Labour Day Weekend

At times it feels like we are making great progress and at other times it feels like we are making none or very little at least. I guess in reality any progress is good progress.

During our last surprise inspection I noticed that the eyes of one of the inspectors kept gazing towards the ceiling in the main salon. Hmmm not a good sign. I will admit that it looked pretty bad. So that decided it. We would tackle the ceiling. Now truth be told we had been putting this off as in order to paint it we needed to sand it. 4 hours of holding orbital sanders with 80 grit paper above our heads was not fun let me tell you but we powered through it and managed to get it done. We also had to cover all of the wood with drop cloths of course and created a scene right out of Dexter.

Another episode of Dexter?
Another episode of Dexter?

2 coats of gloss white paint later and it feels like a new boat.

1st coat
1st coat

So. In order to complete the main cabin including the galley the major projects left are to finish the galley cupboards, countertop and tile. The main salon needs to have the pantry painted and we still need to make a firm decision on the starboard settee.

Whitby 42 Galley

fresh paint
fresh paint
All painted
All painted

The last and biggest job to complete will be the sole. It had been painted at some point with a lovely off white and of course with the refit now has a myriad of paint and stain drips and is very dirty. This will wait until all of the interior construction is complete.

We still have a lot of customizing to do inside lockers and what have you but those types of jobs will not prevent us from launching. Our goal as I said previously is to launch in June and at least Akupara will be back to original even is the custom jobs are yet to be completed.

This weekend I think we will work on completing the galley  and maybe the electrical wire will be run it would be nice to have that job done as well.

 

 

Back to sanding

Whitby 42 refitAs we approach the 2 year mark the Admiral is still smiling. Hmmm maybe we should buy a bigger boat?

Sometimes I wonder if we had just saved all of our dimes and nickels for all this time, we probably could have a bought a working version of Akupara by now. But then again, we would have an unknown boat with all kinds of yet to be discovered issues. At least with Akupara we will be 100% intimate with every nut bolt screw wire fixture fitting piece of wood rope material and know for sure that if and when there is an issue exactly how to fix it.

September already.

Wow so it is September already. Where did the summer go? The leaves have begun to change colour and the weather has certainly altered course. We are back to a typical rainy Pacific Northwest. I guess the good news is that with the cooler temperatures we can get back to the hot dirty work of sanding the decks and getting ready for painting but I sure wish we were already done. The last few days have made me long for a nice cozy fire on the boat. I love being aboard when the temperature is cool and the rain is hammering the deck with a hot cup of coffee and a warm fire. Of course I love the idea of being onboard in the tropics just as much but we will take what we can get. ?

Last weekend was the first time in almost 2 years of working on Akupara that I got fed up and had to walk away. We were working in the galley and had a surprise inspection. Of course it never fails that everything is a giant disorganized mess when this happens and the progress does not show but in any event, I think we passed. ?

After they left we returned to work, completed what we had been doing and started trying to run some wire on the port side. For whatever reason, something that should have been super simple turned into a nightmare of events. I realized that this just was not going to happen and whatever else I attempted that day was just going to result in the same thing so I threw my arms up, gave up, packed up, and we left.

Strange how a week later I am still worried about a repeat of events. Not sure if I will work on the wiring today or not. Might be better to have a minor accomplishment first before returning to complete this job. In any event, fingers crossed that we have a good day of work and that things go a little better.

Just as we thought we were done with being dirty…

They say a picture is worth a thousand words! Hopefully these pictures will tell you what we have been up to as of late.

We have also made progress on the electrical with all of the 12v and 120v starboard wiring forward of the nav station strung, as well as a good portion of the port side. We need to run the rest of the wiring from the aft cabin to the nav station but with only 12v lights a 120v plugins, this part is easy. Next will be to wire all of the plugs and lights.

Out with the old sink
Out with the old sink
Out with the old counter
Out with the old counter
Out with the other counter
Out with the other counter
This one was a little bit stubborn
This one was a little bit stubborn
Out with the cupboards
Out with the cupboards
In with the new countertop
In with the new countertop
Cutting the new countertop to size
Cutting the new countertop to size
Dry fit
Dry fit
A shelf perhaps?
A shelf perhaps?
Varathane bar epoxy sealer
Varathane bar epoxy sealer
A bit of heat to remove the bubbles
A bit of heat to remove the bubbles
Whitby 42 Epoxy sealed Bamboo Countertops
Now as long as they stay this shiny!

A short time ago you may remember me speaking highly of a certain Captain and saying things like “no matter what, they never seem to get dirty” well I may have made mention of a fabled rumour of polishing fenders. Ha, now I have the proof!!

Busted!
Busted!

Keel repair complete!

imageimageimage image image image image
This is the first time in 18 months of owning Akupara that we have hired out a job, with the exception of the shrinkwrap. Let me tell you is it ever nice to show up at Akupara and the job has been started, worked on, and completed and we didn’t even have to get dirty!!

I was also able to start on the internal wiring a little bit. Kind of a disorganized day but every little bit counts.

 

Catch up time

It has been pointed out to me that I have been a bit negligent in updating the blog so I thought I had better write something.

So not sure where I left off but here goes…we have completed all of the interior wooden bits and pieces

IMG_1080

We have sanded and stained the ladder as well as wrapped it in old tshirts to protect it. It is also glued and screwed with new screws of course.

Whitby 42 ladder

Whitby 42 ladder stained

Whitby 42 ladder wrapped

We have started on work on the aft head.

Whitby 42 Aft Head
Whitby 42 Aft Head

 

We have found a place for the wine glasses, always important

Whitby 42 wine glass holder
Whitby 42 wine glass holder

We have found a use for the teak book rack that always seems to be in the way. It turns out it will hold 4 bottles of wine perfectly. I will need to make a bungee cord restrainer so the bottles do not come crashing out but now the wine will be within reach for dinner. Okay, some of the wine. Of course all of these little things need to be removed when we paint and then permanently installed. The wine rack (formerly book rack) will be through bolted. I don’t want my precious to come crashing down with the first little wave we hit.

Whitby 42 wine rack

We have finished all of the trim in the galley. Of course it will all come off for the new countertops but it is done. As well, the cutting board, fridge cover is sanded ready for food safe stain.

Whitby 42 Galley

We have completed a multitude of little jobs and we have hired Prodigy Marine to fix the bad repair on the bottom of the keel. We have also requested a quote for painting the decks from them which we want to do while it is still warm in BC so that the paint cures properly. Of course this means sanding the decks in the heat as well but hey, we should have completed that back when it was cold out. We will sand the headliner very shortly so we can paint the ceiling inside. Once the headliner is painted, we can put up the last few pieces of trim and once the decks are painted, we can re-install all of the ports. I have also started purchasing wire for the big re-wire job and have installed all of the AC outlets.

So apologies for being behind on the blog, but lots of work has been happening and although it is small things, in the end they amount to big things.

 

The starboard settee

Whitby 42 starboard settee
Whitby 42 starboard settee

Akupara originally did not have a starboard settee in the main salon and the previous owner added one. We have been going back and forth on this topic for almost 18 months. Do we reinstall it, or do we try to find 2 chairs that will work. Personally I think we need it. It is extra seating for 3 people, it is extra storage for odds and ends or survival suits or sails etc but because it was added afterwards, it totally removes access to the drawers and cupboards behind. Thankfully the PO did not cut and modify the cabinet behind so we still have a choice. I think for now we will leave it and use it. Until we find some nice chairs.  But then again, it is another good sea berth as well.

Decisions decisions decisions ?

 

WTF and other words for being ripped off

 

Charger and inverter
Charger and Inverter

When we purchased Akupara we knew that most if not all of her systems were suspect to say the least and we went ahead with the intent of replacing everything that needed to be replaced. However, if something could be saved and was perfectly fine, we would re-use it of course.

This brings me to the electrical. All of the wiring was 40 years old and although it was in good shape it does not meet current code so we removed it all. The battery charger and the inverter are not that old, however we knew that the charger did not work and I saw immediately that the inverter had never been installed correctly.

I went on the net and did a search in regards to fixing the charger. Turns out that according to everything I read the company that made them will not fix them and you have to buy a new one.

Disclaimer: I did not personally contact the company to verify this.

Great. Well a little more digging and I found an article about this very charger and how frustrated someone else was that it could not be serviced  there is a nice warning right on the case advising you of just that.

Warning

Bullshit. That’s all I have to say besides WTF.

Open the damn case and change the blown fuses before you throw yours away and spend another boatload of money.

Fuses

Now I am fully well aware that this may not fix it. And I am fully well aware that there is an underlying problem if your charger blows fuses but just ask yourself this. Is it worth 15 min of your time and $2 worth of fuses to try or is it better to throw it completely away? I will take another 15 minutes to clean up the bit of corrosion that is around the fuse holders before I wire it in.

Fuses 2

WTF?

Companies like this should be ashamed.

I should file this under the Why page on this site.

So, I could have possibly wasted 15 minutes of my time and $2 worth of fuses but to be honest, I have had the fuses for years anyway so really it is only my time that I spent.

 

 

What is missing from this picture?

What is missing?
What is missing?

If you said a pile of wood to be sanded you are correct!!!

Thats right. It’s all done. Okay I have 8 more pieces of trim to bring down today but they are all small.

Holy crap. 18 months just to clean the garbage out, remove all of the wood, sand all of the wood, reinstall all of the wood and gut the electrical! This is how long it takes when you have jobs, family, school and no garage at home. To say that we are thrilled to be complete this part would be an understatement. Don’t get me wrong, we still have some more work with wood like finishing the pantry and adding shelves in the closets etc but no sanding of old wood. Thank heavens.

By the way, the admiral has completed 90% of all of this sanding. I am sure that if you wanted to hire her to do your boat she would be interested for a low low rate of about $1000 per hour 😉

Today the plan is to complete the last 8 pieces, stain everything that we have left. Install as much of it as possible and maybe do a really good cleaning inside to start trying to get rid of all the dust.

Engine Rooms…

Over the last 20 years of looking at boats and researching different makes and models and looking at for sale ads, I have always been shocked by how a lot of people treat their engine rooms. Many times I have seen ads where the introduction says something like “Immaculate condition” and as you continue on to through the pictures there is a dark, greasy, oily, dingy, rusty old piece of machinery crammed into some inaccessible hole that is called the engine room. You wouldn’t send your worst enemy in there as they may never come back out.

One of the things that drew us to the Whitby 42, okay me anyway, was the fact that she has a proper engine room. You can’t stand up in it but there is enough room to move around and you have pretty decent access to the engine as compared to a lot of other sailboats.

Whitby 42 Engine RoomAkupara’s engine room currently falls into this category!

Whitby 42 Engine Room 2Whitby 42 Engine Room bilgeIt is not up to standards. It isn’t up to anyone’s standards let alone mine.

On Sunday I had to venture in to the pit in order to remove the battery charger and the inverter, funny thing, it says right on them not to install in a hot machinery space, but that is another post, and I got to thinking that this was totally unacceptable and how exactly was I going to be able to make it acceptable. At the same time, I had been cleaning up a little and putting away tools etc. I have now commandeered almost every drawer, cupboard, and cavity with tools. This is also unacceptable! Especially when the admiral finds out!

And then it happened. I came across a bit of inspiration. It is possible to have an impressive engine room! It can be done. And no, grease, oil, grunge or any other detritus needs to be a part of it.

Now this is how an engine room should look!
Now this is how an engine room should look!

Well, now I have my goal and my vision! Look at this! Not only is it immaculate but all of the tools are in an organized tool chest, not to mention clean, exactly where you need them. The cabinet becomes a work bench and all of the machinery is enclosed with protective screens so it would be impossible to get your sleeve caught in something if you had to go in there in a rolling sea! This is fantastic!

Okay so to be honest, I have pretty big doubts that Akupara’s engine room will ever look like this, but hey, if you don’t try, it definitely will never happen. If anyone knows where a guy can get one of those tool cabinets, let me know!

Progress

Sometimes pictures speak louder than words. We have been making a little progress lately as you can see in the pictures below. We have one more bulkhead to sand (behind the ladder) and then we are down to a few remaining pieces of trim. Of course we still need to finish the galley, but there is no sanding of old wood there.

Whitby 42 - Sanding SelfieWhitby 42 - Sanded tableWhitby 42 - Sanded LadderWhitby 42 - Forward HeadWhitby 42 - First CoatWhitby 42 - TrimWhitby 42 - PicturesWhitby 42 - navWhitby 42 - table

Next on the list, add several more coats of cetol, sand the cabin top, paint, and call the interior done.

And then move on to the hard stuff.

Quick Update

I have managed to dissemble and sand the main salon ladder as well as the icebox cutting board. The cutting board was coming completely unglued so I also re-glued the entire thing. It is partially sanded but I ran out of sandpaper 🙁

At Akupara I glued the corkboard down to the aft cabin dressing table and took a bunch of measurements for the vberth and aft cabin mattresses as well as for the new countertops. So progress is happening all be it very slow.

I will post a complete update this weekend and fill you in on the general goings on around here.

Good for the sole…

Sometimes you need to divide and conquer. Case in point. I went to Akupara, the Admiral did not. However, with the addition of the new sander, she was not completely off the hook as she may have thought. I spent a few hours sanding and staining the main salon sole and the admiral spent a couple of hours sanding itty bitty pieces at the house. All in all a good day.

It has been a long time, but I actually brought another piece home. The ladder needs some TLC so it will be worked on through the week and hopefully be ready for next weekend.

There is 1 more really big job to complete in the interior. Sanding all of the fiberglass liner enough to take new paint. That one is not going to be fun.

Whitby 42 - Main sole

Whitby 42 - Main salon sole

Whitby 42 - main salon 2

Whitby 42 - main salon ladder

From light to dark.

Ready for Cetol
Ready for Cetol

The admiral had sanded the “entertainment unit” several months ago but because of the cooler temperatures and the absence of ongoing work, we had not gotten around to applying the cetol. Yesterday we pulled the piece back out and gave it a light sanding just to touch up a few of the places that had been nicked and to open up the pours again.

1st coat of Cetol
1st coat of Cetol

Overall I think it went well and looks a hell of a lot better now.

Main Salon
Main Salon

I still need to add the teak backing in behind, but it is nice to have this much completed.

While the admiral was sanding this, I was rebuilding the shelves inside with all new plywood of course. Interesting that I cut the new pieces using the old ones as a template and they still did not fit properly. I seem to recall that when I first removed them, they had not fit all that well either.

It will be nice to some day be able to open up the bar and have it nicely stocked, pour ourselves a drink, go to the freezer and grab some ice, proceed into the cockpit and sit quietly watching the sun go down feeling the boat move gently underneath. Ahhhh, some day.

Are you sitting down?

Those were the words I wish I would have heard before I opened the email quote from La Fabrica.

$9600 for the main salon cushions plus tax. Plus the mattresses.

Wow.

So after I picked my jaw up off the floor and started to really analyze it, it is scary to say but it isn’t all that far fetched. When we met with them last weekend we approached it from the sky is the limit approach with no regard to cost. The best foam, the best upholstery. If you went out and priced 2 custom sofa’s and a chair for your home, what would it come in at? I’ll bet pretty close if not more.

So, we are waiting for the rest of the quote for the mattresses and then we will start to decide how we are going to proceed. We have several options from backing off on quality to reducing the thickness to choosing a cheaper material to buying a sewing machine and doing it myself (yes I have done this before).

In any event, if we went with the full cost option I think we would still come in under our total expected cost for Akupara. I will need to take a close look on the weekend.

Or there is still the option of launching without the cushions in order to meet our new possible deadline but then the answer to the question are you sitting down would be a big no.

1000 small steps

Is it a bad thing when the local marine chandlery gives you a brand new hat? I mean is it something they give to all of their customers or is it something that they only give to the customers who spend a lot of money? I was given a Wolff’s Marine hat yesterday, going to have to put some thought into that one…speaking of which, I updated the costs page recently.

We had a gentleman from http://www.lafabricamarine.com/ down to Akupara yesterday and we took all of the measurements for the vberth mattresses, the main salon cushions and the aft cabin mattresses and also the cockpit cushions since we they were already there. I had brought my laptop and we went through a bunch of pictures I have been saving of interiors we like and also of ones we do not like. It was an interesting process to go through with him. A lot of our decisions were based on the fact that their shop labour rate is $75 per hour. Materials are market price but as soon as you start getting really fancy, the labour costs rise beyond reason of course. So we will wait for the quote which should arrive mid week and make our decisions from there. They have a 3-6 week lead time which will allow us to finish the brightwork inside the main salon so that they can come in and do all of their patterning.

The admiral and one of the crew did a lot of painting inside cupboards and masking of doors as well as giving the foreward head a good cleaning in preparation of starting to put it all back together. I have a bit of glass work to do in order to fill 2 plumbing holes in the platform where the head sits, but I wanted to leave them in case I was able to reuse them. It does not look like it at this point. So they will be filled, faired, and painted.

I also ran into Rob from http://prodigymarine.ca/ and requested that he visit Akupara to provide me with 2 quotes. One to paint the decks and two for a mysterious crack on the bottom of the keel. In reading the previous owners blog, I knew that a repair would need to be made, I am not sure if they ran aground or what happened but the repair that they had paid for needs to be repaired again. I have seen some of Rob’s work and I am confident it will be completed properly this time.

Today I have to help a friend on his boat for a bit, and it is supposed to be a brilliant day, so I think I may just have the time to haul all of the sails out and take a really close look at them to see if they are useable or if they will make good sun shades this afternoon. I do know there is a brand new try sail and storm jib that appear to never have been used but beyond that I have never opened the bags. Should be interesting.

 

I hate furniture shopping

Typically I hate furniture shopping. It always seems like a chore that requires too much energy to complete. Colours and patterns and materials and quality and size and shape and will it fit through the door and will the neighbours like it and on and on.

But. I have to say I am a little excited for tomorrow. In effect we are going furniture shopping. Or to be more precise, furniture shopping is coming to us. We have arranged for a local company to come down to Akupara tomorrow to take measurements, create patterns, discuss colours, material, style etc for all of the new interior cushions and mattresses.

Yes I know we still have a lot of other projects to complete but as the cushions and mattresses are custom made and will take a while to manufacture and we may have a change of the overall plan, we decided to get a start on it. And if they are ready before we are, they can be brought home and stored until they are needed where they will be safe and sound.

We also plan on breaking this up into several steps in order to spread out the cost as much as possible.

So yes typically I hate furniture shopping but this time it is for Akupara and boat stuff is always fun!!

The throne.

Our first sailboat had one of those potable plastic camping toilets.

All of our other sailboats had proper marine heads but they were all compact. It would be an understatement to say they are uncomfortable.

Yesterday I purchased 2 brand new heads that are full size. Ahhh the luxury.

I have set them in place temporarily just to see how they fit until the heads have been remodelled as well.

Full size bowls.
Full size bowls.

IMG_0728

 

I’ve got those old time hinge blues…

Well, I managed to hang all of the finished cupboard doors, the head doors and a couple I wasn’t even sure where they came from. I did however have to scavenge a few hinges from areas that we have not installed yet, like the chain locker doors. Several months ago the admiral and I were at home depot and thought we had found a replacement hinge for all of the old hinges. They looked almost exact, but once I installed one, it became obvious that they were just different enough to not work. I also learned that there are 2 types of hinges on the Whitby 42. They look identical but one is slightly larger than the other. I am guessing that the larger ones were for the doors but who knows, maybe Whitby couldn’t find the right hinges either!

So added to our list of things to find are a truckload of replacement hinges. If anyone knows where I can find the original hinges new, please, please let me know.

I think the admiral is rather happy as the only wood sanding left now is approximately 5 small pieces in the cockpit and a bunch of little fiddly pieces like trim and what not in the basement. We do need to go back and re-sand a few pieces that I may have gotten wet by accident but I really think with a little focus, we are less than 1 day away from putting this phase of the project to bed. Once the interior liner and sole has been sanded and painted, we will go back and re-sand (polish) all of the interior wood to fix any small imperfections or issues we have created but this will be a fairly quick project as it is more of a polish than a sanding. We will probably follow each other, one with 220 grit and one with 400 grit. Then we will add the final 2 layers of clear Cetol gloss. That should make the interior glisten even more than it does now.

Forward Head door
Forward Head door

You can see we still have a fair bit of staining to do in the main salon, but we needed to let the dust settle before we did that.

Just needs stain
Just needs stain

The frame for the main salon cabinet in the picture above still needs to come out one last time as I have yet to shape the backing pieces for the interior of the cabinets and I need to build out the shelves.

I can’t explain the feeling we have of actually being able to see the cockpit even if it is covered in several inches of sawdust and dirt!

The nice thing is that we have completed a Major part of this project and we know that we have an insulated, clean, fresh, dry interior with no lurking surprises behind panels. The bad part is that now we are entering a phase where things will start to cost big money as opposed to sandpaper and sweat.

Deck Painting, Electrical, Plumbing, Rigging, Engine, Heating, Refridgeration, Propane…

Nice to be back.

I had a very productive day yesterday on Akupara. I was there for approximately 6 hours and accomplished a lot of little tasks that had been piling up. The admiral over the last couple of months had competed sanding a lot of cupboard doors and drawers but I had not been installing them as I did not have any screws. Now I know that sounds a little funny. I mean there are a hundred stores within 10 miles that all sell screws I am sure but, the problem with all of those stores is that they are newer up to date modern stores. Like Home Depot or Lowes. What these stories lack in my opinion is a couple of really important things, like customer service and in a lot of cases, quality items. So I have been holding off on buying screws as my favourite store, which is about a block away from Akupara, is Wolff’s Marine, but Wolff’s Marine is not open on Saturdays during the winter months. Good for them but bad for me. Wolff’s Marine is an old time kinda store. The kinda store where there is a greasy stained old coffee pot that is always on and the coffee is free.  The guy behind the counter knows almost every item in the inventory and precisely where it is in the store. The entire store has a distinct feeling and smell to it that reminds me of going to the hardware store with my dad when I was a kid. Wolff’s Marine has 2 floors of goodies and the aisles are narrow and the shelves go almost to the ceiling. It is a paradise. I am sure that somewhere inside that goldmine is every single part I will need to complete Akupara’s refit times 2. When Wolff’s makes an order for new items, they don’t buy just 1 or 2 to have in stock, they must order in the 100’s.  Case in point, I will need 2 new heads, West Marine downtown Vancouver might have one on the shelf, and 1 in the storage room. Wolff’s has 10 piled right to the ceiling. So to make a long story short, ok shorter, Wolff’s Marine is now open on Saturday mornings for the summer again. Hooray! I bought a can of Bilgekote, a can of Cetol,  5 boxes of number 8 Robinson screws and 2 boxes of finishing washers. I bought 1/2, 3/4, 1, 1 1/4, 1 1/2 inch stainless screws and lined them all up inside a drawer like prized possessions.

My screw drawer, all Robertson screws.
My screw drawer, all Robertson screws.

It is amazing how happy I was, okay still am! I  wanted to hug the guy and tell him how much I have missed him since October. I refrained of course, but I did tell him I would see him every Saturday until October. 🙂

So after buying all of the screws, I hung what seemed like 100 cupboard doors. I also permanently fixed another issue yesterday and that was a leaking chainplate. I had temporarily “fixed” it a while back, but it was still leaking but I had to wait for a day of no rain in order to fix it properly. Now I only have another 9 to go. The gigantic pile of wooden pieces in the cockpit is almost gone now, hopefully today we will see the last of it and I can complete the rough sanding of the decks in preparation for painting the next time we are down.

The last of the sanding, we hope.
The last of the sanding, we hope.