Downeaster Yachts.com

Since hauling Windsong out of the water I have been focusing most of my energy on her hull below the waterline. My goal was to get the hull to the point where it could dry out for the rest of the time on land. This would mean removing paint and the gel coat (if necessary) and then leave the hull alone while I worked on the rest of the boat. Fiberglass boats do in fact absorb water through osmosis (what creates blisters). The hull needs to be completely dry before I apply the planned epoxy barrier coat (protects against water absorption) and then paint.

I had researched many different ways to remove paint from the bottom. The most common choices are to sandblast, grind, use a chemical peeler, or just old fashioned muscle and scraper. I opted for the simple method of scraping with a cheap paint scraper from Home Depot. The bottom paint was loose enough where the majority of it came off with the scraper. I would scrape a section of hull then go back and sand away the remaining paint down to the gel coat. I started at the bow on the starboard side and worked my way back. Here is the hull after the first weeks work: Removing the old paint to the gel coat revealed quite a few small spots where fairing compound was used in some sort of repair. It also revealed the blisters I feared would be present. The worst case scenario in my mind were thousands of small blisters all over the hull. But what I discovered were isolated, larger blisters averaging about 3-4″ in diameter (some larger some smaller). When I found a big blister I would drill into it with a countersink bit to release the fluid inside. The fluid […]

This is a blurb I wrote a few months ago and had saved as a draft. I forgot that I hadn’t published it. So a bit late but here it is.

The reason we went up to the boat for the last few days was to clean her up a bit and get the bilge pump working again. A few months ago the bilge pump had come on continuously and for some reason couldn’t be turned off. I’m not sure that Angela even knew it was the bilge pump as it is a really nice diaphragm unit that sits up in the back of the engine compartment and doesn’t really look like a what you would think a standard bilge pump would. It ran for a  day or two before she found out where the noise was coming from. It’s pretty quiet when running dry. Finally she just cut the power line to it to get it to turn off. I think what happened is that the automatic switch went bad or the control panel for it went bad and left it running.

Me in the engine compartment reconnecting the power to the bilge pump.

The new panel I ordered to replace the old one.

The Sea-Dog 422035-1 provides an audible and visual means of warning that water level in your bilge is beyond your bilge pump float switch level and it has a control switch to select between automatic and manual mode of the bilge pump.

I am planning on getting two

JOHNSON ULTIMA AUTOMATIC FLOAT SWITCH Patented Mirus field effect detector cells producing micro-electrical fields that detect disruptions caused by water and fluids. Detector cells are totally sealed and are never in contact with water, will not corrode and are not affected by oil or foreign debris. […]

Another project that needed immediate attention was the port hawse pipe on Valkyr. I was walking up to her on the dock and just happened to notice that the hawse pipe was about to fall off. So I pulled it all the way off. I thought some of the rest of you would be interested in how the sides of the boat here are designed. It is hollow up in there.

This is a project that  needs to be revisited. I found that the holes the bronze wood screws are going into need to be re-glassed and drilled again. (you heard it correctly all that as holding it in is some wood screws.  Actually what it needs is not wood screws but machine screws that go all the way through to the plate on the inside and I need to tap threads into the plate and and have the bolts hold them together. Right now I have new bronze screws in place and lots of 3M 4200 as bedding compound. It is working but not as strong as I would like it to be.

While I had the hawse pipe out I polished it up also. here are some before and after shots. I just used a little generic polishing compound and some 3M 1500 grit sand paper. I tried using a scotchbrite pad but it just didn’t get the job done. The 1500 grit got the job done and left a very smooth surface. Smoother than it was to start with.

And here it is installed. I  actually had to take it back out after this and turn the hawse pipe over as it it didn’t fit flush to the plate on the inside. You can see this in the picture.

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