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Welcome to the forum Lance and DE38 Cutter Loggerhead, Charleston, SC

Scott Carle

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January 18, 2010 - 8:54 pm

Member Since: October 10, 2009

Forum Posts: 1480

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We have a new DE38 owner in Charleston SC that I have corresponding to. We have started talking about some of the refurbishment stuff we are into and it is so reminesent of conversations that all of us new owners have been having that I am bringing it over to the forum here to get some of the rest of you involved in.

here is a bit of what we have been talking about so far.

Scott,

I have hard panels on the top of the saloon, but the sides around the windows are made from the head liner material. So (to make sure I am reading this correctly), you are planning on pulling both the top and side headliner down and replacing it with panels (like thin starboard or other)?

I lived on a 40' Carver (motoryacht) for 3 and a half years before the DE38. BIG change. I did well with my repairs and my "sweat equity" while onboard the Carver, but I have much to learn regarding the DE38.

Yea, it would be good to get together sometime to chat and to see each other's DE38. Maybe once I get mine to a point where I feel relatively comfortable sailing her, we could anchor in Winyah Bay (that's about mid way isn't it?).

Thanks

Lance

Lance,

I am not sure what we are going to do on the sides. mabye stay with vinal or maybe go to hard panels. I won't know till I start it and it isn't a priority right now. The panels will probably be 1/8 inch wood or composite paneling like they using in motor homes or even home wood paneling. Its cheap and easy to work with. It will be tabed in so that We can just pull it down and put it back up easyly for access to the deck bottom. I will probably glue some kind of insulation to the top of it as well. Most likely we will also paint the underside of the decks there with a insulative microsphere paint at the same time to reduce the likely hood of the boat sweating there in really cold weather.

If youve done this on a power boat then doing it to a sailboat isn't a lot different. the only difference is in the rigging on deck and you will be able to get a fair ammount of handholding there on the forum.

Yes winyah bay is about half way between here and charleston. We made the trip from little river to charleston last august on our honeymoon. We went up the ICW as the winds weren't real favorable for an off shore trip and it took us about 20 hours of motoring to do the trip that way. Georgetown is about 11 or 12 hours from charleston by that route. I think little river is just a hair closer. I would be very tempted however our DE is currently in Southport NC though. So we are about 20 to 25 hours from Georgetown depending on wether we had good winds and could sail or had to motor. Call it a solid two day trip if we didn't do it in one go:) My wife is in school for the next couple years and time to head off on trips is pretty limited. Most of our spare time is spent working on the house to get it ready to rent or the boat to get it ready to live on.

In a couple years though we are hoping to take off and just go sailing for a while and just visit some of the east coast.

scott

Scott,

Yea, my top is composite paneling with teak trim. Looks great. Once the MAJOR stuff is fixed, I'll pull all the panels down and start checking the deck hardware for leaks and running wires to the various lights that no longer work on the boat–most likely will install LEDs also. The two overhead lights in the V and the one in the head do not work. Tested with a meter too; they are not getting any power. And the one overhead light above the sette flickers and burns out all the time. Also, regarding lights. Only the stern light, port nav light, and anchor light (which has no cover) works. I am embarrassed to say that I honestly have not had time to investigate weather the remaining lights on the mast (deck/steaming combo, two spreaders, and tricolor) have bad bulbs or if there is a short. I know the starboard nav light has a short; the last owner installed them as I was driving the rental car to pick up the boat. The wires are haphazardly about the anchor locker—so that will be an easy fix. Once the wires for all the mast lights leave the distribution panel, where do they go? Again, I am embarassed to ask such an question that is so easy to look up in the owners manual, but since I am writing about lights, wiring, and removing ceiling panels to access those wires, I thought I should continue the thought pattern. Is there some box the mastlight wires all plug into behind the head's corner peice or above the head's ceiling tile or is it somewhere else or non-existent? As someone who precepts pharmacy students here at the Medical University (in Charleston), I would be inclined to tell myself that I would learn it better if I looked it up. So, feel free to give me a taste of my own medicine (yes, pun intended). Or, show some mercy on me as I feel a bit overwhelmed with the magnitude of current projects—which are exacerbated due to the fact that I cannot escape them as a live-aboard.

You wrote, "Most likely we will also paint the underside of the decks there with a insulative microsphere paint at the same time to reduce the likely hood of the boat sweating there in really cold weather." What a good idea. I'll certainly look into doing that too; maybe instead of using vinal or paneling on the side? Just paint it and forget about it. But I guess it would look a bit better and be a tad warmer with some insulation and something covering the sides.

Talk to you soon—feel free to post any of our emails on our website. I will post future projects, ideas, and questions on the DE site and reserve email for our personal conversations.

Last question, when I do post on the DE site, will I get an email when someone responds or do I just need to sign back in every now-and-then to check for responses?

Thank you

Lance

"Loggerhead"

38 Downeaster Cutter

Charleston, SC

Scott Carle DE38 Cutter s/v Valkyr

Scott Carle

Admin

January 18, 2010 - 11:06 pm

Member Since: October 10, 2009

Forum Posts: 1480

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Lance,

That is what we want to do is go to a composite. However unless I have reason to remove the current headliner to work on something I am leaving that to the future. Ours is in really good shape. No droop or major staining etc... we are planning on painting it with a vinyl paint in the interim to bring it to a harder white than it is now. Its a faded off white now.

I want to go through all the deck fittings in the next year or two just to check and see if any of the holes are not sealed. I think the factory just drilled holes and installed hardware without sealing the core.

We did the LED thing already. I spent about 150 bucks on 9 LED bulbs that are brighter than the filament bulbs they replace and a warm white. I love them. Here is where I documented what I used http://downeasteryachts.com/fo.....led-lights . I haven't changed out any of the Navigation lights for LED on Valkyr yet but it will be one of the projects coming up.

I don't think the manual for the boat tells where the wires are run on the boat. There is an electrical diagram but I'm not sure how accurate it is for most of our boats given the age and changes made over the years..

My advice is to do what I do. Just hit the projects one at a time and apply persistence. 🙂 If I think about all of them at once it is overwhelming and I just go find something else to do and nothing on the boat gets worked on.

As to the micro-sphere paint. I have been reading really good reports of products like it where steel boat builders are using it on the inside of their boats to help combat condensation in the winter with very good results. It doesn't really insulate the boat but from what I have read helps quite a bit. The real deal insulation is to spray the boat hull above the water line with 2 to 3 inches of foam. Works better on new construction than boats like ours though.. 🙂 to do it on our boats you would have to take apart the inside and then spray and then reassemble the inside 🙁

Lance

"Loggerhead"

38 Downeaster Cutter

Charleston, SC

Scott Carle DE38 Cutter s/v Valkyr