This is a post to show what I plan to do with a mast refit. I have some worn areas on my mast that are worn enough to show the aluminum and old manufacturer stickers that are faded and cracked. I'm looking at refinishing the mast similar to how Drake did in this video below.
Basically, the steps he used (mentioned in the video) were:
removed all hardware
Sanded down to bare aluminum
scrubbed it with Ajax and scotchbrite
bathed it in alumiprep
bathed it in alodine
painted with zinc chromate primer
painted 5 coats of Awl-Grip 501 primer (alternative currently available: 545)
sanded
painted 3 coats of Awl-Grip Awl-Craft 2000 paint
While it looks like Drake painted his mast white, I'm looking at doing something different. I'm thinking of painting the mast yellow. Having a yellow mast would definitely allow the boat to stand out if ever at an anchorage. I've seen pictures of other boats (including another Nor'sea) with a yellow mast and I like how it looks. I found this link with info that looks helpful for this process.
I believe there may be rivets that need replacing. I'm also thinking to look over all the mast hardware to see if any need replacing. The ends of the spreaders seem to be degrading and I will look into whether they can be fixed/replaced, which I might look into when I put the boat in the water this year. I wonder if it's possible to have spreader ends with a spring loaded lock to keep the rigging in place. Anyone know?
Here's a picture of one of them, they both look the same.
An addition to the mast I'm considering is to put a mount on the mast for a new radar head. Scanstrut is the main company I found that have mast mounts that would work.
I want to have the hull, waterline and bottom painted differently. For the topsides I'm looking at a dark red like Awl-Grip's "Claret", with a "Federal Yellow" waterline and a black bottom. Then the yellow mast would match the waterline.
This picture I found on an ad on Yacht World show the colors I'm looking at. This burgundy color is my favorite color.
Again, this refit I'm looking to START sometime around 2015. I'll be pretty busy along the way.
This part of my refit plan, I'm looking at replacing the Garmin 546s and Furuno radar. Lately, the Furuno stopped working which I may just need to trace the power to see if I can get it working again. While the 546s still works, I like the idea of having a bit larger screen.
Both of these are mounted by the electrical panel on a swing out arm to be viewable in the cockpit. Both take up quite a bit of space and I'm thinking it would be nice to consolidate the two into one system.
My idea for the upgrade is to get a Garmin 4208 chartplotter with a Garmin Radar, either the 18HD or 24HD. The Garmin 740s also seems to be popular and is touchscreen and costs less. Currently, the Furuno radar antenna is mounted on a pole on the stern rail. I'm thinking to mount it a little higher with a Scanstrut mount on the mast.
I can mount this single screen on the swing mount but I'm leaning more towards the idea of placing it where the bulkhead compass is currently mounted. This way, I won't have to have it swing back and forth on the swing mount. I'll look into how it might work out later but this is my current plan.
If this new chartplotter is mounted in place of the compass, I thinking to make a new companion way panel that is low profile, but big enough to mount the compass. This panel would removable for the times when not sailing.
Garmin also has AIS capabilities that can be viewed on the chartplotter. This is something I considered adding to this installation but I may not use AIS (yet). Maybe a VHF radio with AIS receiver could be a good alternative. Another aspect of some of the equipment is the possibility of using it outside of the US. That's when the FCC comes in where a Ship Radio Station license and Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit seems to be needed. Just something else to research along the way.
Right now, I'm planning on a refit of Rhapsody. Several posts following this one will hopefully explain some of the projects I have planned during this refit. They will start with "REFIT Plan" just as it does in the title of this post. I'll look for ideas along the way with research and likely receive some advice too before I actually get to work on them so some plans may change along the way. As I work on these projects, I'll post the progress and results.
This boat is over 30 years old and hopefully some of this will allow the boat to last even longer.
While I am still looking at using the boat this year, I found out that I will be going on a trip overseas for work in 2014. During that trip, I expect to have the boat out of the water and not long afterwards to start on a longer refit which is what I'm referring to in this post. So the main refit projects will likely start in 2015.
Tonight, I went to the boat for an oil change. I read somewhere that it's good to do an oil change annually or every 50 hrs on the engine. I have a Yanmar 2GM. Watching this video on Youtube was helpful to see how to do this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kiwfbL7H74
Here, you can see the oil fiter with the date of when it was last changed.
The last time I went to West Marine, I got this oil extraction pump. It looked pretty good out the box. The plastic container is hard.
The dip stick is on the side and down low of the engine in a not so easy place to see from the front. Thankfully, there's a removable panel on the sides of the quarterberths to reach it. I put the tube in there and got pumping and it worked out well.
Here you can see the stream of oil going into the container.
Filled up pretty well in about 15-20 min.
Once the oil got into the container, I switched out the oil filter with a Fram PH3593A I picked up at Walmart. Everything seemed to go well. Hopefully the engine will run fine after this.
This is my first winter since I bought the boat. I was reading different things online thinking I should probably do something about it. I found some safe RV antifreeze used for waterlines. As far as I can tell, the main water lines on the boat are dry. I don't know when the last time water was put in the tanks. I thought I would go to Rhapsody to at least winterize the engine.
I did this last night. I went to take off the hose from the raw water seacock by first releasing the two hose clamps holding it. The hose wouldn't budge. I grabbed the hose to wiggle it off, then realized, the whole seacock was moving. I moved it back and forth and also twisting it as I looked at it. I then thought to myself that it needed to be replaced. The seacock, as all of them on this boat, are mounted on what looks like a 1/2" piece of wood. The wood on most of the seacocks, that I've seen, look to be in fairly good shape. This one, the raw water seacock, the wood is soft and falling apart a bit.
Now, I'm researching parts, procedures and price on new assembly's. Since I know I have to get this one replaced, I may end up replacing others.
In the first link, it shows the "preferred and non-preffered" installations. The triangular one being preferred... all of mine looks like the other one. I'm looking for parts between Jamestown Distributors, Defender, and West Marine to get the better price. For the most part, they carry the same items. I'm also looking at using fiberglass board to use as a backing material instead of wood again and getting a Groco flanged seacock. Plenty more research needed.
I wasn't expecting to work on seacocks any time soon. I was hoping to get the boat in the water soon and do some sailing before doing any major items. Since the raw water seacock looks bad enough to cause the boat to sink, it has moved to the top of list of things to do.
It was suggested to me that the water lift muffler (metal can behind the engine) needs to be replaced. Looking at pictures I've had before, I could see that there were signs of leaking in the past. It was suggested to me that I replace the metal can with a fiberglass one as it should last longer. I'm sure I'll uncover other things to fix or replace soon. I just hope I can get them done to get it in the water and enjoy the sailing part of owning a boat too. :-)
Replacing all the seacocks will turn out to be an expensive project but as long as it's done right, it'll last a very long time.
Here's a short video showing the movement of the seacock.
Update 17 Nov 2012,
I was researching different things to replace the raw water valve/seacock for the engine intake. I'm starting to consider going with a regular round through-hull and flanged seacock. This post I found on a forum makes a good point of growth getting under an external strainer and the difficulty that comes to trying to clean and clear it.
This is the space showing where the strainer was removed.
Update 25 Nov 2012
For Thanksgiving day, I looked over the engine and got it running and was able to get the antifreeze through the engine's water system. This short video shows how it was setup.
I started a college class this past week, English 102, that will last until end of December. I'm not too crazy about it but if I'm ever going to get a degree, I need it. So, this leaves less time for boat related work (or anything else for that matter). But I'll fit it in some how.
Yesterday and today, I painted the starboard side handrail and I think I built enough varnish on it to be even with the port side. I started the port side before so I was working on getting them even now. To me, it looks like I got enough to build them up a few more coats without using mineral spirits to thin out the varnish, then I should be done with them. Then the tricky part of mounting them back on the boat.
Between the varnish work I did yesterday and today, I went through the same process. The weather was nice to work on it on the back deck both days. I sanded down the handrail with 220 grit sand paper then used my small shop-vac to vacuum up the dust. The varnish was still cut a little with mineral spirits, what I had left over from the other day. I applied varnish down the whole handrail. I measured it the other day while it was sitting in the living room. This rail is 11 ft long. By the time I got to the end of the handrail, I checked where I started and it was already drying. It wasn't just sticky but actually dry to the touch. I decided to apply another coat and let it dry. When this second coat dried to the touch, I moved it to the living room to dry the full 24hrs recommended on the varnish can. All of this, each day, probably didn't take more than 30 min to do.
Like I said, I did the same process yesterday and today. I'll get another few coats of straight varnish and it should be ready for the boat.
Here's pictures to show how it came out. I really like how the grain shows up on this handrail since I did use teak cleaner/brightener.
And this is showing it spread out in the living room. The wrenches hold the rails up by its bolts while it drys for the full 24hrs. The other pieces shown are the port side rails (came in two pieces) that are laying down waiting for the next coats of varnish.
I did a little bit of varnish work today on all the handrails today. On the handrail that I used a teak cleaner on came out nice. This first picture is after one coat of varnish.
On the other pieces that I already had a coat of varnish, I sanded them down a bit to smooth out the finish.
I then varnished the other pieces too. This picture below, I have one of the piece I had varnished before with the one I used a teak cleaner on. The one I used the cleaner on, did come out a little brighter then the one behind it. They still look pretty nice with fresh varnish. I think altogether, I have 2-3 coats on. The next couple coats will have less mineral spirits and more varnish as I work towards straight varnish for the finishing coats.
