Here is a quick glance of the work completed this spring and summer up to end of July when she went in.
This is the drawing of the 4" x 14" New Found Metals ports. I drew this one and the 5" x 12", stuck them on the side of the cabin and settled on the 4" x 14". You can see the shadow of the open port side cut out behind to get a comparison of size.
(http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dtskibo/Summer2011001.jpg)
Here is one of the fixed ports.
(http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dtskibo/Summer2011077.jpg)
I finally got the microwave area finished up.
(http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dtskibo/Summer2011084.jpg)
Made all new handrails.
(http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dtskibo/Summer2011226.jpg)
Pre primer and paint.
(http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dtskibo/Summer2011117.jpg)
Fresh Awlgrip everywhere on deck. A new staysail traveler and note the new eyebrow. The design is very different from the factory design which Maruska did not come with. I also finished the small hatch in the head to match the two other deck hatches.
(http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dtskibo/Summer2011255.jpg)
Here is a shot of the new opening ports, eyebrow and the paint.
(http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dtskibo/Summer2011258.jpg)
On the road again in the stealth of the night.
(http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dtskibo/Summer2011268.jpg)
Have masts will travel. While I was home loading these, Lake Erie surged towards Buffalo pushed by sustained 30 kt winds and the boat floating in the travel lift slip got caught underneath the main steel travel lift rails. The result was damage to the teak rail on the port side. Yes... 6 feet of beautiful teak cracked, broken and chunks gone in less than 4 hours of float time after a year and a half of work.
(http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dtskibo/Summer2011274.jpg)
We are headed down later today. I will take the camera and get some natural light shots. Hope this kindles a project or two.
Good Sailing... Dale
Disregard the neighbor, but this gives a good idea of the complete look and the new ports. I need to go over the side and wipe off the wax at the waterline in the bottom paint. You can also see some of the damage to the rail just before the jib track.
(http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dtskibo/Summer2011286.jpg)
Dale
I love that you made the teak eyebrow go all the way around the cabin. Looks like a Morris!!
Fantastic job!
Also- What color did you use for your non skid?
Kevin,
Thanks for your kind comments.
Your right, the eyebrow does look like a Morris or even a Little Harbor. Hum... I like them both very much. Actually, the lines of a Morris 42 looks very similar to a P365. We looked at several Morris boats over the years but most owners take way too good of care of them and they hold their value way to good. Bottom line, we just couldn't afford any of them.
The nonskid is Awlgrips MOON DUST - G6004. It matches the factory nonskid very very closely.
The white is Awlgrips OYSTER WHITE - H8139 is as close to the factory white on a 1976 as you can get. I matched it to the gel coat under the sea hood that did not get any sun. I love the fact that Pearson used off white on their boats. I can't stand bright white boats in the bright sun. Island Packet does a great job on that as well, they use a cream color but you can't even tell.
It is amazing what a couple of quarts of paint can do. My nonskid was faded/worn to the point you could see the paint strokes coming through. Upgrading the nonskid is relatively easy but lots of stuff needs to be removed. For the most part, boats our age need all the hardware rebeded or replaced anyway. There is a big difference in the stickiness of the new paint as well. Big improvement. I rolled all of the nonskid with a 4" foam roller.
The white (deck and cabin sides) are the easiest of the two to paint, very little to remove. The problem is that when you mask the nonskid, the white paint will creep under the tape due to the nonskid pattern. Paint the white first and then mask on the new smooth painted surface and the line between the nonskid and white will be nice and clean. I found that even if the nonskid paint creeps under the tape you can carefully scrape it off with a razor blade as long as the nonskid paint is less then 24 hours old and the other paint is a few days old. MEK will also clean it off.
After surface prep, painting only takes a couple of hours. It is the paper and masking takes about 8 to 10 hours.
Here is a shot of the side deck less dorade box.
(http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/dtskibo/Summer2011289.jpg)
Dale
Just crossed my mind that the "eyebrow" acts as rain gutter. With the original windows this make them less prone to leaking.
A young couple in my marina epoxy/sanded their non skid. The said sand it smooth, epoxy paint then pour the sand. Then vacuum it up. The sand is pre colored. It looks very clean IMO. My deck has some large impact holes in it so duplicating the non skid partern in gelcoat seems problematic.
Dale I'm at least 2 years behind you, your boat looks great. Pete W
This is Linda. Dale your boat is looking gorgeous!!!
Dale,
You do nice work! Certainly a boat to be proud of. Did you varnish your teak or use something else?
Dale,
Nice job (as always).... I would like to learn more about what you did with your fixed ports. Also did you use the teak spacers when you installed the opening ports?
I finally found some time to work on the opening ports on Sea Dragon and have decided not (this could change again) to use the teak spacers with the NFM opening ports because the combined thickness of the liner, gap, coach roof, & spacer comes to 1 3/8 inches and the standard NFM ports are only 1 1/2 inches. This will allow less than 1/8 of the port to extend beyond the SS trim ring. It looks like your opening ports extend ½ inch to ¾ of an inch past the exterior trim ring. Did you use the standard ports?
Below is a link to progress to date.
http://www.sailingseadragon.com/Ports.htm
Garner
Pete - the eyebrow does act like a rain gutter, and with the design that I went with the water can not get behind it. The lower lip is below the lower cabin top lip and the whole thing is set in Boatlife caulk and sealed with Boat seal on the top and bottom edge. You can repair your nonskid pattern to match factory using www.gibcoflexmold.com
Linda - Thank you very much.
It has taken me years to be able to finish teak to my liking. It was not until recently that I found a key element. A product by Interlux called Inter-prime #1026 greatly decreases the time it takes to acheave a "grainless" finish, thanks to a guy named Bud I met while in in Havre de Grace MD. Bud does boat refinishing and repair for a living and he gave me this bit of advice after a phone call when he recommended 1026. Bud can be found last I know at Havre de Grace marina on Water street. 1026 is a phenolic based finish that seals the grain and sands like a dream. Each subsequent coat only fills the low spots as it is rather thin in viscosity and gravitates to the lows. Thicker top coats tend to coat the wood evenly, both the lows and the highs not really leveling the finish. You can easily apply 2 or 3 coats in a day. The top coat does not sink into the wood and raise the grain. The stuff is magical. I now use it on almost every wood project in the boat or house I finish. The only problem I have found is it tends to gel before the can is empty.
I have standardized on Epifanes varnish. It is an old school tung oil coating. The key to it is it is a "soft" varnish meaning it is somewhat compliant. This means it will flex and move with the wood as the seasons dictate. A soft varnish is not good for a floor as it will scratch and mare easily however on a boat soft shoes do it no harm. Poly's are hard a varnish and tend to crack instead of bend. The teak you see has 2 or 3 coats of Interlux 1026 lightly sanded between coats and 3 to 5 coats of Epithanes high gloss traditional varnish. If you are down where Kevin is I would go a few more coats of top coat for sun resistance. The key to a good varnish finish once it is on is a quick renew top coat every year.
What ever your varnish of choice is, you must learn when enough is too much, how much before it sags or "holidays" and develop the right application technique for that specific varnish. Epithanes is a bit thicker than most and you must learn to apply it. I purchase only smaller cans so that the viscosity stays the same over time. What this means is the 4th time you open the can for another coat the stuff hasn't gotten too thick. Ideally you want to open a fresh can every time and use the last drop on the last stroke. Application is the key to a uniform finish once the grain is gone. I brush a foot or so and go back and tip in one direction (away) only. Don't brush or tip to quickly or you will cause very tiny bubbles on the surface that might not go away before the finish skins. You must keep a wet edge so think it through and keep moving. Apply and "tip". You can only correct a run or sag after a few minutes. If you look back 20 min later and see a sag wait and fix it with the next coat. I apply all my varnish with elcheapo throw away bristle brushes. I just have not been able to adjust to foam. I only use a high quality big $$ brush for the last coat. Never varnish in the sunlight and preferably varnish mid day on as the wood will not be expanding in the heat. Never varnish and take the wood out into the sun to "help" drying as bubbles my appear on the surface due to expansion of gasses trapped in the wood grain. You may also see wrinkling if the surface is expposed to sunlight as the thicker varnish (in the hollows or inside corners) will skin and dry unevenly. I have made almost all of the mistakes several times and keep repeating them with age. The sooner you start the better you will get. One word of advice, don't paint your teak blue!
Garner - You will have to read the upcoming Good Old Boat article on the specifics on the new fixed ports. I can tell you that they have wood inside trim rings that are 5/8" thick. This matches the opening port rings at 5/8" thick that I made for the front ports. The $30 a piece for the teak rings from New Found Metals are a gift at the price, but I had to match my interior which is no longer teak and formica. I used the standard 1 1/2" ports and found the cabin (my cabin) sides to to be between 3/8" and 1/2" thick. I can see you have a substantially larger gap. As I recall I have about 1/2" lip exposed with the 5/8" interior wood spacers. I had to fill two of my forward port openings to either center them or the existing hole was too large so I had to glass in as well. This was the ultimate excuse for painting the cabin.
Dale
Wow, really nice.
Did you drill new holes for the fasteners for the eyebrow or is there a clever way to use the old ones? I'm worried about getting fiberglass dust behind the headliner.
Dale,
Thanks... I am standing at mail box waiting for my next issue of "Good Old Boat" to learn more about your fixed ports...
Garner
Eyebrow - Maruska did not come from the factory with an eyebrow, so there were no preexisting mounting holes. My eyebrow does not mount on the side of the cabin. I owned two boats that had the side mounted eyebrow and both were damaged (broken) in between the fasteners when someone stepped (slipped) off of the side of the cabin house and raked down the cabin side with their foot snapping that thin strip. It sits on the small flat on top of the edge of the cabin house. The inside edge of the eyebrow is angled to mate with the radiused upper surface of the house. The outside edge is a 1/2 round profile and is 3/4" thick (3/8" radius). The key to the design is that the eyebrow is only 1/2" thick where it sits on the flat of the cabinhouse so it hangs down over the side of the cabin on the outside 1/2 round edge 1/4" and is a drip edge as the water can't go uphill to get underneath. Sorry for the lengthy tech definition of the cross section of the eyebrow but I do not have a picture at my fingertips.
The fasteners are all on top. The fasteners were only used to hold the eyebrow until the Boatlife caulk set up and are 30 or so inches apart. One unique thing is that I used machine thread 10-24 flat head screws, yup I drilled and tapped into the fiberglass. This is another article that I am writting. All of those self taping sheet metal screws that boat builders are so accustomed to use are not the way to go in my opinion. They are designed to displace material as they thread in. Fiberglass does not displace and the first to fail is the gel coat as it has no fiber to reinforce it. The gel coat always chips out. The back side of the hole typically mushrooms out as the thread plows its way through, so a good percentage of the available material is severely compromised. A drilled hole and then tapped mechanically removes the non displacable material cutting a beautiful full thread depth hole perfectly mated to the fastener. A machine thread fastener can be removed and replaced over and over without additional fiberglass material being compromised something one can not do with a self tapping screw. One little additional plus, machine threads are finer in thread pitch than comprobable self tapers for the same diameter, so you get more holding points per inch of thickness. Try it you will like it.
Garner, stand down buddy, the article draft has not been sent to GOB as of yet, we have been sailing. If you would like, they send a half a dozen copies well before the subscription issues are sent to the public and I can send you one of them when I get it.
Dale
Dale,
I was afraid you varnished "the old fashioned way", It's kind of like hearing "diet and exercise" to lose weight :)
Thanks for the tip about Interlux though. I try to varnish twice a year, spring and fall, often it's once a year. Varnishing is fine but it's the sanding that I dislike. Now if I had a nice warm indoor storage area to while away winter in.....
Bob
Bob,
I did all the exterior teak on a Saber 32 complete. From rough grey on up. I used a "new and improved, better" two part product from Awlgrip called Awl-brite. It came with new and improved price tag but I felt it would probably be worth it. It was thin so it took quite a few coats to make it look nice and right.
It did look nice for about 2 years. The problem was it was hard as nails and everywhere the wood had a joint, bung or nick it fractured the material. It was shiny as could be but water wicked under the stuff and traveled and traveled. At the end of the 2nd northern season that water began to turn black. By spring you could peal this space age junk off like sunburned skin on a rhino where it had let loose. Where it was still stuck, you couldn't get it off with a jack hammer. No chemical stripper would touch it and even heat was an iffy thing.
From that boat on I was old school. Tung oil based varnish applies nicely, last a reasonable period of time, can be repaired easy enough and comes off without much problem with a little heat and a sharp putty knife. Tung oil varnish smells wonderfull on a hot sunny day weeks after it is applied. Tung oil varnish rocks!
Sanding... get yourself a nice random orbital 5" disk sander and even that issue goes away. I don't like removing hardware and rebedding but everybody has something that they don't like.
Good Sailing
Dale
Ha, I am using the sander, like you said Dale, it's still something I don't like doing, and if I put on multiple coats it' more aggressive than I like, unless I use 400 grit. I was using mostly Zspar Captains Varnish for years, but succumbed to the allure of a more maintanance free finish with Bristol Finish a few years ago. It has some of the problems you mentioned with Awl-brite. I'm maintaining it with Polyurethane Spar because they are chemically related and dries quickly. It looks OK, but I'm not recommending it.
I agree with your thoughts on machine screws. I have tapped threads in fiberglass for years just to hold screws so the nut can be put on by one person without a helper. I have not used it in place of sheetmetal screws, but may in the future. It's important to use the right size drill bit for maximum grip.
Bob
Dale,
I had purchased and finished four (4) teak spacer/trim rings thinking that they would be needed. However, after removing the existing ports, seeing the gap, and doing a little math, I decided that installing the 5/8 inch thick trim rings/spacers would shorten the over hang (exposed spigot) too much for me. I wanted at least an 1/2 of inch of the actual port spigot to extend past the outer SS ring for both functionality (proper drip rail) and appearance. Quick Math: 1/8 (liner) + 3/8 (gap) + 2/8 (coach roof) = 3/4 plus the 1/8" for the Stainless Steel trim ring, I was looking at 7/8 + 5/8 = 1 1/2"
Bummer what to do with the 4 nice finished ready for install teak spacers????
Garner