The Refit of a 1976 Whitby 42 Ketch – Akupara
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.
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
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.
We have started on work on the aft head.
We have found a place for the wine glasses, always important
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.
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.
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.
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 ?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Well we bit the bullet and committed to another 6 months on the hard. We simply are not ready yet and although every part of our being wants to get Akupara in the water where she belongs, and out of the hell hole she is currently sitting in, she just isn’t ready and we simply do not have enough time to get her complete. We set out on this journey with the intent of having her complete before we launched and we are going to stay on that path for another 6 months at least. Our current goal is June 2017. That will be a respectable 2.5 years on the hard for a major refit and renovation. Still a fairly decent timeline for only being able to work on her on the weekends. Keep your fingers crossed that we can hit this goal.
Another 12 months on the hard. Damn. Oh well, she will be even better by then, and we will be able to enjoy her that much more!!
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.
Akupara’s engine room currently falls into this category!
It 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.
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!
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.
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.
Well we celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary in June with a trip to Bucerias Mexico. At first it was only going to be the Admiral and I, but then as we were out for dinner about 2 weeks before our departure, talking about our lack of progress recently on Akupara, and the fact that we had been receiving reports of failed surprise inspections, a plan started to develop. See, it turns out that the inspectors had been attempting to make these inspections and each time, when we should have been working on Akupara, they discovered that we actually were not doing exactly that. As a matter of fact, each time they came down, we were not even there. It is one thing to fail an inspection while trying, but it is another to fail for lack of trying.
Our plan had the propensity of backfiring but it was worth the risk. If perhaps there was some remote possibility that they agreed to join us our trip, perhaps, just maybe, we could find a way to get them to forget about our lack of effort and maybe we would get a passing grade on the next inspection!
So with a text message and an ulterior motive, the invite was sent, and within minutes, the acceptance came through!
Holy shit now we are in trouble. Obviously the extra glass of wine at dinner had clouded our judgement, and we had made the decision a bit hastily. We had not considered the fact that we would now have 7 straight days of intense questioning, with no avenue for escape. Damn, what did we do? What do we do? We’re screwed now.
Like all good sailors when confronted with a bad situation, we turned to the only form of solace we know. Rum. And therein we found the answer!
Of course, we just needed to ply them with alcohol for 7 straight days and we might be able to escape the interrogations!
And there it was. The stage was set. And the game was on.
We had a fantastic week with the inspectors. From what we remember anyway! There was lots of food, lots of drink, lots of laughing, lots of evading questions, lots of lame excuses, and lots of more drinking.
We knew we had been successful in our mission when the inspectors turned into advisers and actually started to offer advice and assistance as opposed to bad reports and shakings of the finger.
The 5 hour flight home was rather quiet. I had completely destroyed any hope for my liver ever making a successful recovery, but in the end, it was worth it. We had won. We had evaded the interrogations, and plied the inspectors with drink, and the next time there is a surprise inspection, we may just come through it with a passing grade. 😉
