It’s almost midnight on Sunday and I’m tired enough that I don’t really remember what I got done this weekend! Of course my to-do list I have been referring to is on the boat, so that is no help.
The general idea this weekend was to keep stripping the boat. As much time as I have already spent cleaning the cabin out, there was still tons to get out of there. Spent some more time removing electronics, handrails, etc. Sanded some more on the cabin, chipped away some rotten wood, cleaned out some old caulking, lots of little things this weekend.
Today I worked for a bit, but quickly realized I needed to get off the island for a bit. I haven’t really left for a while and it was time to get out! A neighbor and I ended up going to buy some tools and hit up a few boat shops. Fortunately I did not spend too much money, so it was a productive day.
I have to keep reminding myself ‘one day at a time.’ This project could easily be overwhelming, so I’ll have to pace myself and keep to one project at a time.
More later…
I remember when I bought my first car. I was fifteen years old or so and I bought an old VW camper bus. Of course I didn’t tell my parents, and it didn’t really run all that well. Little did I know that it had some bad rings in it and I would have to tear the engine apart. But over the course of a year, with the help of a knowledgeable friend, I got the job done.
Working on boats always scared me just like cars did initially. Fiberglass work, wood repair, engine care, all of it sounded awfully hard. If there is one thing I am learning though with Kintyre is that all of it is within the scope of a normal person. You just need some patience, an ability to laugh through the frustration, and a good vocabulary of swear words!
Got the outboard back together today, will test it out tomorrow when the sun comes out. I was going to put it in a barrel today and fire it up, but its 25 degrees outside.
Spent the evening on Kintyre. Flushed the transmission 4 or 5 times because of some condensation that got in there over the years. Scraped some old paint, found some more rot, traced some wires, a very productive night. I’ve made a list for the weekend- I don’t think I’ll actually get to all of it but I’ll get a good start. I don’t think I have any help coming out this weekend so it might be a long one.
Probably won’t update again until Sunday night… Stay warm!
It seems to me that every time I start a project down on the boat I spend half the time just fixing the tools, then half the time working on the project. The other day I had to get the shop vac working, today I was trying to change the tranmission oil and had to get the oil pump working first. But we are making progress…
Another friend came down and helped tonight. I’m getting lucky with so many people willing to help! But there’s never enough help, so come on down and grab a sander if you will…
Pulled the transmission cable tonight, and realized that my other three cables should be replaced also. More money of course. The tranmission fluid has some condensation in it so this weekend I’ll continue to flush out the transmission and see where we are at.
The cabin sides are coming along. I’m thinking about splashing some Teak oil on them this weekend before the rain comes. I haven’t decided in the end what will happen there, if I’ll keep them natural, glass over them, or what. But for now I just want to protect the beautiful wood we are discovering.
Engine seems to be running well. If I get to it I’ll change the fluids this weekend on it also. Not sure when I am going to pull the masts, as I ended up spending almost 200 bucks on my outboard today. Apparently last summer when I got some mud in the water intake I also burnt up the water impellor. I also found out the rubber hub in the propellor is slipping. Bunch of new parts and we should be good to go.
I think those are all the updates for now. I’ve left the booms alone this week to save as an indoor job when it starts raining again.
It’s only been three weeks since I took posession of her and I feel like its come along way already! more pics this weekend sometime…
Well once again its February 14th, and I’m celebrating Valentine’s day alone. I’m okay with that though. I’ve had my ups and downs in the dating scene and if I’ve learned anything, I’m much happier alone!
I do have a new love in my life though, she’s 41 feet long, 12.2 feet wide, and needs lots of love. So that’s where I will be spending my evening: scraping and sanding on Kintyre, the love of my life.
Stop by if you like, I’m there every evening now and all weekend. If you pitch in, I might even by you lunch!
Happy Valentine’s Day to the rest of you!
Where to start… internet has been down out here for a couple days so I have not taken the time to update on boat progress. I’ll try and backtrack a bit. It was a busy week with work, so I didn’t make it down to the boat much except to open her up and let her bask in the sunshine. About 99% of the moisture inside is finally gone, but the boards are still quite swollen.
I did spend most evenings working on the mizzen and main booms. The mizzen needs a little bit of hand sanding, but its just about ready to be varnished.
The main boom is another story. Both end brackets on the boom were riveted on. At first I thought about just leaving them and varnishing the exposed areas. However I realized they probably have not been removed since 1969 when the boat was built. One end needs a new hole drilled for the rivet. Easy enough. The other end had some rott from the years. It’s pretty much the last 2 inches. So I’ll dry it out for a few days, see if it is workable. Otherwise I need to consider shaving it off and reducing the length of my outhaul track, or finding a way to repair the rott.
The other problem with the main boom is the bracket attachment for the main sheet has cracked the wood. It is not enough to warrant a new boom, but enough that the same spot would scare me in a good howl. So I’ll move it another foot out the boom and all should be good.
Today I had some great help down on the dock. Matt, Shawn and Kirsten all helped out on the boat sanding, scraping, and removing rotten wood. She is looking more beautiful than ever! We also took the opportunity to fire up the engine and turn the boat around. As far as I know, this is the first time the boat has left that slip in ten years!!! All was good at first, did a couple circles in front of the dock before attempting to back up the full keel. As I was beginning to back up the cable for my shifter broke. Normally this would be a really bad thing, especially since we were backing up straight into another boat. However, the beautiful thing about this boat is dual controls, dual helms. Shawn dove inside and shifted while I steered inside. Could have been a big incident, everybody handled it nicely.
Last piece of news. I was supposed to unstep the masts this weekend but the yard backed out on me. They don’t have time for a week or two, plus they are charging a bunch of money. However we are having a new 35 million dollar bridge built on the island, and I’ve come to know the project managers quite well because of my job. So any saturday I want, they will pull the masts off for me using their giant crane! This is going to be fun…
I think this it for now. Supposed to rain for a couple days so work will slow down again until the masts are removed and I can cover up the cabin better.
Will post some more photos later..
A quick update on Kintyre. I was doing some office work down on the dock today because it was absolutely beautiful. After working on this emergency plan for the island for two hours, I decided to take a quick break and fire up the motor again. I climbed down in the bilge to hook up my temporary fuel line, when all of a sudden I feel my Treo 650 cell phone (read- expensive palmpilot phone) fall out of my shirt pocket, fall through the engine like a Plinko game, and land in the oil pan (mind you full of oily water) 2 feet below. After a few expletives I desperately tried to reach it without success. Of course, I also couldn’t see it below the motor.
20 minutes later after pumping out the oily water, I could see the phone. When I lifed it out the orange service light was still blinking. 20 seconds later it was not.
I did my best to dry it out for a couple hours– plugged it in– no go. More expletives.
Fortunately I had insurance on the phone so a replacement is only costing me 50 dollar deductible versus 499.99 for a new one.
Lesson learned today…
It’s been an interesting week in my life. Some ups and downs, but out of all of it, I’ve decided to completely dive into this boat project. The other night I was watching television at 10pm, and realized I would much rather be working on something rewarding and valuable. So I sanded down the mizzen boom until after midnight.
Some great news with the boat though, I’m saving money! Got the motor working yesterday, after some fresh diesel, she runs like a champ! The other blessing this week was inspecting the masts. Both of them appear to be in excellent shape. Of course I won’t know for sure until I haul them down, but I could not find any rot at all when I climbed them.
Things are moving along though, at least a few hours every day on the boat makes a difference. Had some hatch boards swollen up, still haven’t got all of them open. I need to drain the fuel tanks this week, cut some access holes in the top of them, clean the injectors on the motor, change the oil, finish getting the masts ready, etc. Next weekend is probably going to be the big day where we motor up river and yank off some sticks.
I’ll try and post some more pictures later today…
Another day on my ark… Spent the afternoon cleaning up the decks some more. Removed both booms, climbed and inspected the main mast, and began workin on the diesel motor. The great news is that the main mast looks to be in great shape. Climbed up to the top, belayed of course, and everything seemed pretty solid. I’m hoping to get both masts off the boat in the next two weekends. I will know for sure then what I have gotten myself into.
Tonight I was sitting at home watching Law and Order, when it dawned on me this is not what I want to be doing right now. I drove down to where I had stored the booms, grabbed the mizzen boom, and in 2 hours of sanding, the boom is 90% done. From now on I’m immersing myself into this boat. So much more rewarding than sitting at home alone every night and feeling sorry for myself. Look out world, I’m on a mission!
This is the first post of many in this new journey. Kintyre is now mine and she’s ready to get moving! This week I’ve started cleaning it out, wiping away the mold, cleaning up the decks, and letting her breath a bit. 9 bags of sails have been unloaded. All the cushions stowed away eventually to go to the dump. She’s beginning to look like a boat again!
Normally I would create a separate webpage for this, or at least post photos in here. Because I would rather take the time to work on the boat, this will only be text. But I’ll upload photos to flickr and you can check them out as I go…
This is all for now…
