Update for Activities in April

The view from my cockpit looked like this for several days, several times this past month, nice boats but lousy weather.  The boat on the left is named Sawdust and is one that Joe Reid of Mast & Mallet Boatworks built about ten or fifteen years ago. Joe is heading up the restoration of my boat. The sailboat on the right is a 36' Herreshoff Nereia ketch named Fandancer and is well known as a fast and well maintained wooden yacht.

You will also note that I am still high and dry instead of floating in my slip. In mid April I finally completed enough cleaning in the engine bilge and around the fuel tanks that I had to come to the conclusion that the fuel tanks must be leaking. So I approached Joe Reid and presented him with my conclusion that the fuel tanks were leaking and that were were going to have to pull them and replace them with new ones. Up until this point we thought that the diesel smell was from 40 years of dirt and minor drips that had accumulated. The tanks seemed to be full after sitting for 3 years and we could not be sure that the moisture coming from the weep holes under the tank bilges was from an active fuel leak or possible just condensation that was picking up some fuel/oil from the grunge that we could see. By mid April I did some more thorough cleaning and was able to conclude that the tanks were leaking, not much, but leaking, so out they must come. This process involves a bit more excavation of the bridgedeck and removal of a larger portion of the cockpit sole or more correctly, the platform.
Here is a photo of the bilge in front of the tanks before cleaning. That is the front face of the tank on the left and somewhere under the grunge is the weep hole that lets the condensate flow from here into the main bilge under the engine.

And after...

Another before pic, that is the bottom edge of the front face of the tank on the left

After

Here is a photo of the platform after further excavation to remove the tanks. You can see that big cut outs on either side of the original engine access area.

This is what we found behind and underneath the port side tank, this fuel and gunk was (almost) totally trapped in areas that could not be seen until the tanks were removed, the pool of fuel in the first photo is about 1" deep and extended five or six feet aft

 After the tanks were lifted the fuel drained into the engine bilge that I had cleaned twice before, rats!

 This is the junk that was under the port tank

 This is the junk under the starboard tank, not nearly as much fuel as the port side

 but still lots of crud soaked with fuel

Sooooo, this has caused a significant delay in the original plan to launch in late April. It will take a couple of weeks to have the tanks made and shipped and another week or so to get them installed. As such, I have directed Joe to have Brett and Kitty do some of the work that I had planned to do later this year or next. Brett will be building the new raised portion of the platform which will be expanded aft a bit more and he will be adding some additional hatches aft of the engine. The additional access will also allow me to more easily fit some new tanks for fresh water storage and a new larger holding tank for the head.
Here are some photos of the models that I made for the new holding tank and fresh water tank.

These new tanks have been ordered and will be installed by yours truly, it will take 2-3 weeks before I have the tanks and another week or so before I am finished with the installation so my new launch target will be mid June.
In the meantime, some other work has been done, the new windows that I had not planned to make are done and will be installed after Kitty has finished painting the exterior of the pilothouse and coachroof.

Some photos of that work is here. This is the coachroof in the foreground. It is sanded in preparation for painting. The white spots are fairing compound that shows where repairs were made.

This is with two coats of paint.

While Kitty was getting the exterior ready for painting I removed some of the old studs for the pilothouse canvas. What nightmare this turned out to be. The studs that were screwed into the side of the pilothouse would snap off with the slightest pressure so this meant that I had to drill out most of them and plug them with permanent wood plugs. I have come to find out that this is not an unusual problem. Apparently the layer of fiberglass that covers the wood underneath acts like a fulcrum compared to the softer wood underneath. Some photos below.

This is what the stud looks like when installed.

Here are the holes that I had to drill in order to remove the broken studs. The blue tape shows where studs were successfully removed. The 3/8" holes that I drilled have been filled with wood plugs, glued in place, to allow for a new stud to be installed.

Here is detail photo of the hole that I drilled, you can see the outer layer of fiberglass with the wood beneath.

Below is a photo of my solution to make subsequent removal of the studs less stressful and more successful. I modeled a different installation method, here I show the result of using a thread tapping tool for making threads in metal parts. This will allow the threads to fit more uniformly with a more uniform load instead of the force fit that results from a wood screw that is forced into an undersized hole. It seemed to work well in a hard piece of mahogany so it should work better next time around by reducing the stress around the threads where it penetrates  the fiberglass skin.

I also have begun painting and finishing out down below. Here the stowage space that I built below the fridge has the new doors in place. I made them with the swimming fish cutouts to match the existing doors elsewhere in the cabin.

Here I have installed the new liquor locker shelf.

And the new port side galley shelf is also installed and being put to use during construction.

I have also completed the refinishing of the companionway door and the overhead hatch above it. I will reinstall these as soon as the new platform is completed later this month.

Before

After

Before

After

refinished helm seat

I also installed a new bilge pump sump box to collect the condensate from the fridge as well as water from the shower drain.

And I had Brett add a tunnel under the engine that will make that area act as a drip pan for engine drips of oil and coolant that always seem to happen.

So in summary, there has been activity and progress but more in the nature of two steps forward, one step back. I will post again next month with more groovy stuff.

Dennis