Nevermind

Primed Spar

2008-01-17T00:21:00.000-08:00

Down to a bare mast...

2008-01-17T00:16:00.000-08:00

Monday and Tuesday morning I removed all the mast hardware, inspected the mast, removed the internal wiring, sanded every bare metal spot or corroded spot, and primed the bare spots with two coats of West epoxy.

Monday Morning - Initial Condition

2008-01-17T00:13:00.000-08:00

Here's what the mast looked like before I did any major work on it.

Boat Month 2/08: Pulling the mast

2008-01-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

Voice of the Lamination

2008-01-12T11:34:00.000-08:00

The WC Triton sliding hatch...

2008-01-02T22:26:00.000-08:00

With the seahood off the boat for painting it's now easy to see how the WC Tritons gets their extra headroom...they have a unique raised area in the middle of the cabintop under the hatch...

Formica goes in...

2008-01-02T22:22:00.000-08:00

Final step with the bulkhead Formica was to roll on an even layer of waterproof DAP contact cement on the both the bulkhead and laminate surfaces, wait for it to dry, and then carefully set the laminate in place on top of cardboard sliders. Once in place, I removed the sliders one by one and then pressed the laminate onto the bulkhead. To make sure it was well adhered I used a slick 'pressure block' to go over every square inch of the covered bulkhead.

Bulkhead Formica

2008-01-02T22:19:00.000-08:00

I'm covering the main bulkhead with Formica as an experiment, since I expect it to need less maintenance than paint. I'm using Formica Neutral White in matte finish, which a local supplier had in a 5x8' sheet for about $80. I'm using a set of straight-cut laminate shears and a utility knife for most cutting.

The first step was to transfer the tick-stick pattern to the Formica. This is a simple if tedious matter of lining up the tick stick with each set of registrations and gradually building the pattern outline on the material.

Then comes the cutting, which is a damn delicate process with Formica, which loves to crack and flake if you put too much tearing stress on it. I finally got both sides cut out with only one throwaway piece, which I can use for other stuff anyway.
Later I took the cutouts down to the boat for final fitting, which I did with a utility knife. It's impossible to get a great fit but I managed to get fairly uniform a 1/8"gap in most places. Edges will be covered by trim anyway, so it's not critical to fit the laminate really tightly.

What's been happening lately...

2008-01-02T22:10:00.000-08:00

Lots of stuff happening lately, through the end of November and through December...

I removed the boom in anticipation of the rig refit planned for January. It fit well on top of car for the trip home to SB. I'll be removing all the hardware, straightening a mild bend, and repainting the boom.

I also made some progress on the new compression posts for thee main bulkhead. Every Triton I've ever seen in person or in photos has had these posts running vertically across the main bulkhead, but Nevermind lacks them. They are mostly for adding buckling resistance to the main bulkhead despite being called compression posts. I'm hoping they'll also look good. I'm making each beam out of three laminated layers of 1/2" exterior Baltic birch ply. This ply has a nice clear face veneer and thin plies of alternating light and dark wood, which should look great when varnished. I built a special jig for the circular saw to rip the 5' by 2" lengths of ply (12 in all).

Some of the basic strips after cutting.

A closer look at the MDF jig I made for long rip cuts in ply. It's like a minature and upside-down table saw. The clamps hold down the adjustable 'fence'. The one problem with jigs like this is that they are very prone to kickback because the fence runs along the edge outside of the cut and the cut gets compressed against the blade. I used light pressure and great care at the end of the cut and had no drama. Note that this circular saw is one of the left-blade Porter Cables, so everything is a mirror image of the normal blade-right sidewinders.

Main chainplates are IN!

2007-11-19T17:39:00.000-08:00

BIG milestone this week - the chainplates for the uppers finally went in. It's been a long time coming...it's been nearly a year since I started ripping out the cabinetry in the head to replace all the chainplates, and now it's complete. Nevermind sports new and stronger chainplates for the aft lowers, uppers, and the backstay. The forward lowers are going to wait till later, since they are 1) still in OK shape, 2) easily accessible anytime from the v-berth, and 3) not heavily stressed on a Triton fractional rig.

It felt great to bolt in those new chainplates. There are only a few small details left to wrap up, like installing chainplate covers, painting the primed areas around the uppers, and opening an area for a nut on the back of the #4 bolts on the uppers (there are 5 3/8" SS bolts for each chainplate).

I was also able to put the final coats of paint on the head areas and the port settee (shown). For the settee I'm using Benjamin Moore Super Spec semi-gloss alkyd enamel, color-matched to my new formica. It's really good paint, as it levels nicely and covers very well.

Fires from CIH

2007-11-12T21:44:00.000-08:00

The fires that broke out in the Santa Ana of October 18th cast one heck of a smoky pall over the harbor...this was a huge swirling cloud of smoke, ash and sand whipped up by the 30 knot wind. Later, as I was driving away, it got much darker - about as dark as a half-hour after sunset.

Painting the head, and wrapping up the chainplates

2007-11-10T21:42:00.000-08:00

First thing today was to test-fit the new covers, which fit great and looked super! I'm going to take the winch covers back to stitch an elastic grip around the inside perimeter so they don't fly off the winches in heavy wind.

I faired around the upper chainplate slots. Fairing and painting are all that's left before I can bolt in those chainplates for good and call this epic project DONE. Replacing chainplates is a big job - well, it was this time, because in every case I wanted to upgrade the marginal original installation with something beefier and easier to service.

After some final fairing, and sanding in the head, I gave everything an acetone wipe-down and then rolled on a coat of white Bilge-Kote. You can't imagine how great it feels to finally hide all that ugly bare fiberglass, plywood, old paint and general filth. Now I can see how the new head/hanging locker will look. The bare portions of the bulkheads are where I'll place white satin Formica - the paint will mostly be hidden by cabinetry but the Formica will be exposed.

Canvas work - winch covers, grill cover

2007-11-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

I stiched up a new cover for the rail-mounted charcoal grill, and two winch covers for the primary winches. They turned out well!

Painting lockers

2007-11-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

November 1st, I arrived back at the boat at Channel Islands Harbor direct from Grand Staircase/Escalante in Utah. Nevermind was waiting for me at the end of my month-long sojourn, and I plunged back in to work with renewed vigor. There's beginning to be more visible payoff with every step I complete, so that Nevermind is always looking better and better. This is gratifying.

Having previously patched and filled a few holes in the port settee lockers, the two deep bins were now ready for paint. I mixed up a strong TSP solution and scrubbed them well with a Scotch-Brite pad, and then rinsed...and rinsed....and rinsed, till the TSP was all gone. After drying, I scuffed the paint with 80 grit sandpaper, vacuumed out the dust, and laid in a coat of white Bilge-Kote. The next day I followed up with a second coat. The transformation was dramatic!

I also removed and serviced the house battery (installed 8/05) today - electrolyte was a little low in 2 or 3 cells.

I finished by taking many pictures of the boom before removing it - it's going home for a cleaning, straightening (it has a minor bend after an incident with a preventer), and painting. How about that arrangement at the end of the boom - nice, huh? When I got the boat there was no end cap at all and the topping lift didn't work at all. This was a quick & dirty rig to get us down from San Francisco.

One more thing - the (presumably polyester Bondo) fairing filler on the seahood is failing. It's not adhering to the glass. When the filler comes off, the paintdoes too, leaving bare glass. That will have to be stripped, re-faired, and repainted. The sea hood is also not bolted down, so I'm going to sink some 1/4-20 SS bolts through the flange to fix it more securely to the cabin top. Right now only bedding compound holds it on the boat.

Painting the cockpit

2007-08-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

Finally, a project that's not only functional but is also cosmetic! It's so much easier to stay motivated when you can see progress and when the boat looks a little better every week.

We vacuumed out the cockpit and then used a brass brush and acetone to remove so old tar or gummy bedding compound that was stuck in the nonskid pattern . We followed that up with a wash using a stiff brush and a strong TSP solution.

Then we taped off the nonskid area in the cockpit sole. Here I keep myself off the newly cleaned sole while trimming the masking around the aft corners.

Finally we were ready to roll on the paint! We used Interlux Interdeck in beige.

I was thrilled with the way the first coat came out...all the old worn-out gel coat was covered and it looked great! One more coat and it's done.

More views under the old head...

2007-08-26T21:54:00.000-07:00

Great strides.

2007-08-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

In contrast with my discouragement of a few weeks ago, this week seemed like great progress was made. Inspired by meeting one of the circumnavigators of Sohcahtoa, I plunged in to the current projects with a renewed vigor. Plus, this week I again had some help from Michele. This means (perhaps unfortunately) that you get pictures of me in action...

The first item was to set up Karl's boat, Passat, with the winch covers I made. Karl was missing this weekend, though...so I gave ém a shot of 303 and put them on the boat for him to find.

The area aroung the backstay chainplate was ready for paint, so I sanded the primer once more with 120 and then brushed out some Brightside. I also rolled some Bilgekote on the chainplate knee structure inside the lazarette, but didn't take any pictures!

Next up was continuing the reinforcement of the main bulkhead around the upper chainplate mount. I cut several pre-measured lengths of West 4"biax tape. This stuff is a joy to work with, because it's so easy to do neat work. After a thin coat of raw epoxy thickened with West microfiber filler, fo fill the weave of the unlerlying laminate, we layed on the additional glass. We taped across the bulkhead/hull seam, not along it, as I wanted to bond to the raw fiberglass and bare wood beyond the existing tabbing.

Later I took a little wrecker bar and quickly removed the old, nasty head platform. It was barely attached; most of the bond was in the many layers of old paint! The tabbing was weakly bonded and pulled loose easily. Everything was in good shape underneath.

Summertime progress

2007-08-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

Progress is good these days. Last weekend (the 19th) I went down for a work day.

First item was to sand, prep, and prime the repaired areas around the backstay chainplate and the old flagpole base. I put one a coat of Pre-Kote in the morning and was able to sand and re-coat by late afternoon.

I also test-fitted the mooring bitt and its 1/4" pre-fab fiberglass base. The plan is to epoxy the base to the poop deck and then through-bolt the bitt through base and deck. I'm somewhat tempted to put the bitt off-center and out of the way somewhere, for two reasons: one, so that there is a nice place to sit on the poop deck, and two, so that it doesn't straddle the chainplate knee below. The center seems best for appearance, but since the stern roller won't be centered either (the backstay dominates the center) perhaps it's best to offset the bitt to the starboard side near the deck pipe. That's a decision to make.
My friend Michele finished up the leather chafe covers for the chain-to-rode splices on both the bow and stern rodes.

I did some fairing on and around the main bulkhead, and then reinforced the chainplate mounting area on both sides with two layers of 24 oz. woven roving. I'll also add tabbing strips of 4" West biax tape along the bulkhead. This is the most stressed area, with the primary (upper) shrouds and their tension load attaching to these chainplates. The mast compression load (which I've calculated will max out at about 4000 lbf in an extreme load) comes in about 3 feet away on the main beam.

Grunt Work

2007-07-16T22:13:00.000-07:00

I have to admit to some moments of discouragement this last weekend. The work was so hard, and the visible (or at least entropy-decreasing) changes so few, that I wondered if I'd ever wrap up the chainplate replacement. On Saturday I concentrated on the upper chainplates, which meant grinding the old paint away from the main bulkhead where the upper chainplates bolt. It's pointless to set up for grinding but only do a small area, so I ground the entire head & hanging locker area - main bulkhead, aft bulkhead, hull, and deck bottom. I used 40 grit but whatever the original paint was, it's incredibly tough. And it makes mountains of dust. A larger Shop-Vac finally made the vacuum attachment to the PC grinder more effective and kept the dust down somewhat, but not before the whole boat was covered in white dust - again. I took things down to the glass around the chainplate areas because they will need some mild fiberglass repair, reinforcement, and fairing before the new plates go in. There are gaps in the tabbing below the plates which I want to bridge as well.

Other progress: I also managed to chisel out all of the awful old polyester resin 'mush' in which the cabin liner had been bedded. I freed the backstay chainplate from its custom-cast bed on the chainplate knee and prepared it for mounting soon. The hawsepipe for the stern rode was mounted on the poop deck in an ample bed of polysulphide, and it dresses things up considerably there. And finally, I got the rope-to-chain splice done on the bow anchor rode. It came out nicely.

Upper chainplate replacement begins

2007-06-20T23:52:00.000-07:00

Now it's the uppers chainplates' turn for replacement. These plates anchor the critical upper shrouds which run to the top of the mast. These are the most heavily loaded shrouds on the Triton (and most sailboats) and they need a bulletproof anchor.
To start, I lashed a wooden beam to the forward and aft lower chainplates, detached the uppers, and then lashed the uppers to the middle of the beams. The shrouds aren't tight but these beams will provide enough temporary support during the work.

I knocked the old chainplates out through the deck with a hammer. Compare the original 1"x 1/8" three-bolts chainplates with the new 1" x 1/4" 316L SS plates with 5 bolt holes. These new plates are also electropolished for corrosion resistance. I did all the engineering calculations for rigging loads and then for chainplate cross section and am confident that these are robustly sized. They have tensile & yield strengths comparable to the other parts of the rig. If I get ambitious I'll post my rigging loads spreadsheet here one day. If you want to do these yourself, get a copy of Henderson's rigging book for the rig loads and any solid mechanics textbook for the tensile, bearing strength, and shear strength calculations.

This is the starboard chainplate location. I'll fill the old holes with epoxy and layup a few layers of fiberglass over the beds for reinforcement. The new chainplates will extend much farher down the main bulkhead than did the old ones.

Chainplate project progess..

2007-06-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago I worked more on the chainplate project. The first photo shows the port aft lower complete. I replaced the solid forks and single toggle of the old Merriman turnbuckles with two Hayn toggled forks. This fit perfectly on both sides and is a simpler system.
The backstay chainplate is coming along. I managed to create a bed of thickened epoxy for the chainplate. I covered the chainplate with electrical tape and waxed it liberally to ensure good release from the epoxy.

Finally, I dug out some rotten core around the old vent cutout in the poop deck. The area of deteriorated core wasn't large - at inch beyond the cutout at most - and was easy to fill with thickened epoxy. Soon I'll redrill mounting holes, bed the hawsepipe, and through-bolt it to the poop deck.

2007-06-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

That ugly bucket had been sitting on the poop deck for several weeks. The chain for the stern anchor was sitting in it. To get the chain below decks, I decided it was time to install the new hawsepipe. To do that, I had to remove the old vent from the deck...

Aft lowers finished.

2007-06-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

	On June 10th I finally got some pictures of the new aft lower chainplates. The machine shop finished all the new chainplates in late May, and I took them to the electropolishing shop afterwards. They came out looking fantastic.
	The port side. Each chainplate is bolted in with 4 3/8" bolts spaces abot 1 5/8" apart. The chainplates themselves are 316L stainless, 1/4" thick and 1" wide.
	Starboard aft lower...
	Today I worked on the backstay knee, first sanding it and then expanding the deck slot to accommodate the new 1 3/4" by 1/4" chainplate. I test fit the chainplate but left bedding for later.

Aft lower chainplates are in!

2007-05-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

Today the aft lower chainplates finally went in. Unfortunately, the camera didn't make it to the boat with me today, so no pictures. After electropolishing the new chainplates looked fantastic and installing the first pair was a simple matter of masking off, applying some polysulfide, and then bolting them in place. Nice!

I also put a coat of varnish on the GPS bracket base.

Also, I wrapped up the major glass work on the backstay chainplate knee. After 2 more layers of 24 oz. roving on the sides, several pieces of 6" 10 oz. tape over the fillets, and several lengths of 2" 10 oz. tape over the front of the knee...it's done! On my next work day I'll sand it smooth and begin locating the chainplate itself. I'll probably fair a few spots before paint.

Stay tuned for pics...

Chainplate update

2007-04-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

The chainplates are out at the machine shop for fabrication, and I'm gradually wrapping up the knee replacement. The backstay knee is still the big focus.The first day of glassing I applied 2" tape to all four fillets, followed by a layer of 24 oz. to the sides of the knee. After time to gel, I cut four strips of the excellent West 4" biax tape and glassed these in over the fillets. These strips were followed by four more offset 1" to the outside.

The following week I was back. After washing and sanding the previous glasswork,I cut glass for more offset strips of biax tape, as well as more 24 oz. roving for the knee sides. I glassed these in and also ran strips of 2" tape down the front edge of the knee. Yes, I missed a wrinkle or two along the edge! With luck these will sand out ok. Otherwise everything turned out well.

Heavy glass work on the backstay knee

2007-04-09T22:56:00.000-07:00

I spent last Saturday (4/7) working on the boat, mostly concentrating on the backstay chainplate knee. Forgot the camera, so word will have to suffice. After a thorough sanding of the fillets around the backstay knee, I laid in strips of 2" tape along the top and bottom. Next came large pieces of 24 oz roving to cover the sides of the knee, followed by strips of 4" West 15 oz biax tape along the fillets. The biax tape is great to work with: tough to wet out, but very easy to laminate as it holds its shape and doesn't unravel.

I stripped the mainsail off the boom and took a few more measurements of the gooseneck, boom length, and other rig dimensions. The aft lower knees got their final coat of paint, and I cleaned up the awful dust. The recent rebuilding of the seawall near the slip has left a lot of bare ground nearby.

I promise more pictures soon!

Knee replacement surgery

2007-02-28T23:13:00.000-08:00

The new backstay chainplate knee is going in - after a big degreasing and sanding effort in the laz I spent a lot of time fitting the core before filleting it in. Next comes tape: 2", 4" biax, offset 4" biax, 6" cloth, 12" cloth. The core is 1/2" Baltic Birch ply - it's a high quality Russian ply with 7 laminations in the 1/2" thickness. It's also void-free - at least so far I haven't found any voids.

2007-02-28T23:09:00.000-08:00

I filled the holes in the transom here the backstay chainplate carriage bolts used to be. I'll touch these up with white paint later. Wow, that rubrail looks awful - it took a beating coming around Point Conception and has been a little flaccid ever since.

Setting up the ground tackle

2007-02-28T23:06:00.000-08:00

I measured out and cut the 1/2" three strand line for the anchor rode: 150' for the bower and 250' for the stern. It helps that the dock slabs are 8 ft each.

Stern anchor mount

2007-02-28T23:03:00.000-08:00

Picasa and Blogger seem to be hating the guts of each other and pictures aren't showing up in Blogger. I'm testing things out and thought I'd try to show a picture of the new stern anchor arrangement - that's a 22 lb standard Danforth in a Windline bracket - the rode will go under the rail to the deckpipe so deploying this anchor should take only a matter of seconds: untie the rail lashing, lift out of the bracket, and drop. It's important that this be convenient because this anchor can serve as an emergency brake if the engine fails at an inopportune moment, etc.

Last weekend - backstay work

2007-02-21T00:21:00.000-08:00

First I started fairing out the starboard aft lower...

Cutting out the chainplate knee core for the backstay...

2007-02-20T23:59:00.000-08:00

I used the 1/2" Baltic birch ply.

2007-02-11T22:52:00.000-08:00

I wasn't at the boat long today and didn't do much, but I did grind out the starboard chainplate repair enough to put in 3 layers of 10 oz cloth.

I also sanded and primed the faired repair to the port chainplate area.

One more thing - I measured the mast today. This was a major disappointment because I found out my mast is a non-standard height and is shorter than it should be. A Triton fractional rig is supposed to have a 36' mast. Mine is 33' 10" to the top, or 33' 2" to the sheave. Since the gooseneck is 2'7" off the deck, my main luff can only be about 30' 9" and it is supposed to be 33'. I'm still debating what to do because if I stick with this mast, new sails will have to be custom-made to it and I will be locked into this weird rig.

BTW, the gooseneck (actually, the tack) is supposed to be 2'9" off the deck, so the boom is low. I thought it must be.

2007-02-11T00:27:00.000-08:00

More...

2007-02-11T00:18:00.000-08:00

Blogger doesn't want to let me post more than four pix per post, so here are more. A couple of pictures show the backstay chainplate knee template as it approached its final form.

I also installed the new tiller, custom-made for Nevermind by H&M Marine Woodwork in Compton.

Karl was on Passat today working with Lee to troubleshoot a rough-running diesel, and after they got it running smoothly again we all went on a short harbor cruise. Then it was back to work for me. One small chore on my list was removing the wooden trim from the aft sid eof the main beam. This is where the hand impact driver earned its keep once again. This little tool is absolutely indispensible on a boat, where frozen fasteners are the norm. It's never failed to free up a stuck bolt for me.
In the evening I managed to get a valve adjustment done on the Westerbeke. Spec was .010" and all valves were loose; on the #2 cylinder, both intake and exhaust were .016"!
I adjusted to the correct clearances all aropund, but didn't firethe 'Beke up. Maybe tomorrow.

Other random things? I cleaned up the boat, and measured for the new main bulkhead reinforcement beams. I also templated the upper shroud chainplates which I will design this week.

Update

2007-02-08T22:26:00.000-08:00

Many things going on with Nevermind these days...for one, she got all the new ground tackle. The new setup is:

Primary - a 35# CQR on 150' of 1/4" high test chain and 150' of 1/2" 3 strand nylon

Stern - 22# Danforth on 60' of 1/4" high test chain and 250' of 1/2" 3 strand nylon

The current Windline bow roller is perfect for the CQR, but I also got a Windline chain stopper for the bower and a Windline rail bracket for the stern Danforth. One of the nice ABI bronze deckpipes will finish off the stern.
I haven't got the new anchor painted yet, and the ropes aren't spliced to the chain yet, and I don't have good shackles yet...but all this is soon to come!
The chainplate replacement is proceeding apace. Here's a view of the aft port lower knee with the new chainplate temporarily clamped to it for some test fitting. The new chainplates are 1" x 1/4" 316L stainless, fabricated by yours truly with the precision tools of an angle grinder and a drill press. It took considerable care to do a neat job but they came out great.
To give the new chainplates a perfect clamping surface I coated each one heavily with paste wax and then created a bed of silica-thickened epoxy on the knee. I temporarily bolted in the plates during the epoxy cure. I can't wait to paint back over the knees - they look so awful right now.
The final step is the deck filling and fairing. Water intrusion had caused some deck core deterioration around the chainplate holes, so I drilled and filled the core void with thickened epoxy. Again making sure the plates were heavily waxed, I also filled around the plates to make a fairly tight-fitting chainplate slot. Next: finer fairing and paint.

More glass...

2007-01-21T23:04:00.000-08:00

The fiberglass work on the chainplate knees continued this weekend as I added a layer of 24 oz. roving over last week's layer of 10 oz. cloth. Now the knees are becoming smoother and looking better! There are certainly far more substantial than before. One more layer of 10 oz. and I'll be done. I would have laid up the final layer, but ran out of resin...

In other work, I

Replaced the old Group 24 500CCA starting battery with a new Group 26 450 CCA.
Replaced both engine belts - Gates 3VX350 for the alternator/freshwater/crankshaft belt, and a Westerbeke belt for the raw water pump. A 3vx-220 should fit the raw water pump, but the 3vx-250 is too long, and it's the smallest McMaster carries. There is a local Gates dealer...I'll have to drop by.
Reinstalled the rebuilt raw water pump.
Repaired the broken terminal clamp on the negative cable for the starting battery.
Attempted to fit a length of fabric-reinforced Shields 1.5" ID host on the port cockpit drain & seacock. Right now I have some fairly cheesy corrugated hose on there which works fine but doesn't inspire great confidence. The big fabric-reinforced hose wasn't flexible to go on well...even when I forced the fit, it still leaked.
Took the boat out for a 45 minute steam around the harbor...it's been a while.

More progress on the chainplates...

2007-01-14T23:03:00.000-08:00

I was determined to make good progress on the chainplate replacement project this weekend, and I arrived the boat with an array of wire brushes with which to abrade the stubborn old paint into submission. Chucked up into my mighty B&D 3/8" drill, these brushes finally did the trick. They could reach everywhere and even at the low speed of the drill (1200 RPM) they made fairly quick work of the remaining paint. After a couple hours' work I declared the paint stripping done!

After stripping was complete, I washed down the knees with acetone and mixed up a batch of epoxy thickened with cabosil. Using a piece of cardboard cut to the proper radius, I applied the thickened epoxy to the base of the knees to form a smooth fillet - something that Pearson/Aeromarine didn't do in the original construction.

More chainplate knee work, lead paint?

2006-12-10T13:53:00.000-08:00

December 3rd, last Saturday...
With the trusty Porter-Cable DA sander and a collection of 40 and 80 grit disks, I attacked the tough old paint around the aft chainplate knees. I don't know what Pearson used but it is tenaciously adhered and it doesn't appreciate being sanded off. In fact, the sanded paint gets even with its aggressor by creating masses of incredible dust which settle everywhere on the boat - this despite heroic ventilation attempts.

Progress was discouraging. The paint was tough and access to the chainplate knees was not good. Neither my DA or the orbital palm sander will reach the nooks and corners around the knees.

It was sometime that evening, after arriving home from the boat, that it occurred to me that the old paint I was grinding might be lead paint. I posted on the Plastic Classic forum to see if anyone else had run into the lead paint problem on their Triton. Eventually I called a local company (Channel Coast Corporation) which specializes in lead paint remediation and the like. They suggested I take samples to be sent in for lab testing, which I did - taking one chip sample from the hull paint in the head compartment, and another from the paint atop the port settee.

The first sample came back completely negative, and the second came back with .23% lead by weight - yes, 23 hundreths of a percent. Evidently the legal definition of lead paint around here is > .5% ... so, it's not lead paint, at least legally! The risk seems small at this point if I simple and prudent measures like P100 respirators and proper cleanup.

11/18-19 work & sailing

2006-11-21T19:01:00.000-08:00

Chainplate replacement and head redo, continued.

2006-11-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I jumped back into the boat projects in earnest. Saturday saw me up the mast to loosen the jumpers a bit and look things over. I rigged the halyards securely to the bow cleats, put on my frog system, and went up. I discovered a broken strand in the starboard upper, which means that there are broken strands in both upper shrouds. Time to replace them!

I loosened the jumpers and came down. After removing the cotter rings from each turnbuckle, I loosened the rest of the rig and then tried moving the mast head back (it had been leaning slightly forward). The backstay bottomed out before I got the mast truly vertical. The backstay needs shortening by about an inch. The headstay I don't know about. Last winter when we replaced the headstay we attached it to the most substantial tang. That happened to the the topmost. We hung the jib & spinnaker halyards off the two lower tangs, which is fine except that the spinnaker halyard needs to be above the headstay. When I unstep the mast I'll need to replace the middle tang with a substantial one ready to accept the headstay.

Having gotten the rig good and loose I decided it was time to remove the chainplates for the aft lowers. I went below, chiseled some paint off the nuts, and then unbolted them. The bolts were common galvanized carriage bolts, heavily rusted, but they came out easily with a couple of taps from a hammer. Then, on deck, I pulled out the chainplates with a pair of pliers.

Both chainplates were homemade of 1"x1/8" SS and were about 7" long. Both of them had been bent into a S curve in order to fit through the chainplate slots. The slots did not line up with the knees. I cleaned out the polysulfide from the slots and taped over them to prevent water from entering.

As soon as I arrived Sunday I mixed up some TSP and water and started scrubbing down the head and hanging locker where I had torn out the cabinetry before. The scrubbing was needed before I could grind paint; if there's any oil or wax in the paint, sanding and grinding can spread it around. Potentially this could cause paint or epoxy adhesion to be poor. So I scrubbed.

After five or six rinses with fresh water the paint was ready. I was about the start some grinding when instead I decided to grab the Dremel and have a go at the inner liner. I sliced into it with the normal ceramic cutting wheel and it went through the thin liner like butter. The liner looked like a chopper gun construction and it could be torn by hand in places. The liner was much thicker and more substantial, though, where it met the hull. Also, great gobs and fillets of polyester resin mush had been emplaced on the underside of the decks before the liner was installed. I tore the liner loose and tried to chisel off most of the hardened mush.

By the end of the day I had the inner liner completely removed from the head/hanging locker area and most of the mush chiseled away from the port side. I ground some of the old paint off the port side knee before cleaning up the dust and refuse I had created and calling it a day.

2006-10-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

Here's the new tender, a Folbot Yukon folding kayak. I haven't named her yet. Something having to do with donkeys would be good, like "Sea Donkey" or "Burro del Mar" or "Burro Flotante" or "Meeresel".

Start with a couple of bags....
The frame takes shape...
The result!

2006-10-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

test post from email

2006-10-25T02:45:00.000-07:00

This works too!

Chainplates and tiller

2006-10-25T02:30:00.000-07:00

Today I called H&L down in LA and got them to fax me the ordering guide for new tillers. I need to decide the shape and length and call them back. I'll do some rough templating this week or weekend.

I also ordered some chainplate material from Onlinemetals.com. I chose 316L stainless in a 1" width and and .25" thickness. 316L has a yield (NOT tensile) strength of about 200 MPa and I worked out that a 1" x 1/8" plate would yield at about 1800 kgf. This would be roughly halved at the pin hole for only 900 kgf. I decided this wasn't good enough since the 3/16" wire is good for 3600 lbf or about 1800 kgf.. I still need to compute the bearing stress and tear-out shear stress before fabricating the plates, and calculate the final yield and tensile strength. Also, while drilling the SS shouldn't be a big deal, I don't have the best tools for cutting and polishing. I did a quick design on eMachineShop.com but the price quotes were a little high and the delivery times were nuts: 20-40 working days.

I need to start managing this project better. Time to get more organized and try to proceed in parallel.

Crowbar frenzy!

2006-10-22T02:18:00.000-07:00

The first job on the list was supposed to be a small one: replacing
the pencil zinc in the engine heat exchanger. The old zinc had corroded
itself to the gallery and I had to clean out the threaded boss with a
small screwdriver before the new zinc would go in. Of course the threaded
boss is on the bottom of the heat exchanger at the back of the engine...a
very hard-to-reach spot. Next I topped off coolant level. The leak
seems to be coming from the drain petcock on the heat exchanger, which
is right next to the mounting boss for the zinc. The heat exchanger
probably needs some attention. After completing these small jobs I
started the engine and checked the alternator for output, and yes,
it's working fine. This means that the starting battery must truly be
on it last legs (there was some question about whether it was dead or
just not being charged). Time to replace the starting battery. What
is in there now: a Group 24M, 500 CCA. No amp-hour rating (says 95 RC
minutes. I think RC is measured at a 25 AH rate which would mean this
is about 40 AH at 25 A rate.) I took a short cruise to check the heat
exchanger for leaks and to get the boat out! When the engine started,
some zinc paste came out with the first burst of exhaust water. With
luck most of the remnants of the old, neglected zinc got flushed out.
Next I moved on to the head and rig projects by removing the old cabinet
facing in the head compartment. After more demolition I'll get good
access to the chainplate knees for reinforcement and replacement. Had
to knockoff early Saturday to make a dinner in Santa Barbara.

Early Sunday morning I was back at the boat with tools in hand. I wasted
no time in demolishing the head (port side) cabinetry. There were a
couple of shelves that were cleated to the bulkheads and lightly tabbed
to the hull. I detabbed the wood with a chisel, unscrewed the cleats,
and pried the shelves out. In the afternoon I did the same with the
hanging locker. Both compartments are now stripped and the chainplate
knees are accessible.

Off-season kickoff & the new tender

2006-10-15T01:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend I promised myself to get started with several of the major projects that I had planned for the boat. Over the summer, as we'd taken trips to the islands, some of the really pressing problems made themselves clear. For one, Nevermind's ground tackle isn't great. With a 22 lb generic plow at the bow and a cheesy 20 lb Danforth at the stern, we aren't going to ride out the perfect storm at anchor. Furthermore, the chain portion of the rodes was in marginal shape and the rodes themselves weren't long enough.

Another major problem - it's hard to cook well on Nevermind. There's no fixed stove. In fact, there's no stove beyond the sea swing, on which you're lucky to boil water. Poaching an egg would be an incredible feat. Also, stowing all the pots, pans and other cookware is a problem: there is plenty of space in the galley lockers, but poor access and no subdivision.

Yet another tricky matter: the head just wasn't right. Nevermind was built in 1963 when direct overboard discharge was the norm. That's fine but not legal today and also not compatible with exploring in the Channel Islands. Besides, the head itself was an ancient Raritan PH1, probably original equipment to the boat, and somewhat leaky.

There are questions about the rig. It's in decent shape overall, but the chainplates are doubtful. The port shroud has a newly broken strand. Corrosion is widespread on the boom, and the dodger interferes with the boom's swing.

Nevermind needs a tender or tenders. The old one lies on the ocean floor near Point Conception, yet another victim of that infamous cape.

Finally, the engine needs some attention. It doesn't have major problems that I know of, but it's time for it to get a thorough renewal. All belts and hoses need replacement, the valves need adjustment, the motor mounts are shot, and it's out of alignment. The starting battery is shot. The primary fuel filter is better suited to gas than diesel and takes up too much space. There's no strainer on the raw water intake line, and the raw water pump impeller needs replacement.

This weekend was a chance to get started - to jump in with both feet. The boat was covered in ash from the Day Fire, so I spent the first few hours Saturday cleaning the decks. I also opened up all the cockpit lockers, cleaned everything out of there, and scrubbed them down. The dock box got cleaned out and organized. I replaced the lost bow hawsepipe cover with a new one from my spares box, but it still needs a retaining line of some sort to keep this one from being kicked over. I took care of a few small things, like removing and measuring the tiller for replacement (I plan to have H&L fabricate a new one), getting a new shore power cord and reel, and cleaning out the bilge. But the proudest accomplishment was the removal and disposal of the ancient Raritan head. It's gone.

In between all this work, I managed to test out the new tender: my new Folbot Yukon folding kayak. One thing's for sure: there's not much else that tops the coolness factor of showing up with a couple of bags and 15 minutes later paddling off in a sleek kayak you put together from the parts in those bags.