Well, maybe not literally. But I just realized this winter project is very likely to disrupt the spring cruising schedule. There is too much to do.
My friend and fellow coastal pilot Major came over to help. (He is pictured in the dinghy above, following a dramatic plotting error a few years ago). We were talking yesterday about cruise plans when we realized that this project has us grounded. We are usually on the way to somewhere by late March every year. That's next month. We won't make that schedule this year. We have ruled out going topless.
Daunting tasks remain:
- Finish application of fiberglass fabric tape to the underside top molding--now about 70% done.
- Roll two coats of unthickened epoxy on the underside of the hard top.
- Move the top off the table and build a strongback structure; then flip the top and bend it over the strongback.
- Apply about 100 square feet of fiberglass fabric to the top, followed by multiple applications of unthickened epoxy to fill the glass fiber weave and fair the top surface.
- Paint the whole thing--one coat of primer and two coats of epoxy topcoat.
- Strip, cut to length, renew fasteners and varnish the 10-foot-long teak grab rails.
And, all of this has to happen before we can even attach the top to the boat. And the boat is not yet ready to receive its new top either.
It is time for some optimism. It is time to man up and soldier on. I will work today on the boat.
The area over the windshield and around the sides of the pilothouse will become inaccessible after the top goes on. So I need to be wiring now.
We pulled a pair of wires for the windshield wiper and a two-conductor cable to provide for a mid-cabin overhead light.
These wires came up from the 12-volt panel in the head below through a very small channel near the windshield. The big white cable is to be poked up to daylight through a new hole. This hole must be drilled very carefully, to avoid the tightly packed wires in the overhead channel. I got this done with surprising ease, using a screwdriver to hold the wires aside and a long drill bit.
Wiring for the light mast is also a job that must be done before the top goes on. The new top will sit down where the wires come out. I need to route them so I can poke the wires up through a pre-drilled hole in the top.
That white thing with the hole in it is a block I made out of PVC to serve as a solid base for the mast tabernacle. I decided this block was not wide enough. The new mast I am going to make will have a thicker base. So, back to the shop bench ...
...where I sliced the backer block in half to make a wider footprint. I realize now that the photo at right shows the tabernacle fitting placed on the backer blocks backwards, but I am sure you get the idea. Plenty of meaty PVC to screw into.
The backer blocks are now epoxied in place above the windshield. The wires will pass through a slot I routed in the port side block. The plywood top will sit on top of the blocks. The tabernacle fitting will be screwed down through the plywood and into the blocks.
I need to take some measurements and write them down now, so when the time comes I'll know where to drill the wire hole in the top, and where to place the tabernacle to screw it down.
Meanwhile, I think I'll spend the rest of the day sitting around with a chart book, thinking about cruising and waiting for epoxy to cure.
ELECTRICAL DETAILS: The wires for the windshield wiper are 14 gage, which is what the book says for a 12 volt run of about 10 feet to a wiper motor that will draw 3-5 amps. The two-conductor wire is 18 gage which is plenty big enough to handle a LED overhead light fixture. The three wires for the light mast are 20 gage--kind of small, but adequate for the LEDs in the steaming and anchor light fixture at the top of the mast.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI am proud of John for undertaking such a challenging project.
DeleteJohn -
ReplyDeleteBesides gaining greater respect for your skills with each new update, I continue to learn a lot about the 'tedious but all-important' details. Thanks for sharing!
I intend to add a similar hardtop to my A25 (#278) after the summer 2012 season, of course I'll use this blog as a guide. I may however opt to use 2 layers of 1/4" marine ply with offset FG tape reinforced butt joints to avoid the challenge of scarfing. I'd appreciate any comments on that method from you or others following your blog.
Wishing you much success,
Pat M
Pat: Thanks for the feedback. I think the scarfing turned out to be a lot less complicated than I thought it would be. I just got overly anxious about it. If I had it to do over, I would do the seams the same way.
DeleteThat said, you have to have the John Henry scarfing tool and the Makita 1902 planer, both of which I now own and will probably never use again.
That photo reminded me of a trip we took on the Tenn-Tom River and Tenn River. We beached with a stern anchor out and at midnight Larry (now of A Dollar More) called and told us to look our our port. We were as far from the water as you are. I guess the dam had shut down the water flow to fill the dam for power making the next day. By 2 or so we had plenty of water..but a pretty hairy feeling in the middle of the night. We didn't have Slow Motion then.
ReplyDelete