Blooming Ideas

Ideas are popping out of my noggin' every single time I think about my boat, and constantly when I'm on her! So far I've decided that my pilot house will be made from 10 gauge mild steel, all windows out of 3/8" Lexan polycarbonate (adhesive mechanical bonding, no bolts), front and top opening windows (waiting for boater's swap meet...Lewmar Ocean's?), and hopefully a SS dogged dutch door companionway hatch with upper window and gas-shock lifted hatch cover. For steering, I'd like to get another complete Autohelm ST4000 linear drive as a backup, and install a cockpit remote control. I plan to remove my old and rotting SS lifeline poles and replace them with beefy re-enforced steel poles and a turbo-strong stern pulpit with intergrated solar panel/accessory/solar-shower rack. I'm currently in throws of how I'll build a spinnaker sprit for the boat, as there are so many different ideas I could use, but I'm sure I'll settle down at some point. An ATN spinnaker sock is something I adore, as we had one on Augusta when I grew up and I am convinced of their superiority to other socks built with SS rod rings - so I'll either build one (I've been yearning to play with fiberglass for awhile now) myself or modify the one that my dad is getting rid of (he's having a Code 0 built and installing a furler - sweet!) to fit my boat. I've worked a dozen different methods of how I'll run lines to the cockpit with my new pilothouse, and shy of a 2-speed self-tailing mast-mounted winch, I've already got most of the components to make it totally sweet. The only running-rigging issue left is how to run boom-gibe preventers...

I've also settled on a coating system for the interior, using Rodda CorroSeal rust converter/primer as a base, MasCoat Delta T (a latex/acrilic-bound ceramic micro-bubble spray-on insulation), topped with Pettit White EasyPoxy. Then I plan to use HDPE or (insert a better stud material that doesn't absorb moisture here) as stud material and other plastic products to re-make my interior, as I really hate wood (for cleaning sake, odor, and maintenance. My cockpit will get a hatch or two installed on the starboard side to access my lazerette space, and the aft lazerette hatch will be cut out and modified to span double the current width and half (or more) of the current height. Interior wise I'm still figuring out how and where I'm going to install refrigeration and a hot water heater, but I'm sure that will become more clear once I have in interior yanked out. Speaking of which, the floorboard material has yet to be determined, but my end goal is to have easy access to nearly every inch of the bilge, and slightly harder access (but not terribily difficult) to EVERY square inch of the boat. I need to be able to inspect everything, and building on top of bolted-down floorboard was not a nice thing for the last installer to do. Tisk tisk. Electronics are still quite a way down the road, but a Furno 1715 radar is in the books, along with solar chargers, 2nd exterior VHF station, dual interior/exterior engine controls, engine-powered cabin heater and ducting, Isotemp SS hot water heater, a second hard-mount GPS, and potentially a SSB (or at least a receiver for weather faxes, etc). I'd love to get a weather station, but they're really freaking expensive it seems like, so I'll have to keep an eye out for one of those.

In other boat news, I pulled out all my sails yesterday and found that I have: a new "storm tri" sail for my main, a storm sail for my inner-forestay, a bigger sail for my inner-forestay, a BIGGER sail for nothing on my boat, and a rather dinky symetrical spinnaker that is in pretty darn good shape. I also have a good++ condition 120-something% genoa on a roller furler, and an old main with odly-placed reefing lines. It was fun to put them up, but I have yet to pull up the "bigger" inner-forestay sail: that is for the next trip out (gotten have a bonus to look forward to!).

The engine of my dreams has yet to present itself to me, (a lightly-used Yanmar, Beta, Westerbeke, or Universal 3-cylinder fresh-water cooled inboard diesel with a V-drive, for less than $5k), but I'm not giving up hope just yet. I'll give up as soon as the pilothouse and interior are finished up, but then I'm only left with the Beta 28 option at over $10k installed...ouch.

Lastly, I need a skiff and outboard. I like the Merc Airdeck idea, in that I can have a semi-ridgid hull but be able to pack it away in a bag when needed. However, that is still a big-ass, heavy bag, and perhaps it would just be nice to have an Aquapro and complain about lack of deckspace while underway? Oh, but don't forget I'll probably be dragging along an inflatable kayak for solo trips, so that's there too. Outboard would ideally be a 5-9.9hp 4-stroke Yamaha or Honda, but I'm really unbiased on outboards at this point, so go ahead and give me a Nissan/Tohatsu or Suzuki, just no Merc's.

Alright, I've got to get back to work (I just bought a new 6-piece DeWalt 18V cordless tool kit) and fix an exhaust leak on my 4Runner and rebuild my Aries windvane.

Cheers,

Danny

PS - I want to run double anchors up front, with a dual-gypsy Lighthouse 1501DWG 12windlass...the problem is that the system I would cost me $7713.28 shipped! OUCH! See the picture, and drooooool!

Sailing, sailing, over the....lake?

YES! This last weekend was great! Working backwards from yesterday (Sunday), Aimee and I completed our Open Water Driver Certification course through Seattle Scuba after two freezing (47-degree) dives near the Duwamish waterway (yuck), we had a afternoon sail on Rafiki in which we flew the spinnaker for the first time, broke the boat's water-speed record (now at 4.6 screaming knots), and I observed Lake Union from aloft for the first time. On Friday I worked like a mad-man on my 4Runner and got a working stereo going (although not the final turbo version) and did other maintenance work on my long-term beast of a SUV... In other news, I'm not going down to Mexico until mid to late April, which was a bummer at first, but then I realized how much time I'd have to enjoy life at home - and now I'm quite stoked for my additional time off! : )

But back to the boat. I've started gutting the interior, and so far I've removed all the V-birth insulation and framework, removed half of the integrated (EVIL) floorboards, sold the old Sabb diesel engine, removed the poorly-designed dodger, thrown away the nasty (and trickster) toilet/head (it tried to sink Rafiki, but failed), pulled out the entire overhead (I'm planning on making a pilothouse addition this summer/fall), and removed just about everything that isn't essential for: A). Floating, and B). Going. With emphasis on the last one. My friend Christian is a firm believer in "Go" and loaned me an electric outboard motor, which is the only reason I'm able to take my dear boat out sailing on a whim; granted, a whim with only 40lbs of thrust. But a little push is all it takes, and without the wonder that is Minn-Kota, I'd have yet another potentially daunting and depressing project clawing at my soul. But such is not the case! I'm on the prowl for 25-30hp 3-cylinder inboard diesel engines with low hours and optimally with a V-drive transmission, but if late fall rolls around and I find myself wanting, I'll deflate my summer savings and do my part to stimulate the economy via Yanmar or Beta Diesel. I also fixed one of my FOUR! self-tailing winches that the boat came equipped with (in fact, those are all the winches I have!) that had been seized by salt-intrusion and corrosion (although not fatal). My plans for this boat occupy most of my free thoughts and many hours googling, CLing, and scouting local shops for all the tid-bits that will bring this beast of a boat to a happy state. I have a "Boater's Swap Meet List" that is nearly a page (typed) long, and I'm already making pre-swap stratagies in my head. I'm obsessed. And I'm living o-so-well.

Anywho, enough gushing - it's time to get crackin'!

Cheers,

Danny