The Refit of a 1976 Whitby 42 Ketch – Akupara
Well after pulling my back pretty good almost three weeks ago, spending a week working from home on the couch, and spending a boy’s week in Mexico catching up with an old friend, it is time to get back to work on Akupara. I am looking forward to getting going again and the arrival of some new parts while I was away, has inspired me a little more. Come on Saturday!
Well, Saturday was not the best day working on Akupara. Not a lot was accomplished even though the weather was fantastic and the yard was abuzz with lots of activity.
The day got off to a good start at about 8:30 in the morning when I arrived and I immediately set to work on a few items I needed to take care of.
They are going to be moving Akupara one stall over so that they can get a bigger boat in the spot where we are now and the one in front of it, so I needed to cut the chain that was attaching the dinghy to the jack stand and clean up the chain that was half hanging from the bow and piled in a not so neat pile on the ground.
I began by cutting the lock on the dinghy which of course was one of those high security locks, read harder to cut, and then moved on to the pile of chain on the ground. If you remember the chain in the locker was a partial ball of rust but about half of it was actually in pretty good shape. So I decided that if I cut the rusty section away, I would have a good backup or secondary partial rope partial chain rode.
In order to cut the chain I had to take one handle of the bolt cutters and place it against my hip and use both hands to pull on the other handle. The chain is tough that’s for damn sure. Of course in order to hold the one handle against my inner hip, I had to bend over into a crouched position.
Everything went fine and I made the 6 cuts (2 per link) as planned. I then climbed up the ladder onto Akupara, took one step down the ladder and froze. I stayed there for a little bit trying to decide if it was safer to back up, or to try to go down the rest of the way. I decided it would be easier for the emergency crews to get me off of the deck than it would be if I was also down below.
I managed to get the rest of the chain pulled up on deck and half of the rode into the chain locker before I had to stop completely. In hindsight I should not have continued of course but hey, I never claimed to be smart.
So by the time the Admiral and the crew arrived, I was ready to pretty much call it a day and had no intentions of trying to do anything else. Paige and August did get the anchor into the back of my truck and we spent a bit of time cleaning up the area around Akupara but I guess the biggest accomplishment was Paige started removing the previous owners hailing port from the stern. We are still deciding if we are going to change the font and colour of the name.
It is now Monday evening and I have not left the house since Saturday morning when I got home. I am pretty much confined to the couch and the bed but I am trying to get up and walk around a bit as much as possible. Hopefully I recover fast as I leave for Mexico in 6 days. If nothing else, maybe the Tequila will fix it 😉
FYI – when they say lift with your legs, they also mean pull with your legs. Your arms are a lot stronger than your lower back!
https://youtu.be/swel19Kn4_o
A photo look back at 6 months of craziness! And yes it feels as fast as the video and just as confusing!! 🙂
A special thanks to all the crew for persevering thus far!
The tide has turned!
Hope everyone enjoys a look into our crazy little world! Thank heavens for the odd comedian to make it more interesting!
Cheers!
It is interesting that yesterday we loaded the truck at home and brought parts of Akupara back to Akupara as opposed to the other way around. I guess that means we are just past slack tide and the flow has begun to go in the other way!
It is a great feeling to be at this point and start seeing some results of all of our hard work. The process of gutting and cleaning was a long one and the biggest part is yet to come, the engine removal, but the tides have definitely turned!
Yesterday I put the finishing touches on the anchor locker by cutting the rubber mats I was talking about to fit and by installing the rode divider. I changed my mind about glassing the divider in as it would make any further work in there nearly impossible so I went with a gigantic screw to hold it in place. This means that when the time comes to wash out the locker, I can remove the divider and the mats and get it nice and clean!
I also managed to glass in the two holes in the cabin that had previously contained instruments. Last weekend we cut the marine plywood plugs and yesterday I took the grinder, bevelled the edges, and glassed them in with 6 layers of cloth and some structural filler in the epoxy. Next time down I will need to grind them flush and fill with fairing filler and epoxy so that there is no trace of them when we paint.
While I was doing all of this, Andrea and Paige were sanding their hearts out. All of the ceiling slats were sanded on the visible side with the orbiting sander and any paint from the back side that dripped was removed by hand. They spent the majority of the day doing this and their efforts were clearly visible based on the amount of sawdust on the two of them.
Strange thing though, my random orbit sander started to act up around hour number 4. It started making funny noises and also had a weird smell of burning brushes. The admiral swore that she had been emptying it and that she had not been hogging it down hard but nevertheless it just wasn’t working well anymore.
Sabotage I say! And if this is the kind of thing that is going to happen on a regular basis, ie I am tired so I will break the tool, I need to revisit the overall budget for this project and increase the tool allowance! Thankfully there is a Lowe’s hardware store about 10 minutes away so the any more of this nonsense will result in new tools 😉
It is starting to get nice in the Pacific North West and under the shrinkwrap it is even warmer! So we broke our own rule of not having beer on the boat until we launched and enjoyed our first ice cold beer on Akupara amidst all of the chaos!
As the ladies were finishing up the sanding of the v berth pieces, I was installing some insulation. Insulation? Yes insulation! There are 3 reasons we are adding insulation as we proceed through this rebuild. 1) As we plan to liveaboard, any heat we can retain will be advantageous as we both hate being cold. 2) When we finally get to warmer climates, the insulation should do the opposite and help to keep the belly of the beast a little cooler. And 3) I have heard a rumour that adding this silver bubble foil insulation actually increases your radar return to other vessels. I am not completely sold on this as I have no direct proof, but anything that increases our radar signature and makes us more visible to oncoming ships in the fog, is a good thing in my mind!
By adding the insulation beneath the ceiling, I have left a 2″ air gap in between the hull and the ceiling. So, cored hull which is warmer than a non cored hull, 2″ dead air space, and reflective insulation beneath the ceiling, should keep us toasty warm and hopfully reduce any condensation buildup.
And after a long day of work on several different projects, we almost have the v berth back to a state of completion.
As we slowly get closer to completing the v berth, I am beginning to turn my thoughts and research towards the foreward head.
We have been looking at many different ideas as to how to cover, change, update, repair the white plastic laminate on the walls, new taps for the sink and shower and of course now I am starting to research marine heads, or toilets, for those who don’t speak pirate.
It absolutely amazes me that there are so many choices. Manual vs electric, macerating vs not etc etc. Don’t even get me going on marine sanitation hose and the myriad of choices (read costs) there. It doesn’t seem to matter which brand we decide to go with as all of the reviews, yes people post reviews about their marine toilets, have both good and bad comments.
For those who are not in the know, marine toilets are extremely sensitive little marvels of technology. They suck water in from outside the boat through a special hole that you have drilled, at the same time as not sinking your boat. They have a bewildering network of hoses and valves and fittings and pumps and many different ways of disposing of the contents.
The major rule of law is, if you have not eaten it, it does not go in the head. The second rule of law, at least on my boat, is if you plug it, you fix it. I am adamant about this one and so far it has worked in my favor as I have yet to have to unclog any of our marine heads.
I worry about installing the right heads as, since we will be living aboard eventually, it will be subjected to a lot more use than a weekend boat and the last thing I want to do is spend my days repairing heads.
So in my search for the best of the best, most reliable, non clogging, easy to repair, simple to operate, easy to clean, quiet, non smelly marine sanitation system, I have finally found the PERFECT solution!
Now to convince the Admiral and crew!