BrightWORK: A labor of love

One of things that initially attracted us to Hans Christian sailboats was the beautiful woodwork. And indeed, when we purchased Bella Star, her brightwork was in good shape.

But all play and no maintenance left Bella Star’s teak longing for some attention. “We’ll do the varnish next year for sure,” we’d say.  But this elusive “next year” would come and go and more varnish would peel away.

This year, however, we buckled down, rolled up our sleeves, wielded a pair of heat guns and got the job done.  It was a lot of work to strip all the old, peeling varnish, sand it smooth, bleach it with oxalic acid to even out the color and lay down 8 coats; but boy, was it worth it.

When faced with the “to varnish or not to varnish” question, many people opt to eliminate the yearly varnish maintenance ritual by letting their teak age naturally or “go gray.” But for us, it wasn’t really a question.  Simply put, we love the look of varnished wood.  Our main objective, though, was to protect the teak—not go for a museum-quality finish.

The previous owner(s) chose to use Cetol Light, a well-respected and long-lasting product.  But it isn’t our favorite, so we did some research and decided on Epifanes Wood Finish Gloss and Clear varnish (top coat).  The Wood Finish Gloss was great to work with, and sanding in between coats wasn’t required (with as much wood as we have and the short Seattle summer, that just wouldn’t have been practical).

As a side note, don’t you hate it when you’ve been singing the words to a song for years and someone (Aaron) finally points out that, no, Nicole, Elton John isn’t saying “Lay me down on sheets of leather” in “Tiny Dancer.” It’s sheets of linen. LINEN.  Well, I had nearly the same epiphany when I called the Epifanes customer service line.  Turns out, it’s not Ep-i-fains, as we’d been pronouncing it. It’s Ep-ah-faw-nes.  Who knew?

Now for some before, during and after pictures.

Before: Notice the graying wood and peeling varnish 
During the stripping phase: We used acres of plastic sheeting and blue tape to keep the bits from going in the water.  There’s Aaron with his heat gun… 
During: Sanded and bleached with oxalic acid 
Finished!  Eight coats down, with a goal of getting up to twelve next summer.  Beautiful!  Next up, the turtle and treasure chest, followed by the boom gallows and belaying pins.

Always a hole

Seems like every project I do involves drilling a hole.  But this is the first one I’ve done that could let water in. 
Bella Star is currently receiving an electronics refit.  We’re installing a new chartplotter, HD radar, anemometer, transducer, secondary instrument display and SSB radio.

The depth sounder that came with the boat usually works fine.  But even with a clean bottom it  frequently reads irregular and  alarmingly shallow depths when we have 500 feet of water under us.  This one will read speed through the water and temperature as well as depth.  Also it will be networked into the chartplotter, so we don’t have to have a separate display for it.  Should just be  a matter of taking out the old transducer and screwing in the new one, right?  Easy cheesy.  As it turns out, I had never really looked too hard at the old transducer and just assumed that it was a through-hull fitting. 

So with the boat hauled out I got ready to make the switch, only to find that in fact there was no through-hull for the depth sounder.  It’s just bedded in a big blob of epoxy to the inside of hull.

 

We decided to go ahead and put the new transducer in anyway.  So out came the hole saw. 

The old transducer is located almost all the way aft, pretty close to the prop wash.  I wanted the new one up forward, where it would be easily accessible and get an undisturbed flow of water over it.  The prime spot is already taken by our forward looking sonar transducer on the starboard side (which we’re happy with and want to keep) so the new hole was going in approximately the same location on the port side.  

So here’s how I did it.

1. Drill a small pilot hole from inside the boat.  Find the hole outside the boat and make sure the location looks good there as well.

2. Drill 2” vertical hole.  I drilled it half way from the inside and half way from the outside to get a clean cut on both sides)

(I do recommend doing this before the beer break.  And if you drill the hole in the wrong location, don’t sweat it.  Just keep drilling them till you get it right.)

3. Build fairing blocks so that the transducer points straight down, at least when the boat isn’t heeled.

I used two sheets of 1/2” StarBoard marine polymer with the recommended epoxy to glue them together.  I built several of these blocks anticipating screw-ups.

4. Cut the 2” hole in the blocks and slice them in half at the same angle as the deadrise in the hull.  (I used a piece of cardboard held against the hull and a bubble level to find the angle)

Here’s the one for inside the hull.  This ensures the locking nut on the through-hull has a flat surface to mate to.

For outside the hull I made four with slightly different angles, knowing full well if I only made one it would be off by 1.4 degrees.  Unacceptable!

5. Trim down the fairing block.

I anticipate that the efficiency of  this fairing block is so hydrodynamic that it will actually add .25 knot to our boat speed!

6. Sand to bare gelcoat around the hole.

7. Using appropriate epoxy I set it up on the hull with two wooden blocks bolted from either side to hold it in place. 

(If Seaview Boatyard asks what happened to one of the legs of their office chair I don’t know anything about it.)

8. Mount the through-hull into the fairing and hull with adhesive sealant.

9. Paint with antifouling.

 

Since we don’t have any of the electronics installed yet we just inserted the blanking plug before we splashed.  The idea is you can pull the transducer out if you’re not going to use the boat for awhile and put a blank plug in the hole.  This will help to prevent growth on the transducer and also allow us to clean it.  You do this while the boat is  in the water, so I would think it would be a pretty wet process changing them out.  According to the instructions, “With practice this can be done with only about 10 oz of water entering the boat.”   I’ll be interested to see what the “without practice” volume is. 

Yanked our chain

Our anchor chain was just starting to show some light rust on a few links, so I decided to have it regalvanized.  With the boat on the hard, we backed the car up to the boat and transferred the chain to the trunk of our car.  250 feet of 3/8-inch chain is about 300 pounds.  It lowered the back end of our car a bit and stove in the cover over the spare tire. 

We took it to Emerald Galvanizing, since they were the only local shop here in Seattle that has a centrifuge for the chain.  This is important, because if you don’t spin the chain after the galvanizing process some of the links get clumpy and stick together.  Also, they didn’t have a minimum order size like other shops I called, and their prices were very reasonable.  They charge 80 cents a pound.  With tax, it was $250.54 to have this done.  Significantly less than a new chain!  They quoted me a week to have it done but had it ready for me to pickup the next day.  Good price, good service, and it turned out beautifully… I’m going to go ahead and throw down a happy face emoticon right now :)

Here’s the chain before.

Here it is after regalvanizing.  Looks brand new!

Before putting it back in the boat, we needed to add our markers that identify how much chain we have out.  So we laid it out in 25-foot lengths and marked it with zip ties using Nicole’s clever numbering system.

Loaded up and ready for some anchoring action!

Hello from the Lazarette

Batteries topped off?  Check.

Steering system inspected?  Check.

Yoga practice completed for the day?  Check.

We’ve been knocking projects of the to-do list like crazy over the last few days (yay!).  I’ve had “replace portlight gaskets” on my list for like three years, and today, I can finally say it’s done.  And it’s always nice when a project takes less time and fewer Tylenol than you originally estimated.

After spending a good deal of time reading posts from the Hans Christian Owners Association message board on the proper gasket material and installation technique, we decided to go with the 3/8” weather-resistant closed-cell foam rubber.  As is always the case, there was a debate waged on the board (this time between the right size--3/8” or 1/2”).  I think either would be fine, but the 3/8” seemed to fit nicely.

Here’s a shot of the ensuing mess and required safety gear (I’m wearing the dust mask).Funny that I should come across a post on the message board from the previous owner of our boat.  Apparently replacing the gaskets was on his to-do list back in 2003.  :)

Ta-da!

On Solid Ground

Bella Star and her crew are spending some time on the hard this week.Aaron tried to tell me that people get their boats hauled out all the time and that it’s not that big of a deal, but it’s not every day that one sees her home lifted into mid-air by two thin straps, driven across a paved lot and set up on blocks & jack stands (you know, ’87  Camaro-style).   Eek.  But, among other things, it’s time to give Bella Star’s bottom a good sanding and a coat of paint to keep the kelp and barnacles and mussels at bay.

While the boat spends some time in the yard, we’re fortunate enough to have  a lovely townhouse to call home (thanks, Deborah & Marty!). And it has a real freezer!  The first thing we did was zip out to QFC and buy ourselves some ice cream.  Ah, the luxuries of shore-side life.

It’s wonderfully comfy here, but I must admit that I’m feeling rather, well, stationary, and I’ll be glad to see Bella Star floating back in her slip soon.  In the meantime, though, we’ll be enjoying all that ice cream.

Winch Update

nchThe old Barient winches have been reinstalled.  We took them to Art Brass Plating to be rechromed and are very happy with the results.

Before:

After:

Now if we can just do something about that varnish...

The most amazing thing about getting these things reinstalled is that I didn't drop a single piece overboard! 

-Aaron

Exhaust Elbow fixed

Our old exhaust elbow started bleeding rust so we decided to replace it. 

As a newly aspiring diesel mechanic, this is a pretty good thing to have to fix.  On the Yanmar 3QM30FG the elbow screws into a flange which bolts onto the exhaust manifold.  Just unscrew it and pop a new one in, right?  I took the hose off and tried to turn the elbow but it wouldn't budge.  So I unbolted the flange and took the whole thing off as a unit.  The new exhaust elbow was about $180.  The flange was in good shape and a replacement is $90, so I was pretty determined to reuse the flange.  It took a vise, lots of PB Blaster, and some creative application of leverage but I finally got them separated.  A fresh coat of Yanmar Gray and it looked like new!

Rusty Winches

So last year I took the winches apart and did a complete rebuild.  I took a wire wheel to all the internal bronze gears and got everything looking spiffy clean.  I also used the wire wheel on the chrome plated bronze drum and then put it all together with fresh grease. The old Barient winches were running like new!  A year later, the drums have a thin coat of rust all over.  As it turns out, you're not supposed to use a rough wire wheel on chrome. So, due to my mistake, the winch drums are off the boat and getting rechromed.  $350 error.  Argh! 

Stay tuned for the "after" shot - should be sometime next month.

New Anchor part 3

The new anchor is ready to go! 

When I removed the old anchor from the chain I had to use a Dremel to cut off the shackle as the pin was completely seized.  So when it came time to hook up the Spade I needed a replacement.  Being budget conscious, and because of the sound they make,  my first inclination was to use a zip tie.

Something just didn’t seem right about this so I did some research.  First I found out how strong the chain is.  The chain is 3/8” G4, with a working load of 5,400 pounds.  While I could not find reliable data on the working load for a Harbor Freight brand zip tie, I suspect it is less than 5,400 pounds, and I had thus introduced a weak point in our anchoring system. 
When shackle shopping I noticed that lots of shackles don’t mention their working load limit anywhere.  Often it was only stamped with “CHINA” on it.  After checking around I heard lots of good things about Crosby brand shackles.  I looked online and found 3/8” Crosby shackle  like this:

I was pretty excited.  It looked much stronger than the zip tie and the red pin added that little extra bit of sass that anchor shackles are sorely lacking.  Unfortunately it’s only rated at 2000 pounds working load.  But wait!  Crosby makes an alloy version with a working load of 4,000 pounds.  That’s close enough to the chain’s working load for me.  Unfortunately the pin on the 3/8” Crosby G209A only comes in the regular color.  RIDICULOUS.

Nicole and I are going to take a weekend trip here pretty soon so hopefully I’ll get a chance to try it out!

New Anchor Part 2

We received the anchor and are going to get it hooked up this weekend.  I am way more excited about it than I should be!

New Anchor Part 1

After much consideration, we've decided to get a new primary anchor and settled on a Spade S120 (55lbs).  One of our neighbors happened to have a template made up for one and so I was able to fit it on the bowsprit to make sure it would fit.  Thanks Rich!

I also ordered up some new anchor shackles.  Stay tuned for the exciting pictures of  me connecting the anchor to the chain!

Water meter update

It works! We now know - to the gallon - how much water we have in our tanks.

Water meter prepped for install.

This is the midships H2O engineering compartment. AKA under the table. We have a watermaker but haven't yet needed to use it.
The water meter is installed on the pressure side of the water pump. I put it between the water pump and the accumulator.
The small dial on the right side of the meter indicates hundredths of a gallon. The wire is connected to the LCD display.
You can mount the LCD readout anywhere you want. I figured the galley was as good a place as any and wouldn't require any crazy cable fishing. A previous owner had moved the propane system to the deck box on the bow and put in a new solenoid switch in the head. The solenoid switch that was still in the galley was disconnected. I am going to have a labeled placard made for the water meter LCD readout to replace this, but until then I just cut a hole in the aluminum solenoid plate with a Dremel and mounted it there.
Installed and ready. It's hard to make out in the picture, but just below the readout display is a gray button that resets the counter to zero. The LCD unit is powered by a lithium battery that the manufacturer claims will last 5-10 years.
I topped off with water and then waited to see what the meter would read when each tank ran dry from normal use. I did this several times and the meter provided consistent readings of 112 gallons.
Forward tank = 53 gallons
Aft tank = 59 gallons

So whenever we fill up with water I hit the button to zero out the meter and we always know how much water we've used from our tanks.
The watermaker would of course mess this reading up if we didn't run it long enough to top off the tanks, but thus far we haven't been able to take a long enough trip to need it.

Pun Intended

Aaron: How are the repairs going in there?

Nicole: Shitty. :)

Water Tank Metering Project

Bella Star holds 90 gallons of water in two tanks. There are many options available to monitor the tank levels in the water, fuel, and holding tanks. These range from systems that use electrical resistance to systems that use air pressure or internal floats to Gage fluid levels. The accuracy of these systems vary and the speed at which the gauge moves from full to empty is often not constant since most tanks on boats have irregular shapes.

For now, I'm really only interested in monitoring the water tank levels. Our holding tank makes disturbing gurgling noises when it's getting full so no need to put a gauge on that. Our fuel tank is about 80 gallons and I monitor approximate usage with the hour meter. (We only used 16 gallons last season with regular use of the boat so I'm not too worried about running out of diesel.) As for water, rather than monitor the water left in the tank I'm going to monitor the water going out of it. I bought a low flow water meter from http://www.jerman.com/ (DLJSJ50C) that measures down the the hundredth of a gallon. I talked to these guys on the phone about my particular application and they were very helpful in choosing the right meter.

The meter will be attached on the pressure side of the water pumps and is able to output to an LCD display that reads off the gallons used in 1 gallon increments. The LCD display resets to zero by pushing the reset button. So my plan is to get it all hooked up, fill up the tanks, and then pump them dry to see exactly how much we water we hold. Once I've got that number I can just subtract the amount displayed on the LCD to know how much water remains in the tank. Whenever we refill the tank we just zero out the LCD. The meter gets the power to send the signal from a 10-year battery inside the LCD unit. Total cost was about $150.

You can buy a system similar to this (https://birdoff.com/watercounter.php) that is a bit cooler since the readout can be programmed with your maximum tankage and the and readout counts down to zero from a full tank. I decided not to go with this since it required wiring 12v power and it was twice as expensive.

Stay tuned to see how the installation goes and get a report on how it works out!

Freshly Baked Cookies

Mmmm. Can the smell of freshly baked cookies really be topped? That delicious smell was something we’d never been able to enjoy with our ancient Mariner stove (circa 1983). The previous owners never used the oven for more than broiling and left instructions on a tiny scrap of paper (in Arabic) on how it worked. Now the burners worked just fine, but how many meals can one make on the stove top? We were way over soup and spaghetti, so it was time for a change. We gave fixing the old range a solid try and even consulted with experts on how to get the oven to heat beyond 275°, but alas, it was just her time to go. I did extensive research on marine LP ranges and came to the conclusion that a Seaward Hillerange “Euro” two-burner model would be our best bet (gimbaled, of course). Now Force 10 is said to make a dandy range, but I wasn’t fond of a few things. For one, the top burners had different BTU capacities (5,000 and 8,000). What the heck? I also wasn’t in love with the look & feel (a tad on the chintzy side). So Seaward it was.

We’d spent some time at Sure Marine’s booth at the boat show and snagged a Seaward brochure with special “boat show pricing” on the Hillerange model (formerly called the Princess), but at that time, we weren’t ready to buy. Boats are notoriously odd-sized with funny angles & nooks that make buying (and installing) things quite a challenge. Just because we have a square hole doesn’t mean a square peg will fit (in fact, odds are it will take three trips to Fisheries Supply for a hunk of teak, 16 brackets and some epoxy). That being said, we took careful measurements to make sure the shiny new Hillerange would actually fit once we brought her home.

Armed with our measurements, our “boat show pricing” brochure (3+ weeks post-boat show) and a well-rehearsed sales pitch for why they should honor the low price even though the boat show was long over, we headed to Sure Marine in Ballard. I was prepared to give my speech when the salesman said, “Weren’t you guys at the boat show?” Yes! He then offered up the special “boat show price” before I even got a chance to say anything about it. Cool! (As a side note, there is no possible way that I could ever make a living in crime. My hair is just too darn obvious, and I’m recognized everywhere.) Anyway, we loaded up the stove (which only fit in our car after being unboxed and wedged in the trunk) and headed back to the boat, all the while preparing our noses for the aroma of warm chocolate chip cookies.

The first lesson to be learned when owning a boat is that projects take anywhere from 3 hours to 45 days longer than you plan. (Well, maybe that’s the second lesson. The first is probably that when you stick the word “marine” in front of anything, there’s a 200% markup on the price… minimum.) So those chocolate chip cookies would have to wait while we took three trips to Fisheries Supply for a hunk of teak, 16 brackets and some epoxy. Oh, and stainless steel screws. And teak oil. Aaron did a stellar job of building and installing the mounts for the gimbals. For those of you confused by this term, a gimbaled range is mounted at two points, one on each side, which enables it to swing forward-and-back on those points. This keeps the range level while the boat is underway and allows tasty meals to be prepared by those brave enough to heat food to scalding temperatures whist careening over the waves. When the gimbaling isn’t required, a pin locks the range into a stable position. Now as I was saying, Aaron did a bang-up job with the install, and after patiently (not-so patiently) waiting for about a month, we were finally able to light the oven, preheat it to 375° and bake up those chocolate chip cookies. Boy, was it worth it. Freshly baked cookies on a cozy boat—now what’s better than that?

Here's Aaron polishing and prepping the area pre-install.

And here's what she looks like installed. Note the custom teak brackets for the gimbals and the locking pin.