And The Work Goes On!!!

Master's Personal LOG:

And the work goes on. While there are two hatches in the aft compartment, it tends to get a bit close in there because there is no cross ventilation. For whatever reason, there are NO opening ports anywhere in the boat, or least not originally. The previous owners added an opening port in the galley area and another opening port into the starboard side of the cockpit to allow items to be passed into the cockpit from the galley. However, aside from these two all the other ports are sealed/ non-opening. Now I know that this is a boat built for the North Sea, but you would think that there would be at least a little ventilation. Looking at other CN 39's and talking with owners, all have added opening ports throughout their boats. Time had come to do the same.

Removing the two ports in the aft of the boat, one in the head and one in the aft cabin, was actually easy. What was difficult was actually doing it. There is just something a little frightening about dismantling things on a new boat. You sort of expect the entire boat will somehow fall apart because you removed this one piece of equipment. It took a while to pull out the 16 screws (interior & exterior) from the frame of the port -side port. A simple push then sent the port out of the topsides and onto the side deck, and suddenly there was this big hole staring me right in the face. Immediately, I began thinking, "Boy, I hope this isn't a mistake." After a few minutes, I was calm enough to do the other port and then, with two holes to fill, it was off to the chandler for replacements.

In working on boats over the years, I have made use of two bits of advice that come from the wooden boatbuilders of Maine. The first is to have a "Thinking Spot" on the boat. It is a place where you sit and think about the project you are working on. You think through all of the options and possible fixes until you finally decide on the best way to go. The second bit of advice is better known, "Measure twice, cut once!" To put in a new port, you have to measure not just the size of the port itself but also the measurement of the cutout, the hole it is to fill. I measured everything twice and headed off.

I knew, even before I got to the chandler, that as things always seem to be in boating, there would be NO opening port that would fit perfectly. I have yet to ever have a piece of equipment or hardware just drop into the spot of the item it was to replace and this even goes for the newer version of an old item you are replacing, even from the same manufacture. It must be some sort of boat building regulation. In any event, the replacement ports I finally chose required that I would have to enlarge the cutouts for the ports to fit. It would not be a big enlargement, 3/4 of an inch on both side. The fun part of the job would be cutting the fiberglass.

Fiberglass or FRP is funny stuff. When you are working with it, it tries to stick to everything you don't want it to stick to and refuses to stick to the spot you want it to stick to. On top of that, in that it sets up because of a chemical reaction, you work at a speed based on set up time. Unfortunately temperature, humidity, catalyst & resin mixture, and the price of tea in China all have an affect on just what that set-up time window will be. Go to any boatyard and you will find plastic pots filled with resin that has set-up too quickly to be used and other pots of stuff that still hasn't kicked days, weeks, MONTHS later.

Then there is the glass fiber itself. Stiff as a board or as flexible as tissue paper, it decides how easily it will be to work with, and usually, it is contrary to what the user intends. Want it to mold itself into a corner, forget it! That's not happening. Want it to lay out flat with no wrinkles, forget that! It will wrinkle up like an accordion or just keep folding over itself. Masochist are the only people who like working with fiberglass. Most of the rest of us put up with the hell only if the need arises. Even the "side benefit" of the "styrene high" ( think of high school and the purple mimeograph fluid) looses its attraction after awhile.

And while laying up fiberglass is tons of fun, it is nothing compared to the ultimate joy of cutting or ripping out old fiberglass. While "fresh" fiberglass sheds fibers that can get into your skip and cause it to itch, cutting and grinding-out set-up fiberglass produces a dust that gets into every pore on your body, and I mean every pore. It makes no difference how well you cover-up, it gets in. Respirator and goggles will not keep the dust out of your eyes or nose. Wearing a hazmat suit, with boots, gloves and head covering will fool you into thinking you are safe from fiberglass dust contamination, but it is an illusion. The dust hangs in the air and gets all over whatever it is you are wearing for protection. It finds every hole, seam, opening and gets on you! And because it is hot wearing the suit, you sweat and it spreads the dust everywhere. The end result is that no matter how hard you try, you are going to get dusted and because you get dusted, you are going to itch! No matter how you shower - cold water to keep the dust out of your pores or hot water to get the dust out of your pores - neither way works - you will itch, usually for two or three days.

Enlarging the cut-outs to accommodate the new ports went pretty much as I expected - I itched for two days, not bad. The ports fit well and were sealed in place. Each had to be anchored in place with 10 machine screws and getting these in place and tightened down was the real fun of the process. Normally, it would be a simple two person job. You insert the screws from the outside, slip the washers and nut onto the inside end and tighten down the nut while a person outside holds the screw in place with a screwdriver. Doing it by oneself is a completely different level of fun.

Each machine screw was coated at the exterior end with sealant to keep water out and then was inserted into one of the 10 holes drilled through the framing of the port and the topsides of the boat. Then, from the inside of the boat you stick one hand out the port and, with a screwdriver, hold the machine screw in place while tightening down the nut on the inside with the other hand. Sounds a simple thing except for the fact that you can not see the screw head from inside the boat and it takes a few minutes of fumbling to get the head of the screwdriver mated with the head of the machine screw. Then you must tighten down the nut which is balky because some of the sealant always makes its way down the length of the screw. Due to the structure of the port, you are lucky if you can get a half turn on the nut before you have to reposition the wrench on the nut. While this is going on, you have that arm out the port trying to keep the screw from turning. The arm is usually at an odd angle and you fingers go numb after a while or your hand cramps up. What happens then is that the screwdriver slips out of position. When that happens you have to try and get it repositioned. This will eventually take two hands so down goes the wrench as that hand assists. Then you being the tightening process again and that usually last one complete turn before there is another slip and you have to reposition the screw driver again. You this several times per screw and a 10 minutes 2 person job becomes a two hour exercise in contortion and frustration. Ah, but the breeze coming through the ports makes you forget all the fun you had getting them in place.

I went to the first day of the Newport International Boat Show last week and for the first time ever, I went to a boat show and left without going on a boat! Truth be told, I went to the boat show to look at the items that I need/want/ for ABISHAG. Dinghy, watermaker, new wind generator, solar panels, etc. I left having purchased a nut extractor and nothing else. However, I was weighed down with brochures that I have to plough through. Ah, the joys of boating!