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New Toll Free Phone Number 866-921-2628
There are a number of projects we are accomplishing on this boat right in its slip in Vallejo California.
Improvement Projects
Slip Protection Edge bumpers on dock
Boat Fenders and Lines
Life ring and holder – period correct with Jupiter as graphics on ring
Vintage Chrome Compass (hold)
Clean / Upgrade cushions on boat
Additional Canvas Covers (Hold)
Research history / ownership of boat
De- humidifier permanently installed
Fiberglass touchups
Varnish cap rails
Varnish Cabin sides
Varnish Cockpit
Install electronics in drawer under steering wheel
Install Kill switch and / or personnel strap at wheel
Install new light, bilge blower, and horn switches
Varnish Aft cockpit
Varnish Transom
Install fuel tank equalizers
Develop GPH chart on engines so that fuel consumption may be predicted / controlled
Install fuel vent valves
Modify Rib so forward head door opens properly
Install Head and or shower combination in Aft stateroom locker - outdoor shower
Widen Aft State room bed (can be widened 9-1/2”)
Install Anchor windless and outside hull anchor storage
Purchase and install new 12 volt air compressor and compressed air storage tank for Grover Products air horn but also sufficient to inflate dinghy.
Purchase and install depth sounder
Make anchor light assembly easy to remove and install
Install strap(s) for safety at helm
Breaker Panels Consolidated / Remote monitoring?
Install Inverter
Maintenance Projects
Loose Screws
Chrome Polishing
Adjust Rudder as boat pulls to port side
Replace water heater
Replace Headliner in cabin
Flush water tank of debris
Replace shaft logs
Find / Replace wire nuts used on wiring
Replace substandard wiring on light fixture in Salon (completed during assessment)
Replace missing cleat backing plates
Secure bow light wiring that was being stretched by anchor tackle (completed during assessment)
Check House batteries
Produce owners manual of boat and accessories
Update March 30th 2010
The items an the above list that are Green are completed. Below is the detail on each of the projects completed thus far.
Boat Fenders and Lines
Life Ring and Holder w/ rope
Clean Cushions
Green = Completed Orange = started Black = Still to do
Widen Aft State Room bunk
Modify Anchor Light assembly to make it easy to remove
The screws have been removed and the detent pins installed (after some drilling out of the metal portion on the bottom of the mast to allow the 1/4" diameter pin to pass through. I have Stainless Steel 1/16" wire rope lanyards coming from the shop to secure these pins to the assembly so it they can't be lost.
Corresponds to week 5 billing
Install electronics in drawer under steering wheel
Install new light, bilge blower, and horn switches
There is obviously still some work to be completed on this, but the drawer is complete.
Still to complete is the panel above the drawer and below the steering wheel. I will be cutting down the original panel for use here.
It catches / latches in both the closed and open positions so once it is position it will stay there in rough water.
The original breaker panel was installed on the bulkhead behind a closed panel. If the owner wanted to turn anything on or off he had to remove the panel first.
We have moved the panel out into a drawer. This gives him better access to the breakers. We are also adding external switches on the helm station so that turning on an off Nav and anchor lights, and blowers etc won't require opening of the drawer.
The area on the right hand side of the drawer is for storage of electronics such as GPS, Hand Held communicators and Hand held ship to shore. There is also an area large enough to install a depth sounder under the breaker panels.
While preparing to move the panel we found two circuits attached to the buss bar which is powered by a #6 wire rated for and protected by a 50 amp breaker. The two wires attached to the buss bar were rated at 15 amps and 20 amps respectively. One went to a light in the master state room and the other went to the 12 volt power for the fridge! We consolidated a few lighting loads that are going to be isolated by the switches at the helm and made "room" for these circuits to be protected by breakers!
Fly Bridge Varnish - preparation / woodwork
The bridge has 3 different types of grain and color of wood panels in it so we are overlaying it with a ribbon stripe mahogany panel laminated to the existing structural plywood to make it all the same. It will match the wood in the interior of the boat closely in grain. The final color will be Chris Craft Mahogany stain and coated with 9 coats of varnish.
The bad news, when we pulled the trim off the panels we found rot over by the door to the salon. It is not major... but needs to come out before it becomes major.
It also commits us to headliner work as we have to pull it down to get to some of the rotted area.
Good News It will put some pressure on the budget for this area.. but may possibly fit within the budget for this line item.
The pictures above show the extent of the rot - again not real major.
The picture to the left shows the PATTERN wood ready to be transferred to the ribbon stripe ply that will be laminated to the structural plywood of the bulkhead.
Directly above - the new trim pieces that were manufactured in our mobile shop pictured below.
Headliner
We will be installing the headliner provided by the owner during the final stages of the project. Above the headliner we will be installing Tweeters for the stereo system on the boat as well.
Fly Bridge Varnish - preparation / woodwork Continued
The Cockpit woodwork at the bulkhead is almost complete. We still have some holes to bung where switches and radios had been removed before the boat was purchased by its present owner, and we have some repair work to do on the bench seat at behind the helm as well.
The left hand pics are the before pics and to the right the in process not quite after pics.
Cap Rail Varnish - preparation / woodwork
The first order of business was to dig out what appeared to be surface rot and make a Dutchman to replace the wood removed. However, it didn't work out quite so simple.... here are comments from the front where the battle is being fought.
"The Channel of rot is about 2in wide at the top but gets somewhere from a half in to an inch wider at the bottom. In the front of the nose where the blue handled awl is, well... the handle bottomed out and was already 7in deep. In one of the photos I measured the length of the awl. The rot could be in the stem but depending on how wide, it could be an easy fix. Hopefully I can core it and plug it all the way through the deck and seal it in with 5200 (52,000,000). I would replace the port side cap rail, center between the cap rails, and the starboard side cap rail cause it will possibly fall apart as it is taken off. "
So, to get to the rot in the end grain of the stem the cap rails had to come off.
The investigation of how much damage do we have is this:
- The Port Cap rail is badly enough damaged that it will be easier to do a complete replacement than Dutchman.
- The wood between cap rails that fills the triangle is also badly damaged.
- Water was trapped between the cap rails and the shelf (see diagram below) and the cap rails rotted from the bottom up and the sheer shelf rotted from the seam down. BUT NOT ALL THE WAY THROUGH. In fact there is still about 1" or more of good wood thickness. Which is also why it wasn't seen from below.
At this point to do an effective repair that will outlive the varnish work we had to remove the cap rails and the filler between them that completes the triangle at the bow of the boat. As of 3/24 end of day all the tear out was complete. During the day 3/25 the battle crew has cut rot out of top of the stem and out of the sheer shelf. At home base we found a wood supplier in San Fran that wanted a reasonable price for the Genuine Mahogany we need. We managed to save over $350 vs the supplier in Vallejo! We have to drive to San Fran... but we get to hand select our wood to match grain and color also.
The investigation of root cause results in this:
- The cap rails have been off before and rotted areas in the shelf and the underside of the cap rails were possibly scraped away and an epoxy product put in as a filler.
- When the cap rails were re-installed there was no bedding compound installed between the cap rails and the sheer shelf. Bedding compound is a mixture of linseed oil and inert solids that fill any voids between the wooden members and doesn't allow water to enter the space.
- Hence the water that was infiltrating and getting trapped kept the wood at the right moisture content for rot to flourish... never fear this is the process that takes out structural members in fiberglass (frozen snot) boats as well.
The fix is
- New bow section of cap rails applied over the sheer shelf that has had the rot removed (surgery), treatment with CPES (Chemo) and the wood replaced with wood epoxied and or 5200 (millioned) in place with fasteners used to clamp the assembly until the adhesives hold. The fasteners will not be removed but work in concert with the adhesives.
- We plan to pick up the wood in San Fran tomorrow morning just after the rush hour traffic clears and should have the cap rails roughed in by evening. We will be sending the wood for the triangular assembly from the shop in Ky as we are going to resaw the back side of the wood we send to match the contour of the crown in the deck of the boat.
- Total cost 3-4 days and 50 some odd board feet of Mahogany at $12.00 per board foot. Incremental cost - materials and 2-3 days labor.
Cap Rail - sometimes called toe rail
Stem
Shelf or Sheer shelf
Deck
Stem
Rot showing on back of cap rails
Clockwise from above
The triangular piece that fits between the cap rails at the bow is 42" tip to tip and will take 16"of stock wide (we will cut a curve in the base of the triangle). The curvature of the deck as measured with our contour gauge is 1" of curvature on a 36" gauge or 1.33" on 48" of stock.
We are sending Taylor's girlfriend out to clean inside and out and polish chrome.... we just need to cover her costs which should be MUCH lower than hiring the cleaning done at California rates OR using our skilled guys to do it! In return for the conjugal visit she will be cleaning for the better part of a week.
Cleaning and polishing
Credits
To the many people and organizations that have assisted with this project above and beyond the call of duty we owe a debt of gratitude. They are, in no particular order:
- Canvas and cushion work Todd Mehserle - Vallejo
- Use of shop tools in remote location Chip Cash / North Bay Cabinets - Vallejo
- Receiving point for packages in Vallejo Chip Cash / North Bay Cabinets
- Quality Control Inspector Next door neighbor to boat - Jerry - Vallejo
- Machine Shop Work Ed - Vallejo
- Cheerleader, all around good guy, Occasional Home cooking Gordon - Vallejo
- Lubrication Coppola Winery - Napa California and Todd Mehserle / Vallejo Yacht Club
- Living Quarters and mobile shop Salyers Canvas and Boat Cleaning - Jamestown, KY
- Headliner installation training Custom Canvas and Fun Time Houseboats - Russell Springs, KY
The bulkhead overlay - which was the intended project and the rot project which was unexpected are now completed. In the pictures below you can also see where many holes that once upon a time had antennas, radios and other switches have been bunged.
The 30" Life Ring was just not the right scale for the boat so a new smaller life ring is on order that matches the size of the original. We will also reconfigure the graphics to be a little larger on the ring.
The cushions have been returned and are stored in the living quarters of the trailer. This includes the new mattress as well for the wider master stateroom bed.
We have filled and smoothed the area where the face frame of the captians bed was cut away from the wall by cutting staples and glue joints. We don't have a good match on the white paint... so we plan to tape off a horizontal line demarking an area even with the top fo the captains bed and paint that area our new white. The area we paint will be hidden by the bed matress and comforter. But when the matress is raised for any reason the filled area will not look quite so patched!
Stay tuned for one more photo showing the finished product.
We have been hitting the high nails ... often we look around after hitting the high nails and see the floor has tacks all over it.... so we are at the stage of the project where we work on driving in the tacks.
Keep a watch on this section as we strip, sand, stain and varnish the anchor light assy.
A new smaller drawer supported with stainless steel drawer guides has been produced and is ready for installation. the original panel that covered the lower area of the helm station behind and under the ships wheel will be modified to be used for a flush drawer front on the drawer.
Stay tuned for more pictures on this also!
Install new outdoor shower
Measurements for the new shower curtain were taken on Tuesday 3/30 so ........
Stay tuned for more pictures on this also!
Before picture on the left above showing the rot as it was exposed.
Above right:
The rotted decking has been cut out and replaced. with new wood. All original wood that remained has been treated with Smiths CPES (clear penetrating epoxy sealer 'Chemo" IN CASE any rot was missed during "surgery".
The reason for the curved inserts: We figure out the extent of the rot by probing, then cut a curved "positive" from a rectangular piece of wood. The remainder or "negative" is used with a router that has a pilot bit on it to cut out the rotted area. Then the positive fits EXACTLY where the negative was used as a guide! Although this process we are in is very time con$uming this is the Quickest way to do it and it produces the HIGHEST quality results.
Right:
The shelf board whick lost a third or so of its thickness due to rot is being buit back up with new mahogany material.
Below:
Because the band saw we brought to the party was too small for this suprise work we purchased a new 14" band saw that can handle the thick mahogany that will be used on the cap rail. This purchase is an new asset for Woodies and as such the cost of this will not be passed on to the customer.
270-866-2628
Paul@woodiesrestorations.com
