Category Archives: Upgrades

Beastly Boat Projects: Part I

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There are so many things we do on the boat that are so very dreadful and darn right beastly!  Lucky for us, we are on the hard at Norsand and can employ their team to more effeciently conquer some of these boat projects for us.

Living on the Hard

Many cruisers rent an apartment when their boat is on the hard because frankly it is irritating to be on the hard while living onboard.  Why do you ask?  Well, first, we have no running water.  Which means no sinks, toilets, or showers.  Lucky for us we are fairly close to the bathrooms but still, in the middle of the night, I have to layer the warm clothing (as it get’s down to 11c), go outside, climb down my stairs, walk to the bathroom, and return.  Then I am wide awake for hours.  Brushing your teeth, or washing your hands, or doing the dishes take on a totally different meaning when you have to carry them downstairs, outside, and to the public sinks.

Now, let me shine some light on my craziness.  Yes, the above is true.  However, I only have to go down 5 steps where my neighbor has to go down 18 steps!  I have no right to complain.

Saildrive Maintenance and Repair

The boat projects begin.  We engaged Whangarei Marine (also known as Ray Roberts) to help us do some general maintenance on our saildrives.  I scheduled them for the day after we were hauled out but I did not expect to still be on the trailer when they arrived.  They made the best of it.  Taylor and Damon showed up and expertly removed the props, zincs, and drained the oil.

Then they had to move our engine forward in order to pull the saildrive out.  Only to have to repeat the process on the other side.

Plans Always Change…

We originally started out with replacing the bellows, clamping rings, and seal kits.  Then after we removed the saildrives we noticed our damper plates were a little worse for the wear (still functional, but new would be better).  Unfortunately, Volvo no longer sells parts for our 23 year old engines and there were no second hand damper plates.  So, we added a spacer to get more time out of the splines.  Matt thinks we added 4-5 years before we might need to think about repowering the boat (new engines and saildrives).  Gesh, this was a super expensive boat project!

Once the saildrives are installed we have to wait for the coppercoat to be applied before we install the boot that goes around the sail drive.  The rubber piece is glued with 5200 then Matt installs the fiberglass with screws.  We decided to cover these small pieces with an anti-foul wrap instead of our coppercoat.  This is a relatively new technology. It literally is a wrap that is meant to protect the bottom of your boat.

Top left shows the bare hull with the rubber boot down toward the bottom hanging losely.  The rubber boot is glued on first.  Then we glued (5200) the fiberglass boot (upper right photo) which has the new antifoul wrap on.  Once the fiberglass is set, the wrap company came back and added the plack paint around the edges and frankly made a huge mess of the entire project.  But it is on the bottom of the boat so we are letting it go.

An Experiment

Not a boat project, but a fun experiement.  In one area we have coppercoat (on the hull), prop speed (saildrives and props), Vivid barrier antifoul paint (rudder casing) and a new antifoul vinyl wrap (on the sail drive boots).  We are testing to see which of the 4 antifoul uses do better.  We both are betting on the antifoul vinyl wrap being the first to go.

Circle (upper left pic) is Vivid antifoul paint.  Lower right pic is the antifoul vinyl wrap.  Upper right shows you the coppercoat (antifoul on the hulls), vinyl wrap (black on the sail drive boot) and coppercoat on the saildrive and props.

Caulking the Deck and Beyond

There is a sealent that runs along the deck and the hull all around the entire boat.  It was looking super ratty and some areas had small leaks.  We tried to get a small area repaired in Raitea but they did not do a really great job so we decided to replace the entire thing all around the boat.  This is one of the boat projects we did not want to conquer on our own.

Josh is assigned to this lovely, dirty boat project.  First he has to carefully dig the old sealent out between the wood toe rail and the deck.  You can see it looks clumpy in some areas which is not only ugly but uneffective.  This has been a boat project we wanted to tackle for some time, but never had the time and dry weather for long enough to do it.

This is an area where he picked out the old sealent and then in the lower photo replaced it with fresh product.

Here is another area that was bad, it is the port sugar scoop by our swim ladder.

A Busy Caulker

Since we have such a talented “caulker” we asked Josh to seal several other areas:

  • Starboard large window (Int/Ext) / hatch that had a small leak
  • Starboard & Port helm seats and helm stations
  • Both davits at the boat attachment point
  • Forward and aft bimini poles (above the cockpit)
  • Inside around the new ceiling panels we installed last season in each of the 3 cabins, both heads, and salon.
  • Around the entire bimini rail, all four sides
  • Let’s just say that we “caulked” the majority of the boat inside and out

I am not sure Josh wants to do more caulking boat projects from us again, but it was great fun having him around for most of our time in Norsand!

Teak Bimini Rail

The teak bimini rail was falling off.  I am sure part of the reason it came loose was because it is old, but also because Matt steps on it when he works on the sail.  In order to properly repair it we had to completely remove it (carefully so it doesn’t break).  The rail is attached to the bimini which is made of honeycomb (strong and light).  Because the wood is old and fragile, Matt decides to take on this boat project by removing it himself.  Now the yard can fill and prepare the board to be re-installed.  Please note that our bimini rail did not look like the photos below. I failed to take a before photo of the wood so you get a middle photo of half of it torn out. 

Matt and Ben tackled the honeycomb part of this boat project.  Matt cleaned it out and prepared it for filling and then Ben filled it with sealant. We wanted to fill it to ensure the wood would hold more securly.  While the boys were working on the bimini, I worked on the wood. The end product looks amazing!

Bathroom Ceiling

This should be the last ceiling job that we do for a long time!  The master bathroom had 5 panels that were made of fiberglass and covered in paint.  The problem was the humidity over the years caused the paint to chip and it looked horrible.  The only way to properly repair the panels was to remove them, sand and repaint them.   The problem with this boat project was that they were solidly in place, glued with 5200 and tons of caulking.  It was beastly!

Of course, once you remove the panels you have to remove all of the awful glue, silicone, and residue — making this a truly beastly boat project.  We bring a day laborer, Kenan to help me for one day and I finish up on day 2.  Smooth as a baby’s butt!

Josh installed the new ceiling panels with VHB tape and then spent a few days caulking around every single panel!

Once he was done the master head looked spectacular!  I am so happy with the repaired ceiling.

Boat Projects To Be Continued…

We had so many beastly boat projects that it requires 2 blog posts!  So stay tuned for our next post as we install new heaters and a new 220v inverter/charger, we install new anchor markers and clean up our 100m of stainless steel chain, varnish tons of teak and install new mirrors.

What the cockpit looks like during project mode….ugh!

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occured during  7 Nov. – 22 Dec.  We repair several gel coat areas in our last blog – did you catch it?

A Sticky Situation: Vinyl

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Last season we decided to change the color scheme of our boat from blue with red accents to gray.  A more modern and sleek color.  We converted a few things with the purchase of new canvas (sail bag, cockpit enclosure, dinghy chaps, cushions), and sails but we had to tackle the vinyl stickers.  We have loads of stickers on the boat.  Our “Sugar Shack” logo is on each bow and the port stern, our home port is on the starboard stern, Catana has 3 logos and we have 3 stripes that run along the 47′ of both the inside and outside of each hull.

It all had to come off!  We hired Vital Signs to recreate our new graphics.  Wayne came to visit us immediately after we were hauled out.  He showed us how to properly remove the stickers and adhesive.  Of course he made it look easy with the right tools.

Then Matt and I jump into the process.  It is a very painstaking process that requires tons of patience (which I have none), finger nails (gone), and proper tools (nope don’t have these either).  The first photo shows several of the vinyl stickers (Sugar Shack, red line, blue line, world, and boot strap blue line).  I use a small exacto knife blade to get under the 23 year old baked on stickers.

We use every method at our disposal, climbing ladders and platforms, hanging upside down, and sitting cross ways.

It was so sad to depersonalize our boat…

Then Came the Hard Part

As if getting the actual old vinyl stickers off the boat wasn’t difficult enough you had to go back and remove every spec of the adhesive!

This tested every bit of patience in my body!

The top photo shows the left over adhesive after the sticker stripe was removed.   But even if you cannot feel the adhesive on the boat it still remains!  Check out the bottom photo where you can barely see a light discoloration indicating residue.

Patience, loads of turpentine, lots of exacto blades later proved more successful.

After 5 days of scraping, moaning, and complaining, the boat is ready to be “cut” (or washed with an abrasive product) which will prepare the hull for polish and will remove any remaining adhesive.

The Design

We decided to make some changes to our vinyl graphics.  Instead of a small red stripe above the windows and a large blue stripe at the window line we are going to replace them both with just one larger gray stripe.  Instead of a large blue stripe and a small red one at the waterline we will replace them with one large gray stripe.  We will then replace the small “Catana World” logo with a logo Matt designed.

Because we have “Sugar Shack” on the stack pack (sail bag) and we have it on the stern we decided we did not need a huge logo at the top of the bows.  So, we incorporated it into the world which now represents more of the Pacific and the areas where we have sailed.

We head to Wayne’s office where he shows us a mock up of our design.  Now…you have to use your creative “eyes” as he takes an old photo with the old vinyl and overlays the new.  You can tell this is an old photo (maybe 3-4 years) as the bottom paint is red and the sail bag is blue.  Now our sailbag is gray and the bottom paint is black.

The Application

Wayne returns for 1.5 days to adhere all of our graphics.  We decided on 3m slate gray to match our canvas.  He is meticulous, effecient, and proficient.  I am shocked at how fast he is able to adhere all the stripes around everything.  

We especially love the black hole at the bow 🙂  The world is made up of 3 stickers.  The background, gray, then the white letters, then the black outlines around the letters. But the hole as is was pretty fun to see.

This is a fun photo which shows you the new stickers, the removal, and the old stickers on the back of each sugar scoop.

The before and after photos are remarkable. It immediately lifts our spirits to see our name back on our home.

We are so pleased with Wayne’s work.  We would highly recommend Vital Signs for all of your graphic needs.  They did an excellent job for a very reasonable price.  They are located in Whangarei, New Zealand.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post happened during the month of November.  We enjoy some Kiwi fun at a cabaret in our last blog post!

Rudder Rebuild: The Rudder Part II

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In Part I of our Rudder Rebuild 1, we walk you through the steps we took to custom design our new rudder posts.  Now we are ready to custom design each rudder blade.  The shafts had to be completed before we began the design process on the blades. 

Both of our rudders were removed immediately after being hauled out.  We were on the trailer and still dripping with water, but they had to come out now while we could raise the boat high enough to get them out of their casings. 

It is pretty clear that the temporary rudder and our standard one are very different shapes, but the surface measurement is about the same.  The borrowed rudder came off a bigger Catana 50, same manufacturer but very different blades.

The one on the left was borrowed from Norsand and the one on the right is our original 23 year old rudder.

Rudder Casing  is Compromised

After we removed the rudders we stuck our heads below the hole and looked up with a flash light.  To our horror we found a few issues with the rudder casing.  One there is a slight crack at the entrance and two there is a bump inside that was rubbing on the rudder post.  Lucky for us, both are fairly easy repairs.

Peter, the expert glassman and rudder specialist, comes over to help us remove the bearing and do the repairs. The bearing proved to be a bit of a challenge as it did not want to come out.  They get a massive sledge hammer and attack it from the top and bottom.  Once it is out, we sand down the blister, fill and paint it before installing the new bearing and case.  It all sounds simple enough but it took them several hours to complete this project.

As you can see the bearing case (lower two photos) was in need of replacement and lucky for us we had a spare on board.  Evidently, it was not considered “horrible” and still functional but we replaced it anyway.

Getting Started on the Rudders

We hand over our old rudder and the two new shafts.  The foam is cut and patterned to fit our new shafts and tines.  As you can see, the rudder posts and tines support the blade a lot better than our original ones which stopped before the center of the rudder.  Weights are put on the foam to ensure it all sticks together.

We are not on site to watch the exact process so I may be missing steps.  Once the foam is sealed and molded they apply fiber glass.  The rudder on the left is done and the one on the right is in process.

Norsand Takes Over 

Once the fiberglass work is done, they are sanded down.  Then we make the executive decision to apply the Hemple barrier coat instead of the Interprotect barrier coat.  Why did we use a different barrier coat on the rudders than on the bottom of the boat?  The primary reason was we didn’t want to wait 2 weeks for the Interprotect to off gas.  So we used Hemple and dealt with the difficult application process.

The Hemple barrier coat was having a hard time curing which meant they could not sand the peaks and valleys.  We were delayed by 5 days waiting for the paint to cure, sand, tweak, sand, tweak and sand again before the rudders were handed back to us to have Norsand apply the coppercoat.

Norsand quickly covers the rudders in coppercoat repeating the same process as on the bottom paint. 

Once the coppercoat is dry, they sand the rudders to activate the coppercoat.  Then it is time to fit them.

Does the Shoe Fit?

Must admit that there is a little anxiety about the rudders fitting properly.  We were confident the builder knew what he was doing and did it perfectly, but there is a little niggle in the back of our minds.  We knew they were made much stronger and safer than our previously rudders that were factory made and lasted 23 years.  But it is hard to relax until they are fitted.

The yard has to raise us on the trailer in order for us to be high enough to insert the rudders into their shaft/casing.

Peter, Tony and Kevin are on hand to help us install the rudders.  Matt is inside the engine compartment inserting the bolt (bottom right photos) while Peter and Tony insert the shaft.  It is a perfect fit on port.

Starboard needs a little bigger spacer which we can easily make with help from Rob at RH Precision.  What a relief to have two stronger, well crafted rudders back on the boat!

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog posts occured during over 2 weeks in November.  Did you see how we custom designed our rudder posts in part I?