Update... The journey through the valley of thinking, reading, contemplating, and vacuuming.

The updates have slowed to a crawl as I reached a point of not knowing how to proceed. A spending spree at the bookstore yielded such classics as "Skenes Elements of Yacht Design" and Gerr's Boat Strength along with a few thousand pages of other lesser works. I've been trudging through these calculating and pondering Pylasteki's future as a cruising boat, and what the priorities are for her performance after refitting.

Form follows function, but in order to hit the mark... a goal must be set.

With the somewhat recent (Last month... gosh time flies!) discovery of a rotten main bulkhead, and cracked main beam I've decided that the deck must be recored pronto. The idea being that she'll hold her shape with a strong deck. So, on that front I have 8 2x4 foot 3/8ths thick sheets of of balsa coming in UPS ground. I'll have to support the underside of the deck, and add a few layers to the inner skin as it is quite thin in places. (Grinder marks up in the bow... and the side decks weep water through dry spots where the laminate wasn't fully wet out on the side decks. Ugh!)

Spent a few weeks reading, researching and calling... bouncing between foam and balsa. Then I got the idea of making a stiffer deck with thicker variations of the two... finally decided Pearson got it right (enough) and to go back with stock. This as you might guess, goes against most of the fibers in me... if I'm going to work on something I want the end product to have improved in stiffness/strength/weight or speed from what I started with!

As I've been reading and pondering boats... a little bit of economic stuff slipped in to the reading list. I read Jay Fitzgeralds books, Seasteading and Wind and Tide... I learned about www.oarclub.com and started reading some more. Interesting stuff! Somewhere along the way I heard about Dimitri Orlov... a Sailor/Writer/Political activist that has an interesting, albeit out-there view of the future. I read his article "The New Age of Sail" http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dtxqwqr_23grsfpp and was compelled to buy his book "Reinventing Collapse." Good read, gets you thinking... really hope he's wrong!

What does all this have to do with Pylasteki? With oil prices skyrocketing, I'm less than excited about the potential price of swings of resin. Up to this point I've used West Systems epoxy exclusively for her refit. Miracle goo, except on the economic front... and that nothing but epoxy sticks to epoxy. So... I've been reading and researching I've come across Vinyl Ester resin. Vinyl ester resin will stick to polyester resin, better than polyester does. Deflects twice as far as polyester before breaking. Gerr's guidelines are almost exclusively based on Polyester boats... and Allan H. Viatses Fiberglass Boat Repair deals almost exclusively with Polyester too. I've still got my thinking cap on, 5 gallons from US Composites for $172... I can add some kevlar up in the bow for the same price as going to epoxy on the deck recore. Hmm...

Yes, its less expensive, but if the deck rips off at the polyester toe rails before the vinyl ester fails... but mainly I want to keep the boat repairable into the future with three choices instead of one. I'm going to borrow a big vacuum pump from work and vacuum bag the deck to try to conserve on weight, though I have not found a consensus on the topic of Mat being required in vinyl ester laminates. Some purveyors of goo say yes, some say no... I'm no fan of mat, but if it makes the bond between the balsa and skins better I'll be using it! (Don't remind me of the fairing nightmare involved with an 1/8th inch lump... hopefully the whole deck is rotten so it'll be uniform in strength and height!)

In the non-thinking arena, I spent last weekend cleaning out Pylasteki. Stripped the v-berth of all cushions and woodwork which had been congregating up there. Vacuumed out as much dust as I could find from previous sanding and demolition work. Then spent a few hours with my tape measure, and straight edge working through how to proceed. Thanks goes to a friend who keeps a watchful eye over her... a blue shop rag found its way to the cockpit drain, and filled her up to the floorboards with rain in a storm last week. I am seriously questioning running all the water that hits her deck down through the cockpit! Good for collecting rain water... but a few more days of rain and I'd have had my first salvage operation...

I have a conundrum... The boatyard where I'm working on her just parked a hundred and twenty foot barge directly behind her. Parked quite literally, with the lift gate firmly planted on the bulkhead wall! So... I'm wedged in place with an 83 foot coast guard cutter tied up behind me. The space between them would be wide enough to run through, if it were not for the anchor cables criss crossing the space... So I'm in a wee bit of a jam.

It'd be smart to replace the main bulkhead on the hard with the mast down. So far I've been doing all the work afloat (RIP screwdriver, hole saw, bungee cords, and random fasteners.... glad flipflops float.) I'm contemplating adding external chain plates while she is floating. Building a wooden frame between the toe rails and hoisting the mast up to take the load off the deck... replacing the main bulkhead and and V-berth. Oh yes... its all tabbed together and impossibly tight to grind and glass in new without tearing the boat apart. Tim, you are a my Idol... can I borrow your boat shed? (Grin)

In other news, I've been spending the night hours digitizing Albergs line drawing of the hull into Solidworks so I can stress test her and see where bulkheads, stringers, hat shaped stiffeners and other goodies ought to go. I can really appreciate the work that goes into lofting a mold that is dimensionally accurate. The more you know, the more you realize you don't... a few of these curves have made smoke come out my ears... and crashed the computer trying to crunch them...

Paralysis by analysis! I want see the South Pacific... and with the price of transit through the Panama canal... Gotta build her strong enough that she can take care of me! Gotta have the priorities in line, drowning gives entirely to much time to reflect on losing the boat... Really big grin!

One pile of boat parts, and a rotten bulkhead.

Well...

The scope of this project just became more in depth. The bulkhead that carries the load of the mast is rotten on the starboard side from a leaky chain plate.

I'm working through the sketches and design deciding whether or not the bulkheads aft of the head and hanging locker will go back in place. If they do, they'll be a few inches further forward to keep a functional galley... and a Zach sized sleeping berth! I like the original layout, I'm just two inches taller than Alberg intended! (grin)

More on this later.

CAD Design....

Working on the interior layout 230 miles away, utilizing a CAD system. (Cardboard Aided design.)

I brought the icebox home a few months ago, and have pushed my engine stand and stack of car parts out of the way to build the mock up for Galley Mark 1. Intended to replace the heavy stock icebox and galley unit with two symmetrical units. Goals: Lighter, with more storage space and rounded corners. Potential cons: May look like a clorox bottle.

Thanks to Rachel for the idea of removing the bulkhead aft of the head and hanging locker, in my quest for both a usable galley and long enough sleeping berth! Symmetry will be the bonus, and the icebox will go back to its stock location. Cubbie on the port side has been scrapped, and something else will go in its place.

Revelation: With no inboard engine, the battery box under the ladder can have a toe kick! The ability to stand almost, not quite under the companionway!

Sea Swing Stove, and plans.

Hello Everyone.

A new update in the realm of parts hunting. Grabbed an ancient Bremer SeaSwing stove off ebay, with a 2 pint kerosene Hipolito burner.

One of the parts that I'm missing, is the bulkhead mount! Anyone out there in cyberspace have a picture of one? Hopefully in a few days the parts to complete the stove will arrive, and I'll be ready to put it all back together. Force 10 wouldn't even talk to me about parts for the gimble, so I'll need to find one used or fabricate one.

Heading down for the weekend to check on her. If the rain doesn't hold, I have hopes of of finishing up glass work and measuring the decks to figure out how many sheets of core will be required. Will also be installing the secondary manual bilge pump (Henderson Mark V) and reconfiguring the side deck drains. In a moment of "just get it done" thinking, I grabbed 1 1/8th hose, and through hulls... forgetting about the goal of using the decks as a water collector. Inch and an eighth Y valves are hard to find... but so is one inch clear hose. Grr. This is the third attempt at this job, but doing things right the "first" time sometimes means reworking until things are perfect.

Glass Work Continues.

Took some pictures of the work so far. I'm delaying grinding off the 27 layers of paint and massively thick gelcoat of the deck until after the bow is recored, since she's afloat keeping the sun off the less than UV stable bits is important.

Top picture shows the two holes in the aft end of the cabin, the top had a speedometer (standard Horizon) which was disconnected by a previous owner. The lower hole had a teak block secured by four screws and was just an eye sore. I'm using west systems epoxy and biaxial glass for these repairs. I cut a ziplock bag into squares, and tape it to the surface so epoxy does not run all over the inside. A piece of stiff cardboard taped securely on top of the ziplock bag keeps things flat. This accounts for the reason why the upper hole is a brighter white than the lower, it still has cardboard backing it.

In the second picture you see where the gauges once lived, as well as the temporary cockpit drain to keep her form turning into a bathtub before I core the cockpit sole. I glassed a layer of finishing cloth to the inside of the cockpit locker, and beveled the outside edges of the holes and filled with cabosil, final fairing done with west systems 407. Since these are vertical, the chilly temperatures have given me flashbacks to a geology course where we discussed slumping for two weeks. Thickened epoxy runs down hill. I am using the cream colored paint above the gelcoat to keep everything smooth.

The shifter hole was ground out to a bevel, and filled with alternating layers of finishing cloth and biax cloth brining it up to flush. 407 filler was used to bring it up to the level of the blue antiskid. Its probably the strongest part of the cockpit sole.

Picture three shows where the fuel filler used to reside. This job consumed 5 sand paper disks on my random orbital sander. I haven't found the right sander to bevel this, and am pondering standing on my head and glassing it upside down from inside the locker. Not even my mouse sander will fit in this area and sand it any less than flush. (Flying sandpaper pads look a lot like skeet.)

Picture four shows where the icebox lid was. It has eight layers of biax, with a light cloth in between each to fill the weave. When I pulled the ACE hardware bag from the underside it left the ACE brand in red... I supported it with a piece of plywood to keep the underside flat. It is slightly thinner than the surrounding glass, but withstands my 190lbs jumping on top of it. Its probably the strongest part of the boat... grin.

Making Snow Part 2: Learning

It had been raining on and off, and a pang of Radar Love sent me back down to check on Pylasteki after three days. The tape that was over the port deck drain had come loose... and the cockpit drains seacock was not open all the way. The bilge was almost overflowing.

The past few days were spent grinding, glassing, and experimenting with other varieties of west systems epoxy. Finished glassing over the bilge blower vent and power outlet holes as well as the shifter... though the fairing is not yet complete.

The wind blew all the water out of the creek, which combined with a full moon made the tides a bit interesting, she took to the ground in her slip while I was on board... about four feet from the dock, and standing on deck about eye level to it. Lunch break was a can of tuna and a few crackers sitting on the high side of that starboard tack... much to the amusement of others in the yard.

The temperature was varying between mid 30's and the lower 60's. I had a gallon of resin and a little can of hardener that had been refilled so many times they were one uniform color... sawdust. After a few days of working with this stuff I made a run up to the hardware store and bought 12 ounces of 407 filler, as the cabosil was slumping a bit on the sides of the cockpit and I was hopeful it would stay put. Beside the 407 was a can of "Fast Hardener" eureka!

No pictures this time either, I need to replace some plywood in the galley before I have a sink to wash up to keep the camera from looking like the can of resin!

Making Snow.

This weekend was productive.
The electrical system has been cleaned up further, a few pounds of excess wire have been removed. The electrical panel needs to be rewired, as the last guy used 18gauge for everything and didn't crimp the connections to withstand a light tug, the wire pulls out of the crimp. (The battery is disconnected.)

The cracked fiberglass cockpit drains were cut out. I used a hole saw and cut through the top to avoid having to hacksaw at odd angles. The holes were then filled with West Systems epoxy/cabosil mixture and relocated slightly inboard for the flanges of the new "Through-hulls" that are acting as drains. After coring the cockpit sole, they will be flush. The radiator hose that was in place, has been replaced with Shieldflex exhaust hose.

The instrument cluster has been ground down and the new glass cut out and prepared for wetting out, but rain and thunderstorms cut the trip short.

I picked up a Henderson Mark V pump to use as a bilge pump and have been studying mounting locations. The existing hoses (3/4) and outlets are not large enough to fit the pump (1 1/2) which will be remedied on the next trip.

Pictures next time! To much dust and rain to bring out the camera.

Zach