Done!

Well, as much as any boat is ever done, that is. Which is to say, there's always a list of projects. I have finished all of the projects that I started over a year ago and the boat can finally be sailed. The last push involved reinstalling a handful of cleats, clasps, hinges and the stemhead (at least that's what I think it's called). I also had to reinstall the rubber rubrail insert. This was great exercise for the hands! I also decided to paint the cabin interior with white paint, as I had removed the old vinyl liner. In fact, the paint is still drying as I write this.

Reinstalling the Stemhead

The stemhead had an interesting aspect of reinstallation. The problem was that the two forward bolts went through an uncored portion of deck and the aft bolts through a cored section. On the underside this created a ridge. The original installation procedure used what appeared to be very stiff cardboard as a backing plate. Once torqued this material conformed to the ridge. I was not satisfied with this and felt that since this component received a great deal of force it should have a proper backing plate. The obvious problem is that a properly stiff backing plate wouldn't sit flat on the underside of the deck owing to the cored vs. noncored ridge betwixt the fore and aft bolts. I decided that I would fashion a custom backing plate out of fiberglass and use thickened epoxy to fill the void between the underside of the deck and the plate. I layed up around 12-14 layers of medium weight fiberglass (sorry, don't remember the actual weight) over several days. The glass was kept smooth by squeeging it between two layers of wax paper. I then created a pattern of cardboard which I test fit and then cut the fiberglass to shape. I thickened West System epoxy with colloidal silica until it was a nonsagging, frosting consistency. I waited until it was slightly tacky so that it would hold the plate into position and fixed it into position. The cardboard template and duct tape was used to hold it into position while the epoxy kicked. I was happy to see that the epoxy had completely filled the gap and oozed up through the bolt holes. I then redrilled the bolt holes and installed the stemhead in the normal manner.

Wrapping It Up
So, I am really looking forward to blogging about sailing this vessel instead of working on it! In truth, working on this boat has been a real pleasure, and I purchased it with full intentions of doing just that. I suppose that things got slightly out of hand and ended up taking much longer than I thought they would. Someone gave some advice to a new boat owner on the SBO forums which was something like, "don't set a time frame, you will overshoot it and become frustrated." Never a truer word has been spoken. If you ever decide to do something like this, just enjoy the adventure and don't cut corners. In retrospect, I might have been better served by starting one project at a time and not starting another until I had finished. Oh well, we live and learn and I've had a blast doing this.

All that's left to do is test raise the mast to readjust the standing rigging and commissioning the outboard. Tohatsu's are tough little motors and I don't anticipate any problems with it. It's a two-stroke after all, basically an underpowered chainsaw attached to a prop instead of a chain. I plan on removing the sparkplug and spraying WD-40 into the cylinder to overcome any starting friction. I have also pulled all of the electronics and am busy rewiring them. Several of the panel switches are bad and need to be replaced. Also, the wiring was not well organized or labeled, a problem that is easily remedied. I am consulting Nigel Calder's Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual for boat wiring info. I highly recommend this book, my father gave it to me as a gift and it has been very handy.

Hoisting the sails.