Cockpit Progress

This morning we sanded the cockpit seats. The sanding is really hard, dirty work. By 11:30 I looked like the Pig Pen character from Charlie Brown. The whole boat is a filthy mess even though we tried to keep it all closed up.

After lunch we started cutting the pieces for the floor and the helmsman seat. Tomorrow we hope to get those glued down. 

Cockpit Refurbishing

We have been working hard on the cockpit refurbishing for a week now and it's all starting to come together.

This morning we glued down the wood on the two stationary cockpit seats and the footwells, then went to the shop to sand the lazarette hatches.

By 3:00 pm we were back to the boat to install the hatches. The cockpit is looking really good now.

Tomorrow we will start the main floor and the helm seat, and fill the grooves on the areas we did today.

When the Captain said he wanted to replace all this teak, I wasn't really thrilled, but now that we are doing it, I think it was a great idea!

New Teak in the Cockpit

So you may have noticed that our teak in the cockpit looks quite worn. It is 23 years old and has probably been sanded several times.

The captain decided now would be the time to replace it; after all, we have the helm torn out and that doesn't happen very often. So he stripped out all the old teak and ordered custom milled pieces.

We have been fitting them onto the seats, floor, and lazarette hatches. We are duplicating the pattern from before with strips outlining each section, and parallel strips filling in the center.

We are using West Systems epoxy as shown on this website. We have actually done two of the hatches and are pleased with the results. Hopefully, we will have it all done by next weekend so we can re-install the helm.

This is how it looks after gluing the wood down. When it dries, the screws will be removed and more epoxy added to fill the cracks. Then after that dries, it will be sanded smooth, the edges will be cleaned up, and the wood will be oiled.

Removing the Helm

So now our cockpit looks like this. The helm has been entirely removed and is slated for renovation.

Here is a photo of the bottom of the cockpit floor where the helm was attached. The plywood backer was full of dry rot and the metal plate was severely rusted. Luckily, the rotten wood was easy to scrape off and the rot didn't get into the core.

Here's the pile of rotten wood. This will get thrown away. All the other parts will be cleaned, reinstalled, greased and re-adjusted.

The bottom of the cockpit floor now looks like this. Other than working deep down under the cockpit, this job went rather smoothly.

Dodger and Bimini

Here is the finished Dodger and Bimini. Combined with the rails around the aft end of the boat, the cockpit now has several sturdy hand holds and feels very secure.

The next project is to repair the rot under the helm. So now the cockpit looks like this:

Great fun, eh?

Bimini and Dodger Progress

We now have several stainless steel arches over our cockpit. Tomorrow patterns for the fabric will be made and the sewing will start. We chose Captains Navy for the color. The dark colors are much better at blocking the UV rays and last longer than the lighter colors.

At The Canvas Shop

We motored through the Delta yesterday afternoon to a place called Tower Park Marina. Tomorrow morning we go to the canvas shop's dock for a new Dodger and Bimini.

Meanwhile Back At The Condo

The azaleas are blooming and my first "Joseph's Coat" rose is about to open. My dad gave it to me from a cutting and I planted it last fall. Spring is really here.

Tired Old Windlass

The captain wanted to service the windlass so for two days we struggled to remove it. Apparently it was bedded with some impressive goop, because we had to cut it off with the Sawzall. It was all good fun wedged into the chain locker doing that.

Here is the pile of parts we ended up with:

After disassembling the windlass we discovered severe corrosion on some important thingie. (These photos were taken after the grease was removed and the corroded parts had been bead-blasted.)

Since the windlass is 23 years old, parts are no longer available. We had a machine shop quote making a new part, but that amounted to half the cost of a new windlass, so we ordered a new one.

The motor didn't look too good either, so it's a good thing we decided to replace the entire windlass.