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.

Head Space and Timing

A week ago, there was a nice little weather system that went through the area dropping about 4 inches of ice and then a little snow on top of that. The last couple days, it was starting to warm up enough to melt the ice. Today turned out to be a very nice day with a high of 60F. A visit to the boat turned out well although there were always more to be done.

There was still ice on the dock and the boat. I had to use a boat hook to chip away at the ice on both to get rid of it. The cockpit had about 4-5 inches in areas that I broke up and threw into the lake. By the time I left, the ice on the dock was gone and there were still a little bit on the boat in the shaded parts.

One thing I wanted to do was to measure the space on the deck in preparation for venting and getting ready for a new head whenever I'm able to get one. After clearing the ice on the deck, I was able to see the space I had to work with.

The space I have for vent placement is between the handrail and the line shown in the picture above. My original idea for venting was to use a solar vent in place of the waste deck plate. There are many boats that have these solar vents and a couple of them, I could hear the fans spinning as I walked the dock. One downside to these is the size of them. At 9" overall width, it seemed to take up a lot of space. After measuring the space I had, it would be too big anyway.



Vent on another boat

While talking with others about this idea, it was suggested that I use a dorade box with a cowl vent. I looked into these and getting the idea that this could work but started to think that maybe the size would be more than I would like. Here are examples of dorade boxes on other boats in my marina.

These dorade boxes allow air flow into the cabin of the boat while draining water back out through holes along the bottom edges. Instead of these large boxes, which would be near the cockpit, I decided to go with something a little lower profile that wouldn't stand so high by using a Vetus Mushroom vent along with a block of wood used to mount it on shaped to the curve of the deck.

The idea would look something like this:

On the inside, placement would have to avoid the light on the ceiling, but also allow the placement of the hose that it's not in the way either. I'm not too crazy about drilling a large hole in the deck but I think it would be useful for venting. In this picture below, I'm looking at placement just off the third handrail bolt.

Routing the hose would keep it along the back wall toward the head.

Since taking out the old head, I have been left with a hole from the holding tank. I recently got a board that is sold as a tool box cabinet top. I cut it to the size I needed and I thought it turned out pretty good. I have space where I could drill into the board and the mounting surface and bolt it down. I'm thinking I could use a caulk to seal it when it's bolted. I've also had the idea to paint it over, after sanding to rough it up a bit, with bilgekote to protect it too.

I also have a little bit of the cut off material that could be used for the back edge. I'll also have to clean the back wall and/or paint over it.

When I took the head hoses out, I broke part of a fitting that was used for venting of the holding tank. I wanted to remove it so I took a couple wall panels off and attempted to take it off but it didn't work out. I ended up breaking the exterior part of the vent off but nothing else would move. I didn't have the supplies with be, but I was going to mix up some epoxy and fill it in. Then, if/when I get to it, I was going to repaint the sheer stripe on each side.

The fitting that broke with the hose.

 

Didn't take much for it to break.

The panels didn't seem very easy to remove and I don't expect doing that again anytime soon, at least, not in the head.

Last thing I was going to do, but also didn't work out as planned, was to service the Racor 500's. There's two of them. The one on the port side didn't look too bad but it was the one I was going to do first. At first, the lid wouldn't come off but had to pop it off with a rubber mallet. Then, I was going to remove the little bolts holding the bowl in, then realized I didn't some tools that I don't currently have. So that project is on hold for now. The starboard side looks to have more debris so I hope to clean that one up soon too.

Port Side

Starboard Side

One of the bolts I need sockets for.

With that, there wasn't anything else I had plans to do so I packed up and went back home.

Overall, it was a nice day. There were other people at the marina getting their boats ready to sail. I also met a guy a couple docks down who said he was from Poland. His English wasn't too good so we didn't talk long. He was also busy breaking ice off the dock.

Spring will be here soon and it's about time!

Head Hoses Removed

I spent a good part of the day removing the hoses from the head. Everything went well, mostly.

I first removed the vent hose. I had to route it past the other hoses and through the counter top. I ended up breaking the part the hose was attached and left the hole open.

The hole is to the right of the black hose

The vent is just below the toe rail. The silver cap is for waste

The first part of the larger hoses I removed was from the waste deck fill to a switch between deck pump-out and overboard discharge. The worst part of this was there was a little deposit left in the hose. Thankfully, there wasn't much but it did smell pretty bad for a moment. Thankfully, I had lots of paper towels and some cleaner/disinfectant. I covered the hose with a plastic bag and a rubber band.



The dark part by the thru-hull is the mess made.

After covering the hose with the plastic bags, everything else wasn't too bad. I removed the rest of the hose going from the manual pump to the overboard discharge thru-hull.

Here the hoses are on the deck that I soon put in a black trash bag.

Removing the hoses from the head cleaned up the space under the counter. The white hoses that are left is for the bilge pump. The clear ones are for the sink that's in the head. I'm thinking to remove the sink from the head. With the size of this boat, it doesn't seem necessary to me to have a second sink. I also cleaned up some more of the space, like the caulk that held the head/holding tank and the dirt covering the counter. Now it's more ready for installing an Airhead.

 I was thinking of how it would be to remove and cover the thru-hulls when I haul the boat and make some more room under the counter. Another thought is to keep the thru-hulls in place, at least the one under the counter, maybe for a watermaker in the future. Of course I'm not going to continue with the one used for the head so it'll be replaced with a new one. The other thru-hull to consider is the one that was used for the head's water intake. It's right next to the battery so I'm thinking that can definitely be removed and covered. One less thru-hull to worry about.

This thru-hull can be removed

I was going to remove the tiller to bring home to refinish it and fix the crack on the hand-hold end. When I went to loosen the nut, the whole bolt turned as well. Now, I'm trying to think of how to remove it. There's no way to hold both ends. The smooth side is recessed. I'll have to figure out how to remove it in order to refinish the tiller.

REFIT Plan: The Head

Looking to change the head to a composting head. I've been wondering how they are supposed to work and how well and been researching it. Seems that anyone who has one is glad they made the change. There are two companies I've come across, Nature's Head and Airhead that seems to have the main products.

The main concern I have is that it seems both of them require a vent through the deck. I'm not too crazy about putting another hole in the deck and where the head is, lines between the mast and the cockpit go right overhead. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking I might be a little creative in the vent. Maybe not going straight up but maybe somehow route a vent toward the stern of the hull. Looking closer at the Nature's Head website, it might be possible to use the deck pump out port location for the air vent since the hole is already there.

Along with conversion to a head, that means no pipes to worry about. I can remove them and likely gain  a little bit of storage space. While I'm looking at replacing all the seacocks in the boat, I may still be able to replace the one for the head in case I, or someone else, decides to install a regular marine head. The deck waste outlet will still be in place which I could re-seal that to make sure it's water tight.

I welcome any thoughts.

Here are the pictures of current setup. I didn't have a tape measure when I took these pictures but I'm hoping one of the composting heads would fit in this space without any issues. It would be nice to free up space by getting rid of those pipes.