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I hate winter, but at least it forces me to maintain the boat instead of sailing the keel off of her.
I'm going to attack cosmetic issues as much as my wallet will let me.
I've started off Cetol'ing all the brightwork, and I'll brag that it's looking great already.
I've already made 2 soft shackles from 1/4" Amsteel line (breaking strength > 8000 lbs). Soft Shackles
I'll probably have quite a few come spring when I can start messing with the boat snot (epoxy & glass) again. Too cold now for epoxy or Cetol so both will wait for a warm March/April.
Luckily(?) all of my epoxy and Cetol projects are small enough to be removed from the boat, and refinished in my garage or house where I can control the climate.
I'll have to wait until spring to Cetol the teak islands on top of the coamings, but the rest will be done at home.
New pelican hooks on the lifelines, replacing cotter pins, adding a mid-ship cleat and a whole host of minor issues that came up on my survey this summer.
For starters: sanding most of the interior and refinishing it, replacing rotten shelving, replacing holding tank hoses, troubleshooting radar system, relocating GPS, installing depth transducer, troubleshooting fuel gauge, tracking down leaks to figure out where to start rebedding, removing hot water heater for testing and possible repair/replacement.
This season, I used the notepad on my iPhone to enter squawks and needed supplies all season long. Unbelievable how long it got. I have not even sat down to look it over and sort out what's going to be done over the winter.
Sanding and refinishing the wood on the interior. Will show before and after photos when we are done. Also making three bags to store our winter canvas cover, that are clearly marked "section A/B/C" to make putting it on go more smoothly!
I'm waiting for spring so that I can rebed the hull/deck joint on the port side of my boat. I did the starboard side in early fall and it eliminated the last couple of leaks that I had on that side of the boat and gave me a chance to refinish the toerails.
My only winter project is a quick haul to change my prop from a fixed one to a feathering one.
We don't haul out here (Seattle) and I still sail an average of once per week.
The thing about winter maintenance season is that on the calendar it looks to be 5 months long. But it really is only about 1 month when you figure in the weather and that makes for a busy time.
You crack me up. I've always enjoyed your posts about your extended cruises around the Bay. We need to meet up for a drink this winter, somehow.
Here's a sample of my Cetol wood work project.
Crappy cell phone pic, in crappy, fluorescent lighting. When viewed in daylight, or incandescent lighting, I think it looks pretty good.
I was only half-kidding about the rococo thing; my daughter and I were at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore last week and it was inspiring. At the very least I've sworn to finally finish replacing/covering up the damaged teak veneer on my bulkheads and covering the cushions with something that's not ghastly bright blue sunbrella.
Re-powering (beta 50), replumbing the fresh water system to add foot pumps and a sea gull filter, adding solar panels, rebedding a couple of port lights, adding radar/chartplotter, refinishing some interior teak, install HF radio (incl tuner and antenna), installing lee cloths, modifying a locker for line storage, and a handful of minor things.
Should be enough to keep us busy for the winter! Anyone wanna help?
So far, I've only managed to wash one little piece of canvas. Holidays are too hectic. I tell myself, I will dig in after New Year's. Next thing I know, its Mar 1 and I begin commissioning for an Apr 1 launch and I get a very small number of things done in what really amounts to 60 days from Jan 1 to Feb 28.
I applied 3 coats of Cetol Natural, followed by one, liberal coat of Cetol Gloss.
The Gloss topcoat is to provide UV stability to prevent the Cetol Natural from changing color, and gives the wood a nice bit of shine.
I am NOT going for a 10 inch deep gloss coat. The boat is not a Hinckley.
I'll settle for going from "crap" to "much improved".
Cetol has a gotten a bad rap over the years, for its funky, orange color. Newer Cetol products like Cetol Natural, and Cetol Light look fantastic, and are nearly as durable as Interlux Perfection for a fraction of the cost.
The initial application is a bit of a pain, but the annual maintenance is much easier than traditional varnish. That, and the cost is why I chose Cetol.
Bubble, I used Cetol on my old boat and really liked it. It's a good compromise between easy to use and durability. But my question was actually about what kind of wood you used on the boards!
My boat had the original, teak cabintop grab rails. The port rail crumbled in my hands as I removed it yesterday. Total dry rot. I have brand new replacements for these, and wasn't trying to save them.
I am encountering a little frustration with re-bedding stanchions and the bow pulpit. I bedded them in butyl, but the fastening nuts backed off quite a ways, on several of these pieces, so the hardware moved on the deck, and a little water dripped in anyways.
I am obviously going to have replace the nuts with nylon-insert nuts, or at least add lock washers to maintain tension on the nuts, to keep these deck fittings secure.
Any comments?
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