Here is the hull with the second coat of paint. The white boot stripe is our secret. Ok, Ok, its actually the original gel coat....we just masked over it then painted the hull then the anti-fouling.

The paint job has some runs in it but that will hold 'till next year. We are counting our pennies now. Soon I'll post some photos of our overhaul of the cabin insides, be warned, it looks like Beruit during the eighties. Total war zone.

Shortly we'll mount the outboard and test it. After all, we launch in 7 days. Must remember to install a new bilge pump, I, ahem, accidently punctured the old one with a screwdriver... don't ask.

Also stopped some major leaks from the deck, yahoo!!!

Look at me and my shiny red hull.This is just the first coat. Tommorow the second coat goes on after a light sanding. Then the anti-fouling.
I still have to stick the new plywood ceiling to the deck head. I also have to finish off the engine compartment deck. Somehow.
It is all fun.

Hole in the deck!

Here are two pictures looking aft, with the engine compartment removed. The circular holes were where the engine compartment vents were, and will be again. The other four holes was where the guard rail stanchions compressed the deck. I cut them out. Hint: use a metal cutting blade on the fiberglass as any other blade won't last a minute.

I cut a 1/4 plywood support panel for underneath and uses some glass and resin and bonded it to the bottom of the deck from inside the engine compartment. Then I glassed on a bigger fiberglass sheet cloth than the plywood support panel.

This is only on the port side so far as the f#@%&^g weather is not co-operating.

We have to delay the launching of the boat 9 days because of this.

To save money, we are using Bondo marine body filler for fairing the repairs as it is way cheaper than the 3M stuff, plus you get a lot more of it.

Damn, I want to be sailing now.

This lets me know that we can afford a larger fixer upper and over the years do it right while sailing the traing boat. All we need is some land to store it!!!

Here is the bow with the huge gouge, wait! The gouge is gone and is smooth as a babys' bottom!. Why it must have been me and that magic epoxy putty. That spot and lots of scrapes have now been filled and sanded smooth. Some times it had been filled and sanded three times like this gouge.

The wife has decided that we are painting the hull before it goes back in the water. Right beside me is a can of primer,(Interlux Pre-Kote), and two cans of Interlux Brightside Polyurethane paint, fire red. The hull is going to look sooo fast.

Slight setback with gluing the new plywood to the fiberglass deckhead, the temperature was too low for proper curing. Oh well, what is a bit more of overhead sanding with an antique 20 pound angle grinder.

Ellie, the wife, has put the third coat of varnish on the interior woodwork that we hadn't removed. It looks smashing. One more coat to go.

What with the setback, it looks like we might not make our launch date, which is set in stone, well we might have to pay an additional $175 to shift the boat out of launch rotation. Well, I guess we'll see what will happen....Later.

This is part of our 1/4 inch ply ceiling. there was some delamination so we decided to replace the whole inside top. We knew it was going to be a big job so there are no surprises for us.

To start the job I went to Princess Auto and bought a 3 pound maul and a 4" wide flat chisel. The first few layers of ply came off rather easily. The big problem was the last layer of ply. it was well adhered to the bottom of the fiberglass deck. What to do?

I decided that old fashioned sanding was the only solution. So off to Canadian Tire and bought a sanding adaptor for my antique 7" angle grinder.

Wow, using a 36 grit sanding disc the last material just flew off!. Even with a respirator and goggles I was soon choked out and blinded by the flying sawdust. That machine sure made a mess. After only a 1/2 hour of sanding there was a 1/4" layer of sawdust covering everything, and I mean everything in the boat, including myself.

I now signed out a full sealed face shield/respirator combination from work. Today, I go do more.

The wife informed me in no uncertain terms that we will NOT be painting the hull this spring. She wants to sail. We'll talk, I mean we do have to put anti-fouling on so....

With the majority of the wood trim in my basement most of it is sanded, stained and varnished. You wouldn't guess that it is 30 years old. I can't wait to post those pictures when they are installed in a couple of months.

Lots of work but I wouldn't have it any other way. I am learning so much.

Allan

Engine out...

Took the outboard out two nights ago. The irony was that after almost losing the engine a few weeks ago in some rough weather I decided to glass in a two by four piece of wood with a lip cut into it so the outboard clamps would come against it if the motor came loose again. Welll, It was a tight fit for sure and I had a hel of a time removing said engine from said well with said modified mounting bracket. Enough said.



As that was my first fiberglass job ever, I was impressed how easy it is to do! That being said, it was also the messiest stuff I have ever worked with. It also was not the prettiest finished product, but what the hell, it was functional.

Winter Storage

The top left picture show the engine well, a sad looking cutting into my boats stern. I am not sure what I am going to do with this but the name "Jackpot" will be gone. We have not named the boat yet, any and all suggestions are welcome. Do not suggest "Jackpot". Or "Uranus". We are leaning towards "First Step" or "Our Dream" or "Our Addiction" Addiction is the front runner as the boat is always on our mind. Much to the annoyance to family, friends and co-workers I'm sure.

The top right photo shows some self inflicted gel coat damage that needs to be repaired next spring. Ah, the memories! Eeeek, Crunch and Scrape!

The lower left photo shows a chunk the size of my thumb ripped out of the bow. Same result of the previous stated action. Thankfully this is my training boat.

The lower right photo is just an overall shot. Hopefully we can get the cosmetic and chunky work done in time to paint the hull a nice blue that matches ou new sail cover. The orange pin stripe will remain and of course we will put a new ant-fouling coat on the bottom. I can't wait to show the after photos next spring

Sunday after I drop my wife off at work I am going to remove the mighty 9.9 horse power engine along with the batteries and cushions. I am looking forward to the upcomming work, and also dreading it. An interesting conflict. One thing about the sailing life is that it is so soothing regardless what I'm doing. For example, today was cold and windy yet I noticed nothing until I got back in my car after two hours of putting around the thing. Then I noticed how cold I was. "Our Addiction" is the front runner because of this stange phenonomin. Well, I got to go watch "Journey To The Center Of the Earth"