Marooned!

I would really like to launch Ms Bettencourt back into the Savannah River for a return to my home dock. I want to give her a thorough cleanup inside, re-stow gear and provisions, bring the bedding back aboard and do about a dozen other things that need to be done before I can go cruising again. There are two main obstacles in the way of this objective: The US Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Augusta, Ga.

Actually, the Army is more at fault. The City just bumbled a design decades ago and probably doesn't even know yet that a chicken has come home to roost.

The Army Engineers get it first. River gauge data for the 13-mile long stretch between the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam upstream past my dock to the rapids at North Augusta shows the Engineers are holding this pool at less than 115 feet above mean sea level. They say it is a foot lower than usual, but I think it is actually much lower.

The water rings on a piling at my dock are what I use for a river gauge, and it doesn't agree with the drop the Engineers claim. I make the high-to-low water level span on my piling to be about two feet, not 12 inches.

I use the brace board attached to the back of the piling as a guide in making my estimate. It is a 3" x 12" timber. The size of this board helps me judge the distance from the present water level to the usual level, the top ring on the piling. I say it's about two feet.












The spokesperson for the Engineers in Savannah says the water level has been lowered to reduce stress on the gates at the 74-year-old New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam. Not everyone believes that explanation, but it is possible since the Engineers have done almost no maintenance work on the lock and dam since the 1970s.

Anyway, what the City of Augusta is going to learn soon is that it's main boat ramp on our upper pool part of the river has been rendered useless for all but small boats by a combination of bad design and the Engineers' river depth reduction.

Here's the City's Boathouse Ramp

A quick look suggests an inviting launch point, but a closer inspection reveals a major flaw. This ramp, while it is paved more than 50 feet out into the river, has almost no slope.

At the current river water level, water depth at the ramp is only about waist-deep--all the way to the end.

This "ramp" is more like a shelf. There is not enough water here to float Ms. Bettencourt off her trailer.



Fortunately, there is an alternative. The North Augusta ramp on the South Carolina side of the river is about five miles farther upstream at the end of a circuitous urban neighborhood route. Trailering there will have to be very carefully done, due to foliage hanging over roadways. And once I get there, turning the rig around to launch will not be easy. Here's the North Augusta ramp

I think it can be done, but only early in the morning on a weekday when the ramp parking lot is likely to be empty.










So, that's what I am thinking about doing now. Later this week, Dia and I will be trailering the boat back to the canvas guy in Charleston for some minor adjustments to the new enclosure.

Perhaps it will be possible to launch into the river at North Augusta early next week.

A propulsion worry becomes irrelevant

The last item on the pre-launch list was finished last week. The VHF antenna is now mounted on the roof and is connected to the transceiver which is now mounted over the steering position. So I did one last walk-around inspection, with happy thoughts of being back on the water dancing through my mind.

Then I saw too much of the cutless bearing. This is not good. This brass and rubber prop shaft fitting is supposed to be mostly out of sight, housed in a bearing carrier at the aft end of the propeller shaft tube. Ms Bettencourt's cutless bearing had migrated aft toward the prop hub and is almost jammed against a shaft zinc. My happy thoughts about being on the water began to dispel.

Oh, well. Back to my first law of old machinery maintenance: When in doubt, disassemble. In case you don't know what a cutless bearing is, by the way, here's a picture of one:

Not all Albin-25s have cutless bearings. The boats came from the factory in Sweden with a slotted bakelite sleeve fixed in a fitting at the water end of the propeller shaft. The slots were supposed to admit water to the shaft tube which was to travel up the tube to cool the shaft support at the aft end of the engine. This arrangement worked well until, in my case, the bakelite sleeve broke up and disappeared into the deeps. There was a great racket as the shaft end slapped around. Something had to be done. By then, cutless bearings had been invented and the rest is history.

Meanwhile, back at the Port Authority, I am on the job disassembling at 0750 Saturday. The propeller must come off in order to reach the cutless bearing carrier. Step-1 in this process is to remove the steering tiller arm from the rudder shaft. Piece of cake. I keep marching through Dixie-- remove the skeg bracket that holds the rudder end. No problem. The rudder slides down and out nicely. Next, remove the prop shaft nuts and set the propeller puller device. No problem. Carefully tighten the propeller puller and--miraculously-- the prop jumps off into my arms with a satisfying "whang!"

All of this has taken about two hours. Finally, I arrive at the bearing carrier. Here's what it looks like:

That's it to the left of the shaft zinc. This picture was taken before I got the prop off. It is a little blurry because sweat was running into my eyes while I was trying to focus.





With the prop and zinc removed, the carrier and the cutless bearing slide off easily as a unit. I find that a fat rubber gizmo holding the bearing carrier has apparently loosened its grip, allowing the bearing and carrier to migrate aft. Or maybe I didn't tighten this enough the last time I had it out. I push it all back together the way it supposed to be and tighten the bejezzus out of everything.

Ninety minutes later, I have the zinc and prop back on the shaft, prop nuts torqued down, cotter key in, rudder, skeg bracket and tiller re-installed. Ms. Bettencourt is  launch ready. A plan is made to put her in the river today.

"Man plans and God laughs"  is one of my favorite aphorisms. In this case, the US Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the water level in the Savannah River,  must have been laughing too. We got to the boat ramp and there wasn't enough water in the river to float Ms Bettencourt off the trailer. With the truck and trailer down the ramp as far as safely possible and Ms. Bettencourt throbbing full power astern-- nothing happened.

So the launch was aborted and we're back under the shed.

But the cutless bearing carrier did its job under great stress, so I guess that's one thing positive to be said today about progress to date toward Ms. Bettencourt's next cruise.

Enclosure pictures; additional projects begin

I went to Charleston yesterday and picked up Ms Bettencourt at the canvas shop. I am very happy with the new enclosure. The pilot house area seems more like a room and much less like a tent.

This outside shot (below) shows how little canvas was involved in this "canvas job." I chose black screen material because I think it provides more privacy. The vertical fabric strips at the aft corners cover the panel zippers. The leading edges of these vertical strips are sewn and the trailing edges fasten with velcro. The blue material is heavy duty Sunbrella fabic. The fasteners are turn buttons on the forward edges and across the top of the aft cabin and snaps along the bottom edges.

The top edges of the three panels ride in aluminum tracks, which makes panel removal just a quick zip process.

If you look at the first picture again, you will see that the U-zippers for the clear vinyl are unusually long. The clear on each side  rolls up leaving the panel screen only. Alternatively, the whole panel will roll up and snap providing unobstructed access to and from the pilot house cabin.

Since I don't plan to be climbing in and out the back, I had the rear panel clear zipper installed so the clear rolls down. It is hard to see, but the clear is rolled down in the picture below.

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The boat is now back under the shed at the Augusta Ports Authority. I gave her a good exterior scrub down this morning and installed a heavier duty trailer winch, which my friend Major provided. I also double-checked the the propeller nuts for tightness and installed a new cotter pin in the end of the shaft. All the running gear seems OK.

I have started building a mount and doing some re-wiring in the pilot house so I can move the VHF radio from under the dash to an overhead location above the steering wheel. Other jobs I hope to finish in the next week include:

• Install and connect the VHF antenna
• Three coats of sealer on the teak swim and anchor platforms
• New teak grab rails inside the pilot house
• Re-install the windshield wiper motor
• Paint touch up and
• Interior cleaning

It is my hope that Ms. Bettencourt will be back in the river at my dock very soon.

The top project is done!

I trailered Ms. Bettencourt to Charleston yesterday, where I struck a deal to have an enclosure fabricated. This will complete the new top project. So, today, I am officially declaring the top project finished. The new title on this blog should offer a hint about the directions I'll be taking from here.

When I went to Charleston, I was thinking I would be getting new canvas for the boat. That was my first surprise. As it turns out, there is very little canvas involved. There will be three enclosure panels --one each on the port and starboard sides and one across the rear of the pilot house area. The only canvas needed will be just enough to support the fasteners and mounting hardware. In Ms. Bettencourt's case, this will amount to about a two-inch band of blue Sunbrella fabric around the openings on either side and in the back. The rest of the panel assemblies will consist of U-zippered clear vinyl, screens, attachment fasteners and snap straps for securing the panels when they are rolled up or down.

So, the fact that I was getting an "enclosure" instead of new canvas was the first surprise of my Charleston trip. I can handle that. A learning experience, for sure.

My second surprise was almost a heart-stopper. The estimated cost of the materials and labor for this enclosure exceeded my expectations by more than 40 percent. But that was a surprise I just needed to deal with. After a few minutes, I could breathe again and my enclosure enthusiasm re-kindled. We had a handshake on the deal.

The boat with its new enclosure could be ready for pickup as early as next Friday.

So, at last, its cruise planning time. My friend Major requires cooler weather, so our next voyage together will be in October. We are thinking of trailering Ms. Bettencourt to Georgetown, SC. We will use Georgetown as a base for exploration of the Waccamaw and Black Rivers. Both rivers are "blackwater" streams, bordered by deep cypress woods and old and new Southern homes.

I will be on the water with Ms. Bettencourt well before October, however. As soon as I get the boat back from Charleston, I expect to spend a week or so on the hard cleaning up and fitting out for cruise-readiness. I still need to install the VHF antenna, do some electrical wiring and a few other little things. She should be back in the river at my dock before the end of this month.

I am thinking about taking a few days to journey down the Savannah River, about 200 miles to the sea. Dia and her friend Martha have said they could meet me in Savannah, from whence we might continue on to Beaufort, SC.

It appears there will by much to write about as planning for these voyages evolves.

Status report: On the hard, in the heat

My friend Major and I hauled Ms. Bettencourt on her trailer early Tuesday. She is now tucked under the shed at the Augusta Ports Authority. Surface preparation and paintwork have begun. It is slow going because of the climate. Temps were in the 90s before noon yesterday, and nearing 100 by mid-afternoon. Humidity makes it much worse. Augusta is the only place I know where you can boil and bake at the same time.

I work in short bursts, mostly governed by the position of the sun. The boat and trailer are parked on a north-south axis. I did surface prep and masking on the east (port) side of the boat very early this morning, then moved to the shady (starboard) side for another hour with the scraper and tape. By noon it was too hot to work.

I will be back on the east side with primer, shortly after sunrise tomorrow, then to the other side, and so on. I expect this solar pirouette will persist through two coats of primer with sandings in between, then two topcoats of epoxy enamel, also sanded between coats. Painting has to take place very early mornings when the surfaces to be painted have cooled enough overnight to be within temperature specs for the paint.

Most fortunately, I am not coating the whole vessel. I want to get the underside of the hardtop and the hardtop’s new fir supporting structure primed and painted, and a couple of coats of BilgeKote on the inside of the pilot house. This should be doable, even at my weather constrained rate, in a week or so.

By the way, hauling the boat was not without a little drama. Major, who was at the ramp with the truck and trailer as I motored the Albin upriver, called me on the VHF to report a man in trouble near the Augusta Rowing Club. I found a young man clinging to an overturned one-person rowing shell about 50 yards from the ramp. He seemed happy to see me and said he appreciated the ride to the club dock.

Still on the drama theme, this photo shows what I found after I parked the rig and did a walk around inspection.

That's a big oops! I guess I got in too big of a hurry to get everything back together the last time I had the prop off  for minor repairs.

Re-tightening will be done strictly to Michigan Wheel specs before Ms. Bettencourt goes back in the water.

Finally, I have talked with a canvas guy in Charleston and it is still my plan to trailer Ms. Bettencourt over there the week of August 6. If I get a design and a price quote I like for a canvas enclosure, I'll just leave her in Charleston to get the work done.

Crazed but still functional ...

... Is there a remedy?

I have been an Albin-25 aficinado since 2003 when my neighbor gave me the wreck of a boat which has become the present day Ms. Bettencourt. Over this time I have inspected perhaps more than two dozen other Albins searching for ideas I might want to incorporate in my vessel.

One unusual feature that I noticed in all these boats, including my own, was a badly cracked and crazed finish on the dashboards. I also saw some strange (to me) remediation techniques employed by owners. I saw a couple of instances where people had applied sticky-backed vinyl wallpaper over the dash and around the helms. In another case, an owner had glued stained and varnished plywood panels over flat spots in the dash and painted around them. Yet another person had deployed a kind of table cloth, weighted down across the top under the windshield, to conceal his flawed finish.

In Ms. Bettencourt's case, I had pretty much a blank slate to work with when I got around to tackling this problem in 2005. The dash was a disaster.

This is where the dashboard project started. Please recall that the boat had been abandoned on the water for 12 years before it came to me.

So I just tore everything out and started over. I believe if you click on the picture and look closely you will see vestigial mud dauber nests in the glove box and on the tangle of wire hanging out from under the dashboard.

I sanded the dash and surrounding area thoroughly and filled a lot of dings and holes. Next came two coats of Pettit Easypoxy undercoater, which seemed to fill the network of cracks all over the dash surface. After sanding yet again, I followed this up with two coats of Pettit Easypoxy topcoat.

At the time, I though the result looked pretty good.

Unfortunately, the beauty was transitory. Here's what it looks like today. Again, if you look closely, you should be able see the underlying crazing and cracking across the entire surface. Obviously, the so-called "high build primer" topped with one-part epoxy paint did not hold up.





It is beginning to look like my Winter 2012-2013 Albin project will be re-doing the dashboard (again). Given my good experience with Interlux two-part epoxy undercoat and their Perfection topcoat, I am beginning to think that these will be my products for this job. I will be calling Interlux Tech Support sometime soon to get their ideas, which I am sure will start with "...remove all of the current one-part epoxy paint job." Maybe they will have another magic product that will peel the stuff off easily. More likely, the answer will be elbow grease and a lot of sandpaper.

Any better ideas?

I would be very grateful for any advice on this dashboard project. Has anyone used a product they can recommend? Is there a better way to do the job? Please respond using the comment box below.

Back at the jobsite...

I have been burning through masking tape, preparing the interior of the pilot house for paint. And, we are still on schedule to haul the boat and finish painting the hardtop surround and underside next week. As soon as that work is finished, the plan is to haul the boat directly to a canvas shop in Charleston to have the hardtop enclosure designed and fabricated. More about that later.

Back to work!

My friend Major and I will be hauling Ms. Bettencourt on her trailer July 23 or 24 for a 10 day stay under the shed at the Augusta Ports Authority warehouse. Here's the work I plan to finish during that period:

• Inside pilot house

            Mask around windshield, side windows, dashboard

            Clean surfaces
            Fill and fair holes left from old canvas fasteners

            Remove, refinish teak grab rails

            Repaint with white Interlux Bilgekote

            Reinstall teak grab rails

• Interior underside of hardtop

            1 coat of Interlux Epoxy PrimeKote primer

            1 coat Interlux PreKote primer on rafters and stringers

             Sand and wipe down with solvent

            2 coats Interlux Brightside including rafters and stringers

• Exterior underside of hardtop

            Mask around windshield and side windows

Touch up hardtop perimeter with Interlux Epoxy PrimeKote

Surface prep, exterior rafters and stringers

1 coat Interlux PreKote primer on rafters and stringers

Sand and wipe down with solvent

2 coats Interlux Brightside including rafters and stringers

• Reinstall windshield wiper motor

•  Install VHF antenna
• Check zincs and cutless bearing
• Repair dings and scratches on the hull

I am working to identify a canvas designer/installer now and it is my hope that when the above list is finished, we will trailer the boat directly to the canvas shop.

After that...


          ...Cruise time!