June 27, 2013

Work was focused on the new overhead in the doghouse.  Made pretty good progress:  pre-primed beadboard panels were cut to shape using the stick patterns, then the back side sealed with Thompson's WaterSeal.  After that, the front side was painted with Brightside Hatteras Off-White, wet-sanded and painted again.  The finished panels were then screwed to the overhead stringers.  Two days were spent carefully cutting, fitting and mounting the hardwood trim (mostly mahogany, some cherry and teak).  Next task:  remove, number and varnish the many pieces of trim prior to the final re-installation.  That will have to wait until the Epifanes products I ordered arrive.

It was nice that I was able to use the panoramic camera feature on my new iPhone this week to show the entire overhead in one image.  Unfortunately, my old phone, which had photos of earlier stages in the process, has gotten so fluky I couldn't download the images despite a couple of hours of frustrating efforts.

Bat rays have invaded the harbor this week.  Quite interesting to watch....some four feet across.  They give birth to live young, eat crabs and shellfish, and can live more than 20 years.  Only sting if attacked or threatened.

June 20, 2013

Finished up several projects that had been put on the back burner for some time, including rewiring the solar panels and GPS antenna wire, mounting the new genoa sheet cleats and caulking and remounting the engine room vents.  I added a new BlueSeas grounding bus next to the cockpit breaker panel and that cured last week's autopilot issues as well as improved the overall wiring by limiting all the terminal connections to a single wire. With the remedial work done, I started on the fabrication of new panels for the overhead in the doghouse. Got as far as making the stick patterns and getting the most suitable paneling I could find locally.  Cockpit/doghouse is well on its way to looking a lot better!

June 13, 2013

It's been a very busy week with much accomplished despite coming down with a sore throat and cold.  Last Saturday my outrigger club hosted a race, which required a lot work from everyone.  I tried to do my part, but my efforts were cut short when illness struck.  I did do the race, however.  Despite being hampered by illness, I managed to finish off a few projects in the doghouse, and the results were generally gratifying.  The only fly in the ointment was loss of power to my autopilot after reconnecting it.  I think it's a ground fault that will lead to installing a new ground bus next to the breaker panel.  Stay tuned....

 

June 6, 2013

Another week in which the results don't seem to reflect the effort.  That may be because I tired myself out doing things other than boatwork.  On Saturday I was up at oh-dark thirty to do a 12 mile outrigger race in Marina Del Rey.  Then it was a harrowing drive across LA for a car show and special dinner that Carol got me into at The Farmers Market.  I ended up "volunteering" to help get all the exotic show cars safely parked in the parking garage after the show.  Fun, but tiring after the long race.  I've also felt below par this week, like I'm fighting off some kind of bug.  Yucky, but not incapacitated.  Just sleeping a lot.

I continued building up coats of varnish on the teak in the doghouse. I sanded coat number six of the Epifanes Woodfinish with 220 grit prior to brushing on the first coat of Epifanes Clear.  The Clear is very high gloss, but has to be sanded between coats.  So, after that first coat of Clear, I wetsanded with 400 grit and then laid on another coat.  It's looking pretty good, but the deepest grain is still not filled (after a total of 8 coats).  While waiting for the varnish to dry, I finally installed some shoe storage pockets in the aft cabin hanging locker.  I really need to start moving things around....