What I'm doing with my boat, 2011, before Spring (hopefully)

jbarnes · Post by **jbarnes** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 2:37 pm

I totally agree that the Wanderer aught to be more sea kindly in rough weather than a light displacement boat. In pondering the righting ability, I only mean in comparison to another boat of similar displacement, where the deeper draft would inherently provide a greater righting arm. My understanding of centerboard architecture is that they are often designed with a greater ballast/disp ratio to compensate for this shorter moment arm. When I compare the numbers for the Wanderer vs Coaster, I see that the Wanderer B/D is 39% vs Coaster 37%. My calcs based on this website:

http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=932

Rachel, I have also noticed the modest changes in the Wanderer cockpit design, and it was good to mention. In regards to the cabin top, from what I have seen online, the Wanderer is unusual (in boats 30 feet and less) in having over 9 feet of cabin top between mast and cockpit. I should qualify my remarks because I am interested in boats that have full keels, decent interior volume, and do not cost a fortune, so that very much limits the field of comparison. It would be interesting to know the actual Coaster and Wanderer cabin top lengths (mast to cockpit), in case there are any Coaster owners listing in. My statements on the subject are all based on what I can glean online.

Appreciate the input, I don't mind being proven wrong..

I am a fan of the Wanderer and hope I haven't taken us too far off topic.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 3:45 pm

Rachel wrote:I will say that -- considering your dinghy-on-cabintop desire -- the Coaster/Wanderer give you less cabin-top dinghy space than some of the slightly smaller boats (similar 28 and 29 footers), from what I have seen.

The P.O. of my boat kept an 8-foot stitch-and-glue marine ply dinghy on the foredeck. I think I posted a pic of that here a while back. Lemme go check.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 3:48 pm

OK, nope, looks like I never posted it here.

This is a pic the P.O. provided when he was advertising the boat for sale, and I just kept it - you can see the dinghy on the foredeck:

And the P.O. and his wife in the water....

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 3:50 pm

Let me know what data points or photos you might like to see and I'll write myself a note to collect the info next time I head up to the boatyard (probably next weekend; it's supposed to be too ridiculously bloody hot this weekend again to go up there and work on her).

jbarnes · Post by **jbarnes** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 4:22 pm

What a beautiful sheer line. I'm sure it is in the eye of the beholder.

Bill thanks for the offer. I would be interested in that measurement from aft end of mast to break between cabin and cockpit. I would also be curious to see a picture of the bilge area under the engine, although the access may limit what can be seen. Just interested to see how much room there is under there to work with, is there enough to store a storm anchor, that type of thing.

I understand about the weather. I have a shed project this weekend and figure I will have to work around the hot part of the day.

James

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 5:25 pm

ILikeRust wrote:
The P.O. of my boat kept an 8-foot stitch-and-glue marine ply dinghy on the foredeck. I think I posted a pic of that here a while back.

Hi Bill,

I had seen that photo. I should have clarified, but when someone says they want to put a dinghy on the cabintop of a smaller boat, I figure they mean between the mast and the forward edge of the companionway, vs. on the foredeck and part of the forward coach roof. In that respect, the Coaster/Wanderer have a wee bit less space than other similar boats, because the mast is not over the forward main bulkhead, but instead closer to the after bulkhead.

That's not to say I don't think they are great boats though, and I have looked at a few Coasters very seriously.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 6:00 pm

jbarnes wrote:I would be interested in that measurement from aft end of mast to break between cabin and cockpit. I would also be curious to see a picture of the bilge area under the engine, although the access may limit what can be seen. Just interested to see how much room there is under there to work with, is there enough to store a storm anchor, that type of thing.

It would be an awkward space to try to use for storage of anything, really. And in the event that any water got inside (e.g., from the stuffing box), it would be sitting in a puddle.

The P.O. stored stuff under the shallow "bilge" area around the centerboard. He had a spare tiller, a flagstaff, and a couple other similar long, skinny items jammed in there. Of course, he had a heck of a lot of stuff stuffed into every nook and cranny on the boat. The boat actually has a pretty decent amount of storage space, so I don't think you'd need to try to jam an anchor under the engine.

The space under the engine is awkward to access, narrow and deep and very difficult to see into, so in my opinion, it would make a lousy storage space.

jbarnes · Post by **jbarnes** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 1:24 pm

Yeah, I realized after I had posted that it did not make much sense to use as storage. I am trying to visualize it as if there were no engine. I'm one of those fans of the Pardey's who argue that a small outboard, while less convenient, is also less fuss to maintain than an inboard. No offense intended after your fine rework of that engine.

I recall that you have a drive to get to the boatyard. Did you consider hauling the boat closer to Richmond, up the James river? I don't know of any specific yards in that area, I just know how a drive makes every project take that much more effort.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 2:45 pm

jbarnes wrote: Did you consider hauling the boat closer to Richmond, up the James river?

Nope.

The boatyard where it currently sits is right across the Piankatank and Hills Bay from the marina where I usually keep it. I originally planned to have her on the hard only for about 3-4 months. It just snowballed a bit into a bigger project than I had originally thought, and everything is taking longer than I thought it would.

I'll have her back in the water within a month - gotta do it by the end of August.

triton318 · Post by **triton318** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 5:19 pm

ILikeRust wrote:
jbarnes wrote:...and everything is taking longer than I thought it would.

I know, right? After two restorations, I find it difficult now to estimate the passage of time.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:35 pm

So of course, August has come and gone.

But I now am getting closer and closer to actually having the boat ready for launch.

I spent all day last Sunday and all day today up there working on her.

Here is how the engine looked at the end of last weekend - I started hooking up the brand-new heat exhanger and new raw water pump, for the new fresh-water cooling system.

You can also see the new battery box I built, over on the right side of the pic. The two house batteries go in there.

Today I did a bunch of random things - but they're all items that need to be done before I can splash the boat, so as long as things are getting done, it's valid progress, and that's all that matters.

The only thing I took a pic of today is the new bulkhead sitting in place while I was test-fitting it:

A vast improvement over the ugly thing that was there before.

Still lots to do, but definitely closer to having the engine ready to run. I'll be up there again next weekend, doing the wiring and installing new gauges and stuff.

And just to prove that it does occasionally happen - last weekend my wifey came along with me and was a great help in making the old weatherbeaten cabin-top grab rails look a lot better:

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 3:52 pm

I really need to delete the "before spring" from the title of this thread...

Anyhow, after not making the trek up to the boat for about the past month, due to various other pressing matters, including a case of the "I don't wanna's", I finally made it back up there this Saturday, hooked up the hot section of the exhaust (temporarily) and fired up the engine.

Because I messed up using the video camera, although I thought I was getting all kinds of good video, this is all I took that was usable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5ISIkNcIbk

Long story short, she fired right up surprisingly easily, ran like a champ and purred like a kitten.

I have a few things hooked up "temporarily," so I still have a bunch of neatening up to do, and a few things to square away before dropping the boat back in the water, but I hope to splash it before the year is up. I'll keep working on it in the slip and then I'll be ready for early spring sailing (which can be February, depending on the weather!).

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 10:17 pm

Made another run up to the boat today. Just did a few small things - over the past week, I had managed to convince myself that I had forgotten to close the forward hatch last time. So I had all these visions of a boat full of water and leaves. Fortunately, when I arrived, I discovered I actually had closed it, but obviously just didn't recall doing it.

Anyhow, one of the things I wanted to take a look at was the outhaul on the main boom. Back over the summer, when I hoisted my new main sail just to see how it looked, I noticed that the outhaul wouldn't stay taut. The boom is a roller-reefing one, and the outhaul is a steel cable that travels inside the hollow boom to an internal winch at the front end of the boom. I'm assuming that it's simply a matter of the little ratcheting mechanism being dirty or slightly corroded and stuck.

I tried to take it apart on the deck, but couldn't get any of the screws to budge. It was starting to get close to the time I wanted to go home, so I decided to just take whole damn boom home so I could work on it more easily in my workshop, with more tools and stuff available. So I removed the boom and stuck it through the rear window of my pickup and let it lay out over the hard tonneau cover on the bed. I strapped it down to the trailer hitch. Made it home just fine.

So now I have yet another boat-related project to work on.

When I was up there two weeks ago, I had also removed the shifter cable that shifts the Paragon reversing gear from forward to neutral to reverse, because the cable had seized up and I couldn't budge it at all. It was a real bear to remove, because it was held in to the boat with a small U-bolt at each end, and the lower one was under the gas tank, under the cockpit. To get at it, I had to wiggle head-first into the starboard quarterberth and slide all the way back until I was very nearly at the transom. Then I had to bend a little and reach forward under the gas tank. I had to do it mostly by feel, because I couldn't see what I was doing while I was doing it.

Anyhow, I took the cable home and got it freed up and moving, and injected a mess of fresh grease in the grease fittings until it now moves smoothly and easily. So today I took it back up there and re-installed (almost giving myself some kind of injury contorting myself in there again to tighten that little U-bolt back down. It's all hooked up now.

Still have lots to do, of course...

radicalcy · Post by **radicalcy** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 11:22 pm

Somewhere it must be written that the number one requirement to owning a sailboat, is that one must be a masochist. I still have hematomae from my last visit almost 3 weeks ago. And it wasn't even MY lazerette. It was my dock neighbors exhaust system. It's odd; he's about 5'8" and says he can't fit in the space, but I'm 6'1"......Masochist.....

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 4:13 am

ILikeRust wrote:So I removed the boom ...Made it home just fine.
So now I have yet another boat-related project to work on.

But this time with no commute. That's nice!

radicalcy wrote:Somewhere it must be written that the number one requirement to owning a sailboat, is that one must be a masochist. I still have hematomae from my last visit almost 3 weeks ago.

I had an odd/funny experience with that a few years ago. I went in for my annual physical, and partway through, the doctor gave me a slight "look" and then asked about all the bruises on my arms (which of course I had not really noticed until just that moment). Yeah, okay, it did look a bit odd, as I had a bunch of red/purple bruises on the edges of both of my forearms, in a bit of a line. I drew a complete blank as to how they might have happened, which of course just made it sound worse "Hmm, erm, no, I have no idea... really." I don't blame the doctor, as it's part of the job, but I did get a few "And how are things at home?" sort of questions.

Anyway, we moved on through the rest of the appointment, and just before we finished it (finally!) suddenly hit me. "Wait, I know how I got the bruises!" I think the explanation was just weird enough that he believed me.

On my A-30 the winch stands were hollow, molded fiberglass "shapes" with cutouts on the forward and after sides for access to the nuts. I had taken my winches on and off, which of course required jointed forearms that I don't happen to have. So in the process I had to reach in and then *bend* my non-bendable forearms in order to remove/replace the nuts. The thin edge of the fiberglass winch stand cutout had given me a row of bruises where the "arm hinges" should have been.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:44 am

radicalcy wrote:Somewhere it must be written that the number one requirement to owning a sailboat, is that one must be a masochist. I still have hematomae from my last visit almost 3 weeks ago. And it wasn't even MY lazerette. It was my dock neighbors exhaust system. It's odd; he's about 5'8" and says he can't fit in the space, but I'm 6'1"......Masochist.....

Seriously. I was so far aft that I was hanging off the tail end of the quarterberth. There is a small fiddle, intended to keep the berth cushion in place. I was halfway off the end of the quarterberth, and the cushions are long gone, so I was lying right on the plywood, and that little fiddle was cutting straight across my ribs, or if I moved a little bit, my midriff. Or my spine. Lovely.

I shoved a PFD under myself, which made it only slightly more tolerable, because now I was trying to bend backwards over a big hump, while twisting around to look forwards again under the gas tank.

My hands are all torn up. I did it mostly by feel. But it's done.

Masochism is only the half of it. An unlimited wallet would be nice, too.

radicalcy · Post by **radicalcy** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:00 am

You should try doing it with a non - existent wallet!!!! I do! lol

bigd14 · Post by **bigd14** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 5:45 pm

Too funny. I was just wondering why my knee hurts and where the big bruise on my shoulder could have come from. Then I remembered that I spent much of Saturday tying myself in knots in the lazarette working on the new fuel tank. I also made the mistake of adding some non skid tape to the edge of the stairs and the first time I descended I found out that I tend to slide my leg down the edge of the ladder (I wear shorts at the boat) so now I have roadrash on the back of both ankles! I figure its not a successful day of work on the boat unless some form of physical trauma is incurred. Soldier on!

earlylight · Post by **earlylight** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 5:55 pm

As my father told me many years ago, no boat project is complete 'till you have drawn blood.

radicalcy · Post by **radicalcy** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:02 pm

One of the skippers that I raced with told me that I wasn't a real racer until I'd drawn blood. So I hit him with a hammer........

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:59 pm

Oh Happy Day!

So barring any unforeseen catastrophes, on Monday my boat will be getting its bum wet for the first time in 13 months.

I had a lot to do to prepare her for launch, so today I went up to the boatyard for a day of non-stop work. It was a really nice day today, so I wasn't freezing or getting rained on.

I installed my custom-built bulkhead in front of the engine, to hang the heat exchanger and expansion bottle. I had to drill a hole to run a battery wire that I had temporarily hooked up before. I also checked the fit of the new battery box lid I had made, and it fit perfectly, which is nice. Now I just need to paint it.

I hooked up a hose to engine raw water intake and fired up the engine. It was very gratifying that she fired up after just a few seconds of cranking with the choke on, after having sat for about 3 months. And even then, the last time I ran the engine, it ran for only about 20 minutes.

I let it run for a good, solid half-hour to get up to temp and charge the batteries. The temp seemed to stabilize around 170, and the O.P. was around 40 once it got up to temp. She ran smooth, purring like a kitten. I think I need to slow the idle down just a tad, though.

When I first started the engine up, after it got going, I suddenly heard a loud, low moaning sound vibrating through the whole boat. If I had not already read about it at the Moyer Atomic 4 forum, I would have been freaking out and wondering "what the HELL is that???" Fortunately, thanks to the Moyer forum, I knew immediately it was the prop shaft turning slowly in a dry cutless bearing, so I quickly grabbed the gearshift lever and pushed it into neutral, and the noise immediately stopped.

While the engine was running, I re-installed the boom.

I then unpacked the headsail and ran it up the furler. To my dismay, it's got some mildew spots, so when I get to the slip, I'll pull it down and give it a little washing at the dock.

Then I put on my brand-spanking new, never-been sailed, custom-made main sail. That was a bear, because it's very stiff. I then covered it with my brand-spanking new, never-been-used, custom-made sail cover, which was a bear because the sail was so stiff it was hard to get the skinny part of the sail cover closed. But it looks about 983 times better than the old, worn-out old sail cover.

I also installed a new chain pipe for the anchor chain - the old one had lost its lid and I could not find a new one that fit, so I just bought a whole new pipe and lid. It's one of the very, very few sparkly shiny things on the deck now.

Then I gave the entire deck and cabin a good scrubbing, because it had gotten dirty and a little mildewy from sitting in the boatyard for so long. Once I get the boat back in the slip, I think I will drag my pressure washer up to the marina and pressure wash the deck to get rid of some stubborn spots.

There still are a few things to do before she goes into the water and we cruise to the marina - I will do those things Monday morning and we should be able to splash her by mid-day. Then it's only about a 2-3 mile cruise across the Piankatank River from Jackson Creek down to Queens Creek, but I'm going to seriously enjoy getting her out there in the open water!

The only thing that might put a little kink in the plans is the weather. It was 60 degrees and beautifully sunny today, and the temp is supposed to drop rapidly tonight and then tomorrow we're supposedly going to get 2-4 inches of snow. I'll believe it when I see it. This being Richmond, even if we get it, it should melt by Monday.

radicalcy · Post by **radicalcy** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 9:29 pm

Save yourself some time and trouble. Instead of the pressure washer, buy a bottle of MaryKates deck cleaner. Splash it on, work it a little with a brush, and rinse it off. If that doesn't do it...bleach and water, about 50/50. Let it soak a few minutes, and rinse well. The pressure washer is always a hassle.....

Crazer · Post by **Crazer** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:23 pm

Congrats, Bill! I expect lots of photos of the big day. :) It gives me a lot of inspiration for getting my own boat in the water.

radicalcy · Post by **radicalcy** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:32 pm

Hijacking the thread here. I sold my Columbia Sabre today. Still have the 8.7, but looking at a Bristol 40 yawl. Any body know anything about them?

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:36 pm

Don't know anything about that particular model, but I know that every Bristol boat I've seen has been a very nice, solid-looking boat. I think there's a Bristol for sale at DBY.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:51 pm

Well as I stated at the beginning of this thread, my boat did get its bum wet today - although there were indeed some "unforseen circumstances."

There were several things to take care of prior to launch - nothing major, really. The "biggest" thing was to replace the centerboard pennant. The plan was to lift the boat in the travel lift, drop the centerboard, pull the old line out with the new line attached, and make an eye splice in the new line and attach it to the centerboard. Then the yard guys would paint the centerboard and then we would splash the boat and be on our merry way.

If, if, if only things ever would work out so smoothly as planned, in the real world.

In the real world, it goes like this:

The travel lift comes over and picks the boat up. The idea is they'll pick it up slowly and the centerboard will lower as the boat is lifted. I'm inside the boat, feeding the new pennant line through, attached to the old.

They hoist the boat with me in it, and they yell up "lower the centerboard!" Meanwhile, I'm up there wondering why the line isn't moving. After some yelling back and forth to be heard over the roar of the travel lift's diesel engine, we realize it's not lowering any more than it is (about 45 degrees), which is not enough to get at the fitting where the line attaches.

So I yell down to my buddy who came along with me to help sail the boat back to my slip to put the ladder back up so I can come down and see what's going on down there.

That's him holding the ladder and me up on the stern of the boat, waiting. Check out that new bimini - brand-spanking new, custom made last year. This is the first time it's been up. We set it up this morning before the lift came over.

So I go down and reach my hand up inside the centerboard trunk and find the old line and pull it down, until I can't get any more out. And we still can't get at the fitting where the line attaches to the centerboard, because it's still up inside the trunk.

I'm thinking something's wrong - why won't the centerboard lower any more? We all peer up in there and determine that, in fact, that is as low as the centerboard is designed to go.

Then I say, "Well, if you guys can lift it, I can pull out the pin."

OK, all agree.

So I go back up the ladder (a motion I was to repeat many times today - I am sure my legs will be screaming at me tomorrow) and into the boat - recall that there is no sole in the cabin, because I tore it out last year and have yet to replace it with anything. This becomes even more important later in our story, but it proved itself to be a major advantage, because it was exceedingly easy to get at the fittings that cover the centerboard pin.

The fittings are basically two chunks of fat bronze pipe - one on either side of the trunk, each with a cap threaded on. I grabbed a pipe wrench and unscrewed them both and discovered that the pin is just a fat hunk of bronze rod.

The guys below yelled up "OK!" and I pushed the rod right out easily. They lowered the board to the ground, trailing the old pennant line.

They pulled on the old line to pull the new line through, but it would get part way through and then jam. Apparently, the hole was just barely wide enough for the diameter of the line itself, but nothing more. No matter what we did, we couldn't get the line through. So we all thought deeply on the matter (meanwhile, I had little $$ symbols floating out of the top of my head, as the boat sat there hanging in the slings with the engine of the travel lift running).

We decided to cut the line off the centerboard and tie a smaller line on to it, then use that smaller line to pull the new line through.

I went down to see what was going on. Then when we thought we were ready, I ran back up the ladder ... again....

Check out that bimini - nice, huh?

By the way, if anyone ever asks you, "Say, do you know what the centerboard of a 1968 Pearson Wanderer looks like?", you can answer, "Why, in fact, I do. And in fact, I can show you a photo of one. It looks very much like - indeed, it looks exactly like - this:" and you can then show them this photo:

And this one:

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:51 pm

So...

We cut that line off, attached a thin string to it (whipping thread, actually) and pulled that up into the boat. I was back up inside the boat, remember? I then tried to attach that little thread to the new line and yelled out (screamed, actually, to be heard over the roar of the damn travel lift engine through the thick solid fiberglass hull) to give it another try.

My buddy stepped up to assist - he stood on the ladder and yelled at me through the open companionway and yelled at the rigger who was on the ground under the boat:

See me in that photo? Well of course not. I'm directly above the guy who's sitting on the ground in the Tyvek suit. You can't see me because I'm on my hands and knees in the bilge of my boat.

I must say, the rigger was a decent fellow. He certainly was no spring chicken, but he crawled around under the boat and up and down the ladder a few times and on his hands and knees in the bilge... and remained very "well, let's figure this out" throughout the whole thing.

So...

The thread could not pull the new line through, and in fact it broke, and now we had no line going through the hole. So now we had to start from scratch.

So he tried poking a wire up in there:

And I tried poking one down from above.

And this story goes on for 2 hours.

Yes. 2 hours. Cha-ching. Cha-ching. Engine on the travel lift running, boat hanging in mid-air; the yard guys go take their lunch break; I'm on my hands and knees in the bilge, poking a wire into a hole that goes no where.

Very long story only slightly less long, the rigger finally does what he should have done to begin with - he gets a giant, long drill bit.

Turns out the hole was full of barnacles.

What hole, you ask? This hole:

I pointed the camera directly up inside the centerboard trunk for that shot.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:52 pm

So once he drilled the barnacles out of the hole (and I'm skipping all kinds of adventures in cuss words and various tries and attempts to get a wire or something through that damn hole), it was easy to pull the new line through. Then he said, "OK, well now I can do what it was I was originally called over here to do."

And in about 5 minutes, he made a lovely neat eye-splice in the new line and attached it to the fitting:

Then we had to sit and wait for yard guy #2 and yard guy #3 to come over with the paint, to paint the inside of the centerboard trunk and the centerboard itself. At this point, the boat had been in the slings for probably around 3 hours.

They painted the CB and trunk and a few other spots here and there. Then came time to lift the centerboard back up and put the pin in.

Oh geez, I'm thinking to myself - this should be an adventure, after everything else up to this point.

To my amazement, it went right in, first try - took only a few seconds.

BTW, if anyone ever should ask you, "I say, you wouldn't happen to know what the bronze pin that holds in the centerboard of a 1968 Pearson Wanderer looks like, would you?", you can respond cheerfully and with great confidence, "In, fact, curiously enough, I actually do!" and you can show them this photo:

So OK, after sitting around and climbing up and down the ladder and cursing at hidden and highly inaccessible barnacles and pushing wires and pulling ropes for hours, it now seemed like we might actually get the blasted boat in the water. Which was a good thing, because we figured it was going to take us at least an hour to get the boat out of Jackson Creek, cruise across the Piankatank River, up Queens Creek and into the slip - and we were concerned about running out of daylight.

So we climbed back down out of the boat and they started the long, slow trek down to the pier.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:54 pm

You Tube video of the boat moving through the crowded yard.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:54 pm

Video of the boat going into the water.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:54 pm

I owe a debt of gratitude to my wife, who came along not only to drive down the marina to meet my buddy and me at the other end of the trip, but also for taking all the pictures and video for me. You can hear her voice in the first video, when she says "There goes our boat!"

Of course, she will tell you I owe her way more debts of gratitude for way more things than that - and she would be right.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:56 pm

So I hopped aboard to make sure there wasn't any water spurting out of anything. Checked the pipe and fittings that the centerboard pennant runs through - bone dry. Checked the bronze caps on the pipes that close in the centerboard pin - bone dry. Check my brand-new through hull for the raw water intake - bone dry.

Suh-weet! Looks good - let's rock and roll. But first, there's that little matter of the yard bill. Rigger's time (which should have been less than 30 minute but ended up being 2-1/2 hours), painting, hanging in the slings....

So I ran up into the office to pay the bill while the boat sat in the water, still in the slings while the yard guys waited for me to come back. My wife and my buddy hung out down there waiting for me.

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:56 pm

Paying the bill took about 15 minutes, because there was all kinds of stuff going on in the office. Meanwhile, I'm thinking "come on...come on...we're running out of daylight..."

Finally get the bill paid, run back down to the boat, "OK! Let's fire this baby up!"

Grab the PFDs, jump aboard - I climb down into the cabin to fire up the engine.

I glance down and notice a small, yellowish puddle in the middle of the bilge area, where previously it had been bone dry.

What the?

I quickly check the pipe caps covering the centerboard pin, since the puddle was right next to the starboard one - bone dry. I'm sure that puddle was not there before. Where the hell is that water coming from?

Just then I notice a tiny trickle run down the inside of the hull and join the puddle. It was coming from under the galley cabinet. I flung the door open and grabbed everything I could get my hands on and yanked everything out of there. Why do we have so much junk under the galley sink?

I almost immediately realized what was leaking. The depth sounder transducer is under there. And yes, it was leaking. A very small trickle was dripping from the transducer, running almost invisibly down the curve of the inside of the hull, and puddling in a small depression in the shallow part of the bilge.

Remember how up above I said it was a good thing I didn't yet have a floor in the cabin? This is why. If there had been a floor in there, that puddle would have been under it - and I never would have seen it. We would merrily have motored away and across the river. I would have tied up at the slip and left the boat. And who knows whether that puddle would have grown or the bilge filled up, or what?

So...

Turns out that the depth sounder transducer is mounted in a wooden backer block. Probably was installed 30 years ago or more. Because the boat was on the hard so long, the backer block dried out and shrunk. The yard guy who came aboard and looked at it said that it probably would take up and stop leaking, but I didn't want to try to go home and sleep tonight with the knowledge that that old leaky wooden backer block was all that was keeping my boat afloat at the slip.

And - the transducer itself was leaking - through the body of the transducer. I'm guessing it's probably 30 years old. We quickly made the decision to pull the boat back out and have them tear out that old wooden backer block and they will install a new FRP block and brand new transducer to work with my Garmin GPS chartplotter. That way, not only will the depth show up on my chartplotter's screen, I can eliminate the old Datamarine depth gauge and either fill in that hole or use it for something else (maybe a little round porthole to let more light into the cabin).

So the boat came back out of the water, they blocked her up on the hard again, and we drove home.

It's always something...

Time to break out another boat unit.

radicalcy · Post by **radicalcy** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:12 pm

So all in all, sounds like a normal launch day to me.....

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 9:56 am

radicalcy wrote:So all in all, sounds like a normal launch day to me.....

Yeah, pretty much, I guess. For those of us with old, beat-up boats...

I have to admit, as I was walking around the boatyard, I was covetously eyeing a couple newer Benneteaus that were for sale...

radicalcy · Post by **radicalcy** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 1:50 pm

Wash your mouth out with hull cleaner!!!! Beneteau.......jeez........well, I guess you could have said Hunter....

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:38 am

Just realized I forgot to post these here. I shot these a week ago Sunday.

Crossing the Piankatank River.

Back at home in her slip (finally!).

A mess o' photos, not in chron order. My wife took the ones from shore; I took the ones aboard the boat.

radicalcy · Post by **radicalcy** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:25 pm

Looking at your youtube video....of the boat in the slip. You need to raise your boom a bit. It's going to rub a hole in the bimini. Don't ask me how I know this .....

ILikeRust · Post by **ILikeRust** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 3:06 pm

Yes - when I left it, it was not in contact with the bimini - it might appear so, but it wasn't. I plan on cutting about an inch or two off the bottom of the stainless steel tubing uprights on the bimini - it is taller than it needs to be anyhow. And I'm thinking of putting a stop in the vertical T-track that the gooseneck rides on, to keep the forward end of the boom from dropping lower than that point. The other end I can hold up with the topping lift.