Looks as though my mainsail won't ship until the end of April, I'm estimating the launch date to be about 5 weeks from this Saturday. I may be able to launch sans the mast and sails just to test out the motor and make sure the hull has no leaks in the next couple of weeks but the first sail is going to be tentatively Saturday, May 6th, 2006. Can't wait….
March 31, 2006
Interior Restoration Project: Step 1
The interior of the O'Day is in OK condition. One of the major problems is the plywood under the cushions are mildewed and mold-ridden beyond repair. It is amazing what the last owners did with it. Someone definitely went through the trouble of replacing the plywood because it certainly is not stock. What amazes me is they did not use anything to protect the wood from moisture.
Teak is the hardwood of choice when it comes to marine projects. But teak is pretty expensive. I understand if they chose to use another type of wood thats cheaper but at they at least should have covered it with something to repel moisture. Since they fail to do that, condensation and moisture naturally found its way into the cabin and eventually destroyed the plywood. The vinyl layer against the interior of the hull began to peel back and that helped trapping moisture behind and it dripped down to the edges of the plywood bunks.
Here are some photos of what it looked like:
Note the black mold in the corner of the starboard quarter berth against the bulkhead.
The old rotted wood removed and vinyl side covering peeled off. I will probably just paint the interior walls instead of replacing the vinyl.
Port side of the v-berth where the vinyl hull interior collected water to cause more mold and mildew build up.
The same port side v-berth with the old wood removed. The space underneath is full of positive flotation foam. There are also stacks of this stuff under the cockpit sole. I will need to somehow add more if I want to install the additiona lead ballast in the bilge.
My low-cost replacement:
Well, I can't afford teak. So I went shopping at my local hardware/lumber yard. I got some standard structural fir plywood that was more in my price range. After removing the old wood from the cabin and traced the outlines to the new plywood, I cut them out with a saber saw. I also decided to seal it with Thompson's water seal which I bought at the store for about $15. After more of less soaking the new wood in as much of this stuff, the results were pretty satisfactory. I shot a little video clip of some of the wood under my faucet to show the water repelling abilities of this combination:
This is the stuff I bought to seal the wood:
The next step will be to cut storage hatches and mount them inside the boat. I may be able to do that this weekend but looks like the weather may turn on me again.
I also bought a 4 ft x 2 ft piece of birch plywood, apply a similar liberal portion of the sealer and made new companionway hatch boards. I will take some photos of that next time I go to the boat yard to post here. They will give me a good test of how this sealer holds up especially if it rains this weekend.
March 28, 2006
100 lbs of lead shot for ballast
From an auction on eBay. $77.20 for 100 lbs of lead shot shipped to my door. Not a bad deal. Probably won't install it right away. I will wait until I test sail the boat as is and see if it needs it. I may have more weight aloft with the multiple sectioned mast so more ballast maybe the ticket to keep the boat stable.
Current total: $5696.67
Information about my mast
I did some searching online to see about my mast extrusion and I came across a site called RigRite.com. They have the extrusion's specs on their website:
Rig-Rite #5 (3723) Mast Section
Measurements: (OD) 3.75" x 2.25" (95mm x 57mm)
Wall Thickness: .100"
Weight/ft.: 1.3 lbs.
Moments of inertia: Ixx = 1.5", Iyy = .63"
Circumference: 9 5/8"
Alloy: 6063-T6
Sail slides: 1/2" round slugs (A018, A118) or 1/2" boltrope
Standard Mast Lengths: 22'7", 25'4", 30'
Common Mast usage: Bristol Corinthian 19; Cape Dory Typhoon; N&W Fisherman; O'Day 22;
This will help a little in knowing the dimensions of my mast. What I'm going to do with it is still an unknown for now.
Adding more lead ballast
I'm considering adding some more lead ballast to the boat. There is a bilge pump out port on the cabin sole with access to the bilge. I just read in the original owners manual that O'Day says it is possible to add your own lead shot into that space as additional ballast. Since my boat is a 1974 that only came with 600 lbs of ballast, I'm considering adding more. Some of the later models came with 700 lbs or even 800 lbs from the factory. this shouldnt be that big of a deal. I found some lead shots on eBay for pretty cheap. All I need to go is pour in the lead shots and then follow with some curing resin to permenantly lock them in place. If anyone has experience with this please feel free to let me know how it went.
50 lbs of Lead shot from ebay: About 40 bucks shipped. I'll probably get 2 of them.
The hole on next to the panel is where I can pour the lead shots and resin thru. This is on the cabin sole.
Mainsail blues (New tally $5619.47)
Since the mainsail on the boat is pretty shot, I went ahead and ordered one from D & R awhile back. Rudy told me it was backordered til the middle of May so I went hunting around else where. Porpoise Sailing in Florida came through and is able to deliver one to me in about a month. That's good enough for me. Hopefully it works since my order with Rudy was cancelled. If I wanted it back, Rudy said it will be another 8 weeks. Toes and fingers are crossed. This does mean that I'm saving a little on the order. Porpoise is selling me this sail for $385 instead of Rudy's $510. I did however opt for a Coastal Cruiser Reinforcement for 10% more. That brings it up to $423.5. Shipping being about the same from either place and I won't know until they place it on the truck, I'm going to assume its about 15 bucks. That means my ongoing tally is going down a tad. Take $510 off of the current total gives me $5180.97 add on $423.5 for the new sail brings it up to $5604.47. Plus another $15 in shipping, my new tally is $5619.47. What this sail will be missing is the O'Day 22 Insignia. I guess I won't miss it that badly.
March 27, 2006
Running into a couple of problems
Today I test fitted the standing rigging on the boat and it went fairly well. It is right now a 2-person job to rigg the boat until I come up with a better method. One of the things that came up is the headstay and/or backstay. It does not get tight enough to take all the slack out of the stays. i wonder if D&R Marine just cut them too long while making them or if they actually intended on them to be loose. It is functional as it but I would worry about it if I took it out and hoisted sails on it. I don't have that many experiences with rigging a boat so I posted on some messageboards including mine although only 1 other use is on it. Here are the 2 posts if you have anything to contribute:
This may be a smaller issue once the boom, sails and mainsheet are on since the mainsheet will put some tension of the backstay and the jib sail will tension the headstay. If you look at the photo below, you will notice a slight bend to the mast. Thats from the mast being rested horizontally on the cabin top for too long and its own weight has made a temporary bend to be noticeable without the tensions of the stays.
The other problem which I don't know if there is an inexpensive solution to is my mast is in 2 sections joint together using a wooden insert and bolts. Maybe this is the same issue as the rigging. Maybe one of the previous onwners had to cut the mast and rejoint it. That could explain the rigging being too long for its current length. It is not significant but is noticeable. The wooden insert in the mast makes running lines and wires internally impossible. That is a problem I will need to deal with later…
Add this to the list…
For $48, I am upgrading the currently-broken trailer lights on the trailer to submersible LED lights…
New total: $5690.97
March 26, 2006
Worked on the boat this weekend
After my shopping binge on and offline, I decided to drag the boat to the house to work on it this weekend. The lot does not have a water hose or an AC outlet. Both of which I will need for many of the projects. I risked getting pulled over by trailering the boat home from the lot about 1 mile away using my Toyota Tacoma. It does not have trailer wiring harness installed yet and it is under powered to do any serious trailering. I did make it home however without any incidents. i will post a more indepth story on what I did while it was at home but for now, here is a photo of her next to the sidewalk:
(Notice the upright mast? That's right. I rigged it for a test fit. Worked decent. fore and back stay seems a bit lose and I don't really know if its suppose to be tighter…)
Testing the battery, electrical panel and interior light
So after I brought home my new battery and electrical system parts, I was eager to test and see what works and what doesn't. I didn't even really know how the Perko battery switch wires up since I bought it used from eBay sans instructions. I am only using one battery so that simplfy things a bit. When I am ready to upgrade, I need to make sure I know how to hook the batteries up so they are parallel when the Perko switch in on both of them. That's a future post. Back to this story. So I used some existing wires I stripped out of the boat to test the circuit. I hooked up the battery to the swithc and panel and connected the 22 year old dome light to one of the switches on the panel. It looked something like this:
I timidly switch the perko on battery one and after flipping the toggle on the panel, I saw this:
Halleluja! It worked. And on first try at that. I don't pretend to be an expert on electrical systems and flares and sparks are a common sight when I'm near a project. This however fell into place perfected. I just used a little common sense in figuring out where the wires need to go and without much effort, I have a circuit lighting a 12-volt light bolt. I know this is a simple test but it means I saved about $30 in not having to buy a new panel. I proceeded to test each connection using the light and all seems to be working perfectly. The next job will be to install the system into the boat. Stay tuned.
Blowing my budget
So this is official. I didn't think I can make it after buying the new outboard that cost 1300 bucks. I have been trying to cut corners on the spending to make my goal of $5500 but I think I will regret it later. So here is what I did over the weekend…
As of the last purchase which is the parts for the square tubing for the tongue extension I was at $5293.37. The following purchases where made towards the tally since:
1. $27.28 – Straight 2×2 trailer tongue coupler: This is the end of the tongue extension that will connect to the hitch on the car. The other end will either u-bolt to the trailer itself or I will weld/bolt on a 2 inch ball to connect the trailer to the car.
2. $24.04 – Red and Green side navigation lights: Now this is a good deal. I went to West Marine friday to see how much the replacement perko lights were. I had these 2.5 inch diameter side-mounted round lights with holes already drilled on the boat. I didnt want to have to drill new holes. They were $90!!! So this is a steal from eBay.
3. $50.40 – Deep Cycle battery: I looked all around for batteries for a good price and I suddenly remember Costco. I really wanted to get AGM or Gel batteries but that was going to be 3 to 4 times as much as I spent. I have capacity for 2 batteries with my eBay Perko switch so maybe later I will splurge….
4. $92.46 – Miscellaneous electrical parts from Fry's: So this includes a diet coke and a couple of small things I needed but I was too lazy to substract that from the total on the receipt. It is a necessary purchase as I will need lights for this vessel to be legal and I will need wires and switches to enable the battery i bought.
5. $76.75 – 30 ft of high-tensile chain and 2 stainless steel shackles: This completes my heavy duty anchor and rode. This thing all put together is heavy! I mean now I'm thinking I need to spend more money getting an anchor bow roller and chain deck plate just to be able to use this. I am not going to like to have to drag this thing out of anchor without it. I bought a 50 ft piece of yellow nylon line to use as a trip line with an old fender tied to the end. I will really need that in place to be able to be able to unset the anchor this size. I think I will just use the smaller fluke anchor that I already have as a primary and use this on overnight trips as needed. The bow roller will have to wait.
6. $129.99 – Garelick outboard motor mount: I have been looking for a way to fix my current motor mount and also just looking to see if I can find one on eBay. People are really retarded there. It is unbelievable how many people have the I-will-over-pay-just-to-win attitude. It is a buyers market when it comes to things like this. As I was watching some guy pay up to $115 on a used Garelick I went shopping elsewhere. Amazon had the exact same one, brand new for $129.99 shipped and no tax. This will come in handy with the new motor. I really didn't want to half-ass the mount and as I was looking at it today, it just needs to go.
That pretty much brings me up to date with my weekend spending spree. the total is now $5642.97. There is one saving grace so far. The mainsail order from D&R Marine is still on backorder. That is priced at $510 with is figured into this total. I called Porpoise sailing in Florida and they told me that they can have one made for me from Thailand for as little as $375. If we figure the difference of $135, My total would actually be at $5507.97. That is still over my budget and god knows I have a long ways to go before this is all over. I am just going to keep it as is until further notice. I am keeping my toes crossed that nothing else turns up needing major repairs….. Ciao.
March 23, 2006
2 inch steel square tubing x 2 for tongue extender
To launch my boat without getting the car wet, I need a tongue extension for my trailer. I looked around and it doesnt seem like anyone has one for a reasonable price. That's why I'm making my own. As a start, I'm ording 2 of these 2×2x72 pieces of steel tubing as the main structural pieces of my extension. It only costs me $56.46 with shipping. I will update with more information about the extension as I have the plans and the parts ready. Ongoing tally: $5293.37. It's getting dangerously close to $5500. Maybe I shouldn't count these none-sailing related parts….
March 22, 2006
Led masthead anchor light
For $24.99 I ordered this anchor light. Low amp draw for my small boat. Updated total: $5236.91
VHF Masthead antenna from eBay
For $29.85 I ordered this antenna for my VHF radio that I have not purchased yet. I already have the Uniden Mystic GPS/VHF Handheld which is one of the best things I’ve ever gotten for boating, but this will allow me to communicate long range or use the handheld on the dinghy while we are on a trip.
Total onging tally update: $5211.92
March 20, 2006
Bought Perko 2 battery switch on eBay for $28.55
Bought a ‘used’ battery switch for the ‘new’ electrical system. Total so far: $5182.07
