Bottom Paint Removal

This is yesterday's work. I didn't have time to post but here's what I did. Also realized this is post #100 for this blog.

The last post, I mentioned how it looked like someone had hit the trailer, bending the fender. Well, it looks like it was hit again. Now it's starting to piss me off.

compare this with last fender pic I posted

Still, it doesn't look like it'll affect the use of the trailer.

I arrived around 930am, and went right to work. I have been waiting for good weather to start taking off the bottom paint. Got some protective gear to do the work and very thankful that I had it all too.

I put down some plastic to catch the chips of bottom paint.

I used a durable paint scraper to get the majority of the paint off. Still have a lot of work left to do but it's getting there.

starboard side

starboard side

old repairs on port side near the rudder

port side: repairs needed

more needed repairs

Looking down port side

still have upper parts to remove

rudder will need some work too.

As you can see from the pictures, I'm discovering that there are lots of old repairs and areas in need of repairs. The parts in need of repairs are not really any bigger than a dime. Still, they'll need to be ground out, filled with epoxy and some fairing work needed. For the most part, it looks like the bottom paint was applied over the gelcoat. It doesn't look like bare glass. But the blue was applied over a red paint. Primer maybe? It alternated back and forth so maybe it was just a contrasting color to check coverage. The plan is to get the bottom faired smooth and then I'll use a few coats of barrier coat, like Interlux 2000E.

It's a good thing I got the coveralls. That bottom paint dust gets everywhere. Unfortunately, as soon as I sat down, the paints rode up a bit. I'm 6'5" so not really made for my size. Not only that, the hood didn't stay on my head either so I had a blue neck too. At least the face mask kept anything from flying into my eyes or breathing it in. Very important there too. I used foot covers so that is why my socks look (but not) clean here.

coverall pants rode up a bit

The LED lighting I installed in the head went well but the wires were dangling around so I got some clips that I installed to hold them up and out of the way. There's two clips shown in the pic but two more behind the bulkhead keeping the other wires out of sight.

organized wires

Lastly, I got a couple mounts to hold the hose for the Airhead along with 1" Velcro. The mounts I got is called a Footmans Loop that I bought from Sailrite.

The hose is held nicely in place. I still need to connect the hose to the head itself then it could be useable. I still think this head project turned out well.

Still some bottom paint need to be removed. it wasn't easy crawling around the trailer and working around the keel/mast. The roller are in the way too but I'm still doing what I can.

Filter Cleaning

Today was a pretty productive day. I mainly spent time cleaning the two Racor 500FG fuel filters.

First, I want to show my idea of another project, a deck mounted vent for a new head.

I ordered a piece of teak from Buck Woodcraft that was 2" x 5" x 12". The piece I got was pretty nice too.

I cut it down to a 5" square that I will shape to the curve of the deck. I also plan to install a Vetus Mushroom vent to it. Others have mentioned I should use a dorade box, but this way I'm going will be lower profile and I think better suited for my boat. I mainly placed the block to show size and placement.

The main project was to clean the fuel filters. I found some nice instructions for the Racor fuel filters from a guy known on boating forums as Maine Sail. What was nice is the picture showing the gaskets and what they go to. I guess the seal kit was supposed to come with it but the two kits I got didn't have it. I printed the picture and placed the gaskets over it to make sure I had everything ready.

I had some junk sitting at the bottom of the port side filter. Once I had the bowl and housing apart, cleaning it wasn't too bad except for a few tight spaces near the plugs at the bottom of the bowl.

Port side filter

Everything for the starboard side filter went well too. It just had a lot more debris sitting in the bowl. The worst thing was the fuel ended up being black when it was drained as the debris was breaking up and dropping into the jar too. The fuel didn't look too bad when it was sitting in the bowl, just looked worse when it was drained.

Starboard side filter

Black fuel

It just shows the importance of regular maintenance or servicing something when it needs it. I think debris like this could have made its way into the engine causing it to stall. Definitely not a good thing if the engine is needed in a hurry. Since getting the 3gal tank, the engine has seemed to run better with cleaner fuel, so hopefully cleaner filters will help too to keep it running.

The last thing I did for the day was to mix up some epoxy with some low density filler to cover the hole left over from the old holding tank vent. I put enough on it so I can sand it down flush with the surrounding surface. Sometime in the future, I'm looking at repainting the blue stripe so this little patch will then be covered up.

Seacock Project - Complete

Today was a good day.

I found out that the carpet pieces are attached with Velcro strips. I was thinking to change them out sometime so this might be easier than I expected. This project can wait but I can still look and see what's available.

I continued the work on the water strainer. I attached the fittings to the strainer then the hoses. Since I ordered 2ft of 1/2" hose, I had to cut it down. I attached it to the pump on the engine first then ran it to the strainer for measurement.

When I attached the 3/4" hose, I filled the reservoir of the strainer with water to prime it, then got a bucket full of water and ran it through the engine. Engine started up right away and sounded quite nice.

I then cleaned up the thru-hull and flange base of the seacock. I marked off the area around the fiberglass base with tape. I used Sikaflex 291 for the base and the thru hull.

The following is pictures of the work.

 

 

 

 

Once the thru-hull and the seacock was mounted, I attached the hose with two new hose clamps. All the hose clamps I used were new. On the 3/4" hose, I used two on the seacock and the strainer input and on the 1/2" side, I used one on the strainer output and one on the raw water pump.

 

 

I'm happy this project is finally completed. I really hope everything holds together when getting the boat in the water.  This was an important project. I learned a lot about this project along the way and feels good to finally be done with it.

Raw Water Seacock, Installed!

Instead of going through several posts for each step along the way, I decided to make a post for the project as a whole. After seeing a loose thru-hull, I went ahead and worked on getting it replaced. Certainly don't want to sink the boat as soon as it gets in the water.