Round Seven..

After many unanswered calls to the fellow on the Southside of San Antonio with the boat hoist, we decided that we would go ahead and give a shot at lifting the Clipper off of the trailer; at least part of the way.

Since the neighborhood kids would not have a chance to play on the boat over the next few weeks, they decided to lend a hand at cleaning up the topside and deck.  I guess this would give them the last remaining hours on the boat that could be spared before they would have to vacate the premises.

After a while of hosing down the deck, and a bit of topside scrubbing.. it was now time to give Anthony's plan of trailer bunk replacements a shot.

Weeks earlier, I had gathered some various 2x4's and 4x4's that I had lying around in my backyard.  Combined with a few extra pieces of lumber that Pops had, we figured we had enough to contruct some sort of heavy support system.

The idea was to construct some 18 inch wooden cubes to support the pneumatic floor jacks that would raise the make shift bunks.  These cubes would be designed to support about a ton each.  We carefully placed these cubes underneath the front and rear bulkhead on the portside of the Clipper.

From here, we would place the jacks on top of the cube stands, and raise a single 16 foot long 2x6 on the inside of the existing bunk; thus displacing the weight of the bunk on to a new makeshift bunk.

The placement of the jacks had to be fairly close to where the bulkheads were located, as we did not want to put any undue load on the fiberglass of the hull.

Inch by inch, we slowly raised each floor jack, carefully listening for any stress cracking that might occur.  To our surprise, there was not even a peep from the hull.

After lifting over six inches off the outer bunk, Anthony and pops unfastened the retaining bolts for the trailer bunk and then removed the entire 14 foot section of 2x6 stretch from the trailer.  We now had ample room in which to work.

We now easily run the random orbital sander and surface solvent over these sections to fully prep the portside bottom of the hull for painting.

This also gave us the opportunity clean up the removed trailer bunk.  In the coming weeks, we will varnish, and carpet the bunk before replacing it.

After a couple hours of sanding the next day, the bottom looked ready to apply some solvent and clean it up.

With the boat raised I was also able to finally sand down a previous patch job I had found when previously removing paint from the hull.

Since this previous repair job was rock, solid, I simply needed to sand it smooth and refair the hull in this area.  Also, we would now be able to apply an epoxy barrier coat to the hull before applying the bottom paint.

With the portside all cleaned up now, we can clean it up, repaint it, and then do the starboard side over the next weekend.

She's getting closer to being put back on the water.  I can hardly wait.

Yet More Side Work..

I had a couple of weekday afternoons free and decided to go ahead and finish up some of the teak work and trailer work.  Previously I had sanded and refinished the tiller handle, grab rails, and companion way trim.  The old companion way hatch was an old piece of yellow pine plywood that had never even been sanded, much less stained or varnished.  The local hardware store had a few pieces of solid birch that looked like it would do the trick.  Using the original as a template, I made some straighter cuts, sanded it down, stained it with a moderate cherry mahogany, and replaced the hatch and trim to prevent any spillover from the onslaught of the rainy season ahead.

The new hatch and refinished trim definitely added to the classic look I was after in restoring the Clipper.  I knew the addition of the grab rails and tiller were definitely going to polish her off when we were finished.

Another annoyance on the list was the original trailer coupler.  This piece used an old style socket shield that slid over the coupler housing to lock onto the tow ball. 

Although it made for a strong grip around the tow ball, it became increasingly frustrating to unfasten the trailer from the tow ball at the end of a nice day of sailing.  It was finally time to replace this monstrosity with something a bit more.. modern?

A quick visit to Northern Tools yielded a galvanized butterfly style trailer coupler that I would use to attach to the trailer.  At first this seemed like a simple enough proposal.  But like many of the other upgrades I would like to perform on the boat, the path is not always straight nor easy.

The trailer extension that housed the original coupler had a couple of eyelets through which bolts were run to fasten the coupler.  These eyelets extruded almost a quarter of an inch on each side within the extension itself.  Since the new coupler was exactly fitted to the square stock steel tubing for the extension, these eyelets needed to be sheered off with an angle grinder.

My buddy Rob lent his expertise in metal works for this portion.  His proposal was to grind off the eyelets, shave some steel off the bottom of the extension, weld on the coupler, and then polish off and paint the new coupler and extension.

I have to say, the resulting product looked pretty damned good.

Though the photo above most likely does not do it justice, the old steel with the new coupler looked pretty nice again.

Rob even removed the old actuator arm for the old non-functioning surge brake unit, and rerouted the tow chains.  Now the Clipper was definitely ready to be moved for painting.

Stay tuned for more...

Round Six..

Yet another couple of weeks transpired before I could return to repairing the Clipper.  The weather had changed for the best, bringing in cooler temperatures along with the occasional torrential downpour.  Knowing of the eventual storms to come, I decided it was most likely a good idea to purchase a heavy duty tarp to cover over the cockpit.

With the tilt of the boat leading toward the bow due to the slant of the driveway, the self-balers would not have as much opportunity to perform their duties of successfully draining the cockpit.  I figured the tarp should help with keeping as much water out as possible.

While waiting to see what our next step might be in raising the boat off the trailer, I decided it was as good a time as any to fine sand the hull and apply some primer.

I acquired some Interlux Pre-Kote primer in grey.  I juggled the idea back and forth of using the white primer instead of the grey, but I surmised that this darker share of primer might help in spotting any areas of the hull that might require more sanding and fairing.

Anthony proved to be quite the handyman when it came to taping and masking off the boot stripes along the hull.  Even the curved areas along the bottom aft where the stripe became larger seemed to pose no real challenge.

 
I guess he had done this quite a few times before.

Once all of the masking was completed, I once again washed down the hull with soapy water, then rinsed with the pressure washer, and then wiped down the surface with a lint free cloth and a light solvent mix.

The surface was very smooth and ready to be primed.

The 6" foam rollers I had picked up for the job of priming worked remarkably well with the Pre-Kote product.  Little pressure was needed to spread the primer.  I was also quite surprised how far the primer went.  I was able to successfully paint a single coat over the entire port side of the hull with only half a quart.

The only issues I seemed to encounter were around the leading edge of the hull under the bow.

Because of existing trailer hardware that I could not remove from my path, I simply used a brush to tip off the edges.  Once I painted as many corners as I could access, I finished up the starboard side of the hull with the second half of the quart.

This was starting to look like a totally different boat from what I had original sailed.

Once again, I tipped of the edges of the starboard side and completed the single coat up to the leading edge of the hull.

It was now time to perform some trailer rewiring.

Anthony had previously removed the "original" trailer wiring that had been routed externally and zipped tied around the steel tubing along the length of the trailer.  I picked up a 50' spool of four color trailer wiring to make the wire run internally; what should have originally been done when the trailer was wired.

We started be drilling out the rear left side of the steel tubing with a metal cutting bit, and grinding it out to smooth it for the wires.

It was no easy task to drill through a 1/4" thick steel plate from the angle we had, but after some persistent pressure between me and Anthony, the steel finally gave way.

After removing the hitch coupler from the front of the trailer,  we found inside the tubing was an old bundle of trailer wiring that  had been run down both sides of the trailer.  It appeared that someone actually extended the length of the trailer to accommodate the Clipper, but left a run of burned and rusted wiring.  Why they did not choose to pull it all out and replace it instead of wiring from the outside is beyond me.

After pulling out the old bundle, I then ran a cable snake down the left side of the trailer, towards the hole we had drilled out.

Anthony then tied off and taped the new wire to the snake for me to fish back through the steel tubing.

From here, Anthony was able to use a set of water-proof couplers and some epoxy heat-shrink tubing to seal off the connections for the adapters and tail lights.

 After a bit of fussing with the connections and testing the run between the left and right tail lights,  it appeared we were now in business.

With some new trailer wiring and a good set of water-proof connections, we were now ready to get this boat transported over to a place where we could sand and paint the bottom.

Round Five

After a couple of weeks away from the boat.  It was time to get started on our next phase.

I had carefully applied another layer of fiberglass to the existing patch in place, and let it dry over the course of the week.  Anthony had also taken the time to pressure wash the entire port side of the boat, leaving a layer of grime and old growth on the starboard side.

As you can see from the photo above, this layer was most likely going to be too much trouble to attempt sanding through.  We performed a couple of tests of sanding off the old ablative bottom paint on the port side to see what type of progress could be made with our current tool set.

Though the results seemed fairly impressive, we noted that the use of a sanding pad attachment for the electric drill seemed to leave behind too many curved divets that would have to be sanded and faired out later.  After much discussion, Anthony took it upon himself to purchase a Dewalt random orbital sander and some 60 grit hook and sand pads.

 

The results of sanding with this particular tool were far more impressive than the sanding attachment for the drill.  In the photo below, you can see Anthony initially using the attachment for the electric drill:

I must admit that the drill attachment was much faster; especially with the course sander.  But, we found the smooth surface left from using the Dewalt random orbital sander far outweighed any time that we might save by using the drill attachment.  Also, we were able to sand over the boot stripes without damaging them at all.  The photo below shows the smooth white surface left behind from the orbital sander.

Apparently we seemed to enjoy sanding so much with this tool that Anthony's son; Gabriel, lent a hand to help smooth out any areas that we might have missed

After witnessing the results from orbital sander, I soon picked up another one myself and took to removing the paint that I could reach.  After many weekends (and weekdays) of sanding with multiple tools by multiple people (including myself, Anthony, Pops, and Jeremy), we finally achieved a fairly smooth surface (no pun intended) on which we could start filling with the epoxy/silica coating.

The only thing left for us to sand would be under the trailer bunks; if we could just figure out exactly how we plan on lifting the boat off the trailer to sand and paint.  Also in retrospect I would advise not only to use safety goggles and a respirator mask while sanding hazardous chemicals such as copper-based paint, but do wear long sleeves or an environment suit.  The paint particles that fall from the surface tend to temporarily stain one's skin and cannot be good for you.

As you can see by the photo, we had a tendency to end our days resembling something akin to characters from Tolkien novels.  

While waiting for ideas on how to lift the boat from the trailer, I decided to proceed with applying some of the colloidal silica I had purchased to the repair are of the keel trunk, now that the final later of fiberglass and epoxy resin had dried.

I sanded the area once again, creating a smooth surface on which to apply the silica.  I then mixed two parts harder to five parts epoxy resin, and then added the silica filler until I reached a consistency similar to that of mayonnaise or cake frosting.

Once the mix looked correct, I then liberally applied the compound around the entire keel trunk area; inside and out.

As you can see in the photo, I noticed a few chips in the fiberglass and epoxy from the previous repair and decided to fill in those small craters as well.  Later after it has dried I will sand again to smooth out my work.

While I waited for the silica compound to dry overnight, I decided it was time to go ahead and finish up oiling and varnishing the teak wood I had removed from the boat.

In the photo above, you can see the dramatic difference in the teak wood during the course of re-finishing it.  On the left is an example of the old and greyed teak untouched.  The center is a piece of teak that has been sanded.  On the right is a piece of teak that has just been oiled and wiped down.

Soon, they will all receive the same treatment, and finished off with a few coats of spar varnish.

I will keep you posted...

Round Four

This weekend proved to be a very productive weekend, despite the 100+ degrees Fahrenheit temperatures that I should have grown accustomed to here in South Texas.  After giving the entire week for the epoxy resin and hardener to cure, it was now time to go and peel the wax paper from the applied patch and view our results.

 What I found under the wax paper pleased me to no end.  It looked like the fiberglass had taken the right shape, and the epoxy had hardened like a rock.  I proceeded to sand down the rough parts of the epoxy and smooth out the edges.  This glass job had turned out better than I had imagined so far.

While I finished up prepping the keel trunk for another couple of layers of fiberglass, Anthony broke out the 4 HP gas powered pressure washer.  We had noticed the week before that a little high pressure water seemed to remove the remnants of growth left behind on the bottom side.

 

 
He washed down the entire port side of the boat, working down to the last layers of ablative paint that had lost its ability to perform long ago.  While spraying down around the beam, he uncovered a previous fiberglass repair job.  Although the exterior portion of this other patch job left little to be desired in the way of aesthetics, it was very solid and posed no threat in our hull fairing efforts.

We waited a bit for the water to dry; which is not very long in the South Texas month of August.  Once drained and dried, it was time to start on the next layers of fiberglass.

I measured out the next pieces of fiberglass.  These subsequent layers were quite bit larger than the patch itself and were designed to provide structural support.

Since I had waited all week for the last application of epoxy resin and hardener to sure, I decided to mix a ratio of 5 parts West Systems 105 epoxy resin  to 2 parts West Systems 206 slow hardener inside the house.  What I soon discovered was that an ambient temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit will cure a batch of epoxy to a hard solid in about 15 minutes.

I had thought to myself that I would mix the epoxy and let it sit for a bit longer before applying it.  When I went to pick up the brush to apply it, the resin had hardened to the consistency of a thick, hard plastic.  The can had heated to around 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and the resin and brush were both useless.  Lesson learned:  Use the West System 209 extra slow hardener if you do not wish for the DHS to descend upon your abode for manufacturing chemical weapons.  Apparently the extra slow hardener is rated to work in conditions above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once I had remixed another batch of epoxy, I soaked the cut fiberglass and brushed the recently sanded surface of the previously applied patch.

I then carefully laid each layer of the patch over the surface, one at a time, and brushed over it with the new epoxy mix.  Of course it was now time to wait.. again.. for it to dry.

I still had another sub-project that I had been waiting for the opportune time to complete.  I had purchased a transom-mounted motor bracket months before that I wanted to use on my recently purchased beautifully maintained Nissan Marine 6 HP 4 stroke motor.

I gathered a few materials that would be necessary to properly mount the bracket to the transom:

1. One 2'x2' piece of plywood 1/2" thick
2. One 2'x2' piece of steel 1/16" thick
3. Four 5" long 5/16 carriage bolts
4. Four lock washers, nuts, and Teflon threaded nuts

I started by cutting the wood and steel sheet to match the size of the base plate on the motor bracket.  I then used the bracket as a pattern to drill the holes through the wood and steel; using them both as a backing plate that would go on the inside of the transom.

Of course I verified that the holes on the motor bracket lined up with holes in the wood and steel plates.  I then used the steel plate as a template from which mark the holes to be drilled through the transom.

I used 3M blue masking tape as a guide to make the holes level; running the tape parallel to the water line marked by the bottom side on the boat.  I then verified the Y-axis left/right alignment by using my handy level app on my iPhone and marked off the holes, using the steel plate as a template.

It was quite a bit more difficult to verify that the Z-axis of the holes I was drilling were perfect.  Since there was really no relative straight edge from which to work, we had to simply drill the holes out a bit larger than the actual bolts.  Later these holes will be filled with epoxy to protect the wood within the transom itself.

Once drilled out, one of my friends climbed into the berth under the cockpit  and squeezed his way up to the inside of the transom.  As we ran through each bolt he put the wood plate on, with the steel over it.  Once all the bolts had been run through he then slid on the lock washer, regular nut, and Teflon nut over each bolt.

The end result: A beautifully mounted motor bracket, ready for the Nissan to hang from it.

Of course we will have to adjust the angle of the bracket, but as you can see the mount plate for the motor drops way down to the waterline.  This should give us very efficient output from the 6 HP the motor puts out.  Who knows; maybe we might even be able to reach hull speed now.

More to come...