Boat Ownership In Winter

SHIP'S LOG:

      I should never go up to visit ABISHAG during the winter! First of all, Baby, it's cold inside! Surprisingly, though there is no insulation, it retains "cold" very well and even seems to generate its own. I went up with Russ to haul out the sails and it as significantly colder inside the boat than it was outside. and when I say "significantly" I ain't whistling "Dixie!"

     Secondly, visiting the boat during the winter when it is NOT in a shed or under some type of covering is guaranteed to induce major frustration. Looking over ABISHAG a whole host of projects spring to mind - items that need fixing, correcting, updating as well as numerous ideas for projects that I had never thought of before. But sadly, and frustratingly, there is nothing that I can do about them now. Snow covers the deck and the inside of a freezer would seem warm in comparison to being inside ABISHAG. Paints won't adhere, glues and adhesives won't set, cleaners and degreasers don't! About the only thing you can do in such weather conditions in "destruction," that is taking things apart, dismantling those things that need to be removed or repaired. Yet, the cold will make you fingers non-functioning so in reality you can't really do that either hence the frustration.

     Inspired I looked up all the photos of Camper Nicholson 39 Center-cockpit ketches I could find to see what they looked like and there were some wonderful examples of boats that had really been "tricked out."  And I kept think, "I could do this" or "I could do that," but I am held back by one small criteria, the lack of funds. There will be some things that i can don at little or no cost, but they all require weather above 50F which means waiting until the temperatures get there and again that is frustrating. And sitting here with a "DEFENDER INDUSTRIES" catalog or one from "WEST MARINE" doesn't help as running out the prices gives me indigestion. I will have to wait until the last weekend of March when Defender runs its annual "Marine Madness Sale" to buy bottom paint which, even with the sale, will run about $150. The good point about that is that I use ablative paint, bottom paint that is "soft," that wears away over the season. Wherever the paint remains on the hull, the bottom protection is still going on. The paint coverage from last year is still on 80-90% of the hull so all it will require is touch up on the spots where it is completely worn away and then a single coat overall. With a "hard" bottom paint, one must sand and scrape and prep and paint every year. It is the most odious task of getting a boat ready if you go in that direction. And every few years, you have to remove all of the bottom paint as it builds up layer upon layer and, if you don't do it, it will fall of in chucks. Ah, part of the fun of boat ownership.

     I have hauled out the "Projects List" and have begun adding to it, making additions to the items and projects that must be done before the boat goes into the water.  The additions include items that  1.) have been put off but need to be done - a lot of this is electrical stuff such as a.) completely tracing all of the electrical wiring; b.) removing the wires that go nowhere or which are connected to nothing (that seems a never ending battle); b.) install new wire and new connections to those electronic and electrical devices which haven't failed but are "iffy"; c.) removing those devices that no longer work or which were removed last year and repairing their "footprints," those holes and frames and other things that marked their former prescience. 
     2.) Finally repositioning the watermaker and wiring it up. Removing the old auto-pilot left a perfect spot for it in a locker in the stern but it was something I never got around to doing. In addition, there is the need to get the pressurized water system back online. For some reason, thought the pump works fine, it doesn't pump water. friend Fred, an expert in pumps and the like, assures me that it is simply a leak somewhere in the system. If it is just in a hose or possibly in a connection that will be fine as it will be a minor expense. If however, and why do I feel this will be the case, it is in the hot water tank, which is fairly well rust - at least externally - then we are talking a major expense. Of course, I have been without it for as long as I have owned ABISHAG but it is silly to have a system on the boat that doesn't work.
     3.) And of course, there are all those little things that need doing and re-organizing and that list is beyond counting. Hopefully, I will win the publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes and get $5,000 a week for life. Failing that, I will just do what I am able to do.