The Project Log
(An archive of blog entries made from June 2008 through May 2010.)
6/1/08 - San Juan 24 Project log (1)
San Juan 24 restoration progress (1)
Picked up the removable interior wood pieces to refinish at home; brought home the cushion foam for Deb to decide what to do with (old, but was high-quality, dense stuff); stripped the halyards to measure for replacement, removed traveller blocks and measured some others needing replacement, brought home a box of blocks and spare hardware collected from the interior to inventory and clean up.
6/7/08 - San Juan 24 Project log (2)
San Juan 24 restoration progress (2)
Spent over $600 at West Marine and Houston Hardwoods: Bottom barrier coat epoxy and paint, repair items, other stuff on sale we'll need eventually; marine ply and wood to replace the hatch boards. Worked on repairs around the house, didn't make it to the boat on the weekend.
6/9/08 - Sailing
This tends to happen if you love boats...
Deb says I've reached my five-boat limit with recent acquisitions. I'm starting to agree, seeing that my garage is two-blocked with boats and trailers and I can no longer move around in it. Something's gotta give this year. Here they are:
#1. The end of May, we acquired a San Juan 24 "project" boat. Hope to be sailing it by fall, but that may be ambitious as busy as work is right now, trying to get the house on the market, and still trying to squeeze some music and sailing in.
#2. Still have and still enjoying the Starwind 19. I plan to keep it until we've actually sailed the San Juan a few times and see how we like it. When the San Juan hits the water, the Starwind will go on the trailer for a bottom job and then maybe? go up for sale. I keep hearing great things about the San Juan's performance, but the cockpit sure doesn't look as comfortable, and actually isn't any bigger, than the Starwind's. The Starwind is admittedly slow in comparison to the bigger boats we sail against, but still a nice little boat to sail. What may happen is that both may go for sale and we'll let the market decide, part with the one that sells first, keep the other.
#3. Deb's brother Terry no longer has a place to park the aluminum fishing boat inherited from their father, so he brought it to us. The 20-HP Mercury needs work, and the repair bid Terry got in Dallas indicates we may be looking for a new motor.
#4. I bought a 1959 fiberglass speedboat in Tulsa over 12 years ago and started restoring it, but when I realized how much it was going to cost to repower, it kind of took the wind out of my restoration efforts. So the boat's pretty well sat in the garage in Tulsa, then Houston, ever since. I have plans for the bow and stern though; the mid-section has major structural issues and I really think I can get more out of the bow and stern converted to furniture (like for a seafood restaurant entry or patio) than I ever could as a boat. Really cool hardware will go with the deal. It's just that initial cut with the sawzall...
#5. Still have the Old Town Guide canoe. Haven't used it since buying the sailboat, but we keep planning to do some fishing in it ... "real soon now." We've noticed in the stores that Old Town has now changed the front seat in the Guide so it's not a "butt bucket" suitable only for skinny twelve-year-olds - after I'd already fashioned a new one that fits a real adult better than the one that came in our Guide.
Comment 7/5/10/BC - The 1959 powerbaot is long gone, cut up and put out for the trashmen a few pieces at a time. The cost of re-powering it and the work of finishing it out just loomed too large after all the work on the San Juan. The San Juan 24 is refurbished, sailing, and FOR SALE. I've started repairs on Hurricane Ike damage to the Starwind; the topsides are in better shape than I thought, but the bottom in worse shape than I realized. We've done some swapping and have a working 15-HP Yamaha outboard on the fishing boat, but have only had it out once so far. Still have the canoe, are thinking of buying a 14-15' sailboat for summer sailing, and have our eye on a couple of potential keel-boat replacements for the San Juan when it sells.
6/14/08 - San Juan 24 Project log (3)
San Juan 24 restoration progress (3)
Took some time to do three "small, easy" things on the our other boat, the Starwind, which of course ended up taking a lot more of the afternoon than I'd hoped for, so I made it to the San Juan after 3 PM just as it started sprinkling and looked like it might start pouring. So I measured a few things I needed, disassembled the interior cabinets, then pumped and sponged the bilges dry while I waited. Noticed that the starboard chain plate bulkhead is rotted at the bottom and will have to be replaced. Then we put a couple of tarps over it all, more to keep out leaves and dirt than water, and by then the rain had passed, it was getting late, but started sanding the bottom for about 45 minutes anyway, just to say I'd gotten started. Basically, it's going to take a lot coarser sanding than I had planned on starting with, but thankfully Del had some 40- and 50-grit discs in his shop.
6/21/08 - San Juan 24 Project log (4)
San Juan 24 restoration progress (4)
Stayed around home. Deb's brother had delivered the fishing boat inherited from their father, which pretty much filled my garage up. It had a removable platform mounted on the bow that had some broken brackets the trolling motor had mounted to. I rebuilt the platform with thicker plywood and re-mounted the trolling motor directly on it. Took the non-working 20-HP Mercury off and mounted the ancient Johnson 6-HP that's been sitting in my garage; don't know if it runs or not. Otherwise, made a good start on sanding down the interior wood pieces from the San Juan.
6/28/08 - San Juan 24 Project log (5)
San Juan 24 restoration progress (5)
Dropped the Johnson SailMaster outboard off at a local repair shop (Strack's Boat Service), around $150 more spent various places on polyester resin, sanding discs, small tools, etc. I'd made a good start sanding the starboard bow when I noticed water was seeping out a small hairline crack on the aft end of the keel (I had noticed the crack before and had it on my job list, but it had been dry before). Further investigation found a pocket of water between the fiberglass and lead, about a foot square on each side of the keel. The fiberglass here is just fairing the keel into the hull, too thin to be of much structural significance. I got the wet spots ground out and one layer of mat laid in. Still have to fair the aft edge better and put a layer of cloth over it all.
7/5/08 - San Juan 24 Project log (6)
San Juan 24 restoration progress (6)
No work at the boat, CRBA Boat parade and picnic Saturday. Evenings, though, I've pretty much finished sanding down the interior wood pieces. The solid wood cabinet door and drawer front are in good shape, just need a touch-up of the varnish; rebuilt the drawer with a new bottom. The plywood pieces had been re-finished terribly but sanded out a lot better than I thought they would. I may still replace them though; after all, I have a whole sheet of marine plywood, will use about a quarter of it for the companionway boards, and it's a whole lot prettier than the fir or whatever-it-is plywood used originally. Still have to look at the table; the bottom layer of laminate is peeling off at the edges and that inboard prop is just too flimsy-looking for my peace of mind.
7/12/08 - San Juan 24 Project log (7)
San Juan 24 restoration progress (7)
We finally hit 100+ degree weather here. Actually, it's been a pretty nice spring and early summer, but too hot to get all gritty sanding and grinding this weekend. I did decide to go ahead and replace the starboard cabinet with new plywood, so cut out the parts for that, the plywood for the new hatchboards, and a replacement for one cubby cover. Sunday, had a decent sail pretty far up the lake in the Starwind but then the wind died and we ended up motoring back in.
7/15/08 - San Juan 24 Project log (8)
San Juan 24 restoration progress (8)
Strack's Boat Service has finished tuning up the Sailmaster outboard, said after some general cleanup, carburetor cleaning, new spark plug and new thermostat it runs very well. The price was reasonable enough I'll probably have them bid on fixing the Mercury on the fishing boat.
7/19/08 - San Juan 24 Project log (9)
San Juan 24 restoration progress (9)
More fiberglass patching near the top of the keel, Deb came out with me and did a great job sanding more of the bottom. Skipped the summer racing, but tried to sail the Starwind out to a moonlight raft-up off Pine Island. The wind kept increasing as soon as we got out of the marina, though; switched to the smaller jib about 1/3 of the way out, then the wind kept increasing still and we were about to reef the main when we realized that no one else seemed to be coming out, so we gave it up and turned around about 3/4 of the way to the island. Had a quick broad reach back in, got back to the dock and 9 sailboaters ended up gathering aboard the Williams' Catalina 30 Impulse, so we all just had a good time chillin' in the cockpit and watching the moon come up.
7/26/08 - San Juan 24 Project log (10)
San Juan 24 restoration progress (10)
More bottom sanding, in between battling an agressive sentinel the hornets living in the front trailer post had keeping watch. Got stung once on the neck and figured that would end my day, as allergic as I normally am to wasp and bee stings, but I just kept working and barely even swelled up any. The same sentinel kept buzzing my hair every time I walked by though, so I finally snuck up behind him and sucked him into the shop vac. When I opened the tub up, he was in there dazed and confused, so I stepped on him. Hah! Serves him right. Del came out after awhile and provided some spray I had looked for in his shop but hadn't located, so now that particular nest of hornets is history. Checked the interior and found a fair amount of water in it, even though we had tarps over the boat before Del kindly put it under cover of his tractor shed. I'll eventually need to figure out where the leaks are; probably good incentive for taking off all the deck hardware and rebedding it when (if) I paint the deck. Also took some time to unbolt the chainplates. They checked out OK with no corrosion, but the starboard plywood bulkhead the chainplate bolts to was even worse than I thought, rotted to the point of crumbling. One more job on the list.
9/23/08 - San Juan 24 Project Log (11/IKE)
Hurricane Ike, Part 3
The San Juan 24 sailboat we're working on restoring fared fine through Hurricane Ike, on the trailer at the Williams', even though they had 27 trees blown down on their acreage and minor damage to the front of the garage which the boat was behind.
10/21/08 - San Juan 24 Project Log (12)
Still sanding
Spent most of the last two Sundays still sanding the bottom; Debbie came out the first Sunday and really makes progress on it when she's there. While she had the sander, I started grinding out some of the dings on the port topsides, and patched some of the larger deeper ones with fiberglass. Last Sunday, I sanded on the bottom as long as I could stand it - getting close to finished, then started fairing the keel with "Red-hand" epoxy. After that, sanded out the patches I'd made last week, then mixed up a gel-coat putty and filled most of the dings on the topsides port. "Should" be able to finish the bottom sanding in one more day, except for what's under the trailer supports - that may be another day. Overall, the bottom doesn't look that bad; hit a few imperfections with the Red-hand and I think the epoxy barrier coat will fill most of the others just fine. Obviously, the fall sailing we'd hoped for is slipping by - August was just too hot to work, and September was pretty much trashed by Ike. Our boat club, the CRBA, has cancelled all of it's fall sailing events due to Ike anyway. Ready by New Year's Day Revognah??
11/10/08 - San Juan 24 Project log (13)
Lots of progress!
It was a gorgeous fall weekend, and Deb and I both hit the San Juan with sanders and paint rollers Saturday and Sunday. Got one coat of epoxy barrier coat on the bottom, and the entire starboard topsides and about 1/3 of the port side sanded down a lot quicker than I expected. There's some more filling and fairing needed on the bottom that didn't show up until the first coat was on (I've done enough boat painting to expect that), then we intend to put at least 2 more coats of barrier coat and two coats of anti-fouling on the bottom. Will be shopping for topsides paint this week, probably Interlux two-part polyurethane. We looked the deck over again, not a great paint job but decided not to paint it for now, since the spiders tend to make a mess of the deck in our slip anyway. Discovered the aluminum toe-rail is loose in spots; loose or missing nuts on the underside; so now I plan to strip those off in addition to all the other deck hardware. That will be better for painting the top edge of the hull in addition to probably plugging some leaks when it goes back on with the bolts re-caulked.
12/22/08 - San Juan 24 Project Log (14)
Bottom progress
Since the last post, we've: Finished 3-4 coats of epoxy barrier coat on the major part of the hull; put stands under the bow, dropped the front trailer rollers, and got that area sanded, filled, and barrier coated; got 2 coats of bottom paint on everywhere except under the jack stand pads and aft trailer rollers; done some more filling on the topsides gouges, got pieces cut out for new companionway boards (making it in 2 pieces - marine plywood framed in white oak), and Deb's just about finished re-covering the interior cushions.
The biggest breakthrough was after the second coat of epoxy;
we were still having problems with pinholes which the paint seemed to fill as it went on, then they would break through as it dried. They were everywhere because a previous owner had apparently sanded through the gelcoat into bare fiberglass to get rid of blistering, so of course we also exposed bare fiberglass by the time we got any filler we used sanded smooth and the old bottom paint sanded off. I'm sure that every one of those pinholes would be an opening for a new blister to develop from. More filling and sanding wasn't working, because we were just sanding through the epoxy into new pinholes adjacent to the area filled. I finally hit on the idea of using the epoxy barrier paint itself as a glazing putty - mixed up a small amount and added enough of West system's lightweight filler to make a putty. It filled the pinholes and small imperfections perfectly, and set soft enough I could sand it smooth by hand without going through the coats of epoxy. I wouldn't recommend it for filling large holes, but it works great as a glazing putty between coats. Since I had some putty left over after one round of filling, I also used it on some of the smaller spots on the topsides.
Ready now to: replace the front rollers, move the jack stands to the stern and drop the aft trailer rollers, get those spots sanded, filled, sanded, epoxied, and bottom painted. That's a minimum of two full days, probably more. I'll have some time off work between Christmas and New Years, but also travelling some, and weather will be a big driver of what can get done - Houston-area weather around Christmas into January can range anywhere from balmy to freezing to just miserably cold and wet. In the meantime, between coats of filler, epoxy, and bottom paint, there's still plenty of filling and sanding to do from the waterline up, and still woodworking and refinishing to do in the garage at home if we don't make it out to the boat. By then we'll probably be waiting out February weather by removing all the deck hardware and hoping for some warm enough days to prime, then paint the topsides.
We've also contacted Gene Adams/Port Gardner Sailboats, who still has some parts we need to order; stanchions, a tiller, front hatch hinges, and probably some already-made-up halyards. Still pricing out other hardware and equipment -- Defender Marine Discount seems to be about the most reasonable but their selection of some items isn't as extensive as West Marine. Progress, but obviously, we won't be making it for the January 1 Revognah, which may not happen anyway since our marina's restoration from Hurricane Ike has just gotten underway last week. Now hoping to get her launched and get some shake-down runs in before the spring racing series!
- San Juan 24 Project Log (15)
Bottom finished! and Stuff!
The bottom job is finished! Finished the painting between Christmas and New Year's, replaced the trailer rollers and got it off the jack stands last weekend. I'll still run a freshen-up coat of bottom paint over it a week or two before launch (without minding about the trailer rollers), but other than that, the bottom is done! Have done some more patching on the hull above the waterline, unbolted the starboard toe rail and some other deck hardware, and removed the cabinet faces to fix and refinish at home. Meanwhile, Deb's done with the interior cushions. Progress...still a lot to do.
Saturday, I ended up with a bunch of stuff...
A Mr. Salinas had put an ad on Craigslist, saying his San Juan 26 had been destroyed by Ike, and listed a bunch of parts he'd managed to salvage for sale. I went just to look at stanchions and a mainsail cover, which I needed, but ended up with the 2 stanchions I need for the San Juan, 2 extra stanchions I might be able to use on the Starwind; most of the running rigging, almost new; cabin lights; 2 extra winches; 7 or 8 blocks of various sizes including better mainsheet blocks than came with my boat; and a jib bag and canvas companionway cover in addition to the mainsail cover. I was happy with offering him a fair price for all that, but then he said he'd throw in the mast, boom, all the standing rigging, mainsail, jib, and a spinnaker for an added price that I could probably spend for a used mainsail alone. Plus some odds and ends like fenders and lifeline covers. He just wanted to clean his garage out. There's still stuff I need to buy - turning blocks, a tiller, wind vane, batteries and some other electrical stuff.
This trip took a lot off my shopping list, but added some extras I didn't really need - like the complete extra set of mast, boom, and rigging, which I still have to pick up, then figure out what I'm going to do with. San Juan built 2 26' models; this model had exactly the same rig dimensions as the 24. I layed the 2 mainsails out on the driveway and they're exactly the same size. We also measured the mast lengths and confirmed they're the same, but the spreaders are different and he doesn't have the foot that helps lead the halyards back to the cockpit. I guess after I get the mast I'll lay the two side-by-side and see what else matches; his clear aluminum one looks in better shape than my black anodized one. One of the masts will be for sale, just have to see which one I want if both work.
2/10/09 - San Juan 24 Progress Log (16)
Removed the port toe-rail, more filling and sanding, mostly finished on the sides. I didn't like the looks of the hull/deck joint under to toe-rails- it was ground off so raw wood core and fiberglass edges were showing, depending only on the caulking under the toerail to keep water out. There was considerable dirt between the deck and toerails, and if dirt's under there, I know water has been! So I filled the edges with "red-hand" epoxy, will sand it smooth and take the topsides paint up over the edge to seal it. Also did some re-molding on the deck scuppers that go under the toe-rail - Clark did a TERRIBLE job on those!. It looks to me that water almost had to be getting into the laminate, but surprisingly, haven't find any soft spots along the edge. Also removed the bow fitting, have a little hardware to remove and some sanding to finish up on the stern. One more weekend? prep, may even get one coat of primer above the waterline next time out. Plan to roll the first coat of primer since pinholes and divots always show up the first coat; after filling and sanding them time to break the spray gun out. It's been close to 30 years since I've sprayed a boat with paint - should be interesting to see how it comes out!
2/17/09 - San Juan 24 Project (17)
Meant to get up early and get at it this weekend; instead slept in and watched it rain on Valentine's day, checked on the Starwind at the marina and got out to the San Juan late but got some work done Sunday. Sanded down the epoxy along the deck edge, finished up getting the stern ready. Basically, everything's ready for the first coat of primer except a little under the trailer bow roller. Yahoo started charging for a "pro" Flickr account that you can set up as separate albums, so instead of paying I'm moving pictures to Google's Picassa. Posted three new pictures there taken Sunday; this is the link to the whole album.
2/22/09 - San Juan 24 Log (18)
Topsides primer
Saturday - got one coat of topsides primer rolled on, and as expected, there are quite a few pinholes and small divots that didn't get filled. The Interlux primer was a lot tougher to roll smooth than I thought it would be, too - kept wanting to leave a ridge at the edge of the roller on every stroke. Next time out I'll be filling holes and taking off deck hardware till the putty sets, then hopefully I can hand sand it like I did on the bottom. Next coat will be sprayed. Still have considerable work to do on the interior woodwork at home, but the new hatchboards fit almost perfectly - just need to run a belt sander down the edge of the lower piece to loosen it up some, then put the finish on.
3/30/09 - San Juan 24 Progress Log (19)
Still prepping for paint
Didn't get to a second coat of primer yet; got all the topsides pinholes and minor divots filled, then decided to run the paint up to the edge of the cockpit back aft - that was the worst part of the old deck paint. That meant some hardware to take off, and still have a little sanding and filling to do there. Although all of the deck could use painting, not doing most of it this time around. It think forward of the cockpit, we can sand down a section at a time and paint it with a brush or roller at the dock. The winches on the boat were in bad shape, insides full of dirt and one barely moves, so I'm thankful I got 2 winches in good shape with my recent salvage purchase from the wrecked San Juan 26. Still have to pick up the extra mast that came with that deal. Debbie got most of the inside surfaces sanded down and primed, and I did a small amount of work on the interior woodworking. We spent this last Saturday moving the Starwind back to its refurbished and relocated slip; didn't think we'd like being way in the corner of the marina at first, but after steering the boat in and sitting there awhile, decided there's plenty of room to get in and out and we might kind of like it, after all. The view's definitely not as sweet as the old location further down the bulkhead, though. The Starwind's bottom looks nasty after not moving since September; may not wait until the San Juan's in the water to pull it out for a bottom job and repairs. We gotta get something sailing soon!
4/7/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (20)
Took off work Thursday and Friday, got 2 coats of topside primer sprayed on, with sanding in between. Mostly good, a couple of small runs along the top where I'm trying to go up over the edge to seal the formerly exposed edges of the hull-to-deck joint. Spraying from 2 different directions it's hard not to get too much paint occasionally on the overlap. Will probably still put on one more primer coat, then 3? finish coats. Saturday, picked up the Starwind's trailer so I could pick up the extra mast I've ended up with on Sunday. Spent an hour at the Cape trailer lot trying to trouble-shoot the brake lights, gave up and pulled it home anyway, spent 'till 11PM rewiring the whole light system (again? - I thought I'd done that?), but the left brake light still wouldn't work. Spent another frustrating 3-4 hours Sunday before finally figuring out the ground wire from the light to the trailer only looked grounded but wasn't making good contact. Finally left for West Columbia at 3PM, picked up the mast and got back home around 8. The mast and trailer are sitting in the drive (against the neighborhood covenants - oh well) until Good Friday, then out to the Williams' where the boat is, for a side-to-side comparison with the original mast, and see what I want to use off of each one.
5/4/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (21)
Paint
Hard to believe it's now been 11 months, coming up on ONE YEAR, since we've started this project! We've now finished two coats of the Brightside polyurethane topsides paint - one left to go! The first coat didn't turn out that great, seemed to be having trouble with the spray pattern, but ok 'cause it has to be wet-sanded between coats anyway. The second coat I got the spray settings right, not bad for an amateur job, but it will still be wet-sanded again, hopefully take out any imperfections remaining from the first coat. I think the third coat will be even better - finally re-learning what I'm doing; after all, before this, it's been about 30 years since I've spray-painted a boat.
We had hoped to get the third coat on Sunday, but instead spent the whole day moving the Starwind down the dock to a different slip, with new docklines, cleaning it up some and replacing the bent stanchion I had taken off and managed to straighten out. Now that our dock's been moved to the corner of the marina post-Ike, we found that our old slip closest to the bulkhead was simply collecting too much debris - logs, limbs, boards, trash, dead fish - anytime the wind turned from the south. We found out the Island Packet on the end was staying in a larger slip near the launch ramp, so we moved from the closest slip to the far end. That will be the San Juan's home when it's finally launched. It's got a little more wind and wave action than further in, but hopefully won't collect the debris, will be easier to get the San Juan in and out of, and we've got our million-dollar view across the breakwater back. The ancient 6-HP Evinrude worked about halfway down the dock, then started making a ping-kaching noise that doesn't bode well for its future. I couldn't get it back in gear after I tried reversing to ease into the new slip, but I was close enough Debbie could grab the bow pulpit and we wrestled it in from there. Knew I shoulda checked the gearcase oil. Think that could have been that sheen trailing behind me? Even if it had run great, we're environmentally conscious enough we weren't planning on actually operating it out on the lake, trailing an oil slick and copious amounts of blue smoke. After the San Juan's launched, looks like we'll be putting the Starwind up for sale with repairs and a fresh bottom job, but no motor.
Other progress - April, finally got the paperwork into Texas Parks & Wildlife - boat and motor are now duly titled and registered to us. I built a grate out of redwood I had in the garage, to go in the port lazarette locker and keep things out of the bilge - just needs a little sanding and varnish, and will laminate a ledger inside the locker about 20" down. The rest of the woodwork just needs some sanding on a few spots I filled in with putty; will coat pieces likely to get wet (starboard chainplate cabinet and hatch boards) with epoxy and also varnish those, just varnish the ones not that likely to get wet. Found jig dimensions for the tiller online, plan to laminate my own tiller out of white and red oak I already have instead of spending about $100 for one. I did, though, spend about $600 more on other "stuff" - a new electrical panel, bow and stern lights, blocks, electric and manual bilge pumps, plumbing fittings, anchor chain and line, new dock lines, wind indicator, and a hand-held VHF the boat club's decided would be nice to have for race-day communications (not sure if any local law enforcement or potential rescuers even monitor VHF on the lake, so I got the cheap model). That still doesn't complete my list, though - still need wiring, batteries, bilge pump hoses. Picked up the extra mast I ended up with from the hurricane-wrecked SJ26, still haven't unwrapped it from the plastic the previous owner wrapped it with. Meanwhile, while I've been working on the topsides, Debbie's sanded and primed most of the interior fiberglass, cleaned and painted the toerails, and started trying to clean the mast up with Turtlewax.
5/13/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (22)
Love Bugs!
The topsides painting was going great until Saturday, managed to spray a beautiful coat on, but before the paint could dry, trouble arrived in the form of "love-bugs", which show up every spring here in South Texas and Louisiana in swarms to mate with each other and our windshields. We had splatted enough on the windshield coming out to know they were out and doing their mating thing, but they didn't seem to be invading the shed we're working in - that is, until they saw the wet paint. They seem to be attracted to bright, reflective surfaces, like windshields and shiny wet boat paint. Starboard side - only two or three stuck, but the port side must have been reflecting the sun more - there's twenty or thirty stuck in the paint there, in spite of Debbie's best efforts to keep them shooed away. At least they're mostly on the bow, and I may only have to repaint about 1/3 of the way back - AFTER the little buggers' mating season! I'm going to try going over a few spots with polishing compound first, but not holding my breath that that will take care of all the blemishes caused by pulling off the legs, wings, and bodies that are now part of my paint job!
Saturday evening and Sunday, I laminated myself a tiller, using the dimensions posted on the San Juan 24 Yahoo! Group. I had white oak and red oak in the garage, so that's what I used, and added one strip of redwood down the middle for color. I set dowels in a discarded fence picket for the jig and stuck the strips together with thickened epoxy. After it set overnight, I sanded it smooth, rounded the edges, and did some more shaping on the handle end with a grinder and sander. I like it! - turned out great, if I may say so myself. I also glued the table edges which were coming delaminated on the bottom - just the teak trim around the table and the big V-berth filler board left to sand. The other wood's all ready for sealing with epoxy, then varnish. Almost ready to start putting things back together! While waiting for the Love Bugs to GO AWAY!
5/18/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (23)
Love Bugs 2
Whew! Turns out the love bugs weren't as big a problem as I feared. We were able to wet-sand them off, then polish out the spots with polishing compound. There are about 4 small spots that I had to sand a little too deeply and need to put some touch-up paint on, but that's better than another whole coat. I'll be shopping for a new air-brush for the touch-up and striping; still too many bugs flying around this weekend to do any new painting anyway. After polishing the bugs off, we finished taking the deck hardware off; most will just be recaulked and replaced, but a couple of turning blocks and a few screws and nuts have to be replaced. We were hoping to get the toe-rails back on, but taking the other hardware off ended up taking all day. Then we decided there's not that much deck area outside the non-skid and, although the paint someone applied in the past is in bad shape, the fiberglass beneath looks in good shape. It shouldn't take much filling, just sanding, so we decided we might as well go ahead and paint the deck. Probably just one coat of primer and one or two of finish paint. I hate the orangey-peach color someone put on the non-skid parts, but it's actually in good shape, still deciding whether to paint over that. We'll see how it looks next to the Hatteras off-white we're using. Spring racing's slipping by already, so one or two more weekends are no big deal at this point, if the summer heat doesn't ramp up too much in the next couple of weeks. At home Sunday, sanded down the one or pieces I hadn't gotten to yet and sealed a lot of the wood pieces with epoxy; some light sanding and they'll be ready for varnish.
5/26/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (24)
Imperfect progress
So, after taking off the deck hardware last weekend, we decided the deck and cabin sides looked really dismal next to the new hull paint, so now we're painting the deck after all. Spent half of Sunday morning working to remove the last 2 turning blocks some idiot had used non-stainless nuts on and one non-stainless bolt on, finally had to leave two broken screws in the deck and grind them down to the fiberglass top and bottom. Took out the starboard aft portlight because the rubber gasket was crooked, had enough trouble with the screwheads on that one stripping out that I decided to tape off and paint around the other windows. Sanding the smooth areas of the deck went pretty quickly, finished that and started taping off Sunday afternoon. Slept in some Monday, then taping off all the non-skid areas took up most of the afternoon. Finally got to spraying primer around 4:30 and it was HOT up there near the top of the metal-roofed shed. Not sure how it will end up drying where the big drops of sweat always seemed to fall right as the spray hit an area. I was trying to spray one heavy coat on the horizontal areas and didn't quite get the paint flow cut down enough on one area of the cabin side, so there's some pretty big runs there. Hopefully, they'll sand out OK and I can just paint over them without another coat of primer. At this point, we're ready to SAIL; trying to make the deck look better, not perfect.
Had a Memorial day get-together at the neighbor's Saturday, so just worked on the interior wood pieces in the garage. Epoxy-coated the tiller, drilled out the chain plate holes in the starboard bulkhead oversized and filled them with epoxy, then started varnishing at least one side of everything else. The spar varnish I bought at Home Depot or Lowes went on the bare wood pieces fine, but it didn't like the epoxy undercoating on a lot of the pieces. After two days it was still wet, tacky but with a greasy feel. I tried wiping one piece with a wet cloth, which looks like it will work, but I'm not sure if that's leaving a thin varnish coat under whatever floated to the top, or taking it all off back to the epoxy. I have to wipe one piece down completely and try a second coat; if that doesn't set up, I guess I'll be spending the money for Cetol or some other "marine" varnish.
6/15/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (25)
Dos Libre?
Finished priming and painting the deck, at least the non-non-skid portions, taped off the bootstripe and got one coat of black paint on it. Most of the hull and the deck non-skid is wrapped in tape and brown paper. The deck's not a great job; even though I cleaned it and wiped it down well, there somehow was a lot of grit in the first coat, which I didn't bother sanding that well, just roughed up a little for the second coat. The spiders make a mess of the decks at our marina, anyway, unless you're cleaning the boat more than sailing it. Daughter Laurel is working on some graphics for the name with some new decal machine she's gotten, so waiting to see how the cove stripe will detail into that. The name! I think we've pretty well settled on "Dos Libre" - "two free." We wanted something Spanish to go with the "San Juan" moniker, and just like the sound of "Dos Libre." We shall defiantly remain "two free - too free - to be free" under the Obamanation. The Cetol worked fine over a couple of trial pieces of epoxy-coated woodwork, still have more layers of that to apply in the garage at home. It doesn't seem like that much woodwork in the SJ24 until it's laid out over every possible flat surface in a garage already crowded with two boat trailers (one and a half boats - different story) in addition to the normal yard work-garage-remodeling stuff. Next weekend - strip the tape and paper off the deck, 2nd coat of black on the bootstripe, do as much priming and painting as we can inside the cabin so we can start re-installing hardware next time out! Launch date - late July?
6/23/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (26)
Freesong
Have a wedding to attend next Saturday, company on Sunday, so no work on the boat this coming weekend. Last weekend, we worked only Saturday, took a much-needed break Sunday. Got a second coat on the bootstripe, and rolled primer on the interior until we ran out of primer and couldn't take much more of the fumes anyway. We're painting everything inside, including inside the lockers, where the raw fiberglass is really soaking up the primer. Made a trip to the Coldspring hardware store and got a quart of Kilz, which took us less than 10 minutes to use up back at the boat. The Kilz smells just like the much more expensive Interlux primer we used on the exterior, so we're thinking they're pretty much the same thing. Will return with a gallon of Kilz to finish up next time out, and roll the topcoat on the ceiling. Using the same Interlux Brightsides as the exterior to topcoat the exposed interior; will find a cheaper enamel or such for inside the lockers. The name - Still like Dos Libre, but I think we've decided to keep with the "song" theme (our Starwind is the Song of Grace and name this one Freesong.
7/6/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (27)
Insides painted. It was hot.
The inside painting's done! Well - almost. We're already through 2 quarts of the Interlux polyurethane on the exposed parts inside - we still want to purchase a cheaper paint and do inside the cubby holes under the berths, but that can be done anytime. We can start putting things back together now! Debbie thinks she's lost a few brain cells from the fumes and heat, but she got most of the inside done, while I just did "the tubes" she was too claustrophobic to crawl into - the starboard quarter berth and under the cockpit floor. Otherwise, I was cleaning up the hardware for re-installation. Off work Friday - to start, I crawled back under the cockpit to take a look around the rudder post. Based on recent posts on the San Juan 24 Forum, that's a common place to leak in the SJ24. Ours looks fine, no evidence it had ever cracked or leaked, or maybe someone's already beefed it up. I was pleasantly relieved at that, considering the overall quality Clark put into these boats and the history of this one. Finished the primer inside and I started putting on hardware back aft, only got the motor mount and aft chain plate on before the heat just got to be too much, and it was time to go (The last month has been uncharacteristically hot, even for June/July in SE Texas. I still don't buy the global warming nonsense, though - this is an aberration, not a trend).
Took off Saturday for the CRBA Independence Day picnic; skipped the boat parade this year since we still haven't replaced the motor on the Starwind. Had hoped to watch fireworks that evening from the water on the Williams' pontoon boat, but couldn't get the engine to run properly. We got up early enough Sunday to get the painting done and get out by 1 PM, went back home for some much-needed A/C and rest. We'll have to continue getting up early the next couple of weekends and drag son Jeff out of bed to help bolt on hardware before the heat builds to unbearable. Really had hoped to have this DONE before now! At least they're forecasting a "cool front" bringing the temperature down to the 90's instead of the low 100's of the last couple of weeks. New pictures taken - still in the camera. Sorry.
7/14/09 - San Juan 24 Project (28)
Toe Rails and Winches
Folks, it's HOT here in SE Texas! Jeff and I went out Saturday hoping to get a large part of the hardware bolted back on. We got the toerails done, then we were done from the heat. I didn't count the number of bolts in the toerails, I think about 50 or 60 each side, and not all of the nuts on the bottom side are that easy to get to. Debbie had painted the rails with flat black Rustoleum; we'll see how it holds up, but they look great right now. Good to see them back on the boat!
We were getting a late start Sunday, finally decided to can it and instead made a shopping trip to Lowe's, Northern Tool and Equipment, and West Marine. I started out trying to keep a ledger of what we were spending on the boat - now, forget it. $40 here, $60 there - I'm sure it's adding up. Still finishing varnishing the cubby-hole covers and the big filler board for the v-berth; most of the other wood is ready to re-install. Took time one evening to clean up all five winches (3 to go back on the boat, 2 spares). Three of them were so caked-up with dirt and old grease inside they wouldn't even turn, but once cleaned up, the parts look OK, and they work. After 2 or 3 trials of other stuff, I found that good ol' mineral spirits cleaned the old grease the best. I put them back together just to keep the parts straight; now I have to take them apart again and grease everything up before the final re-assembly. Should have them ready to bolt on along with the other deck hardware next weekend.
7/20/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (29)
Coming together
Saturday, Deb and I got an early start, then it rained in the afternoon and was at least cooler than it has been, so we stayed quite a bit later than we'd planned. Got the bow pulpit polished up and installed, installed all the stanchions except the aft 2 in the cockpit, got one sheet winch, the halyard winch and the cleats on the cabin top aft installed. Company Sunday, no work. Coming along, still 2-3 days to go installing hardware and cabinets, one day of fiberglass work to do - there are still a couple of spots inside the lockers that have taken pretty good hits at some time in the boat's life, that I want to back up with a layer of fiberglass inside, and the little floor stiffeners between the keel bolts are cracked at the ends, have to beef them up, then finish painting inside the lockers and the cabin floor. Probably should have done that before painting the rest of the inside, but that's just the way it's worked out. Will need one day to re-rig the halyards and stays, and wire the masthead and running lights. Cabin lights, bilge pump, etc. can be wired up in the slip as far as I'm concerned. Launch day - end of August?! Finally got the recent pictures, painting and striping, transferred from the camera and uploaded to the Picasa web album (scroll to the end).
7/27/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (30)
Glass and hardware
I had taken off work Thursday, to take care of the fact I kind of forgot a couple of weeks ago that one stretch of road heading to the lake has a 55-MPH speed limit. So I paid my court fees to sign up for defensive driving then headed out to the boat. Spent the whole afternoon prepping then fiberglassing the ends of the little supports across the keel-bolt well and backing up a spot under the v-berth where I had repaired some pretty deep gouges from the outside. I also tried laminating a ledger in the aft port locker to hold up a grid I've already made at home, to keep things out of the bilge. That turned out to be very difficult, propping a piece of wood in place along the outside curve while working with the fiberglass tail-up and head-down. Discovered Saturday that some of the resin didn't set for whatever reason, so I ended up scraping gooey resin and re-doing most of it. Debbie and I made it out Saturday fairly early, made good progress at first getting the genoa tracks, 2nd sheet winch, traveller, and some cleats re-installed. Went to lunch and when we got back, things seemed to slow to a crawl, finding the right screws and the nuts and washers to go with them. Even though I'd separated the screws into marked baggies as I took things off, some of the screws I've ended up with just didn't make sense for the hardware left to install, and we'd pillaged nuts and washers for things we installed earlier. Finally ended up using over-long screws I'll have to cut off later on the halyard turning blocks, and will have to buy some more nuts and washers and a couple of bolts; gave up on the hardware with some blocks and fairleads to go.
Debbie painted the inside lockers with some enamel paint while I tried to fix my mess in the aft locker. Not neat, but I got it done. We should be able to finish the hardware and start re-installing woodwork next weekend. I hadn't removed the large plywood bulkhead to port or the mast post and those still have to be sanded and varnished in place, not necessarily before launch day, although it would nice to have it done. Sunday, stayed home, finished varnishing the 2nd side of all the cubby-hole covers, then found some more electrical wire of various colors at the Home Depot, for the cabin lights and such. Looked at plumbing stuff trying to figure out how to route both the electric bilge pump from the cabin and a manual one from the port lazarette through the same hoses; still not sure if that's even how I want to do it. Instead, I may just attach a loose hose to the manual one that we can use for the locker or lead into the cabin if we need to. Meanwhile, Debbie's been designing some graphics, nothing too fancy, just a feather scroll each side on the bow and the name, Freesong, in script at the stern, with a cove stripe in between. Since it could add a couple of weekends to tape off and spray two coats of paint, we'll probably use tape and decals for that, if we can find someone who'll return her phone calls about making the decals.
8/3/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (31)
Hardware
Got most of the remaining hardware on Saturday, except the chain plates, hatch hinges, one or two other small things. Primed the aft lockers for painting. Debbie managed to get the black anodizing on the mast polished up - looks great. Other things to do Sunday, no work at the boat. Still to do - re-install the starboard cabinet/chain plate bulkhead and chain plates, galley and companionway woodwork, hatch hinges and latches, and the aft starboard window we took out. Sand and varnish the port plywood bulkhead and mast post, slap some enamel in the aft lockers. Buy a battery; install and wire the electrical switchboard, running lights, cabin lights, bilge pump, fish finder & battery charger. Run plumbing for the bilge pumps and galley sink. Paint our way out of the cabin with some non-skid added to the floor paint. Re-rig the mast with the existing stays but new internal halyards, new masthead and anchor lights and wind indicator. Clean up the boom and spinnaker pole. Clean up the non-skid portions of the deck we didn't paint and re-run the lifelines. Touch up a few spots on the topside paint from the love bugs (SJ Log #22 and #23) and decide what we're doing for the bow graphics, name and cove stripe. Caulk the bottom of the toe rail (varies from tight against the hull to nearly a 1/4" gap). Run a freshen-up coat of bottom paint and polish the topsides. Install the rudder, tiller, and motor. Re-rig the traveller, mainsheet, and whatever outhaul, reef lines, etc. go on the boom. LAUNCH. Check for leaks, then load the cushions, table, sails, anchor, porta-potty etc. RAISE THE MAST. RIG. SAIL. PARTY! SAIL! ... hoping for late August; September probably more realistic.
Still a lot to do when it's written out like this. And sometime in there, we have to borrow a lift to power-wash the bottom of the Starwind, check the trailer and re-carpet the bunkboards, and haul it out for repairs and a bottom job. All the details aren't developed yet but it looks like it "could" be going to a family member and we might have it available to sail in the Corpus Christi area instead of going for sale. That would be sweet!
8/21/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (32)
Closer... inch by inch
It seems the closer we're getting to finish, the slower and harder every little thing gets. Or maybe it's just pure impatience. We're ready to SAIL! The boat's just not quite ... closer, though. Things seem to be moving so slow we end up staying in the heat longer than we intend to just to feel like we've made progress, so we're tired. It's Friday, and I'm just now feeling recovered from the last 2 weekends. At least I got to sail 2 Saturdays ago on Del's J24 - an impromptu race around Pine Island in about 15-17 knot winds. Great sailing. Of course the S2 7.9 "Doodad" passed us about mid-way in spite of getting hung up twice on trotlines. Deb looked at the J24 cockpit and the brisk wind and decided to stay on shore with Merry Hughes and a bottle of wine. Deb got the NAME on both sides near the stern - vinyl letters in a nice script font from a local graphics shop. We decided to go with FREEDOM SONG. In your face, Obamanistas! (FreeSong sounded too much like a free mp3 download). She also cut out a template and painted a feather-ish/scroll graphic on the bow. Will try to remember to get pictures next weekend. We're still deciding if we need a cove stripe to tie the two together. We'd prefer to go with tape to save time, but it's proving ridiculously difficult to find a simple 1/2" or 3/4" black tape stripe. We may have to end up taping it off and spraying it after all.
Got the starboard chain plate cabinet in - epoxied the bulkhead in place using the existing fiberglass tabbing instead of grinding it out and re-glassing. Re-installed the galley cabinet faces, doors and drawer and the wood around the companionway. Finished up a couple of pieces of deck hardware and bolted the chain plates back in. Got the aft locker hatch hinges on, ran out of screws for the port locker and forward hatch hinges, but luckily a friend in the boat club recently obtained a couple of boxes of assorted stainless screws and bolts and I was able to get what I needed from him. It required a trip to the lake, but we were ready for an air-conditioning break anyway. Got back and sprayed some touch-up paint on the bow on some spots that got thin due to sanding out the love bugs; hopefully I can compound out the edges and blend it all in next weekend. Debbie started from the stern polishing with a paste wax - WOW! It was pretty glossy paint before, but a little Turtle Wax makes it - WOW! It's coming together! Still more to do. God grant us the patience to finish!
8/24/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (33)
Heat
Went to the boat alone Saturday, got quite a bit done, but of course, never as much as I'd hoped to. Got the hinges on the port lazarette locker hatch and the forward plexiglass hatch; put some non-skid tape strips on the hatch (I'd had to polish off some paint overspray and it was pretty slick) and an automotive-style weatherstripping around it. Expanded the hole for the new electrical switchbox and stopped for lunch. After lunch, it seemed like everything slowed to a crawl and just kept getting slower, but I did manage to strip out the old navigation light wiring and get new wires run for the bow and stern lights. I had really hoped to get nearly all the wiring done plus a few other things, but the heat got to me and I packed up to go. I was planning to put the battery inside, in the aft settee locker, but realized there's no place to run the wires from the switchbox to there. I managed to go in the aft locker and Dremel a hole in the top of the fiberglass stiffener against the aft bulkhead, but it appears to be full of foam. So I guess either the battery's going in the port locker outside, which I was trying to avoid because I didn't want it in the same space as the gas can, or I have to bring the wires out, down through the locker, then drill a hole to take them back inside to the battery. I don't really like either of those solutions. May look at putting in a short run of plastic conduit that I can seal off, at least on the lower end. Or maybe I can ream the foam out of that stiffener with a plumber's snake. Hmm... Sunday, I finally hit burn-out, just couldn't face another day of the heat. We did fill up the bed of the Ford Ranger with sails - I've ended up with 2 mains, 5 jibs, and 3 spinnakers- and took them to storage temporarily. Then we made a shopping run and finally bought the battery, battery box, battery wires, and bilge pump hoses. Then I swooned on the couch in front of a fan. Too hot to do anything else.
9/28/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (34) - SAILING!
16 months of work and finally! SAILING!
FINALLY! SAILING! I'll back-track with a couple more blog entries to fill in and PICTURES later in the week, but we got LAUNCHED late last Sunday, the 20th, got the MAST UP Friday, Sept. 25th, spent Saturday rigging, and went SAILING! this Sunday. After the short shake-down some changes to make and still things to finish up but we're SAILING! Very impressed by the way the boat moves and handles in light air - only had 2 to maybe 6 knots wind, but at times were hitting 5-1/2 knots with the big genoa and mainsail. Haven't yet run the working jib (blade) up the mast or tried a spinnaker. The 9.9 Johnson SailMaster is TOO MUCH! I cranked it up and it sucked the stern right down in the water; can run it maybe half-throttle at most. So we've made a deal to trade the 9.9 for a 15-HP for the fishing boat and will be buying a 6-HP or so for the San Juan. More later - after 16 months of (mostly weekend) work, some tweaking and finishing up next weekend, the San Juan 24 project will soon be officially DONE! SAILING!
10/2/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (35)
Launch Day Pictures
Launch day! Finally! Pictures posted at Picasa. Rain, rain, go away, we want to sail on Saturday!
10/7/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (36) - Drip, drip, drip
Rain - drips and torrents.
Had our CRBA Marina Street Dance on Saturday - plan was to finish up the rigging and a few other minor things, party, sleep on the boat, sail Sunday. Instead, we got rain, no rigging work, the Street Dance moved to the clubhouse (still good), and a small amount of sleep on the boat while finding out where all the leaks and drips were. 3 of 4 windows leak, no surprise for a 32 year old boat (for some reason the one over Debbie's side of the berth didn't start dripping until about 3 AM) and the crack in the front plexiglass front hatch dripped, also no surprise. The real surprise was the torrent pouring in down the wiring to the mast lights - I guess that's one objection to internal halyards, you're necessarily going to have openings in the mast that let rain in, then it will find the most direct route out - or down, with the wires leading through an open hole in the mast base. At least I didn't have the wiring connected yet.
The windows all leak between the glass and frame, not around the frames, not much to do about that but try to caulk them as best as I can with clear silicon. I'll be able to put silicon around the mast wiring from below, may also try to reach in at the mast base and plug the hole from the top. The small crack in the plexiglass hatch doubled in length when I stepped on the hatch the previous weekend. I've figured out how to reinforce the hatch with some teak strips I have in the garage, so hopefully I can keep it from cracking any more. I was trying to avoid siliconing the crack because it will be hard to make it look neat, but I guess if we want a dry V-berth, that's what I'll have to do.
More rain predicted Saturday - hopefully we can dry the boat out, do some caulking and finish up the rigging Sunday, maybe have time to SAIL! but that's not likely. The 9.9 HP Johnson is just too much for the San Juan and Del had a 15-HP short shaft on a 27' sailboat he's sold without a motor, so we made a deal to swap out the 9.9 for the 15 to replace the 20-HP with a blown cylinder on our fishing boat, and ordered a new 6-HP for the San Juan which should be here by the weekend. So we'll have some motor swapping to do. The 9.9 is due to move to a 28' sailboat that's out of the water right now, the 15 goes home to our fishing boat in the garage, and we'll put the 20HP on Craig's List for parts. Which brings us to our plans for fall weekends - sail, fish, sail, fish, sail, fish, sail. Oh, and hit a couple of open mics if I can get "practiced-up" during the week.
10/17/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (37) - Racing!
First race
Had our first race Saturday; was scheduled to be a round-the-buoys series but everyone voted via email during the week to change it to a long-distance race. Seven or eight boats (backtracking writing this, so I may not remember all the details). Since it was only our 2nd time even sailing the boat, we decided to go a little under-powered for the wind and started with the working or "blade" jib. That, and not using the spinnaker since we'd never flown it (still haven't), probably hurt us the first half of the race. Still, we seemed to be doing OK most of the way to the first mark, a big bollard straight east across the lake from the marina. Then the winds got really flukey, kept giving us headers, causing us to tack, whereupon the shifts would go back the other way and header us again. Meanwhile "Team Doodad" in an S2 7.9 found much better winds further north and went screaming past us in spite of having a delay of several minutes behind us at the start (we use the delayed start instead of handicapping at the end). The other boats seemed to be just far enough ahead of us to miss some of the flukey wind shifts.
We finally rounded the bollard pulling up the rear, but in close company to the Trimmers' Hunter 33. Heading downwind, I decided to still not mess with the spinnaker, but that it was time to change to the bigger jib. Got it up, then noticed the top had come out of our somewhat beaten-up headsail foil, so I pulled the sail down to reset it. Good thing I had it down and our speed wasn't up, because just then there was a soft, but very solid "thump" and the boat stopped dead in the water, and stuck. From the solid, wooden sound of the thump, we'd apparently hit one of the lake's many submerged treetops or a stump, which are normally just above water, but the water is quite high right now, and all the stumps are submerged. At least this one. It must have had a fork or branch sticking out, because it held us tight until I was able to get the jib back up and use it to turn the bow 90 degrees to starboard. We slid off and sailed away, then somehow managed to catch and pass the Hunter on our way around the north and east sides of Pine Island.
Coming out of the lee of the island, the northerly wind had picked up considerably in strength, and there we were screaming on a close reach to the finish line with the big genoa up. Me - Whoopee! FUN! Deb - not so much; she wasn't quite ready to be that confident at the helm of a boat we've hardly sailed. I pushed her to the front of the cockpit, got behind her and grabbed the jib sheet in one hand and mainsheet in the other, playing the jib and occasionally having to let the main out in the gusts. In spite of the boat seeming to scream along and our best efforts, though, the bigger Hunter wasn't fighting the gusts near as hard as we were, slowly gained on us, and in the end was able to pass the finish line maybe one boat-length ahead of us.
Last place again. This boat was supposed to fix that! Still happy, though. We'd sailed the boat once before, the traveller lines were one size too big and kept jamming in the cleats, we were underpowered at the start and over-canvassed at the end, still haven't flown a spinnaker on this boat, and we got stuck on a stump for maybe five or six minutes. All together though, except for the big thump, a great day sailing. Haven't lifted the boat to check for damage yet. At least nothing's leaking from below. The deck and portholes are another matter.
11/2/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (38) - Log me out
Backtracking
Eerie attempt to sail Saturday - the lake had around 8" rain Thursday. The water had been over the marina bulkhead during the week, barely below the top Saturday with the dam gates wide open. Washed every stump, log, branch, and tons of hydrilla off the shore or downriver, all floating around the lake now. After a 1/2 hour of dodging logs we decided it wasn't too safe out there, enjoyed the full moon from the dock anyway.
12/2/09 - San Jan 24 Project Log, log, #!$$!! LOG! (39)
Log and last project blog.
Off visiting family, missed the last fall race Nov. 7th. The last sailing we've attempted was Nov. 14th after the CRBA Annual Meeting (Yay! I'm no longer secretary - it was OK, but time to pass it on after 2 years). Another eerie, scary day on the lake. Great weather, good light but steady wind, had the spinnaker set up on the bow pulpit and ready to try, but - Remember the logs I mentioned from the storm a couple of weeks ago? Well, they've apparently sunk or washed ashore - for the most part. There was at least one, though, that had gotten just waterlogged enough to float just beneath the surface - but not far enough down that our keel couldn't find it! We know it was about 8" to 10" diameter and about 12 feet long, because after it hit us with two horrendously loud thumps that made the whole boat resound like a big drum, it rolled up to the surface for a short while before sinking back down. One more hit like this and the stump in the long-distance race, and I'm gonna have to borrow a lift and check for damage. At least the rudder wasn't torn off and the keel bolts aren't leaking.
We continued on our way for awhile, but like I said, with an eerie, kind of shell-shocked feeling, not knowing what else might be lurking just out of sight. In addition to the possibility of more logs, the water's very high, and stumps you can normally see either because the top's just above water or there's a bird sitting on them are submerged 1 or 2 feet below the water. We sailed out a little more, then decided to come back in, giving wide berth to the area we'd hit the log in but not too sure that would be the only one. Kind of takes the fun out of it. So we've cooled it sailing for a while, out of town again for Thanksgiving, but in the meantime, I've caulked all the portlights and mast wiring with silcon, reinforced the front hatch with teak strips, used the Starwind's spinnaker sheets to change out the traveller and backstay adjuster lines, and attempted to hook up the mast lights. The anchor light works fine, but the masthead all-around light kicks the breaker every time I turn it on. I'd had to splice the wiring about 3' from the bottom of the mast, and I think the electrical tape might not have sealed it that well, probably have water in the splice. At least I hope that's it and I'm not energizing the whole mast and rig with a short. At any rate, that wiring's unplugged for now, doing without the masthead light.
Last check of the caulking job, it seems to have worked. In spite of some heavy rains, no standing water in the keel wells. The condensation in this boat is incredible, though - you can walk into it with water dripping off every square inch of ceiling. Maybe it'll improve after a few more weeks without rain water adding to the humidity inside. If not, I guess we'll have to keep a small heater or light bulb plugged in most of the time.
12/2/09 - San Juan 24 Project Log (40) - Last Call
I plan on this being my last blog entry under the "San Juan 24 Project". At last, it's no longer a "project", but "OUR BOAT!" I'll probably archive the Project blogs into a text file and leave the blog for my songwriting, the original purpose of this website, with an occasional sailing story or two. See you sailing - or singing my songs!
In the meantime, we've purchased a boat that we think will fit us better, espectially as we get older - an 18' cutter rigged Blackwatch. I worked at the company that built them in the early 1980's, Bluewater Boatworks in Amarillo, Texas; I think now I started a few hulls after this one was built. See by Bluewater/Blackwatch page for info on the boat.
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