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Boat rebuild rant.... AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

2K views 17 replies 15 participants last post by  Capnblu 
#1 ·
Time to take a break! I have achieved DEFCON 1 level of frustration.

I have been rebuilding a Stiletto racing cat over the last several months. I knew it would be off the water for a while. I knew it would be many man hours of work and many dollars from my pocket. But DAMN!!!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

I swear it seems like forces are conspiring against me. Did I offend some supreme being or something? Did I cut off a buddist monk in traffic? Some bad Karma back from a past misdeed???

If a part breaks or needs replacing it will of course be extremely expensive (usually for no reason), extremely rare, or extremely difficult to remove.

If I manage to find the part, it will either be extremely difficult to replace, not fit as designed, be damaged while attempting to fit it as designed, or just frankly be the wrong part.

Lately here in good ol' Southwest Florida, it has been raining every G*D D*MN day AND feels about 1000 degrees thanks to about 99% humidity. I particularly enjoy working in the forward hull, with no ventilation, with solvents, with temperatures that would make a sauna jealous, with buckets of sweat in my eyes, while trying to tighten a through bolt in the farmost corner of the bow where I have about 2 degrees of room to turn the wrench. 20 minutes in and I have advanced the nut down the bolt by 1/2" YES!! What progress!!! And such comfortable conditions to boot!!!

Oh, I forgot to mention. After I paid enough money to buy a small country for a new paint job, I now get to screw it all up by walking on the deck after accidently stepping in 3m 5200...Black of course! Accidently tightening a through bolt too tight and crushing the core while pulling in a huge 3" divot into the hull. (tried to save some effort with a power drill to drive the bolt and had the clutch set too high....cause I wasn't thinking thanks to a body temp of about 125 degrees or so)
Or, my favorite development. Modifing a boat stand with an angle grinder. All seems fine until I notice after the rare and unusual rain here in FL that apparently all the steel fillings have floated accross the driveway and around to the boat pad and have settled on the boat finish....leaving of course thousands of tiny rust stains!!!

Or how about the metal top coat that proved incompatible with the Zinc Chromate primer.... so everything had to be sanded down and redone.

Or, trying to save time by having the old paint sandblasted and having the moron blast the cr*p out of my stainless fittings so they look an old fishing lure one might find on an old gravel road.

Or, trying to replace my wire halyards but discovering that apparently the original manufacturer was trying to break some record by making the world's most skinny sheave (of course impossible to find) and placing it in the world's most narrow mast head slot (so any normal WIDER sheave replacement would be impossible)

Or, finding that some moron tried to pull a giant cable up through the mast conduit... got it stuck.. cut it off flush and pushed into the mast. Thus preventing me from being able to replace any of the existing mast wires. Including a VHF cable that looks circa 1901. Oh, and the non-refundable EXPENSIVE LED deck lights I bought.... Well unless I just dangle the wires down the side of the mast... I guess that won't be happening.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

I swear I am a few seconds away from discovering how fast an epoxy hull can burn down!!!:hothead :hothead :hothead

Time for a drink and a good sail..... Of that's right I can't 'cause my boat in in 2000 pieces!!!:rolleyes: :mad:
 
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#2 ·
here is mine

yanmar 1 gm head, needs a rebuild. take it out to the guru that i have had recommened several places. that was 2 months ago, now i cant get him to answer the phone. well i did once and his excuse was jury duty, for 2 weeks on a dui case. i call all hours of the day and no answer. when i dropped it off i did talk to him on the phone " ya i will be here all day " so i go and there is anote on the door saying will be back in 15 mins, 2 hours later he showed up... of coarse it was after i left.
 
#5 ·
Six - step away from the stiletto!

Jeez, dude. Dennis Leary couldn't have thrown down a better rant.

That's some seriously harsh mojo.

Take a deep breath. Drink a lot of rum. Sail on somebody else's boat. Remember why you went down this road in the first place. Drink a lot more rum.

Then finish that bad boy and sail! Hang in there bro.
 
#7 · (Edited)
There is no such thing as a re-fit...just varying degrees of a complete rebuild..................experience teaches us that starts at about 50%


Funny post though.........as they say misery loves company.....here.... have a Beer!..:)
 
#8 ·
STOP! Step away for a while and do like daddy says and go sailing on someone else's boat. We've all been there and done that. Ok, you've done it all at once, but think of all the great stories that you'll have at the tiki bar when some yutz looks at how great your baot is and says that he'd like to buy a fixer-upper someday. This stuff is priceless! :)

Seriously, I've run into the same thing. It happens most when I'm uncomfortable, rushing, tired, hungry, have to go to the bathroom...... I learned after a long time that I can actually feel when I'm headed down a bad path and have learned to just stop and come at it on another day.

What you're feeling is normal. Especially for a sailor.

Take a run, get a drink, and go look at a sunset.

BTW, I don't think that epoxy burns as well as fibreglass. But your fittings will be easier to reach. :laugher
 
#10 ·
SiXeVeN,

I feel your pain. My boat is in the yard recovering from a recent lightning strike. Meanwhile, I'm missing out on some of the best sailing weekends of the year here on the lower Chesapeake. If you are looking for someone to talk to about hard to find Stiletto parts, you might try this blog:

Sail Delmarva

He's moved up to a PDQ 32 now, but had a Stiletto for many years. He's on this forum or possibly Cruisersforum, can't remember which. His blog is good and I'm sure he'd be happy to help.

Chris
 
#13 ·
WOW, after reading this i feel like my refit is going quite well... Im sorry that your having so much trouble and if you were close i would give you a hand. Its amusing that some ones else can just walk up a fix what ever has been killing you for hours.. And yes, i have to agree Rum helps ...lots.
 
#15 ·
I feel you!

It's been 105-110 degrees here (Riverside California) for most of the summer, and usually about 10 degrees hotter inside the boat. I thought my $800 Catalina 22 was basically ready to sail when I bought it, but I since learned it needs major work on just about everything.

My "favorite" job so far was reinforcing the collapsed cockpit seat from underneath with epoxy. It was about 120 degrees, no way to get air circulation, and working in an area with just enough room to fit my body in the fetal position and try to keep epoxy from dripping on my clothes.

Now I've learned that ALL of the deck fittings leak, as the previous owner removed them all for a paint job and "resealed" them. He used NO SEALANT on wood items, and silicon on metal and plastic. The water leaked into the core and now the decks are soft around almost all of the fittings, especially the teak handrails.
 
#16 ·
The next time you rebuild a boat it will go much faster!
:D :D :D :D :D :D :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I shudder to even consider such an evil thought!!!

I figure I am going to take the week off to decompress and then start to hit it again next weekend. A few beers along the way will probably help too;)

On a positive note, I did manage to reglass my centerboard with a very nice result... I'm still holding my breath to discover what disaster will still occur to it (burst into flames, eaten by mutant termites, etc,) but thus far, it looks quite nice!
 
#18 ·
The worst thing to do when working on a boat is to take a day off, sometimes you never start again. Take it from me, work on it 7 days a week, plan ahead, make lists. When you feel frustrated, take something out that doesn't need to be done right away, and fix it ahead of time, like a night job. You will feel like you accomplished something, and speed up the completion in the long run. By making a master list you can imagine your way through your project, and prioritize the different jobs.
 
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