Handrails Installed

I went to the boat yesterday and spend the day there. By spending the day, it was around 8hrs or so.

I've been working on a college class for the last couple months. I've ended up getting a few weeks behind and working on it at home gets old and felt a change of location would be helpful. It was a productive day and happy it turned out well. I got some school work done and even did a little work around the boat.

It was a pretty warm day too. It got almost 70F so it's a sure sign that spring/summer is right around the corner.

While at the boat, I thought that it would be a good idea to get the handrails back on the boat. The tarps that have been covering the deck were wearing down and the ties holding them in place were breaking too. I ran back to the house and got the handrails. I also went to Home Depot and bought a countersink bit.

I taped the underside of the holes on deck to keep from dust getting all over the inside. It worked out pretty good when cleaning it up afterwards.

I drilled out the hole with a countersink. I read somewhere that countersinks help when sealing the hole with butyl tape, that I used here.

I placed the bolts only slightly above the deck and placed butyl tape around each bolt.

I was able to get everything back on the boat and happy that I have varnished wood on the boat again. Even though many of the bolts were still covered with plugs, they still lined up and got tightened without any issues.

Not long after I installed the handrails, I was looking at the sky and thought they were looking a bit dark. I also remember the forecasts were expecting rain. I repacked things back in the truck leaving the tarps from the boat on the side of the deck and on the way back to the house, it started to rain.

Today, I went to check on the handrails since it was raining all night. Everything with the handrails appeared to be dry. The only wet spots I found in the boat was by a porthole where there was previous water damage and space just below the companion way. I tightened the closure on the porthole hoping it will help and left the boat.

Even with this work, I still did some reading and homework and finished some homework.

I also did a dry fit of the thru-hull and seacock to make sure I had cut enough threads off the thru-hull and it on the hull. In order to keep the thru-hull in place, I used the boat hook that came with the boat against the fitting and a camper that is next to the boat.

I tried out the seacock, everything fit fine. When I'm able, and it's warm enough again, I'll take the epoxy supplies to the boat and install it. Priority right now is the school work and I still have several weeks of this class before I start the next one.