Archive for the ‘maintenance’ Category

Sierras, Lasers, Black Widows, and Opus One

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

There’s no post that could fully describe the joy of this only-in-California combination over the Labor Day weekend.

Toothbrushing

Laser refurb

Black Widow

Opus and Heitz

Bottom Paint

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Eagle and I hauled and painted Shanti ourselves. We were inspired by my grumpy and hyper-competent gang of east coast one-design friends who apparently haul, paint, de-rig, re-glass, re-deck, and otherwise completely eschew the paid services of the boating labor class. Like once a week, if you believe them.

Fine, but in my opinion, even if I’m as handy as everyone claims I am, this is about the same ROI as changing the oil in your truck: Same money, same quality, twice the time, three times the hassle.

Also, an important take-away: In SF Bay, there’s no need to do boat work anywhere but KKMI. I paid the same for a haul-out and yard space at dodgy San Rafael YH as I would at our “notoriously expensive” yard across the bay, but gave up decent equipment, any semblance of security, handy advice, an inspiring view of AC boats on the hard, and a well-stocked chandlery. In exchange for this non-savings, I got my boat nearly dropped off a rickety dolly, a spreader bent on the crane, and some pretty sketchy characters jumping out of the dumpsters every morning.

Did I mention that I didn’t save any money? Short advice: Pay the $1K flat rate in the spring.

How did we do it?

  1. Longboarded (by hand) down to 100 grit.
  2. Filled and faired most of the chips and dips
  3. 2 coats of black Micron Extra

Eagle did most of the backbreaking work around step #1, which basically buys him out of my share of the Islander, in my opinion.

Eagle and Longboard

Eagle and Longboard

Down to the primer

Down to the primer

Back into the water where it is safe

Back into the water where it is safe

Jack Frost #1 cancelled due to oil spill

Monday, November 12th, 2007

Last week, a containership hit the bay bridge in the fog, tore its hull, and spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel into SF bay.

Mashup

On Friday, SFYC harbor was closed off with a float boom due to encroaching oil, so Shanti (and our friends on the Pacific-built O911 Elusive) weren’t able to race. In the end, the entire SF30 class elected to not race, and eventually Encinal YC just canceled the regatta.

We looked into having the crew volunteer for spill clean-up in lieu of racing, but apparently there is a glut of volunteers and no real need for more. Which leads to a kind of weird dis-connected feeling of having this environmental catastrophe taking place on the bay, but nothing to really do about it. Except not sail.

Anyways, I got a chance to replace the broken spinnaker pole car.

Post-TP repairs

Saturday, September 15th, 2007

So we didn’t lose the mast or keel or anything horrible, but there is a handful of stuff to be repaired/replaced/maintained before sailing starts again. Here’s the the list (ongoing):

  • Spinnaker pole car, replace
  • Mainsail headboard slug, repair
  • Galley sink pump, repair, add new hose
  • Diesel shut off valve, replace (finally)
  • Tactical compass light, instrument power connections
  • Re-rewire mast electrics
  • Epoxy repair main stringer

Polishing 101

Saturday, September 15th, 2007

Today, with the boat out of the water, I washed the entire hull, deck to waterline. Then I used 1500 grit wet sand paper on a block (and a hose) to remove the old lettering from the stern and rear hull quarters. This takes a lot of sand paper, even when the lettering is old and thin. Learning: Do not ever use the sandpaper off the block, even though it’s tempting to do so in order to get the last little bit of paint. It leaves little finger shaped traces that then have to be buffed out.

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New tunes

Monday, May 28th, 2007

Just in case I forget, a project actually took less time than I thought it would. Of course, it was a project that wasn’t even on any of my lists. Once you start pricing standing rigging and shipping a 10,000# boat from Hawaii, a new CD player looks like a bargain.

So I replaced the old Sony tape deck with a new Sony CD player. Pulled the old out, stuck the new in, plugged in the wiring harness, done. 15 minutes.

It will probably catch fire in the middle of the pacific.