February 27, 2011

It was again a stormy week, this time in more ways than one. Outside, rain, strong winds, hail and even a small tornado blew through. Back in the office, I was given notice that my employment contract would not be renewed this year. So I now have a date certain for retirement, ready or not!

Since I now couldn't afford to dilly-dally, it was on to my next task in preparing Circadian to carry me forward. For Saturday, that meant fabricating a fiberglass filler panel for one of the cockpit locker openings I was working on closing up last week. Because I wanted a front surface that was perfectly flat and smooth, I decided to use one of the old plexiglass panels I had removed from the teak deck hatches I had rebuilt (see January 31 post) as a molding surface. I cleaned it and sprayed it with mold release prior to building up the laminate. While waiting for the mold release to dry, I cut the glass fabric and roving to length and also sanded and primed the handle for Circadian’s boat hook, which was in bad shape.

The first two layers of glass cloth were wet down with polyester resin infused with white pigment. Seven layers of heavy roving followed to build up the needed 3/8 inch thickness. Because polyester resin doesn’t cure in the presence of air, I covered the final layer with ordinary Saran Wrap and smoothed out the bubbles. I think of it as a poor man’s vacuum bagging. While it doesn’t squeeze out excess resin like true vacuum bagging, it cures fine and the resulting laminate was solid.

By the time I had the laminating process complete, the primer on the boat hook was dry and I laid on a first coat of bright red acrylic enamel. Obnoxious, yes, but that’s the point. I want it easy to find and easy to tell crew to look for the red-handled boat hook when it’s needed. I expect it will take beating, so it's no place for beautiful brightwork. Cheap household water-based paint is just the ticket.

Sunday I went to the boat to trim and glue in the new fiberglass panel. It was a beautiful clear day, but very cold.

Because I had used the Six10 epoxy again, and it was still pretty cool even with the sun out, I knew it wouldn’t cure that day. I spent the remainder of the day removing the head in the main cabin so I could rebuild it and have room to install the cabinet doors that I had finished refurbishing back in the shop. Removing the head turned out to be a needlessly difficult job because it had been mounted with inaccessible bolts with nylock nuts that had been tightened into the plywood base. Curse you, P.O.!! When I finally got it free, I discovered a) that it was a Wilcox Crittenden Skipper head, not a Groco as I had thought, and b) it was a very heavy sucker (58 lbs!). Being a Skipper was both good news and bad news. Good news because they are thought to be the best by many, including Practical Sailor. The heavy weight is due largely to the heavy bronze castings used in its manufacture. Once you see how it’s built, it’s obvious why they cost $1,300 and the rebuild kits cost nearly as much as an entire cheap head. Bad news because they are difficult to rebuild from what I’ve read of other’s experiences and because I am now stuck with an $82 non-returnable rebuild kit for a Groco head. Anyway, I managed to wrestle the thing out of the boat and into the truck for a rebuild back in the shop.

As you may recall, last week I added some sealant around the diesel deck fill to try to cure a leak that was allowing water to accumulate on top of one of the fuel tanks and cascade into the engine compartment. It rained during the week, so I was able to check to see if it did the job. It did, but there was still water getting into the engine compartment on that same side from another source. After looking around, the only possible place I could find was around the deck plate for the holding tank pumpout. So, I gave it the same sealant treatment. We'll see what happens....

Last task of the day Sunday evening was to apply a second coat of obnoxious red paint to the boat hook.