It's Alive

After we got back from a fantastic vacation touring P.E.I, on our motorcycle I managed to sneak a little time in to work on Solstice's engine and fuel system. There were about 8 gallons of 6 year old diesel fuel in the tank that needed to be removed before I could do much of anything so I started there. I used a very low tech method of removing the fuel, it consisted of a short length of hose and an old outboard primer bulb I had kicking around. I tried to get a siphon going but the fuel tank is quite low in the boat and it just wouldn't work so I had to pump. It only took about 20 minutes or so. I was quite surprised at how good the fuel looked but I just didn't trust it. Next I removed and drained the fuel lines on the engine and here is were things looked nasty! I am glad I didn't try to push that yuck through the injectors. I slapped in a new secondary fuel filter that came with the boat,put the fuel lines back on the engine and primed the system from a one gallon jug sitting on the sole. I didn't trust that the old fuel hoses hadn't broken down inside so I wanted to wait until I replaced them before I used the fuel tank. I Installed a battery, turned the key and......nothing. Not even a click. Checked out the rest of the boat systems and the same thing....Okay, this could be bad. At no point did I think that maybe the battery I had stolen from work to do this little experiment could be dead, but after chasing fuses and loose connections all over the boat, I finally check and it showed a whopping 10.2 volts. DOH! I had just charged it before I went on vacation but the tractor it is used in must have a slow draw on it's electrical system. Take out the battery, put it on the charger and take a much needed shower....The next morning I put the battery back in and turned the key....nothing. Okay.....this time all the rest of the systems worked fine and after about 30 seconds of searching I found a bad fuse holder at the engine panel. Sitting for six years on the hard had taken it's toll and it crumbled in my hand. A couple minutes later I had spliced in a new fuse and turned the key, we have tone, the low oil pressure buzzer came on! I advanced the throttle a bit and pressed the start button, the engine turned over and started almost at once! I had disconected the raw water pump so as not to burn out the little rubber impeller by running it dry, so I didn't want to let it run too long, but it sounded fantastic. No smoke, no hesitation, just the sound of a well tuned diesel. It is a relief to know I won't have any huge expenditures on the engine right away. New fuel hoses and a new primary filter element should only run me about $25.00 or so. I plan on putting those in after I clean and degrease the engine compartment, then I will move on to installing the new force 10 water heater my boss gave me. Yes, you heard right, my boss gave me a nice stainless water heater that had come with one of his boats and as near as I can tell it has never been used. I ripped out the old one that had nearly rusted in half and the new one will fit in it's space with LOTS of room to spare. I will try to post pictures soon.
Dennis

Bye Biscuit

Well, after a month on the market Biscuit aka "little boat" has been sold. I did get to take her out for a final sail with the buyers yesterday morning though. It was blowing about 12 knots and flat water, perfect for selling a boat! I have to admit I was a bit choked up watching the new owners move their stuff onto the boat, we have had such GREAT times on her it was hard to let go.
It does give me some more time to focus on Solstice though, so tonight after work I finally ripped into her systems a little. Say goodbye old rusted water heater, hello new force 10 stainless water heater. I actually didn't get the new one installed today, but I did clean out the spot where it will mount after I get the space painted. I also started to drain off the old fuel in preparation for starting the engine. There is a lot of fuel in her and I will need to get a least one more 5 gallon can to put it in. I was quite surprised at how good the fuel looks but I am still going to drain it all and put new fuel in, along with new lines and filters. Better safe than sorry. I don't know how much I will be able to do until after vacation next week but I would really like to hear it run before I go away. We are heading to P.E.I. for a week with my brother and his wife for a motorcycle camping trip. Should be a blast.
I hope to get some pictures up of the engine and fuel system later this week so you can share my pain of crawling around a dirty bilge and working in ridiculously tight places.
Happy sailing

Dirty Boat

I finally got a bit of time to start to clean up Solstice on Monday after our fantastic weekend sailing Biscuit. I spent almost 2.5 hours pressure washing the deck just to get rid of the years of accumulated filth . We also got her sails stored safely away in our garage attic and started to get things out of her cabin. You can see by the picture what we are up against in the dirt arena, thankfully the interior is not nearly as bad as her deck! If I get some free time next week I really need to start working on the engine, it's just that I don't know when I will have free time!
We have had a few friends over to see the project and we have yet to be called crazy!
I leave you with a picture from our long weekend on Biscuit.

Sadie, the sailing dog.

Sailing the "little boat"

For the time being we have two boats, and we are now calling Biscuit "little boat". Next to Solstice she is small and adorable, like a toy. We are sailing "little boat" this weekend. It took all of a day to get her ready to go in the water. We cleaned the boat's topsides and deck in a morning. Dennis waxed topsides while I painted the bottom in the afternoon. Solstice will take longer simply because she's bigger, but she's still fiberglass and will only require the same minimal work. There's a lot to be said for that.

This afternoon I had the unglamorous job of wiping the mildew and mung off the interior of the little boat. When we find a free day (or two), this will be the first job on Solstice. After that was satisfactory, I proceeded to provision and pack for our upcoming trip which took the rest of the evening. I precooked the rice and paired foods down to what two people need for a weekend. Storage space is limited and we want the cooking to be easy.

We could be doing a million things at home or starting work on Solstice, but the summer is made for sailing, and as long as we have a boat to take us, we will sail. Priorities!

Poking around

I finally got a chance to poke around on Solstice tonight and found a couple more "little" problems. Nothing a lot of time (but not a lot of money, thankfully) can't solve. The nuts on some of the keel bolts are pretty much shot but I think I can clean up the threads and wind on new nuts as the bolts seem sound. The bolts are really just backup as the lead keel is encased in over 1/2" of fiberglass so I am not TOO concerned about doing a 100% repair, but if you know me you know I have to try to get it right. Worst case is, I put in a few "sister" bolts and I will sleep well at night. The second problem is the compression post under the sole for the deck stepped mast. It is pretty dodgy. I have no idea what it looked like when new but now it looks like a amoeba that has been glued together with nasty gunk... I just have to remove the old post and slide in a new piece of metal or better yet fiberglass, and I am good to go. Should be a piece of cake...I love working in a space that I need a mirror and flashlight to see what I am doing.
The good news is the electrical system seems well laid out and should be good to go. I want to add a couple more cabin lights and another bilge pump but that shouldn't be a problem. Also the plumbing looks fine, a couple of sea cocks need to be freed up as they are stuck and I don't like the way the shower drains into the bilge but all in all it is not bad. I want to replace the fixtures in the head and galley down the road but if they work okay I will stick with them if I can get the years of accumulated mung off them.
My focus for now though has to be on Biscuit! Candace got the bottom painted this afternoon and I finished waxing the topsides at the same time. I got the outboard on and her life jackets stowed so I have to call her done! She goes in the water at 1:00 pm tomorrow and I need to get her rigged and ready to sail by Saturday so we can enjoy a mini vacation over the holiday weekend. She is for sale and I have had a bunch of calls the last few days but any sale will have to wait until after the 4th!
I like sailing....have I mentioned that?
D

Solstice comes home

Well, today was the big day! The boat hauler loaded Solstice on the trailer at 8:30 this morning and by 11:30 he was backing into the yard at our house in South Thomaston. It is amazing how much filth is on the boat and my brain is doing cartwheels trying to figure out what NEEDS to be done vs. what I WANT to do. I guess the first thing to do will be to take EVERYTHING off the boat and pressure wash the deck and exterior followed by a good scrubbing below decks to make a nice place to work. The keel repair is the only structural issue I have found so far and it is almost at the top of the list but I think I want to start with the engine and systems.
The engine work should be pretty straight forward and consist of draining the fuel, cleaning the tanks and lines, putting in new filters and refilling and priming the system. I truly expect the engine to start right up but I wouldn't be surprised if I had to put in new impellers for the water pumps and maybe change out the fuel injectors. The engine comes with a service manual so I have all the specs on it to rip it down if I need to. That will be fun compared to glassing...
I never look forward to fiberglass work but I will need to break out the 8" grinder for this job and grind away the bad repair done by a previous owner. Once I am down to sound glass I can start building up layers of 1708 biaxial cloth and mat to fair in the repair. As near as I can tell, she went aground at some point and some one tried to repair the keel with 6 oz cloth (far too light) and "boatyard resin" like you would find in a hardware store. Time has taken it's toll on the repair and it needs to be done right. There is a BIG difference in the resins used for boat building. Solstice was built with polyester resin in the early 70's and I could use the same type for the repair but I think the best resin to use will be epoxy resin. Polyester resin is the cheapest but weakest resin, it also smells super nasty. Vinylester is a hybrid form of polyester resin which has been toughened with epoxy molecules within the main molecular structure. A little better but still not ideal, given it's tendency to not cure completely if the atmospheric conditions are not right. It also has difficulty in bonding dissimilar and already-cured materials and smells super nasty too. Epoxy on the other hand sticks to other materials like, well, glue. A well done epoxy bond comes in with 2,000-p.s.i. stickiness vs. only 500-p.s.i. for vinylester resins and even less for polyesters. Epoxy resin will also bond dissimilar or already-cured materials which makes repair work that is very reliable and strong. Epoxy actually bonds to all sorts of fibers very well and also offers excellent results in repair-ability when it is used to bond two different materials together. It also does not smell NEARLY as bad., it is just as bad for you (use a respirator) but it smells a little like peanut butter. I lean towards a brand called West System but a friend recommended using Maas as it is easier to wet out the fabric with. The jury is still out on what brand I will use. I'll post pictures of the grinding so you can see how much fun I am having!
Here is a shot of Solstice in our yard next to our 25' Morgan "Biscuit" so you can see the difference that 7' can make.



I will post some deck shots after I shovel the leaves out of the cockpit and pressure wash the deck!
Be well,
D

Happy Solstice

No real news on the boat as we are still a few days away from delivery, but I have found myself thinking about Solstice more and more as the day approaches. I know it is silly since we won't even get her till Monday but today I was running errands at Hamilton Marine and I found myself looking at "toys" that I could put on her. There were grills, water heaters, plotters (and I have a nice one???), stereos, radar and more accessories and gadgets than you can imagine. I am very much a "non systems" kind of guy on boats and I won't be buying ANY of them, but now we have a bigger boat it is fun to think of all the stuff I can put on it!
I am actually really looking forward to doing the mechanical and electrical work first thing. It will be fun to go through the engine, water systems and wiring, I really enjoy wrenching. The cleaning and little bit of glass work are low on my fun things to do list. THE BUYING OF TOYS IS NOT ON THE LIST!
That last bit is for Candace.
Happy Solstice everyone!
D