Another Day of Clean Up...

Today we got a bunch more of the yard cleaned up ready for our "Open Boat".  Huge thanks to Bill S. for doing most of the sweeping and gathering and To Ted C. for loaning me one of his tractors again...

Brian came today too to finish the exhaust system for the genset.  He has done an AWESOME job!

Gary K. is a plumber and for the last few years he has been saving me any lead pipe that he has taken out at a plumbing job...  Today I made a little over 100 lbs of dive weights...The price was right!  I also made a lead weight for the end of a high gauge wire that I will be attaching to a shroud when lightning is in the area... this will guide the strike overboard hopefully limiting the damage if it helps...

The last job today was to install an overflow for the coolant on the engine...  I bought it at a local wreckers for $5.00 and romoved it from an old Honda...  I should work great!

It's Cleanup Time....

Over the last few days after work I have been adding a second coat of Kiwi Grip non-skid. This is the same material that we finished the deck with last summer. The trouble is with all the work done over the last year, the deck was looking pretty beat up... So rather than try to scrub and touch up, I just added a second coat... It is looking much better.

Yesterday, a friend who is a marine surveyor (Leo) came up from Hamilton to officially "survey" the boat.  With this survey we can establish an "agreed value" with our insurance company...  Blowin Bubbles can now be described as an "almost new" 30 year old boat.  In a few days we will get a copy of his report and know what we are going to insure her for.

This coming Monday we will be having a barbecue to say thank you to all the folks who have helped us in one way or another over the last 18 months. Today after work I borrowed my neighbor, Ted's front end loader tractor and cleaned up most of the scrap and garbage that I have accumulated since we started. The mess was loaded into a bin kindly lent to us from a family in our church who own a bin rental company...

The yard is starting to look a little better.....



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Anchors Away!

Well to put it more accurately, The anchors are put away... Today I got the anchor rodes re-attached to the anchors and all that stuff put back on the boat... The main anchor now has 400 feet of chain and the secondary anchor has 30 feet of chain and 150 feet of rope. There is also a Danforth stern anchor stored in the lazerette with 20 feet of chain and 100 feet of rope. All of this should keep us where we want to stay....
Shelley was out today and got her galley cleaned and much of the kitchen stuff put back on the boat...

I also took a few pictures of the storm track on the main mast.  I also got the new tabs sewn on to the actual storm sail today...  all is going well...



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The List Is Getting Shorter...

After work today I got the storm track attached to the main mast... While I was working I discovered that some wasps made a home in the spreaders.... Luckily Shelley came by with some wasp killer spray... Well folks, it kinda works and kinda doesn't.... if you acquire a direct hit... death is immanent... however, if your aim is off then you just make them mad.....

I finally got the propane system hooked up... It should now be safe and work well...


I also got the exhaust fan installed in the galley.... The last thing thing I did at the boat today was to install our special hula lady... when the waves are up she hula dances.... How cool is that???


Tonight at home I got started on the dinghy... I added a small bilge pump with an internal float switch that will keep the dinghy bailed out 24/7. I also installed the navigation lights and a new motorcycle battery and a small solar panel to keep it charged....






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Back to Work Today....

After a great month of holidays, I am officially back to work this week.... That said, I do plan to take advantage of what good weather we have left to get the last few jobs done....


Today I stopped by the boat to make sure the new zincs fit the propeller... All is good... I also realized that more work is needed on the propane solenoid switch... After dinner tonight I got that all done... tomorrow I will re-install on the boat and see what happens...

I also stopped by a scrap dealer and bought 20lbs of zinc for $20. Then I melted the scrap and cast a bunch of spare zincs... Why you ask? the ones I just bought were $35 each.... I can make them for about $2 each and about an hours effort.... hmmm... for a piece of sacrifice metal, what should I do???

I have been casting scuba weights for years so I have all the equipment I need to make them and I used one of the new ones the make a mould in some sand.... It seemed to work great... All I need to do now is drill them out and tap them so they can screw on the prop....

I am also working on the dinghy at home. I am installing navigation lights and a bilge pump to be powered by a motorcycle battery that will be kept charged with a solar trickle charger panel...

Today Scott from Inland Liferafts sent us a picture of our liferaft while he has it inflated... pretty cool! We just hope we NEVER have to use it....



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Adding The Cushions... Yipee!

You know that you are almost done when you put the interior cushions back in and replace books that have been in storage for two years...






On Sunday I also calked around the whole boat between the teak tow-rail and the hull... This should keep everything dry and happy in rough seas...

Today I picked up he storm sail track, a replacement solenoid for the propane system and a few other odds and ends at the mailbox... I am back to work this week so I will be finishing up the list of last things over the next month or so....

Also, it is official, we are having an open house (boat) on Labour Day (Monday, September 3rd) from noon till 4pm... Anyone who wants to see how things turned out are welcome to email us and let us know that you are coming by... We will have some hotdogs, hamburgs and beverages....Cheers...


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You Might Not Believe This....

You might not believe this, but we are almost DONE!!!!  Well done all we can do until we get the boat back to the lake.  When we truck the boat back to Lake Ontario next spring we have about 3 weeks work to do getting stanchions, masts, the arch etc. all re-installed....

That said, today brother Bob (an awesome graphic designer), applied all the graphics to the boat...  In about 3 hours he made the boat go from plain to AMAZING!!!!  Let the pictures speak for themselves...

Bob decided he could hold up the front of the boat....

I spent 12 hours at the boat today, but I can happily report that the interior is now clean and ready for me to re-install the cushions (that will happen tomorrow - my last day of holidays).  My first job today was to get the high pressure pump re-installed on the engine and I cleaned up the engine room and touched up the paint on the engine....

Then I cleaned and vacuumed the whole boat... I will take pictures tomorrow.  The other job was to sand the epoxy for the storm sail track that I will pick up at our mailbox on Monday.

The other job that needs to be done soon is to clean the incredibly messy yard!  I will get a trash bin and borrow a tractor and get the trailer cleaned out....

More pictures soon....

The Jobs Are Getting Done....

Today saw a bunch of stuff getting done.... My father in law and I got started by getting the chain plates (tangs) installed...  They are strong enough to stop a tank....

We also got a few carpentry jobs completed and ran the wires we will need to install the AIS system....

The best news today was the Ashley (my other welder) came by and installed the bracket that holds the compressor for the watermaker system....  This was a HUGE job taken care of.... I will be finding the right size v belt and we will be all set to go....

At the end of the day I stopped at my brother in laws office to pick up the vinyl for our transom lettering.  He is coming to the boat on Saturday to install all the graphics.... It is going to look SO cool...

A great day... I got home before dark!

Another Long Day ~ But LOTS Done.....

It really was another log day, but we are getting pretty close to being done.....
I got started early this morning by picking up the bolts that I will need to attach the aft chainplates (tangs) for the series drogue at Fastenal... $27 AFTER my discount for 14 stainless steel bolts... Yikes!

When I got to the boat I got the first coat of bottom paint on... It looks GREAT! The second coat will be put on just before we launch next spring.... We were told by the paint company that 2 coats would take 3 gallons ($744.00)... We have 1 3/4 gallons left which means the estimate is close enough that we won't have to buy any more paint to finish.....





About 2pm a squall came through and dumped a ton of rain in a very short time... While it was raining I worked in the lazarette repairing the manual bilge pump... As I was in the lazarette with the hatches down and the rain was falling it started to pour in... the scubbards (drains) around the hatches have a 1" hose leading to a "T" fitting then out the transom... This arrangement is obviously not going to work so I will replace the through hull with a bigger one.... Good thing i was in the lazarette in a rainstorm... who knew.... Oh, by the way, the manual bilge pump works great now....


Late in the afternoon, Brian (one of my welding guys) called to say he would come by after supper to weld the anchor roller. I went across the road to the restaurant for supper then came back and we did all the work of the anchor roller system... the old system had both anchors right beside each other in the rollers making it impossible for them both to be in the rollers at the same time... They kept getting tangled up.... The new system puts the secondary anchor forward of the primary so that when the primary is deployed it won't interfere with the secondary... (the pictures show this more clearly)...

Notice the tractor.... pretty smart hmm?



The last job done today was to grind out and re-epoxy a few blisters on the foredeck... there was no moisture in the blisters, but they still needed to be looked after.... After everything else is done I will powerwash the deck and touch up these spots with Kiwi-Grip....


I will be back at work next week.... I can REALLY use the rest.... Goodnight...

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