Slow Progress

In the last week, I have been cautiously dodging the weather in an effort to get some work done on the boat. Rain has been in the forecast for almost every day in the last week, and other than the next two days, it looks like more rain is on its way. As a result, progress hasn't been dramatic, but I have managed to get a number of smaller tasks done. Back at home, I continued working on the electrical plan. I completed and test fit the new housing, and while it isn't pretty yet, I think it is going to work really well. I decided that it wasn't worth even trying to match the original mahogany, so the frame is just going to be white to match the counter top, and the face probably will be too, unless I find some nice veneer that matches the boat. While it looks pretty simple, I actually made it so that the face of the panel is actually square and then the frame is made to match the angles of the space it is in. The top piece actually meets the slight curve of the shelf above it, which took much longer to create than I anticipated.

Aside from that, I worked on sanding all the pieces of the companionway, as well as priming the undersides of the companionway hatches and the counter top pieces that were at home. The rain really did hold back some of the more important projects I need to get done.

Friday gave me my best weather window to begin tackling one of my more dreaded projects, which is refinishing the mast. When I went to the Marblehead Trading Company to pick up the mast, there was coincidentally another wooden mast right next to it which also belonged to a boat named Adagio. Small world, I guess. That mast was in much better shape...

One of the more dreadful parts of the move was getting the mast through downtown Marblehead, and was made all the worse that I ended up on the road right as school got out for the weekend, which made for more traffic than usual. Ended up pretty uneventful, and I was relieved that the mast made it in one piece.
After waiting for a ten minute downpour to pass, I was able to begin inspecting the mast, and then disassembling it. Thankfully, the standing rigging is all relatively recent, though the majority of the running rigging needs some attention/replacement. It also became apparent that the top two feet of the mast were replaced sometime recently, and thankfully it looks like a really nice job was done. The only downside was that they didn't refinish the entire mast at that time, and it looks like they only put a couple of coats of varnish on, which had worn thin in a number of places. The spreaders are almost new, but need to be refinished as well - not nearly enough coats of varnish on the top sides. Everything was put way very neatly last fall:

I had hoped that I wouldn't have to completely strip all the hardware off the mast, but it became pretty clear that the varnish had been on there forever, and was in pretty rough shape in a number of spots. As a result, everything, except the masthead sheave and halyard winch at the base, was removed and carefully labeled for reassembly.

Where the spreaders attach to the mast was in the worst cosmetic shape, but structurally seems to be in great shape still.

After removing all the hardware, I was able to start stripping all the varnish off. It was so thick in most places that it actually came off pretty easily in big sheets with a heat gun. It still took me late into Friday night to get the first half done, and then was finished up Saturday afternoon.
After stripping all the varnish, I began sanding and progress has been pretty quick. Tomorrow I am hoping to finish sanding the mast as well as the toerails and cockpit comings on the boat and ideally apply the first coat of varnish in the afternoon.

The one thing that I see as a major obstacle to getting the boat in the water at this point is getting enough coats of varnish on the mast given the forecast in the next week or so. If I don't get enough coats of varnish on the toerails and coamings that won't stop me from putting the boat in the water, but if I don't get enough coats of varnish on the mast, that's something that can't be touched up with the boat in the water. Looks like the mast might have to be making a visit to our living room...

Work Begins Again

After a successful trip out west (The Eagles are once again Team Racing National Champions), I returned to the boatyard to begin getting the boat ready for the summer. This year, the list of projects doesn't seem nearly as daunting, but there still is a lot that needs to get done. Unfortunately, I haven't been too successful yet at prioritizing the things that must get done before the boat can get launched, but so it goes.

After taking the cover off, I began assessing how everything looked after the winter, and then dove right into working on some projects. One of the biggest tasks this year will be installing a new electrical system, as the one that existed was suspect, to say the least. The system appeared to be a couple of generations of wires cobbled together into a circuit breaker that was stuck to the inside of the cockpit well with some adhesive. Not only was it hard to access, the wires were strewn every which way, with no real color coding (some white, some blue, some yellow, some red, some black, some gray, all randomly connected to each other), no fuses, no battery switch, and then a battery that was just on the cabin sole, with no box. In some places wire had butt connectors, while in other places they had just wrapped the wires in electrical tape, so it was pretty apparent that it all needed to go.

This is what the inside of the DC "panel" looked like once I got it opened.
I spent a fair amount of time considering what I wanted in the new electrical system. I wanted it to be simple, with running lights, mast light, cabin lights, an electric bilge pump, VHF radio, stereo, and a 12V cigarette lighter (I would be useless I my Blackberry died). Just a single battery, and eventually a solar charger, but for now would probably just charge the battery at home and hope it lasted for however long I was on the boat for.

My original idea was to create to panels angled on either side of the companionway, where one would house the DC Panel, the 12V outlet and the bilge pump switch and the other side would have the flush mounted VHF and stereo. This would put them within easy reach of the cockpit, but also accessible when down in the cabin. I fitted some templates to get a sense of how it would look, but ultimately decided that this probably wouldn't be the ideal spot. Not only did I think that they cut off access to the quarter berths, but I also worried about the waterproof-ness of the companionway.

I quickly amended my plan, and decided that the area above the head would do a good job as well, and would also reduce the wiring runs needed for the installation.

The DC panel can go on the left side, the bilge pump switch, outlet and maybe a voltmeter can go in the middle, and then the VHF and stereo can be flush mounted to the right side of the panel. There is also plenty of room in this area for all the wiring to be more or less self contained, and the self above the area will also leave room to mount more electronics down the road.

Instead of the battery just resting on the sole, I have decided to build a new shelf further aft in the boat, under the cockpit sole. This area is out of the way but still accessible, and with the battery here, the wiring can run under the adjacent berth and up to the DC panel, with a battery switch mounted on the face of the berth. I think it will be a pretty slick installation, and it still leaves access into the bilge too.

With that more or less laid out, I turned my attention to a bevy of less important details. Since the forecast for the next 4 days is rain, I didn't anticipate being able to varnish anything on the boat, so I haven't begun sanding the exterior woodwork yet. I did attempt to remove some of it to bring home to work on, and discovered the sealant I used last summer was much more resilient than I anticipated. I only removed the 2 companionway slides, but one of them came off in four pieces. Yikes.

After that fiasco, I turned my attention to some minute work down below, which made me feel a little more successful, even if they are more or less unnoticeable. I prepped the mast step interior pole for fresh paint, stripped the galley and head counter tops, removed some lingering old varnish, and did some general spring cleaning. This didn't bring me any closer to launching, but allowed me to end on a more positive note.

While the boat probably looks worse now without the companionway, I needed to bring the sliders home to fix the brass tracks - the screw holes need to be filled so that the screw heads won't pop out and catch on the hatch all the time. And the underside of the hatches are in need of some serious attention. This should get sorted out in the next couple days while it rains. Hopefully.

Belated Update

Its been a long time since I updated anything about the boat, but I also haven't done anything to the boat since October, so there hasn't really been anything to fill in here. Apparently when you live an hour away from where your boat is stored and you don't have a boat shop, it's pretty hard to motivate to get any work done in the winter. That said, yesterday I was finally back out in Marblehead for a bit and had a chance to check on the boat and see how she looked. Thankfully, I built a good cover back in the fall, so it looked like everything was just as I left it and ready to pick up where I left off.

In the past, most of my covers have just consisted of a simple pole down the middle, and a tarp over it, which on the more or less square Mako worked okay, and on Adagio never really worked, but it didn't really matter too much to me since it had already been uncovered for so long. Now that the boat was freshly painted, however, I was much more careful in my plan and execution. I wanted to make sure that I could still get on the boat if needed, and be sure that the tarp didn't actually touch the boat in any places, while still withstanding the winter in New England. And it had to be dirt cheap.
The design worked extremely well, as every time I checked on the boat the lines were still tight, the tarp is still doesn't have any tears, and the paint is still unblemished. I started with a sturdy wooden ridgepole, then used other pieces of wood to project outward, which provided support for the tarp against the weight of snow. They also served as a frame for the longitudinal pieces that ran down either side of the boat, out well beyond the deck. For these I used a simple 1X3, which was flexible enough to match the curve of the boat. This was cantilevered out beyond the boat by about a foot all around, so that the tarp could be stretched tight, but not come in contact with the boat - kind of like eaves on a house.
While this might have been an issue with the wind, I had boats that were substantially taller on either side, so I wasn't too worried about wind coming up from under. Once this frame was in place, I could drape the tarp over, and tie it tightly by running lines under the keel without worrying about anything damaging the boat. It worked great this year, and I built it all out of scrap wood, so my only expense was the tarp and some line - less than $50.



When I was on the boat yesterday, everything was very dry, and surprisingly clean still. Considering the condition the boat has been in every other spring when I have first been aboard, this was a pleasant surprise, and now I am looking forward to getting back to work on the boat and having it in the water soon. I will be sailing in San Fransisco until the beginning of June, but after that work should commence shortly. The advantage of not having a job after graduating from college is you have plenty of time to spend working on your boat, I hope.

The Other Sailing Season

Unfortunately, summer can't really last forever, and after only a month in the water, it was time to have Adagio hauled and tucked away for the winter. While you would think since I only have class 2 days a week and I'm only an hour away I would want to keep sailing later into the fall, in reality finding the time to get out Marblehead was harder than I had hoped, and I didn't really like worrying about the boat every time it rained hard or we got a windy day. So, on Friday September 12th I brought the boat to the boatyard so it could be hauled. Kind of like the launching, there really wasn't much interesting to report from the boatyard, as before I had even finished up tying the boat to the dock, the yard crew was already busy taking the mast down. After rinsing the boat off and taking off the last of the remaining gear, I went back to B.C. in order to get to practice by 2. The next day I woke up early to drive down to Yale, for the first event of my other sailing season, College Sailing's Harry Anderson Regatta. I've been pretty lucky that for the last 4 years I have been a part of one of college sailing's most successful teams, and while the weather might not be as nice, the sailing is still great into November.

Even though it was a short season for Adagio, I spent as much time as I could sailing, with numerous harbor cruises enjoyed, and gave me a pretty good sense of what needs to get done over the winter to really finish her off.

This winter's projects include:

1. Varnish exterior woodwork
2. New electrical System
3. Fix the centerboard
4. Refinish the Mast, and replace the halyards
5. New cushions for the interior
6. New galley faucet, more insulation for the icebox
7. The fixed ports need to be rebedded
8. Upgrades to the running rigging (new traveller system, ideally)
9. New rollerfurler for the jib
10. Paint for the cove stripe, and adjust the boottop
11. New tiller, and figure out a better tiller extension
12. New Mainsail cover

Here she is back in the boatyard.

First Sail

On Sunday morning, I woke up and reassembled the boom, reattaching all the hardware that had been taken off while I varnished it. I then packed it into the car, along with all the sails and some other things needed for the boat before heading out. I brought the boat into the dock, and got the boom attached, and the main bent on. It was a beautiful day, but a bit windy, so I made the decision to go with just a jib, to keep it a little simpler for the day.

I bent one of the jibs on, and motored to the mouth of the harbor, where I raised the jib and set off on a reach. It was a perfect afternoon, and I coasted around Salem Sound for about an hour. Even with just the jib the boat felt good and it was nice to finally just be enjoying the boat, not working on it.
Coming back into the harbor.
And some interior shots: Looking forward.
Looking aft
The cabin sole.

Catching Up

So its been a busy couple of weeks in Marblehead for me. In addition to working on the boat and dealing with renovating our house, I also agreed to fill in as the Program Director at the Pleon Yacht Club, which means that my days have been long. But, as you can see, the boat is in the water, so I can't really complain too much. The terrible weather continued in August up on the North Shore, which meant that in order to have the boat in the water at all this summer, I had to make some sacrifices. Among these, I opted to forgo varnishing the exterior woodwork this year, and also ended up using a tape instead of painting the boottop, and the covestripe is still bare. Also, for the decks, I ended up just putting one coat of paint on them, with no primer, which while not ideal, should hold up for the next couple weeks. Not to mention, that one coat of paint came late in the evening the night before the boat got launched.

So, with that said, the boat finally went into the water on Thursday, August 14th. I couldn't actually be there because of my duties at Pleon, but I am assuming that everything went well. My mom called me shortly after the boat splashed to tell me that it looked fine, but there were "3-4 inches of water in the bilge. " I still couldn't leave work to check on the boat, but assumed that if it was really an issue the yard would call. So, finally I was able to leave Pleon, and when I got to the boat, there was really maybe 1/2" of water in the bilge, which was left from the rain early the day before. Relief. I quickly looked over the boat before running home to grab the engine some other goodies.

As for the engine, I decided to use the Johnson 8 HP engine that I used to use on my inflatable, but had sat dormant in my garage, unserviced, for the last 2 years. A little nerve wracking, but it had always run well in the past, and I just hoped it would continue doing so. It took some wrangling to get it to fit into the engine well, but after unbolting the tiller arm, it was in. And, through some miracle, it started on the second pull.

I took the boat around the harbor, and rinsed it off at the yacht club, before putting her on the mooring for the night. On Friday, the weather was miserable, and I left the boat untouched, but I could see it all day from my desk at Pleon, so I knew it was safe.

Early on Saturday morning I headed out to the boat to begin cleaning and putting everything together. While I might have gotten the boat in the water, it was far from actually assembled. I started by installing the seahood, the moved down to the winch bases, assorted deck hardware, the compass, and finally the cockpit coamings. At this point, I brought the boat into the dock and loaded the shelves for the interior back onto the boat, along with a bunch of other interior stuff. I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning down below, and then headed home to put the final coat of varnish on the boom.

By the way, my camera has been out of commission for a while, so that's why there aren't pictures for any of the work between August 5th and August 17th. My mom did grab some pictures right after the boat went into the water, but they are still on her camera for now.

Here she is at the dock.
The cockpit, looking aft.

The cockpit, looking from the top of the cabin.
The front of the cabin house, looking aft.The boat, at the dock, from the top of the pier.After I have put the main on the boom, with the old blue sail cover.
Also showing the mast. The mast, as it turns out, wasn't in as good shape as I thought, it really needs to be stripped and refinished. Next winter...
Cockpit, with the mainsheet, back on the mooring.
View from the after quarter at the dock.So while I obviously didn't update exactly everything that happened in the last two weeks, hopefully it shows most of the major projects that took place to get her in the water.

And a week behind schedule...

So after a successful day last Tuesday, things were looking good for the boat. Friday I was back out in Marblehead, and went to the Marblehead Trading Company first thing in the morning to locate the mast (it's been stored inside there for the last several years), and while I was there I scheduled the launching for Friday, August 8th. The mast was in surprisingly good condition, having new spreader made for the last season it was in use, and looked to be O.K. for the summer, which was good since I really don't have the time right now to deal with that. Really exciting. The weather looked good for the rest of the day, so I made my way over to the boat to apply what I hoped would be the second and final coat of paint on the hull and cabin. Sanding dragged a little longer than I hoped, and I ended up painting a little later in the afternoon than I would have liked, but I didn't think too much of it. However, when I returned the following morning, it turns out the evening dew had caused the paint to dry flat in most places. Pretty bummed about it, but I had enough paint left to do another coat, and the weather looked for Sunday, so I stayed up-beat and planned to paint then, while I spend the remainder of Saturday giving everything another sanding with 320 grit paper, and some other projects down below (including finally un-freezing the head seacock), and working on the woodwork that was inside my garage.

So Sunday rolled around, and I was able to start painting around 11. I checked the radar on my crackberry right before painting and it was all clear, as I had decided I was not going to let any weather ruin this paint job. A couple minutes after finishing up, however, I began to hear thunder rumbling. Not in the forecast, I began to worry a little. Looked at the radar again, and it looked like the storms would stay to north of me. A couple of raindrops fell, but I was able to fend them off, and it looked like everything would work out. I stayed at the boat, as if I could actually do anything to save it if it started to rain again, but in reality I knew that there really is no way to cover a boat that is covered in wet paint if it really rains. about thirty minutes later, my mom called to tell me she was in Beverly, in the middle of a major downpour. I began to strategize, and covered the cabin top, which was just tacky, with a piece of Shrink Wrap I had on the boat to protect that. But, shortly thereafter, it was pouring. In a futile effort, I grabbed a tarp laying on the ground and tried to cover the boat, but it was too late. The tarp stuck to parts of the topsides, and didn't really stop the damage. And the third coat of paint was ruined.

After a profanity-laced rant, I swore to never step foot on the boat again.

I took the rest of the day off to recharge my batteries, and Monday too, but I did decide to order more paint Monday morning and had it overnighted to me. I was back at the boat at 9AM Tuesday, and since there were now 3 coats of paint on the hull, I decided to give it an aggressive sanding to even it all out. Not worried about sanding through to the primer, I hit it with 220 Grit paper, and my orbital sander was kind enough to wait until I was with a few square feet of finishing to crap out. As much as it was a hassle to sand everything so thoroughly, it was totally worth it to completely erase any sags from the previous coats, not to mention the bitter memories and bad luck.

So I am hoping that when I get back to the boat, the paint won't be flat nor will it have been ruined by the rain; I am hoping it will be perfect. I spent about four hours after finishing painting removing tape and cleaning up around the boat, and it still looked great, so it should be fine, although I was petrified that I might be jinxing myself by removing the tape.

I think the results speak for themselves, as you can see below. I used Interlux Perfection paints, Mediterranean White for the Cabinhouse/cockpit/etc and Rochelle Red for the hull, four coats...

Pictures are a little dark, by the time I got my camera working it was sunset, but in daylight it really looks stunning. It will be even more apparent once the deck is painted in the contrasting beige, and the hull has the white boot top and cove stripe painted in. There are some areas around the toe rails and the ports that still need bits of tape removed, but I decided to let that paint completely cure before I removed it. Also, I started painting the first coat of black bottom paint, but not all the way up to the topsides, that is why there is a strip of faded red bottom paint.

Cockpit, looking aft.

Cockpit, looking forward.

Front end of cockpit.

Cabinhouse side, port.

Starboard side of cabin house.

Front of cabin, looking aft.

Looking aft.

Bow on.

Port side view.

Starboard side.

I painted the interior forward Dorade vent to match the red of the hull. Don't know if you noticed above, but I also painted the jack stands to match the boat with some extra paint.

Aft quarter looking forward.

Obviously, I'm a little behind schedule now, so the launching will probably be a week later than I hoped, but I realized its not really worth rushing it now after spending so much time getting everything ready.