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

She's coming home!

Our boat project will be sitting in our yard on June 27th. We'll be staring at each other through the window everyday. The excitement is building as is the trepidation. What are we going to find that eluded us when we looked at her? There will be something. Isn't there always something with boats and houses?

Oh yes, our house. So, we've done this before. Buying a project with the vision of turning it into something better (and something we could never afford). After consuming three full years of our lives and sucking every spare cent we had, it worked out great! With this big success under our belt, restoring Solstice should be a cakewalk. True this project is of a much smaller scope and monetary risk, but the old familiar mix of excitement and trepidation is still present. We are different, older, settled. Priorities are different. Time is valued differently. I know we can do this boat project. It is not a question of that. Rather, it is how can we do it ALL?

Moving 12000 lbs and other fun.

I had the morning off today and had a chance to make a few more calls to local boat haulers to get a quote to move Solstice the 94 miles to our house. Of course it is the busiest time of year for every person in the marine industry so it will not be happening tomorrow. One hauler said he can make more money staying local launching lobster boats all day than he can by driving halfway across the state for one boat. Another wanted to charge $100 more just to bring the mast on the trailer, meaning I would have to get a crew to lift it onto the boat if I wanted to get his lower price. I finally called a mom and pop hauler in Bucksport that came in quite low, will haul the mast for free and wants the work. It looks like they are the ones and the quote of $750.00 is within our budget (okay, free would be nice but I don't think that will happen). They can haul it the week of the 21st at the earliest but that is fine because it gives us more time to try to sell the Morgan and free up some yard space. Candace and I have decided we can live without a boat this summer if we have to, and it will give us time to make Solstice into the boat she can be. I have been warned that this project can't consume ALL my time so we will just be picking at it for the next year hoping to be ready early next summer.
Just for grins and giggles I looked up the scrap price for lead today and the ballast in the boat is worth 2 times what we paid for it so I am calling us ahead!
I hope to get the boat into sailing condition for under $2000.00 over the next year and if the market hols up we should have a boat worth roughly 4 times what we have in it. Not that I am looking to sell just yet...I would need to find a bigger boat first.

When we start doing the refit I will be posting pictures of the work, describing various ways to do repairs and keeping a running total of hours worked and money spent. I am open to questions regarding boats, boat repair and the answer to last weeks puzzler....I want this to be both an outlet for me, and a place where other boaters can bounce ideas off me and ask advice. I am also open to suggestions and you can give me a virtual smack up side the head if you feel it necessary.

The interior

Beginnings

Everything has a beginning.
Yesterday, my wife and I picked up a 1972 Irwin "Classic" 32' to restore and cruise the Maine coast with. "Solstice" will replace our 1969 Morgan 25' "Biscuit" that we have had for four summers. We love the Morgan but Solstice was too good a deal to pass on.
So it begins....Today I started to track down boat haulers to get the boat from South Paris, Maine to South Thomaston, about 100 miles. This is going to cost us about $750-$1000, ouch! We hope to have her in our yard in a week or so but I will have to travel up to S.P. a couple times to pick up gear and get the mast onto the deck for transport.
When she is at her new home the fun will begin! The first thing will be a massive cleaning as the boat hasn't been used in 6 years and after we have removed the mung the real work can begin. I have spent the last 18 years of my life living and breathing boats so in a way it will all be routine but I am used to getting paid for my work! The whole project will have to be done out of pocket and on a tight budget. I am writing this blog to help give other not so wealthy boaters hope that they too can sail on a shoestring.

This will be the story of Solstice.