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'81 Spirit 23 in Charlotte, NC

18K views 63 replies 8 participants last post by  hnash53 
#1 ·
Just thought I'd start my own thread for updates and modifications to my new to me Spirit 23.

Got it for $1000 with the trailer but no motor and brought it home this past weekend. Looks complete other than that. Came with the original sails and one other jib and one genoa. Upholstery for the V berth and the port berth is in good shape, although they used 6 inch foam for the V berth which is too firm and too thick. I may cut it down and resew it just to gain a few more inches of head room and it will be plenty comfortable with the addition of a one inch memory foam topper. I could then use the other bit of foam for the starboard quarterberth.

There is rot in the bulkheads from leaky chain plates, a couple of cracks in the forward hatch and the cable to the keel is broken of course. I haven't gotten it in the water since one of the cockpit thru hulls is broken off so it wouldn't float for too long! Also one of the winches is missing/broken off. And probably my least favorite, is the hull has been painted, some of which is flaking off with a power wash. Hoping it will strip easy so I can work from that, otherwise it will need to be sanded and painted at some point.

So projects for now:

1. Replace thru hulls, getting some stainless ones
2. Add bilge pump (nothing at moment).
3. New mounts for battery in front under vberth.
4. Replace winch (found one on ebay for $60)
5. Get my little 3.5HP motor running well enough to get around. That will be fine for the lake around here.
6. Add a keel board to the trailer, keel rests on rollers right now, not good.

So that will let me float it and play a bit, many other projects to follow.

And here are the before pictures.







 
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#29 · (Edited)
Took a strip of some plastic lumber I had around and ripped it to width to fill the ruler section on my igloo marine cooler. This made it flatter, gave better traction and stiffened the top a bit as well. I also added a step I salvaged off another boat which I cut down to one step add screwed the brackets to the front if the cooler with a little expoxy. This just makes the step easier for shorter people, mainly kids, dogs and my girlfriend!



Also working on a table since mine was missing. Got two 15x36 aspen panels for $15 each and a 1x4 for the legs. Need to order the hinges but I'll just have the one side for now. I also cut a new panel fir the floor from some marine plywood I salvaged and routed the bottom to allow water to drain into the bilge.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#31 ·
Got the table finished and installed.



Also got a great score from a guy that was demoing a cabin cruiser at a local marina. Was able to chop out the stove and sink. Still need to get a faucet and redo the thru hull but the stove was a Kenyon un-pressurized alcohol stove that had probably never been used. Worked great! Set it up to lull out from underneath the companionway although I need to get it to go a little further back. For some reason the panel along the back is at an angle and doesn't go straight across. The picture is with it about halfway back, it did go further.

The box and supports are a basic mockup to get dimensions and also because I was in a rush to get it in before the weekend! I'll redo it and make it purty this winter.



And put it all together and you get to eat well and keep your company happy!

 
#33 ·
Started working on replacing the centerboard. Built a cable mod similar to what windway did. Built up a centerboard out of strips of some really nice new zealand douglas fir they had at lowes and planed it down. I have the cable fixed and in place but still working on glassing the board in.

I am a little embarassed at the weld shown, worst one and I did go back and redo this one. My welder (and me!) struggle with stainless plus I am pretty badly out of practice.



Board in the process of planing. Not entirely necessary to make a centerboard this shape since a flat plate will work just as well, but it is pretty! A rudder is more important since the angle of attack is greater so makes a much more responsive helm. Next project!

 
#35 · (Edited)
Well, unfortunately the pulley is in and I didn't get enough pictures. I ended up not putting the second nit windy way describes to meet the cable Inlet and just used the one on the top to hold things. The board is 48" long from top of circle end to tip, 15.5 inches wide and 1 15/16 thick (original was 1 7/8). The tip at the end is back about 4 inches. I actually think I could have added another couple inches but I wanted to make sure it fit rather than have to cut and down and essay it, etc. I added a stainless tube piece I cut to protect the pointy end.

With a little fairing compound


Other side, not so faired and a pic of the steel protector.




And this is just a bracket and roller I fabricated to support the front of the boat, take some load off the winch post and hopefully make it a little easier to get the boat loaded. I also replaced the tongue on the trailer since the old one was severely and dangerously rotted.

 
#37 · (Edited)
So when I replaced the bulkheads I used regular plywood thinking I could seal it will enough. The chain plates are really hard to seal in my opinion, I feel like once you tension and untension the side stays the chainplate moves up and down breaking the seal and letting leaks in Well turns out I couldn't. I decided to redo it with starboard; doesn't look nearly as good, but it was quick and easy to replace and won't ever rot. It also does lighten up the cabin a bit I think. Gotta love not having to seal, stain, varnish wood!

Here is the old piece, you can see some pretty heavy rot:



Here is the new piece in the boat (ignore the mess). You can also see the carpet I put on the sides.



And finally I gave up on getting the old super cracked window frames to seal. If you can sense a theme here, it rained pretty hard on the last long weekend I took with the admiral so trying to make sure it doesn't happen again! So here is the 1/4 inch smoked acrylic cut in shape and the inside edge painted black with exhaust paint to hide the silicon and tape that will hold it on. Using a metod outlined somewhere else on this site, will link later.



And on a finaly note, I had to plane 1/16 off of my centerboard and added another 5lbs of lead weight at the bottom. There was one bump in the keel cavity that caused it to bind a bit and I wanted to add some more weight anyway.



So remeasuring the centerboard it is now back to the original 1 7/8 width (47mm)
 
#39 ·
Got the pop top working. I had to move the bracket a bit on the front of the hatch and drill a new hole in the sliding bit in the mast to get it to line up right. Partly because the PO had added a mast step to raise the mast and i added a sail track lock for a little extra security. Essentially it hooks up to the mast and slides up. The base also doubles as the place to hook the boom vang. Which puts pressure on the hatch dogs when using the vang but I feel it is manageable. The advantage is you can use the vang to lift the front of the hatch. I haven't quite figured out the attachment for the vang at the gooseneck but it shouldn't be too hard.



Speaking of, anyone know where to find these hatch dogs? one of mine is broken. Catalina has some at $40 apiece (huh?!) which i thought was bad until I actualyl found the perko ones which are $60-72 apiece. For a little latch thing.

 
#41 ·
So 1/2 of the newest project I am working to finish:



I think they came out pretty nice, although I am not super crazy about the more modern look it gives the boat. I'll have to see it on the water to see how I really feel.

Started by masking things off and trimming it close. Drilled holes, cleaned everything with acetone, applied the 3m 4991 tape and used some finish nails to guide the windows in place. I then caulked it with Dow Corning 795 caulk, worked it in with a plastic spoon. Removed the tape and lightly screwed it on with #8 x 3/4 truss head screws (amazon) in oversize holes with EPDM washers I got from Grainger (EPDM Washer,0.17 IDx0.50 OD,PK100). I'll wait until the silicone cures and then tighten the screws just a tiny bit more.

I just couldn't bring myself to depend on silicon and tape to hold everything together and had to use some screws. I drilled the holes oversize, and installed it around 70 degrees so here in Charlotte, NC that is about mid point on temp range so expansion/contraction cracking things shouldn't be a problem. I was much more worried about the seal for the tape or silicone separating and allowing leaks.









In this last pic you can see how it came out with the automotive exhaust paint sprayed on the inside. It hides all the silicon and tape and really makes it look nice. That was another reason for the screws to be honest. Since the entire bond is dependent on the paint I wanted a little more insurance. I sanded, cleaned and painted well but still. Ignore the slightly sloppy silicon in this pic, I had to remove a really small piece of tape that ripped but it will be easy to clean up after the rest cures.

 
#42 ·
Good job on the windows. I bet that improves privacy at the dock quite a bit.

This past weekend I was on a friends 30' Beneteau and turned on the autopilot to raise and lower the sails. It made the job dramatically easier while single/shorthanding. Now I would love to have one. I went through your thread to find which you had used and you do not mention the model. Would you mind letting me know which it is?
 
#43 ·
I have a Raymarine st1000 tiller pilot. Pretty easy install and works well. My only complaint is that it is a bit of a pain to calibrate. You have to go through the whole procedure to get it to calibrate the compass. It's not actually a problem except that I actually have mine set up that I can hook it up to my laptop and have it function as a chart plotter. It hooks up via a usb serial port.

On a side not PolarView software from Polar Navy is really nice inexpensive navigation software that will hook up to any number on instruments. My next step is to get a cheap windows 10 tablet to run it (<$100 fora cheap one these days) and you have a cheap chartplotter that can do all kinds of things. I have something like this:

Wavlink USB 2.0 Print Server LPR Printer Share 4 Port Network Device Adapter Hub Networking USB Server share Printers, USB Devices over Wired Ethernet or a Wireless Networking - Newegg.com

Which actually hooks everything up wirelessly. Kind of cool but I am a nerd on tech stuff.
 
#44 ·
I am a tech nerd also actually :)

Some research led me to the st1000 and st2000. The st2000 is only $70 more on Amazon currently. I will probably wind up getting one of those after my boat is out of the yard.

The Win10 tablet is a great idea. I found this RayControl app that works on most tablets, but unfortunately it does not work with this autotiller it seems.

Did you figure out how to make the autotiller wireless or do you constantly have to be connected to it to use the software with it?
 
#45 ·
So what I have on board is this:

a tiny wifi hub ($16): http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WR702N-Wireless-Repeater-150Mbps/dp/B007PTCFFW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1461330060&sr=8-4&keywords=pocket+wifi

a wireless usb hub ($60): http://www.amazon.com/IOGEAR-Wireless-Sharing-Station-GUWIP204/dp/B0058DN1Q4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1461330104&sr=8-2&keywords=wireless+usb+hu

a usb serial device($8): http://www.amazon.com/USB2-0-Adapter-Converter-Prolific-Chipset/dp/B008BZBJIS/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1461330217&sr=8-5&keywords=usb+serial+422

a usb gps ($22): http://www.amazon.com/Generic-Receiver-G-mouse-Antenna-Navigation/dp/B017BJ3KTU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1461330320&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=usb+gps&psc=1

The usb hub uses 12v power so runs directly off the battery and that drives everything else.

The gps and serial are plugged into the wireless usb hub. The wifi hub is because the usb hub does not support ad hoc (computer to computer) connections so needs to go through a hub.

So with this set up, my laptop connects to teh hub and can then see the gps and aupilot which is wired into the serial interface. The PolarNavy software Polar Navy - Marine Navigation Software then can see all of that and you can use it as a chartplotter to do everything you might want (routes, etc.)

Really can't say enough good things about the polarnavy software, works really well, easily downloads and updates charts (raster and vector), does everything you could want and it's only $50. You can install it on up to 5 computers and it has a trial version so you can test it out.
 
#47 ·
So a smaller thing I did was add slides to my cooler instead of the 4 teak blocks and straps it had before. the straps were really hard to fasten or unfasten. I cut some slides from some spare starboard I had with the table saw and now it can slide in and out and is stable for a step no matter the position. It doesn't lock but I could drill some holes to pin it in different positions if I wanted.





 
#48 ·
Refurnishing Front Hatch RE: '81 Spirit 23 in Charlotte, NC:

The front hatch on our boats is a strong plastic of some variety, not acrylic or lexan. I was lucky in that my front hatch was not badly damaged, just some cracks along the back edge, but a ton of crazing. It was actually pretty solid since i did manage to step on it a few times.



So I figured it couldn't hurt to try to pretty it up now that the windows look so good!. I epoxied the cracks in the back and then brushed the whole top of it with a couple layers of thinned epoxy to fill the cracks and crazing in it. Then covered it with about 10 coats of a semi gloss spar varnish.





The second image is just to show that it is still translucent, never be clear with all the crazing and such.

Overall really happy with it and I think it should hold up pretty well. I will probably make a cover for it for when it is stored just to keep the varnish fresh. Time will tell how it holds up.
 
#50 ·
Added a pop top tent. Re: '81 Spirit 23 in Charlotte, NC

I went ahead and whipped up a basic pop top tent for a little privacy at rest. This is just something i hacked together to get a pattern for when I build a real one from sunbrella with windows and what not.

You can also see the front hatch which I think came out really good.

 
#52 · (Edited)
#53 · (Edited)
What should the overall weight of the centerboard be? Did you glass over the wood?

quote from page 4

--And on a finaly note, I had to plane 1/16 off of my centerboard and added another 5lbs of lead weight at the bottom. There was one bump in the keel cavity that caused it to bind a bit and I wanted to add some more weight anyway. ---
 
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