Good morning all!
It is time for an update since I traveled last week to Washington and much has occurred on WINDFLOWER.
The craftsmen at Pacific Seacraft were treated to Steve's handy work in the removal of the opening ports. Steve wanted to be personally involved in the removal of the opening ports since the interior teak is in excellent condition and the removal of the ports could easily damage the teak cabin sides. Steve perhaps scratched his head as he pondered the best removal technique and he quickly engineered a port light-removal-tool complete with a wood wrench to turn the wing nuts applying equal pressure on the light's mounting sleeve allowing easy removal and no teak was damaged in the process.
Erik Atkins at the well respected Atkins and Hoyle manufacturer of high quality
hatches and port
lights located in Ontario (
Atkins & Hoyle Ltd. - #1 Davits, Cranes, Roll Ons, Hatches, Marine Accessories) has been selected to restore the port
lights to their original splendor of bronze (without the chrome plating) expertly fitted with all new gaskets, seals and new acrylic (reported to be better than Lexan) lenses having a 15% tinting of gray. The port lights leave for Atkins in Canada this week. Also, since Atkins and Hoyle will be restoring the port lights, they have agreed to perform the restoration of all other bronze hardware (
cleats, hawse pipe, etc.) to their bronze finish and looking new or better.
The
winches have also now been removed by Pacific Seacraft along with all the other fittings on the top deck. The
winches are being shipped to Doug Ely at Dakota Marine (
DAKOTA MARINE YACHT SERVICES Great Rates, Great Results) for their Service Special reconditioning the winches. While the winches are being serviced, the bronze exterior components are being stripped of all chrome plating and polished to look new.
The mast and boom are in Washington but soon will be transported to Unique in Raliegh (
www.uniquecoatings.com) and they have the capability to media blast the mast and boom and powder coat to original specs.
Lefiell Manufacturing in California (
Lefiell Manufacturing) has assured me that they have anything and everything for the
rigging and all other parts for the
rig including a new sticker just like the original.
Hopefully this week the mast and boom will be transported about 90 miles to be made like new.
Last week the Yanmar diesel was pulled out of the boat along with the transmission at the PSC factory and I drove to Washington to Savannah to transport the power train to WW Williams (
W. W. Williams) to have the engine completely brought to "as new" condition. The engine only had 2300 hours with a favorable engine survey report but I decided why not have the power plant as fresh as the remainder of the boat. Upon my arrival at their shop, I was told how dependable the 4 hole Yanmar engine has been and I should expect an easy rebuild. Late last week I received a preliminary report from WW and the transmission cooler was reportedly disintegrated upon removal and inspection. No other news to report on mechanics.
WINDFLOWER had a weird looking electric
windlass that was not working during the survey. The former owner claimed a wire was loose. Since it was ugly as sin and not working I opted to replace it with a manual type like the ABI 200012 bronze model which is a work of art in itself. Update: ABI has filed bankruptcy and is no longer in business. After much investigation, I found an email address for the former ABI national sales manager and he supplied me with enough information to find the original supplier of the salty looking bronze manual
windlass. They were supplied by Li Chun Industrial Corporation from Taiwan (
lcic.com :: this domain is for sale.) They are in the process of sending a new shiny windlass in bronze.
I'll wrap it up for now. More to follow since I have A/C, tiller conversion, refrigeration, new sails,
fuel tank removal to inspect and replace with buffer from keel bolts, fiberglass
holding tank tops, and many more items required for WINDFLOWER's factory 09’ refit. Hopefully the information I learn along this project will help other PSC owners that wish to update and or repair their Hall of Fame sailboat.
Regards,
Karlin
WINDFLOWER
37' PSC #198
