August 30, 2010

During the week I tried a little experiment to replace the leaking gaskets on the old Ta Chiao bronze ports I bought on ebay. The ports are probably 25-35 years old and the old dried up and brittle gaskets are now pure unobtainium, so I had to improvise. After removing the old gasket, I tried filling up the groove with silicone, letting it cure and then trimming it. The resulting gasket was pretty uneven, so I wasn't shocked when it leaked like a sieve when I tested it. To paraphrase Thomas Edison, I succeeded in finding a new way in which a gasket won't work. Hopefully I'll be able to find suitable material at McMaster-Carr. Over the weekend I started tackling the leaking hatches. On Saturday, I removed the forward hatch, a Bomar, to take it home and clean it up prior to rebedding it. Luckily it came off the teak base pretty easily. Thank goodness it wasn't adhered with 5200! Once it was removed, it was clear that the previous efforts to stop the leaks by slopping caulk over the teak joints were misguided as well as crude. The fiberglass molding of the cabin top included a rim and base upon which the teak hatch base was mounted. Any leakage in the teak base would drain harmlessly off the cabin top. That was actually reassuring. The leaks would have to be either around the plexiglass in the hatch itself (bad), a bad hatch gasket or faulty bedding of the hatch. I was going to have to rebed the hatch anyway, and planned to replace the hatch gasket as well. With the hatch removed, I ground off the excess caulk from the teak base and sanded it until it was ready for some epoxy. I thought sealing it with epoxy would help stabilize it as well as get it ready for a couple of coats of Cetol or varnish. I brought the hatch home that evening to leak test it and grind off the gunk around the mounting flange. I took a chance by replacing the old dried out gasket with some cheap car door gasket material. It didn't fit properly and testing confirmed it leaked badly. So now I'll have to order the right stuff at twice the price...no big deal. The good news from the testing was that there was no leakage in the plexiglass-to-frame joint on the hatch.

Sunday I remounted the hatch using 3/8 round butyl tape. It was a pretty messy job despite my attempts to be neat and careful. Butyl is like a cross between tar and chewing gum. The stuff sticks to everything, and once it pulls the surface oil off your skin, it sticks to your fingers, making it hard to mold and manipulate without creating a scene worthy of Laurel and Hardy. And of course it would just stick to and pull apart disposable gloves. You can just make out the black butyl around the flange of the inverted hatch in the photo below: Nonetheless, in the end, I got the hatch mounted neatly, and, because the butyl stays sticky and flexible indefinitely, the bedding should be leak-free for as long as I own Circadian. Later I will need to finish off the edge with some 3M 101 or Sikaflex 291 and put some varnish on the teak base to protect the epoxy from UV damage. When it's eventually all done, of course I'll have to test it.

The rest of the day was spent removing the leaky plexiglass window in the top of the doghouse. While not as critical as the cabin leaks, I want the doghouse dry to protect my instruments, my paper charts , my crew and myself. I understood why the P.O. just covered it with a sheet of plastic when I started wrestling with the 36 bedded bolts that secured the window. (Some of the bolts I removed can be seen in the photo below.) I was eventually able to get all but five out myself. I had to enlist the help of a dockmate with those since I just could not manage to hold the machine screw outside on top while cranking on the nut below at the same time. Being two different places at the same time is a tough one! Again I was lucky in that the window was bedded with a non-adhesive compound and came up pretty easily. Although crazed, the window was 3/8 inch thick...a good thing! At home I'll need to clean the old bedding off the aluminum frame, mark the frame parts for easy reassembly, and unscrew the frame from the plexiglass. Then I'll get replacement plex at TAP Plastics, put it back together and remount it.

By this time I was pretty beat, so it was all I could do to make some measurements for the new bronze ports and clean up the mess before wearily driving home.

August 23, 2010

During the week I worked on stripping the layers of old paint off the second of the two salvaged Wilcox Crittenden bronze ports. As anyone who has stripped paint knows, it's a dirty, messy, nasty job. It took about six cycles of applying the stripper, wire brushing and rinsing to get off all the layers.

Saturday was devoted to visiting an old high school classmate I hadn't seen in more years than I care to admit. It turned out to be a surprisingly upsetting experience to see what had become of what I remembered as pretty, sweet young thing. But that's a different saga altogether.

What remained of my available weekend boat time was spent grinding off the old caulking from the back of the Wilcox Crittenden ports, leak testing them, and disassembling two teak-framed mirrors salvaged from the boat being cut up at Hidden Harbor. To test the ports, I closed them up tightly, set them face down on top of a paper towel, and filled them with water. The paper towel quickly revealed that one of the ports did indeed have a leak around the top part of the permanent seal around the glass. It should be pretty easy to cure with a bit of black silicone, and being at the top, it's unlikely to cause a problem anyway.

The two salvaged mirrors were mounted back-to-back on a sawed out hunk of teak veneer plywood and surrounded by some nice teak trim. To dismount the mirrors I had to carefully drill out the bungs covering the mounting screws on the trim, and then remove the screws. Once I removed both mirrors, the remaining piece of teak ply turned out to be large enough and good enough to be useful. Next week I'll bring one of the trim rings to the boat to see if the mirrors will work in spots I had in mind.

August 17, 2010

Saturday was devoted to a quest for replacement ports for Circadian. When I got her, most of the ports in the forward cabin had been removed, blocked off by new interior panels and crudely sealed with a rough layer of caulking on the outside.There were assorted new and used stainless ports included when I purchased her, but they were of uncertain quality at best and a variety of sizes. They might have worked, but I didn't relish the idea of putting in all the labor to end up with plexiglass windows, stamped metal frames and plastic knobs. I found some new all bronze ABI ports on craigslist for about a third of the normal price and a couple of old salvaged all cast bronze genuine Wilcox Crittenden ports the same size even cheaper.

To inspect and purchase them, I ended up driving most of the day and meeting a couple of interesting characters. I came away with 5 of the ABIs and two of the WCs. They are all heavy suckers...about 13 lbs each! The odd number of ABIs is indeed odd. I will see if the fifth will work on the aft end of the forward cabin, opening into the cockpit. If so, I'll use it. If not, I'll add it to my swap meet inventory. (It would have cost me almost as much to buy four as five, since the seller wanted to dump them all.) Since Circadian requires eight ports just for the forward cabin, I was still shy two just for that. I found four more smaller bronze ports on ebay that are suitable for the forward-most port in the forward cabin and could also be used in the aft end of the aft cabin. I haven't received those yet, but my booty from Saturday is shown in the photos below:Amazingly, the WCs are almost exactly the same size as the ABIs, although they lack the fine polish of the ABIs. That won't matter because all four (or five) of the ABIs will be in the main cabin, while the two WCs will be in the head and and the locker area opposite the head. The outside is another matter. The ABIs came with trim rings; the WCs did not. After carefully studying the hole layout on the mounting flange and trim ring for the ABIs, it was clear that the trim ring was, indeed, strictly for looks: the holes for the mounting flange and trim ring do not line up. The trim ring is intended to cover the mounting nuts and bolts and simply be screwed to the cabin side. However, to do that, the nuts on the mounting bolts would need to be countersunk into the cabin side, meaning that the cabin wall would be thinner in the very places to which the port is secured. I don't like that idea. I also don't like the idea of paying $75 apiece for two more trim rings for the WCs. So, I may just let the mounting bolts and nuts show on the outside. I'm sure it will look like something that belongs on a tank, but Salars are tanks! If I decide I just can't tolerate it, I'll probably end up fabricating trim rings out of teak or plastic. They can be thick enough have the countersinking in the trim ring instead of the cabin side.

With the lack of trim rings to cover imperfections, I'll have to be especially careful to cut neat holes in the cabin sides, which means I'll invest some time upfront making nice patterns. The mounting is further complicated on the ABIs because the protruding frame is sloped downward and there is a curved filet where it meets the mounting flange. More fun!

As for the rest of the weekend, Sunday was spent prepping for a colonoscopy on Monday. I'll spare you the gruesome details. Let's just say it was a disgusting, unpleasant and exhausting ordeal. The procedure itself is not bad, since you are under anaesthesia. However, it leaves you doped up and wiped out for the rest of the day. The good news: no problems.

August 9, 2010

Yesterday Garrison Keillor and I celebrated our birthdays. He took the day off and simply replayed old segments for the Prairie Home Companion show.I enjoyed champagne and gourmet food with Carol on the aft deck of Circadian in her new home berth at Hidden Harbor. It was a lovely way to cap off a very hectic nine days of frantic work getting Circadian launched and prepped, and then bringing her up-river to her new home. Here's the actual list:

Here's a few highlights from the list (Okay; more than a few):

• Set up rope rode with short length of chain and connect to anchor so I don't destroy the new bow paint with the chain the first time I anchor in the strong reversing and swirling river current.
• Touch up bottom paint after stands have been moved.
• Replace zincs on hull and prop shaft.
• Lube and secure seacocks.
• Install new propane system. (Gotta have hot coffee in the morning!)
• Fill hydraulic reservoir.
• After launch, align engine, change oil, filters, engine zinc.
• Install cotter pins in rigging screws.
• Install and check compass, sounder and vhf.
• Get and load charts, plotting tools, gps, clothes, manuals, galley gear, sleeping bags, provisions etc.
• Measure mast height and calculate required bridge clearance.
• Pump out holding tank.
• Fill fuel tanks.
• Bring dog to vet for boarding.
• Confirm ride arrangements with Jim.

To make it all happen, I was up at 4:30 am many mornings, working ten hours and then doing the 90 minute drive back. Fun!

Here's a pic of the propane tank through bolted (with wingnuts) to the cabin top. The hose goes through the deck through a vapor-tight seal and the only connection below deck is to the stove (per ABYC standards). I pressure tested the system and it held pressure for several days. Actually, it never lost pressure, but I needed to use the stove! No electric solenoid to cut off your propane supply when there is an electrical failure. Instead, I simply reach through the doghouse window and open or close the tank valve right from the companionway next to the galley. Of course the window has to be secured to avoid any vapor blowing through should the tank vent when the gas gets hot and expands or if there should be a leak.

Here's the launch sequence from Monday, August 2nd:

Well, mostly. I discovered that the cooling water hose for the shaft packing gland was not connected to anything, and so was allowing water to come through it into the bilge. Consensus was that with a slow-turning engine like the Beta, I could just use it as a vent hose by bringing the open end above the waterline and didn't need to connect it to the engine cooling water system. I bought new hose that was long enough to do that, replaced the old short hose, and ran and secured the new hose with the opening far above the heeled waterline.

By Thursday, August 5th, I was just about ready to go. I cajoled some of the yard crew to give me a hand getting Circadian to the fuel doc. Since I did not yet know how she handled or backed up, I wanted some help getting her safely docked. I pumped out, filled up with a hundred gallons of diesel and headed up river. The plan was to go about half way and anchor off Benicia, which I did without incident. I've anchored pleasantly before on the east side of the harbor entrance, and thought I'd try the west side this time. The chart warned of tidal bores around the rocks about a quarter of a mile west of where I dropped the hook, but I figured I would be alright in the broad open area near the harbor entrance. Wrong. Circadian was swung around the anchor rode all night by strong swirling currents. The good news was the anchor held firmly, which was no surprise, and that, because I had used all line rode, the only consequence was rubbing off a bit of my new bottom paint and having to listen to the line twang as it cleared the keel after the boat was pushed against the taught line. Next time the east side! Still, it's a nice place to hang out for a night, and the weather was delightful:

In the morning, I brought up the anchor using the the new windlass and continued my journey home. Everything worked fine, and it was a pleasant and uneventful trip. As I neared my destination, I phoned Scott at Hidden Harbor and asked him to catch me when I came in to land at the new slip he and brother Jeff had made for me. When I arrived a few minutes later, both he and Jeff were there to greet me and lend a hand. Once I was securely tied up, I invited them to join me in a celebratory beer, and catch me up on the latest dock gossip. In the course of our conversation, I shared my dilemma regarding the big generator on Circadian. She has an big old 4.4 kw Westerbeke that was never completely installed and has a broken manifold. I don't really need or want a generator, and to finish the repair and installation would take quite a bit of effort and several hundred dollars. Furthermore, until it was all done, I wouldn't know if it was in running condition or not. To remove it would also be a lot of work, since it weighs nearly 600 lbs and would need to be partially dismantled to get it out the hatch. I told Scott and Jeff I'd be willing to just give it to someone if they would remove it. About twenty minutes after they left, Scott returned with Bill, the local professional marine diesel mechanic, in tow. He showed Bill my generator and let him know about my offer. Happily, Bill went for it! Bill has both the equipment and expertise to do it right and without causing any damage. So hopefully some time in the not too distant future, I'll arrive at the boat and discover my generator has disappeared. That would be great, since the space could be much better used for a small workbench and storage area in the engine room. Here's the beast in the flesh:

Stepping where it now says "NO STEP" is how the p.o. broke the manifold.

I spent what remained of the day (and my ambition) sorting out the dock lines and attaching the new rat guards to them. As you can see in the photos, they're pretty simple: just a cheap frisbee held between two PVC slip couplings with a couple of pieces of 1/8 inch line to hold them in place. There's a short piece of PVC pipe that gets glued into the couplings that sandwich the frisbee. It just has to be short enough to allow the couplings to squeeze together enough to hold the frisbee snugly. Of course you also have to drill a matching hole in the middle of the frisbee first. I've found a Forstner bit works the best. If you decide to make some, be sure to use pipe with large enough i.d. to accommodate your dock lines!

To keep those pesky rodents from jumping on top of the big fenders and then climbing up the fender rope to get aboard, I made additional guards for the fenders from plastic funnels. I just cut off the small ends, tied a knot at the desired place in the line, and slid the funnels onto the lines:

By the time the sun was setting, I was more than ready to settle down and enjoy the lovely spot Scott and Jeff had created for me....Thanks guys!!

Saturday, Jim came out to Hidden Harbor, picked me up and drove me thirty miles to Napa so I could pick up my truck. We enjoyed a pleasant lunch and good conversation at Moore's Landing at Cuttings Wharf, and I headed back to pick up my dog who had been pining away at the vet's for two days. Thanks, Jim!

Sunday I was back at Hidden Harbor cleaning up and getting ready for Carol's visit. I also managed to salvage some nice teak drawers, a teak grate, and two teak-framed mirrors from a boat Scott was sawing up and junking. All for the price of a few beers!

When Carol arrived later that afternoon, I was more than ready to kick back and enjoy the view from a Circadian's aft deck and celebrate my birthday with good food, good booze, and a good woman.