoped.

I had prepared for the worst thinking it was going to be a pretty huge mess and did my best to flush the system with plain old water. Luckily for me it had not really been used that much and when it was used it was mostly liquid waste.
This is a picture of the base. The pump is on the right and the bowl is on the left. the black pipe on the left of the pump is the water intake and the bigger black pipe going into the wall is the waste line that goes to the holding tank. The base is the horizontal pipe at the bottom.


The instructions on the maintenance kit from Groco are pretty much the exact same thing you get with the toilet when you buy it. They are pretty vague and leave a lot to be desired on detail. It is really just a single 8.5x11 page front and back with a diagram of the parts and a parts list for the kits. A hint or two about how to proceed would have been nice so that is why I am putting this here so someone else can get a heads up about what to expect. Anyway I decided to start by unscrewing the 3 bolts that hold the pump to the base and let the water drain out. I tried to mop it up as best I could as it came out.


I was sort of suprised that the only water that really came out of it was the water that was in the bowl. I figured the waste line would have something to contribute as well.
This is the base with the pump off. The flapper valve is the black triangular part on top of the base. The joker valve is the part that is still in the waste line. I was wondering if it was holding back the stuff in the waste line but there was nothing in the line to hold back. yay!



Here is the pump after it has been removed. Nothing especially interesting about it and as far as I know it was working fine.







If you go back a few pictures and look at the flapper valve you can see some stuff stuck to it. That stuff turned out to be some kind of silicone. I was confused by that at first until I started looking at the base.

After peeling off the silicone and poking at it a bit you can see that it is corroded very badly. Someone had tried to fix it by caulking it. I guess if you don't mind water potentially sloshing out of your toilet when the boat heels over I guess you could be happy. I was not too happy as no amount of cleaning or replacing was going to get it to work properly. The corrosion was pretty deep into it as well. It may have been possible to grind the brass down several millimeters to make it flat again but I don't have that kind of equipment so it pretty much meant a new base. I wandered off to West Marine figuring that they would not have the base but I knew they had the same Groco HF head that I had. A price check revealed that the price of the base was $100 and would need to be ordered. The new HF was $300. I could probably have gotten the base someplace else cheaper but I am not terribly patient and I already had the thing apart so I bought a new one.

This is what the base that the flapper valve sits on looks like when it is new. A nice smooth surface for the valve to seat on.








I did run into some aggravation while installing the new bowl. You are supposed to put plastic washers on the bolts that hold the bowl to the base. The washers are too big to fit on one of the sides and very tight on another. They fit fine on two sides though. I checked the alignment and futzed with it for quite awhile before I just gave up and snipped a side off the washer and put it on. The nut still kind of ground on the side of the porcelain though. I don't know why they made it so tight of a space. Not like they need to save that room since the bowl expands outward from there.
Here is the offending bit. The washer is wedged in there and the bolt is already on the porcelain. Even getting the nut on was a pretty tight fit. All the washers were wedged pretty tight on the porcelain.
Oh and the bolts for attaching the bronze base to the do not come with the kit so you need to get them to suit whatever you are attaching the head to.






In summary I was much more worried about doing the maintenance kit than it really was. The mess was negligible and once you start taking things apart it is a pretty simple device. One thing I did learn is that it is probably better to take the thing apart first and figure out what is wrong. I have a maintenance kit I can use when I need it but hopefully that will be several years down the road. I have heard that Groco is really good if you call in for support so if you really get stuck you can call them.

In the yard

I purchased Sunny on February 19th 2009. In the weeks prior to that the previous owner and I got her ready for the water. The surveyor found some relatively minor problems like some cracked plastic and even a more serious one like a crack in a chainplate.
In case your wondering the chainplates attach to wires that hold up the mast so they are pretty important. :) The one pictured here was on the stern.

The previous owner Mike replaced the chainplate and pretty much painted the bottom of the boat by himself. From the sounds of it the paint was pretty noxious so I did not miss out much by not being there to inhale fumes.



Here is a picture of the boat up on the stands in the work area.

Thats Mike up on the boat doing something.











Here are a couple of videos of the travel lift moving the boat out of the work area and into the water.







Here is a picture of the interior from the cockpit.

The stove is tucked in there beside the sink. You can't see it in the picture. There is also an icebox beside the stove.