It’s been a few weeks now of very sporadic internet acccess. Just this afternoon, i’ve been loaned a wifi card, and now, if i perch the computer just right on the pile of Aries spare on the cabintop, i can get onto an unsecured network in a friend’s apartment across the harbour.
My folks have been here visiting for a couple weeks; just left to return to Canada on Friday. Naturally, playing host has cut into boat-fixer-uppering time, but still worth it. Now that they’re off and away, it’s time to get the nose back to the grindstone!
i’ve bought Centaurea a nice little motor (a Universal 18) to replace the hulking rusty Perkins 4-107. Interior work has been progressing; i’m slowly getting through removing, re-bedding, and re-installing the cabin window drip rails, removing the funky fake ceiling strips from turn of the bilge, and generally countersinking & epoxying every chip, ding, and unused screw hole in the inside fiberglass.
Outside, i’ve started in on rebuilding the main sliding hatch, hatch garage, and dodger coaming. Helping with this work is the addition of a whacking Sunbrella awning over the boat; keeps the rain out of the screw holes, and the sun off of me!
February 19, 2006
Updates better late than never!
around soper’s…
Soper’s Hole has been playing host to the notable yacht “Scheherazade” over the last couple weeks. i was very lucky to have gotten a full tour of the boat when i made the aquaintance of the crew at last year’s Antigua Classic.
January 15, 2006
tale of the tape?
Feelin’ a little bounced around lately… maybe it’s the homebody Cancer in me, wanting to be settled down. Still, this routine has had it’s advantages; house-sitting for four different people has meant that i havn’t paid any rent in a little over 8 months. This bodes well for the pocketbook!
Continually moving has made me aware of all the excess crap i’ve picked up here. i moved to the islands with a seabag, daypack, and small bundle of books. It’s now grown to be more than i can fit in a single carload! Once i bought the boat, i really had to pare down; the Belmont girls got my large TV, Clive & Gillian got the blender, and Cathy now has reluctant stewardship over my convection oven. A year’s worth of new t-shirts (from every boat i crew on and/or regatta i race in) has doubled my clothes collection; i’m converting many of my old “good” shirts into “work” shirts, and finally retiring a few of the worst. Thank goodness Centaurea has plenty of stowage!
All in all, it’s been an interesting year,housing-wise. i must admit that it’s been a bit of a headgame re-adapting to living in a small space, what with the previous string of large airy houses behind me. Still, it’s what i most want, and what personal experience has shown me to be most secure with. i’ll be alot happier when the girl is in the water, with a few of the sailbags out of the salon, and the bugs blown out of the works.
digging in
Got into the hull this weekend… Being a one-time hurricane write-off, i knew there were repairs to be checked out. After sounding the hull with a hammer, it looked like there was only one area that was showing any cause for concern. The whole bottom had been barrier-coated and bottom-painted, but on the starboard side of the deadwood some of the bottom paint was looking a little crackly, so i suited up and ground off all the paint with a 40-grit softpad.
Having done this on cars and boats before, i wasn’t too shocked to see the usual multi-coloured patchwork of fillers, fairing compound, and patches. After all the paint was off, i dug further with a chisel, chipping off any areas of filler that looked at all loose. There are plenty of dents that were filled, and my impression is that a few were not sanded or prepped well enough before being filled/faired. There are only a handful of spots where damage actually got into the core; the core in these areas was repaired well enough, but the fill and fibreglass mish-mash they used to fair out the damaged outer skin in these ares was too dry. i think this must have been from a single batch of poorly-mixed epoxy; the questionable area covers about one batch’s worth of goop.
The dents can just be froperly faired; the skin is still intact, and the underlaying core foam is solid with no signs of delamination. The fill areas over the patched holes will need amore serious treatment: i’ll grind them back a little more, tapering them into the surrounding skin, then apply a few layers of ‘glass patches to assure outer skin integrity.
