[SHNOOL]

Dragged the boat out the other day our only decent day above freezing recently..
What the boat looked like before wash/wax/clean

Here is what it looks like after wash, wet sand, compound, polish and wax... Not too shabby.

 

[SHNOOL]

New name..

I put the registration on too...
But then put up some important info...

Took the lower unit off the outboard... I wasn't going to, because the water stream is still good...

Note the impeller, is missing a vane, and apparently 2 others were cracked. Now I'll be looking for a rebuild kit for the outboard.

 

[SHNOOL]

I have been neglecting this thread. Lots of other work done, but I just did the non-skid area gelcoating, on my repair of the port cockpit seat. First masking off.

Final product, non-skid applied.

 

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I always felt my "sailor skills" were lacking in not knowing how to properly splice double-braid.

I needed to replace all three halyards and my spin topping lift, and it gets tricky cause if I paid someone else to do it, they'd also need to include a snap shackle on at least 2 of them. Increasing the cost considerably... So I took a chance on Youtube, and the nice NER how-tos online. Bought a pusher, and fid for 5/16 line, and then purchased 85 feet of VPC.. the result was this:

Then I took my skills learned with that, and did 2 more... with the shackles I had kicking around.

 

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NER's video is fantastic... Of course what they don't tell you, is 1/2" poly double braid is a touch easier than 5/16" VPC, which is what I spliced.

 

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I spliced just standard sta-set, and honestly it was harder to do than VPC... I bought the sta-set for the pole top lift. Its also a solid color so as to NOT be confused with the halyards.

halyards are in.

I installed a keel roller, to help align the bow to the trailer winch, while hauling out the boat. This was a $30 piece of equipment from trailerpartsdepot...

Finally I installed some starboard on the back of my crib boards, to bring the crib boards out a bit, as I had 1/4" of space in the slot now (my bad)... my longer term solution will be to buy/build out some starboard for new cribs, and I might just make them 2 piece instead of 4 like this. But overall it turned out well.

Especially when you consider this is what I started with:

 

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Ok, this doesn't look real exciting to you folks, but it means the world to me, the traveler is back on, meaning, I'm getting closer... note, I had to totally rebuild the port cockpit seat, right where the traveler attached, so that meant ALL of that had to come out. I am presently working on new foot blocks (that's those teak pieces on either side of the traveler, these are for when heeling you lock your feet on them).. anyway these are worn flat and I have 4 pieces of teak all ready for them. I had to totally remove them for the port side (so they are missing now), but you may see them on the starboard.

For those that followed this thread beginning to end (God bless you), you'll remember I changed how the hatch crib board keepers were done on the boat, this inadvertently added 1/4" to the channel width of what was already 3/4" thick. So to temporarily thicken up those crib boards I added starboard to the backside of them. My longer term goal is to create new crib boards either out of lexan, or starboard (leaning towards starboard right now, but this will suffice in the meantime).

Oh I dragged the outboard out, dropped it in the horse's water trough (cause they need cleaning anyway), and fired it up (took about 6 pulls)... wanted to make sure everything worked correctly, since I installed the waterpump... make sure gearshift and water flowed well... Very happy with this little outboard, its conversational level loud while at low RPM... very quiet little outboard, with lots of spare grunt when I need it... it's a 34 year old outboard right now, and showing no signs of giving up!

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, but my phone was dying, so no flash available. But you'll note my spinnaker pole is now on the foredeck. I installed 2 fixed stand-up padeyes on deck to provide a spot to attach the spinnaker pole on the bow. I had this arrangement on my Capri 25 and I missed it on this boat, having that humongous spinnaker pole down below is a real PITA... on the foredeck it's really pretty out of the way.

probably not real exciting to you, but my mast went back aboard again. Note it was losing most it's paint, and all white and chalky when it was pulled... now it's all black, and shiny (well the paint job just stinks, but I don't care the mast is protected now)

I also fashioned a new mast cradle for the bow pulpit... I hated the one that came with the boat (too heavy and complicated... all one really needs is a board that doesn't slide around, that has a yoke to lay the mast in.... so this is what I came up with... I am going to paint this, and the mast upper I built probably in white after launch this year. I am REALLY happy with how it all functions, so I'll be keeping the designs. I know jumble of lines, but believe it or not it's not tangled, it's a way for me to keep all the lines attached to the spinnaker ring, and unable to pay out... note all this running rigging is new.

I got the outboard running too!

 

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Well some more unexciting but totally unnecessary work done... PINSTRIPING! Yeah, no matter what I did, the location of the old pinstripes left a "shadow" on the gelcoat. This puzzled me because I thought I'd be able to sand out the gelcoat and remove the shadow... not so much.. but the solution was simple, buy new striping, the same size or larger than the original, and cover the exact location they were in. I think it works and the color scheme is complimentary...

Here is my ugly port side (I still need to do more gelcoat work on that widest spot on the beam, which is gonna wait until next winter), gray areas in the rest is actually just compounding dirt.

Close-up of port bow...

Starboard shot...

Obligatory outside shot of the stern. I'm not real happy about covering up the lettering by the ladder, so I might do the name on the aft quarters... at another time.

OK, I have lev-o-gauges (heel angle and trim angle), drink holders (2), a flicker and synthetic cascading backstay to go on, and finally I have to put my club number on the bow (6" boat number "57")... then I am ready to splash (I hope).

 

[SHNOOL]

More toys today.

Cupholders..

Flicker built (the S2 7.9 has a roachy main, sometimes interferes with the backstay, so a flicker is helpful).

Flicker from above

Cascaded backstay installed, note it's adjustable from both sides.

You'll note 4:1 backstay adjuster in this picture, and also that I put in a continuous traveler adjustment line.

 

[SHNOOL]

I am in... the mast went up nicely, backstay adjuster is working well, and I got everything working... I split my pull cord on the outboard but it started, so I used it as it was, and it did what I needed, I'll restring it this weekend.