New Hole in the Boat

Previously, I was working on getting a block of wood to the curved shape of the cabin top. I cut away much of the material that I didn't need. I tried sanding it but the paper was loose so it didn't work out well so I got another sheet of 60 grit and taped it down to keep it from moving. This worked out well and took quite a bit of material off that smoothed it out.

 

 

Today was a very busy and productive day. I got a lot more done than I thought I would. I originally thought I would only be able to install the vent on the cabin top. It was a bit nerve racking since I was about to drill a new hole in the boat. To get an idea of placement, I placed the fan housing from the Airhead toilet on the ceiling to see how much bend there was in the hose.

 

I used a 5/16 bit to drill out the four corners to mount the wood block, but not all the way through. This allowed the  #8 screws I got to be countersunk below the surface. I used a smaller bit to drill through the rest of it, then the pilot holes into the cabin top.

I taped around where the block was being mounted. I also used tape around the block. I used Dolfinite bedding compound to bed the block onto the deck. Dolfinite has been recommended by other Nor'sea owners numerous times so I thought I would give it a try this time. A dock neighbor suggested I use 5200 or 4200 and said he never heard of Dolfinite. I wasn't about to go buy another type of sealant.

 

 

After using the Dolfinite, I smoothed it out on the edges and removed the tape. I wonder if I should have waited for it to setup before removing the tape but it seemed to work out well. I then used a 3 inch hole saw to cut out the center of the block. Turns out the cabin top is about 1 1/2" thick.

Nice skylight

I mixed up some epoxy. I used it to coat the interior of the cutout of the deck only, not the wood block. I only used it for a single coating.

The vent I got is a Vetus Mushroom vent. I took the base and drilled pilot holes for the screws I got at the nearby shop.

I also used Dolfinite on this too. I put some of it in a ziplock bag and cut the corner out of it to spread it out a little at a time without putting too much on. After placing the vent base back on, I decided to leave the tape in place this time. I also put the top piece of the vent in place and the knob that is installed from underneath.

I put the fan housing over the hole that was drilled out. The surface was flat enough, I didn't need to put anything else over the hole to mount the housing. I also ran the vent hose like the second picture at the top and it reached where it needed to on the head.

I mounted the head and the liquid tank onto the base. There wasn't much clearance for the mixing handle so I may cut that short for it to do complete turns.

There's only a few other things that need to be done to complete the install. I need to connect the wires for the fan that's mounted in the housing, install plugs on the wood block to seal the screw heads, connect the vent hose to the head and then it's pretty much ready to use.

Handrail Removal

I decided to do a video this time showing my removal of the handrails.

One of the bolts I could not wedge the nut to loosen and I stripped the head trying to get it out. Now, it looks like I'm going to have to resort to drilling out the bolt or get a small fine tooth saw blade and cut the head off so I can remove the rail.

The rails I did get off are now at the house so I can refinish and prepare them for reattaching to the deck. So far, things seem to be going well. Just need to get that one bolt out so I can get to work on the other handrail.

Considering the bolts are phillips head, I'm now considering the possibility of changing them to a hex head. I wonder if that might make it easier for removal in the future, if it was needed. Either way, as long as things get bedded down good in the first place, it should be good as it is. If I'm going to drill out or cut the one bolt off, I'll need to find a replacement anyway for that one.

Teak handrail work

For the first time in a long time, I have a birthday on a day that I'm NOT working (as in, paid employment). Yep, today I'm 34.

It was a nice day today, and being a weekend, I decided to go do some work on the boat.

I've been looking at the teak handrails for a while and doing a little work to rebed them to prevent additional damage to the interior. I guess you could say that today I had a crazy moment and decided to ruin the nice handrails down below, gut out the plugs and unscrew everything so I could get to the bolts holding down the handrails on the top.

Here is the nicely finished plug down below.

And here's how it looked after I took one of them out.

Everything was going pretty well. Still, it wasn't easy. My hand are hurting from trying to chisle everything out with screw drivers without causing too much damage during the removal.

One of the plugs on top had to be removed in order to stop a nut from spinning with the bolt.

I ended up having to use a painters spatula to wedge it to keep it from moving. At the same time, I was reaching in from below through a port hole to unscrew it.

Here's the handrail sitting in the cockpit.

It'll take some cleaning up to do before I put the handrails back on. These, I can bring back to the house to pull the old varnish off without having to go out to the storage place to work on it at the boat..

Unfortunately, The handrail on the other side was not as cooperative. There were three small handrails down below that I had to chisle out the plugs to get to the screws. Even then, When I worked on the bolts to detach everything, I have one that is spinning freely like the one I mentioned above and three of them are pretty tight and don't want to move and will require a bit more work to get it off. Since I wasn't feeling up to staying at the boat any longer, I thought it best to try again another time, probably next week. All together, I probably spent about 5 hours on all this today. It is not easy work cleaning the plugs out of the handrails.

Another reason I decided to do all this is so I can rebed everything rather than focusing on just where I see damage. This seems to be the first time they will be rebedded in 30 years or so. Then, I have to decide, do I use Butyl tape or Lifecaulk to rebed everything, as this is what I have on hand. Or, as others on the Nor'sea owners group seem to love, Dolphinite, which I also have on hand. I'm not sure of Dolphinite as it seems to have a more fluid consistancy that I expected. I first thought it would be similar to the butyl putty feel to it.

Time to consult the group. Thanks for visiting.