By C45Sanctuary on 2/12/2008 1:32 PM

A bunch of minor projects were tackled during the evenings as well as the few hours while waiting for paint to dry.

The ship's clock, which had been perpetually fixated at 1:44, was removed from the aft bulkhead in the salon.  The AA battery was replaced with a rechargeable, the time was set, and then the clock was mounted back to the aft bulkhead.  The two stainless steel screws actually protrude through the bulkhead to the cockpit, where each is capped by a rounded bubble-shaped nut.

The aft-most window in the salon area had a perpetual leak.  It wouldn't have been noticible, except for the fact that the water runoff from the topside deck is channeled to pass over the window through an intentional gap in the gunnel.  It doesn't need to rain for water runoff to occur; natural condensate occurring most mornings will cause water to flow over this window.  To fix this problem the window pane was removed, the surfaces were cleaned, and new marine caulking was applied.  I used small plastic feet, like the kind used on the bottom of small desktop knick-knacks, to enforce a standard gap for the caulking to create a uniform seal.

The entire hull was washed the first evening of my visit.  The transom received a thorough scrubbing to remove previous markings on the fantail.  The starboard half of the cockpit, all the way from forward to aft, was scrubbed to remove accumulated gunk.  The most difficult stuff to remove was the painters tape that previously held a for-sale sign.

I also repaired all of the screen nets that snap over the various deck openings from inside.  Corrosion had done a number on several metal snaps.  There wasn't a single net that was completely functional.  I used a wire brush on the snap parts that are permanently screwed into the fiberglass.  Only one of those needed to be replaced.  The real issue was with the snaps that were attached to the mesh screens themselves.  It only took a few hours to repair everything using inexpensive replacement parts from the Wal-Mart fabric department.  Now, I can leave the portals open without fending off swarms of mosquitos.

By C45Sanctuary on 2/12/2008 12:00 AM

Not much remains unfinished on the hull repair project.  After this task is finished the next step will be to apply a new coat of antifouling paint.  Since applying antifouling paint will be one of the last tasks done before re-launching Sanctuary, that task probably won't happen for at least a few more months, and possibly longer than that.

All of the repaired areas received one final layer of primer.  Additionally, the port side of the rudder received a full coat of primer.  This task complete, I packed up the truck, stowed a few tools aboard Sanctuary, then headed out.

By C45Sanctuary on 2/11/2008 12:00 AM

The putty hardened solid overnight.  Instructions on the Interlux canister indicated that there might be an oily residue on the surface after hardening.  I didn't see any indication of this, possibly because none of the repairs were of significant size.  The largest repair was only a quarter of an inch deep and maybe four inches in length.  After sanding all of the repaird surfaces with 60-grit, a new coat of Interlux underwater metal primer was applied.  This was allowed to dry for three hours before another coat of primer was applied.

By C45Sanctuary on 2/10/2008 12:00 AM

The JASCO that was applied yesterday worked pretty well.  I couldn't find any rust-colored areas anywhere on the keel, nor on the recently exposed steel frame within the rudder.  All of those areas were now a dark grey, almost black, and completely free of rust corrosion.

It took about an hour and a half to apply Interlux underwater metal primer to all of the exposed metal.  The primer, thick almost to the viscosity of pancake syrup, also dried pretty quickly.  The instructions specified it would be dry to the touch within an hour and ready for the next coat within three hours.

Instead of adding a second coat of primer, the next step was to apply underwater putty, that is shipped as a single Interlux product as two separate 500ml canisters.  One canister is a white putty and the other is a medium blue, vaguely resembling Play-Doh.  Individually the canister contents would remain the consistency of mashed potatoes.  Combined in equal parts, however, the result would dry to a brick-like hardness.  After mixing I would only have about ten minutes to apply the compound before it began to set.  Also, since the filler was fairly expensive (about $30 for a liter), I didn't want to mix more than I would use.  Two small batches later, all of the surface repairs were filled.

By C45Sanctuary on 2/9/2008 12:00 AM

I couldn't sleep last night so I packed up the truck and headed south.  Six hours later, around 5:30am, I arrived at Sanctuary.  The shipyard was, of course, closed.  I just parked as close to the fence as I could, used my truck as a ladder, and hopped over.  I was finally a bit tired so I took a nap until about 10am.

It took most of the day to finish removing the black antifouling paint from the starboard side.  About 35 feet of the starboard side, from the waterline to the keel, had been untouched until today.  The tool combination of the DeWalt random orbital sander and the shop vac worked extremely well.  It only took a moment at the galley sink to get clean.  Compare that to the very first day of the paint removal project, back in January, where I looked like a coal miner emerging from a 12 hour shift.

I used a deck grinder to prep all areas on the keel with exposed metal.  After that was done, the crack on the port side of the rudder was explored down to the bare metal.  There was a nominal amount of surface rust on the steel support frame embedded within the rudder, but nothing resembling flaking or corrosion.  The deck grinder worked so well for this task that it only took about an hour to finish this task.

The next task entailed preparing all exposed metal with "Ospho" to chemically change any remaining surface rust (iron oxide) back into solid steel in the form of iron phosphate.  I couldn't find any brand-name "Ospho" anywhere, but I did find a similar product at Lowes from a manufacturer called JASCO.  It was basically the same thing as Ospho with a few added chemicals in minor concentrations. The instructions on the JASCO stated the best results would require a twelve hour wait before continuing to the next step.  It was getting dark when the last bit of "Ospho" was being applied so that worked out pretty well.