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| This problem was found under the anchor platform. |
Good question! We continue to work on the boat. By now, we thought it would have been in the water, but each minor project seems to turn into a time consuming affair. Take the bow pulpit for instance. In an effort to spruce it up and give it more life, I thought it should be varnished. All of the hardware had to be removed, including the grill receiver, anchor lock, cleats, Sampson post and bow roller. To repair a stress crack in the gelcoat, I needed to remove the whole anchor platform. Two of the bolts were seized and the heads broke off. When I finally got the assemble off, I found major delamination. In addition to the stress crack, I now have to repair the area under the platform.
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| Repair of a "minor" stress crack turned into this. |
I found another problem while attempting to repair a stress crack in the radius where the cabin house meets the deck. While grinding fiberglass to address the stress crack, water started pouring out. I continued to grind away until all the water was released. The small six inch crack turned into an eighteen inch area that will need new glass and gelcoat.
Anna Marie apparently wasn't impressed with the ceiling (after I spent thirty hours sanding and polishing it) so she painted it. Actually, she misunderstood my request to do two little touch up spots while she had the paint open for the project she was doing. The paint job didn't turn out well, probably because she applied the paint to the freshly waxed ceiling. She removed some of the paint, but I couldn't devote another thirty hours to sanding the rest of the paint off so we repainted but this time the ceiling was properly prepared. It looks much better and after the third coat.
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| Small stress crack under repair. |
The head interior is finished and the Airhead composting toilet is installed. I used the old holding tank pump out deck fitting for the vent. I just need to finish the custom made cap to keep water out. The vent fan will be powered by a reacharable 12 volt motorcycle battery. It won't draw power from the house battery and I can hook up a solar charger to it when it needs to be charged.
In the meantime, all of the exterior handrails, hatch boards and navigation light boxes have been sanded and have had seven coats of varnish. They look great. The trim and doors are all that's left. It should take a day to sand and three or four days to apply seven coats of varnish.
I also removed the starboard picture window and I have to take out the port window again. It seems that one corner still had a leak. I'm not sure if my caulk job is the culprit. The gaskets are pretty we'll deteriorated and may be causing the problem. We are going to take the windows to a glass plans to have the gaskets replaced.
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| Airhead vent |
I'll need a couple sunny, light wind days to do the fiberglass work. Then we should be pretty close to a launch date. Of course I still have to finish oiling the interior paneling, reinstall light fixtures, install the new fans, but that should take too long.
Finally, there is some sad news to report. The Mallard eggs were expected to hatch sometime on Memorial Day weekend. Early Saturday morning, just before sunrise, the hen flew away, presumably to feed. While she was gone, crows swooped down and devoured the eggs before we could do anything about it. The hen returned shortly to discover her eggs smashed. She hung around for several hours but our activities (cleaning the deck and furniture) convinced her to nest elsewhere.
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| The teak box covering the Airhead vent needs a teak cap. |
Hopefully she'll have better luck with her new nest.
