Keppelena, Part Two

[haiqu]

Picked up the Silicon Chip / Jaycar Ultrasonic Antifouling kit at the post office today. At $260.50 shipped and about 4 hours' assembly it represents extraordinary value against the nearest commercial competitor, which sells at $800 retail.

Can't wait to get it deployed, but must wait until my next trip ashore for the mounting hardware.

[haiqu]

After rust sealing and painting the concrete under-deck ledges in the galley a few days ago the main ugly feature in the cabin was the stove, which I had never touched due to the complexity of cleaning it. Well I couldn't sleep so got up at 4am and scrubbed it down. Apart from the enameled top, which has rust flakes and needs to be sandblasted and painted, the whole thing now gleams.

Uh, well OK maybe that's an exaggeration for a 35yo stove, but it sure looks a lot better. I had no idea how much that one ugly dirty item was affecting the look of the living area. What a difference!

The whole of the interior is now up to what I'd call a "livable" standard. Not flash or opulent, just functional and livable. Anything done inside from here on out is in the direction of gilding the lily, with the possible exception of the roof above the head which is still something of a concern due to repeated fungus attacks.

[haiqu]

The job for this week is to rebuild the helm. Today I ripped it out and cleaned the inside of the hull below. That included removing half a bin bag worth of bird's nests, timber scraps, bolts, dirt and anything else that had fallen down there in the past 35 years.

Tomorrow I plan to give it a scrub then do a run to the hardware store. There's some nice timber being removed that would probably be usable for other small projects if I had a place to store it, but room is tight so it will probably be thrown out. This irks my scrounger nature immensely, but with an inspection coming up I can't be seen to be hoarding rubbish.

[redbopeep]

Good luck, again, with getting everything done. Always too bad to throw away useful bits of material, but if you don't have a plan for what you'll do with the useful bits then it is probably leaning towards the side of (useless) hoarding anyway

[Auzzee]

I agree with Brenda. On my last boat (which had a huge internal space at 55') I kept 'stuff' which might one day be useful. This stuff which consisted of stainless offcuts, timber offcuts, and interesting 'bits and pieces' took up considerable cupboard space and was in effect, garbage. Some of it had been transferred from a previous vessel.

When I sold the boat I divested myself of it all and now have a policy of keeping only those items which are intrinsic to the running of the new, 37' boat.

It's not until you dump it that you realise you have been hauling so much useless crap around the oceans.

[haiqu]

Indeed. Now if I can only get a chance to go to Melbourne and empty that damned storeroom ...

Nature helped out, it bucketed down last night and all is now clean. And the adjacent yacht finally got repositioned so I can leave the area without fear of losing my outboard to a collision.

[haiqu]

Back on the ham radio and made my first 20 metre contact last night, to a guy in Opotiki NZ on 60 watts. This is in the Bay of Plenty and straight-line distance is about 115km from Wairoa, where I recently bought a house.

I took the above advice and rid myself of almost all the timber scraps. Probably regret it but the boat does look tidier.

Ultrasonic antifoul is now fully installed but it could take some months to see if it will work the way I've installed it. Usually they're attached to the hull but this doesn't work on ferro or timber.

Here's the plumbing used to install the transducer:

[delatbabel]

How much power does this ultrasonic unit chew? The ones that I've looked at seem to involve using more power than it appears to be worth.

[haiqu]

As you know Del, I wouldn't use it if it ate more power than I could easily spare from solar. This one uses 220mA continuously, or about 63 watts a day. Something like this works well on steel, although you may not get full coverage with one unit due to the size of Chiara Stella; a single unit is adequate for yachts up to 10 metres, two units are recommended for up to 14 metres. A single unit would still keep the crud off your running gear anyhow, which is the hardest to clean.

I verified tonight that it was operating, since I ran the wiring up the same conduit as the HF antenna and could hear a series of chirps on the radio. Easy enough to turn it off if I want to ham it up, and of course it would be switched off anyway while actually travelling.

I suddenly realized tonight that a nicely made 6-way timber drinks rack that came with the yacht hasn't been seen since last time I was here. I fear it must have been "half-inched" when it was sitting inside the pilothouse back earlier in the year. Hmmm, well I never could quite decide where to put it anyhow. :-)

Helm rebuild has been put on hold while I assess some necessary work on the diesel tank mountings, which have rusted out. No point doing timber work first if that makes it impossible to get inside to do the tank.

[haiqu]

By the way, if anyone is interested in the Jaycar unit but doesn't have the skills to build it from a bag of electronic components I'd be willing to assemble, test and ship them from Sydney. Cost of the kit to me is $260.50 + 4 hrs work so probably AU$400 plus shipping to wherever you are would be fair.

You will the simply need to glue a plastic mount to the yacht with J-B Weld (supplied), screw the control box to a convenient spot and wire two leads to the 12V power. Full instructions included and the unit has an inbuilt fuse.

Please note that I am a retired professional electronics technician with 40 years' experience in such things, so the job will be done right.

One unit is suitable for aluminium, solid f'glass and steel yachts up to 10 metres. Testing on an alternative for timber, glass sandwich and ferro is in progress.

[haiqu]

Weirdest weather I've ever seen here in Sydney, it's hot but foggy. Foggy! Like the cloud cover is at ground level.

[haiqu]

Finished repairing the top of the superstructure, which had deteriorated due to the one-part filler used back in the first month. I painted over the holes with epoxy resin then filled with body filler, all two-part products. New paint completed today and she's looking quite nice again up top.

The gales continue, which will give me yet another excuse to defer the engine change and go to NZ with Del. :-) Oh, and I must be suffering old timer's disease, the timber drinks rack was gifted to Del back in March. I remembered seeing it last month when I was in Newcastle, looks great in his galley.

Hopefully I can finish the hull repairs by the end of this week and call in an inspection from NSW Maritime.

[haiqu]

Finished the day yesterday by rewiring the stern light, which has never worked due to an open circuit. Three wires exited the electrical cupboard through a grommet and the loom, covered in the usual electrical tape, snaked its way around the inside of the helm cavity and up through a hole in the deck and finally got to the lamp via the stainless steel pushpit tubing. It had been sealed with rubber compound at top and bottom - making extraction difficult - so I pulled the red and blue wires out, intending to use the black as a draw wire to pull the new ones through.

Well, guess which one was open circuit? Yep, the black one. No sooner had I given the first tug but 6" of wire came out, leaving me no way to continue. The only way to get a new draw wire through would have been before the stainless tubing was welded.

Instead I ran the new wires through the flexible conduit that carries everything else, which was quite a squeeze since it was almost at capacity. The resultant cable run was half the distance and the job came out pretty well, except for about 300mm of visible wiring that needed to be cable tied to the tubing.

Today I need to replenish water supplies (tank emptied this morning) and get a shower, after which I may start on removing the remaining bog in the starboard hull if it isn't too choppy.

[haiqu]

Fifty litres of water acquired, had a cold shower at the council facilities near the swimming area and dug into the filler problem today. The photo below shows the bog removed and Angels' Piss (aka Altex 577) applied, ready for cement when it dries tomorrow. Another productive day closes.

Oh yeah, and that's the new boom cover - it's a little short but it does the job.

[haiqu]

Woke today feeling a little secondhand, maybe I overdid the chores yesterday. Nevertheless I didn't succumb to Melbourne Cup fever and instead managed to do my cementing as planned. There's little bit under the waterline that will need to be done with two minute hydraulic cement, otherwise it's all over bar the painting.

1. Port side deck near pilothouse
2. Forward deck
3. Hull starboard

[haiqu]

Huge day today. HUGE.

Finished painting the rear deck, the starboard side over the new cement and the transom where some small cement patches had been made. Then started scraping old paint off the side decks ready to paint those.

After lunch I decided I'd had quite enough sunshine so took on the wiring to the navigation lights, one area I didn't change last year and which, you guessed it, has now failed. The usual bundle of plastic covered, taped wiring was unwound and then I remembered that I hadn't finished the wiring to a sub-board in the cupboard before that. So that got done first, including running seven new wires and soldering various connections to the switchboard that had been joined temporarily with screw terminals.

Right now my sleeping quarters are a maze of wiring, bits of timber removed from walls, plastic tubing and tools. One bonus though, I discovered a fluoro in the sail cupboard that I didn't know existed. It only needed a 9W tube and "hey presto" up she came.

[haiqu]

Taking it easy today. Showered and got another 50 litres of water, so the tank and five 10L canisters are all full. On the way back I detoured and introduced myself to the young guy who owns a 32' ketch nearby, nice chap indeed.

Then did a run to the post office and collected my new 6' x 4' canvas tarp, which replaces the plastic tarp that got shredded in the 6 months I was away. Finally a trip through the supermarket to restock the shelves. Tomatoes, cheese, cold fruit juice, bacon and eggs especially welcome ... yum!

Might see if I can contact the crane barge guy this afternoon to see what's going on there.

[haiqu]

I've started on the side decks, which have thick layers of paint going back 35 years adhered to them. It would be impossible to remove all of it but with assistance from the cutting blade on my Ryobi Multitool the greater bulk of it has been shifted.

The trouble with the old paint is that it's lifting and curling at breaks caused by constant sunshine. I'm using the basic renovation standard of removing anything loose and flaking, then sweeping the resultant junk up and throwing paint at it. So far I'm impressed with the change:

[haiqu]

Side decks finished, now working on the foredeck. I called in an early inspection so that I could join Del and Chiara Stella on the first leg of his big adventure. The BSO (boat safety officer) Shane has just been here and declared that it was looking "much better" which should be unsurprising given the amount of work I've done to improve the general appearance.

So, after 12 months of doing nothing but fixing boats I actually get to do some blue water sailing. Looking forward to that immensely.

[AussieBruce]

Hi Haiqu, Ive been following your progress for quite a while now & feel I must commend you for your ongoing patience with the work ahead of you.
You have, on more than one occassion, had to redo areas of your vessel(s). This is the bain of any man, yet you just accept it and get on with it. I wonder how many of the "classic" class of boats & yachts would still be on (top of) the waters if their owners had stuck with the task as you have.
My hat goes off to you & I hope to catch up with you at some time to check out your handy work & buy you a coldie or 3 for your persistance.
In the mean time I'll continue to follow your progress on this thread. Thanx Haiqu.