Long Time Having Too Much Fun

We just retrieved the boat last week after the Havasu sailing season. We let the noisy power boats have the lake April till October. From Nov 15th till now we spent about 14 nights on the boat. It is very comfortable.

Looking forward from pass through, Lee did a great job on the interior.

The aft birth is purrr-fect for our boat cat Oban.

Another link to a Facebook page with some pictures of us ( and a couple of others) sailing. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1268225633350829&set=gm.2108280769240629&type=3&eid=ARCbFl-4j-AEmdt2MZwhGN2yBWOoLU4L3Ti5Bl2XQFChdy62DQUMAyEjP3UBlaWU1ttlhrx62am9zFCm

The New Cushions are Done!

Well after a long silent period I am happy to announce that I have finished the new salon cushions for the shit-boat.  I had been dreading starting on these because of the many yards of custom piping that were needed - over 2000 inches total (55.56 yards!).  However, I found a trick way of doing this really quickly and within a matter of hours had a pile of the stuff.

In case anyone wants to know how to do this.  here's a link to a video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZUJknZ6aC0

I started this project around the first of August and finished it just yesterday (9/9/18) with a good week's break during the latter part of the month when RT and I help our friend Brent move his 40' sailboat up to Alameda, CA.  So all in all, it really didn't take too long and this included cutting the foam, fabric, and sewing it all up.  Here's the finished product....it's not going in the boat yet because there's still more dusty, dirty work to do in there.  The fabric is from DIYupholstery.com and it's called "Duratex" - very heavy duty stuff - stain, UV, and mildew resistant.  The color is "Caribbean Blue".  Sailrite.com has wonderful how-to videos for doing this sort of thing.

So before I started the cushions I spent the first several weeks of summer (110+ degrees here in Havasu) inside the boat, sanding, filling, priming and painting all the old dark laminate surfaces.  Some of the stuff had to be removed because it de-laminated.  So much fun with the hot summer - using a heat gun in a small enclosed space.  Yuck.  The "head" was the worst.  After removing the laminate and sanding, I found the plywood was wavy so then had to fill with Bondo.  Then sand.  Then fill more.  Then sand more.  I hate sanding Bondo, really, really hate it!  Safety equipment was a must....don't I look glamorous?  Love the respirator!

This spring we had purchased a window Air Conditioner from Home Depot and installed it in the front hatch so at least I could keep the temperature inside down to 84 degrees most days.

I don't think these photos do justice to how much better Shit-boat looks inside now with the new paint, but here you go....

 I've decided to re-use the original cabinet doors, just re-laminate them with a speckled-gray Formica ("Crystal Flint Etchings") with new pulls and hinges.  I will also need to fabricate a few new cabinet doors for some that are missing.  We found a site that sells "t-molding" which is what was used for trimming out the doors, T-molding.com, of course!

Well, gotta get back to work.  This morning I'm patterning for the aft-berth mattress.  The 6" memory foam mattress is laying in our front room waiting to be cut.

Progress,,,, Finally

The trailer is Titled and Licensed! MVD inspection was a piece of cake. The person who did the paperwork, Terri, had never seen $5000 in receipts for a home built trailer before.

Spent the day getting the trailer under the boat. Had to re-position the jacks for every cross member. I must have climbed under the boat 75 times, lowering the jacks and boat stands. It fit like a glove.

I'm now working on the support bunks. Then the wood can be removed. Lee will be happy about the wood removal because it's a real PIA to get into the boat. Lee needs to take some pictures of the interior as she has done a lot of sanding, filling, and painting. She has started making the new cushions.

120' of piping so far. She is on the second cushion already.
It's been a nice summer here but we are going to head up to San Francisco Bay next week and help Brent move his boat down to Alameda.

Bottom Is Finished

The bottom is painted. 3 coats of Pettit Horizon. The old waterline stripe is still ugly but will remain until we float the boat. We may want to change the water line height or bow to stern set before painting it red.

Look Ma no hands (supports). This sure made the barrier coat and painting easier. The keel support is painted red because Lee wanted all moving trailer parts red and the fixed trailer parts black. I have cut the last 2 cross members out of the old trailer to make it easier to get the trailer out. I'll give the bottom a couple of days to dry and then remove the trailer. Once the trailer is out we will use Mo's support stands as safety's so Lee can get inside the boat and get back to work.

Barrier Coat Finally

Started the barrier coat today. No more blue spots.

Just when I think all of the little holes are filled, I find more as the barrier coat goes on. Just 3 spots though. I'll putty them up just before the last coat.

I'm hoping no big wind comes along and blows the boat over as no pads are touching.

The barrier coat epoxy is covering more than I thought so I should be able to get over 6 coats on or about 22 mils. Hopefully I'll have bottom paint on by Wednesday then Lee can get back to work on the inside.

The Old Hobart

30 years ago, when I had my boat business, the guy that was welding up my trailers got tired of me stopping by with work, unannounced. He said I could save a lot of time and money, and headaches for him, if I bought my own welder. He said he would even give me some pointers on welding. His first pointer was a finger pointing in the direction of  TVI, our local vocational technical CC. Well several months later I finished the evening classes, with a couple of nice tool boxes that I welded up,  and fancied myself a welder.

This Hobart has seen a lot of projects from boat trailers, to furniture, to the body I had on my big truck (several different ones), to all the people I had dropping by. When Lee first met me she did not understand why I had a big "NO" painted on my workshop tent when I was in Quartzsite for the winters. It didn't take her long to figure it out. Well here it is the old Hobart on another "big iron" project.

Note the trailer frame is on it's side. I don't like to do vertical or overhead welding and if I can rotate the weld to horizontal I will. With the cunning use of straps, a come-along, and the post holding my awning up and post holding my solar screen I've rolled the frame over a couple of times. I do this solo because I know what can go wrong and don't want anyone to get hurt so don't feel bad I didn't ask for your help. Most of you have bad backs anyway.

Well back to work.

Pivoting Keel Rest

The keel rest and keel guide are nearing the paint stage. The forward bow stop section is missing and won't go on until the old trailer is cut apart. The side rails are bolted on, instead of welded, to facilitate bottom painting in the future or a different boat.😏

I did a test by clamping a section of steel forward of the pivot point of the same weight and length as the bow stop section and amazingly enough my previous calculations on paper were real close. I will need about 1 cubic foot of fiberglass encased foam mounted to this end (aft) to float the rear of the keel guide.

The spring hangers are tacked in place on adjustable plates .I've run calculations on where to place the axles but don't trust myself to weld the hangers on in a fixed position. With the 2" slipper springs the equalizer hanger was to wide to get a good weld straight to the frame so the 4" plates remedied this problem as well.

Lee continues to work on the interior between cooking for all of the guest we've had over the past couple of weeks.