Category Archives: Boat Work Projects

The New Math

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I’m so glad I took math in school back in the olden days. How fondly I remember using those simple flash cards to learn my math facts: 1+1=2, 2×2=4, 5X10=50. You remember. This was straight math. The kind that had rules that allowed you to understand how things worked. Like if you want to multiply a number by 10, just add a zero to the end! Like magic, it worked! All numbers divisible by 5 end in either a 5 or a 0. My god I loved it! I could get the right answer! Even quadratic equations were soothing; like a puzzle easily solved once you found the right combination of numbers. And geometry? Be still my heart! It was positively intuitive! Yes, I did pretty good at math back in the day.

So easy. So fun.

But then came the ‘new’ math. This modern and ‘improved’ version sucks big time. Nothing is straight forward, it’s all convoluted, and one begins to wonder if the rules of the universe are not, in fact, rules at all but just some crazy pronouncements thrown down by random gods just to see who can drive mere mortals crazy in the shortest amount of time.

You see where I’m going with this, don’t you? You, boat owner, know exactly what I’m referring to in this ‘new math’ paradigm. That’s right. It’s lists and boat jobs. I believe strongly that whoever came up with this new math crap owned a big old sailboat and was frustrated with getting boat jobs done, so they threw the new math out at students everywhere as punishment for their own suffering.

I’ve been thinking about the new math of boat jobs and trying to discern a rule that would make things more predictable and understandable. I mean, I’ve spent my life learning about the archetypes of human existence, which is basically a fancy education way of saying ‘recognizing the patterns of human experience’, which is another fancy way of saying ‘what people do and say all the time’. So why not turn that need for predictability to the simple boat job? I am, thus far, a failure in this area but I have a working formula in progress.

For the uninitiated, all boat jobs follow the Attention Deficit Disorder mindset, which is to say I should be used to it by now. You know the drill: one task inevitably leads to another which leads to a different room and by now you’ve forgotten what the first task was. The ADD mind is less a straight line and more like a cob type spider web. It makes random connections, but in the end it holds together. Somehow order is made from chaos, but the technique looks different each time. Truthfully, I like to be the one to allow my mind to meander hither and yon. I don’t like it imposed upon me by nameless boat gods.

This kind of web. Not the orb kind of web, which is orderly and predictable.

It’s like this. Say you are at home in HOUSE. Say you want to do a simple task, such as hang a curtain rod. You get your rod, you get your level. You get your tiny tools. You get one side attached to your wall, take your ladder to the other side, using your level you mark the spot to put the other end, secure it, and voila. Rod hung. It takes maybe 15 minutes after you gather all your tools. This is the old math, and if you think that boat jobs work like this, then you would fail the test.

In boat jobs there is always, 100% of the time, the concern that what appears to be a simple equation is, in fact, new math cleverly hidden. Your one job is not, actually, only one job. It’s actually two jobs, or even three or four jobs, depending on 1) how much you care about your boat 2) how willing you are to put things off until another day 3) your level of anxiety balanced with your rational thinking mind 4) how soon you want to cut the dock lines and get the hell out of this slip 5) how many other jobs are on your list, a number made more difficult by its variable nature. (We will rule out boat jobs that, should you fail to do them, would cause your boat to sink.)

Although this post is running a bit long, lets give an example here. God, I wish I had a chalkboard. I feel a teaching moment upon me.

Let’s take the simple task of trying out the emergency tiller, a long, heavy steel thing that weighs a ton and is meant to help steer the boat should our steering cable break. (Never mind that we will also have another way to steer the boat in that expensive Hydrovane that still hasn’t yet been installed due to the new math equations making installation unnecessarily complex.)  (Also never mind that the REASON we are trying the emergency tiller in place NOW is that Mike is already down in the lazarette running the wires to the new solar panels and so the cover plate to the hole for the tiller is there in front of him, giving him this additional job ‘while he’s at it’. )

The offending hole, tiller installed.

I go up to the storage unit and retrieve the unwieldy tiller. When I come back I go below and remove the cover plate down in the aft cabin. Mike has removed the cover plate up top. The tiller goes through this hole and sits on a post under the bed in the aft cabin. So far so good. But now is the tricky part. Watch out! We are about to enter ‘NEW MATH ZONE’. We have missed the cover plate as something that needs to be rebedded, which means water has intruded under the plate, which has led to some rotting of the wood core around the plate. Will we fix this now? Or will we fix this later? Let the rabbit hole of the new math begin.

Here is how our equation stands:

(A + B (C+1/2D) / E)+F = Whether you get to that rot now, or later.

A = amount of rot, a number between 1 and 10, where 10 is an area the size of Texas
B=number representing how much you care about your boat, 1-10, where 10 means your life could depend on her stoutness.
C=your willingness to be blind to the rot for awhile, 1-10 where 10 is complete denial.
D= your level of anxiety on a scale of 1-10, where 10 is jumping overboard with panic. We multiply this number by 1/2 because: rational thinking and to stay within the law of new math being ridiculously complex.
E=how many days you have left before you leave
F=how many other things are on the list, a variable and imaginary number because in the new math, 1+1 does not equal two, ever, and everyone knows that this is a list that is never completely checked off.

How it looks in the aft cabin.

Given the rules above:

(2+10(3+5/2)/52) + infinity = 1.26 + infinity = infinity

You can see that because the results will always equal ‘infinity’ you can just ignore that ‘infinity’ part as a given, and focus on the 1.26, a completely meaningless number which proves that this new math is a complete waste of time. And now we’ve procrastinated long enough, following this imaginary logic to its extreme. We’ve come to the end of our little game. Bottom line: will we fix this rot?

In our case it was sure serendipitous that I had just Saturday gone through, organized, and prepared for stowage all of our epoxy supplies. Mike took to removing the rot, but quickly gave it over to me as he realized he needed to complete his first task: wiring the solar.

In the end, that +infinity at the end of the equation means I’m dealing with the rot now because I actually have the time while we’re waiting for Mike to be finished working at Boeing. In spite of knowing that this problem has been there for a long time and it’s not going to sink our boat, I care too much about our boat to be able to let that sit. You see, there is nothing straight forward about the new math when it comes to boat jobs. I sure hope your school funding doesn’t count on your passing this kind of test.

Shhh. Please do not call attention to the screws holding that dorade cover in place. (That’s the white thing with a red hole in the middle) You might not see the screws in this photo, but I know you sailboaters know they are there. We already know, too. Oh yes. We do… and also the latches to the lazarette. We know ALLL the things that need checking. So. Many. Things.

I began digging out the rot, an oddly satisfying task. We put a heater under the hole, and today I’ll rig a tarp to keep the rain out. We’re going to dry it out as well as we can, and then I will get to work with all those epoxy supplies I so carefully packed away for the haul out. It’s not really a big job. It’s just added to all the other ‘not very big’ jobs that must be done at some point.

Our list of tasks is like a living organism, just like our list of things to purchase. Like a cranky and difficult to please god, we giveth to the list, and we taketh away from the list as time and funds require. It gives us some relief from concern that after the haulout, we will have a good few weeks to just sit around somewhere and casually do boat jobs however we want. There’s nothing more that I want to do in the whole wide world than sit at anchor somewhere and look for more small areas of water intrusion into our deck. Doesn’t that sound terrific? We actually think so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun With Finishes: Shabby to Chic

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Remember two years ago when I posted the first Fun with Finishes blog post? I was able to turn a fairly disgusting aft bathroom into a warm and inviting space by using the cheap trick of interior latex paint. That finish has remained perfect for over 2 years now. It has worn well, has been easy to clean, and has withstood a constant leak from the mizzen mast area above it for this entire winter. Really. There is nothing like an almost constant trickle of water sliding down the wall to a) call attention to the fact it’s time to get serious about fixing that leak and b) put your wall finish to the test. I’m pretty impressed.

This finish, still perfect after over 2 years.

So when we decided to redo our galley, that was a good time to take the 1974 fiberglass  interior under my wing and give it a facelift. Our interior fiberglass is what I like to call ‘almond ugly’. It’s like a color that isn’t sure what it wants to be. It makes no statement of its identity whatsoever.  It’s not really almond in color, but it’s not really cream either, or white, or even yellow. I don’t think they make this color in 2017. Whatever it is, it’s sad and tired and I am having none of it anymore. Turns out, it’s really easy to change!

If you have a boat that needs an interior facelift, let me save you a lot of time and money. Painting fiberglass is not nearly the difficult thing it sounds like. I started my education for his project in the Sherwin Williams store where I bought a ‘special’ kind of Extreme Bonding Primer that allows you to paint over slick surfaces, like glass even, without sanding ‘most clean surfaces’.

Now, let me go on record as saying that I never believe that kind of bull doggy. There is never a time that I would consider painting a slick surface without sanding. But I was sold on the primer for some reason. Twenty dollars later, I had a quart of stuff I didn’t need. But whatever. I just saved you from a special trip to the Sherwin Williams store.

Sanded and taped and ready to paint.

I started out using the bonding primer but I was actually kind of unimpressed and didn’t see the point. It was thin, and I couldn’t tell whether it was actually helping the paint adhere better than just painting with no primer. So I moved to using some Zinsser primer for all surfaces. Why? Because we already had it and I’ve used it before with good results. I liked the feel of it going on the fiberglass better. No real hard data there, just that it was more satisfying to brush on, had more body to it somehow. It gave better coverage. So I went with that.

As in all painting projects, preparation is the key and I did not skimp on the sanding part of the prep. I started with a fairly coarse grit and the electric sander, attached to our shopvac. I ended with wet sanding using a finer grit. I used 220 because it’s what I had. Works great. I recommend the wet sanding when you are working inside a boat. It keeps the dust down. After sanding, give everything a bit of a wipe down with acetone.

In addition to the sanding, our fiberglass had a number of small holes from screws from previous owners over the years. I filled those holes with epoxy putty; the kind that is like clay that you work with your fingers until it’s mixed. That works great for filling holes as long as you use a product that says you can sand it smooth. The key, I found, is to over fill the hole a bit, then when it is partially set, carefully use a razor blade flat against the fiberglass to cut the excess off the top. You won’t have much sanding to do after that.

Taping off is critical and I used the blue painter’s tape that allegedly gives you a good clean line. It actually did what it said it would. I got nice clean lines where I taped against unpainted fiberglass areas.  I taped off everything because I didn’t want to have to remove all the trim. Most of it is screwed and glued and is a pain to take off. The tape was sufficient.

After sanding, taping, and priming, I was ready for the fun part.

Salon in ‘Rice Paddy’ green.

The green against the grey.

For color, I wanted bright and cheerful without being overbearing. Taking note of colors in our salon and on our new formica, I chose a cool, pale “Nantucket Grey” (by Dutch Boy) for the galley and navigation area. For the salon, I chose “Rice Paddy” (Sherwin Williams) a springy green color. In the sleeping cabins I went for soothing “Watery” (Sherwin Williams), a gentle cool blue. Aside: How can I get a job naming paint colors?

After priming, the painting is a no-brainer. I used at least three coats everywhere. After the paint had dried for several days, I put on the final finishing coat. This is what I believe helps this finish stand up over time. I know that without this last step, my bathroom wall would never had stood up to the continual drip drip rivulet of water from the leak under our mast. (Getting repaired at haulout in June.)

At this point, you’ll be chomping at the bit to pull the tape off your project. But beware, my padawan!! Beware! Don’t just go ripping off the tape. Your paint has now dried over the edges in some places. If you do not want to risk messing up the paint job, you’ll use a razor blade to cut through the layers of paint along the edge of that tape.

Aft cabin in ‘Watery’ blue.

Now here’s a kick in the pants for you: you can save even more money and time by skipping the primer altogether if you do a good sanding job. How do I know this? Because I accidentally skipped it in the salon in one area. The paint was going on smoothly and grabbing the fiberglass just fine. I didn’t realize I had forgotten the primer until I had finished two coats. At that point, I wasn’t going to sand that paint off. So I left it. A couple of weeks later, can’t tell the difference. Unless it suddenly starts peeling off great swathes of paint, I’m going to say you can skip the primer if you are thorough in sanding.

The final finish is a coat or two of Minwax Spar Urethane Indoor/Outdoor Clear Gloss Varnish. It needs to be the kind the dries clear, not amber, unless the amber works for you. I needed it to be clear, so I had the paint department at the local hardware store open the container so I could check. And, of course, I chose gloss but you could go with satin. The point is that this puts a hard protective coating over your paint. It’s another layer of protection in a tough environment.

Galley in ‘Nantucket Grey’. You can see the ‘almond ugly’ in Mike’s shop. I haven’t decided if I will do his shop, but i probably will extend the grey into that area.

Because the spaces are so small, this project turned out to be much easier and less time consuming than I feared. Cheap, easy, and pleasing to the eye. This project is a definite win.

 

A Finished Galley, By Golly!

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There is light at the end of our Galley/Navigation Station remodel tunnel. We’d say we are nearing the end of this refit, but really, does anyone ever finish a refit? There is always something left to do.

The original look. That fiberglass is almond.

It’s taken about 3 weeks longer than we thought and cost about double what we hoped. Fortunately this is not our first rodeo, as they say, when it comes to remodeling houses or boats. We know that fast, inexpensive remodels, especially when you involve outside labor, are the things of dreams. So we aren’t surprised. We take these things in stride (after I freak out a little bit). And in the end, it’s all worth the time, effort, and money. We are as finished as we need to be for this post to go out.

Here’s a list of what we accomplished:

  1. The navigation desk, while an awesome flat space upon which to work, had storage that was accessible only through lifting the desktop. This was a major annoyance, just like that old workshop top used to be. We wanted to have a drawer created so we could access storage without disturbing everything on top of the desk. We wanted to keep the ability to lift the top as well.

    We retained the ability to lift the lid as there is extra storage under there we didn’t want to waste. We added an inexpensive LED light from Costco to the lid to help light the space. Notice the barrel lock on the end of the lid. That keeps the lid from bouncing up and down while underway. The drawer remains firmly tucked behind the sea rail trim.

    The most expensive drawer ever. But worth it.

  2. In the galley, we were unhappy with how our fridge/freezer combination was performing. Both of us got frustrated trying to get things from the refrigerator and keeping things like produce from freezing. On paper, our system should have worked. But translated into the physical world, it didn’t. We added a small Engel freezer and remodeled a cabinet to the left of the navigation desk to hold it.

    This freezer is excellent. Only wish it were larger. It is secured against movement underway and we plan to put fan in the cabinet for more air circulation in hot climates. We will also wedge foam insulation on each side, just because.

  3. Our double sink was from 1974, when the boat was built. We both kind of hated it. The sinks were shallow, and one side was always used for the dishrack. We wanted an extra deep, larger sink. In addition to being a ‘want’, changing the sink was a ‘need’ because the drains were just about ready to give. Indeed, when Mike removed the sink, the drains broke off in his hand. We knew that was coming. The sheer magnitude of the amount of silicone that had been used to extend the life of that sink was astounding.After recovering from our shock over the bid we got to have a sink made for the space (just say NO to $2500 sinks) I found this excellent sink on Amazon for less than 100$. It’s a beauty and I’m very happy with it. This also gave us a little more countertop space to the right, so that’s a win. This sink is technically an under mount sink, but we have trouble following rules. At 21″ x 15.75″ x 9″ it’s also larger than it looks in the photo.

    Don’t tell anyone but this is actually a laundry sink. That’s where you’ll find the deeper sinks. In the laundry section.

  4. The drawer unit to the right of the sink gave me fits. Sure, drawers are very secure underway and blah, blah, blah. These long, skinny drawers were also a pain in the #ss when it came to finding what I wanted. I avoided opening them. In that area they were also a huge waste of space. I wanted to remove the door unit and put in deep shelves. We now have room for the crockpot (yes, it’s going with us) and the saucepans as well as all the utensils and kitchen gadgets.

    I still have trim work to do on this cabinet, obviously. And a cabinet door to have made. You can see the lovely new grey color of the fiberglass in this photo.

  5. The formica was delaminating in many areas of the galley. It was also just plain old ugly. I can live with ugly for the most part, if it’s neutral, but it doesn’t make me very happy, and the whole counter had to be replaced in order to put in a new sink. So, new formica. (Ok, no, I don’t do well with living with ‘ugly’. That was a bold faced lie. But I try not to be a princess about it. Yeah, that’s a lie, too.) After bringing home literally hundreds of samples, we decided on a Greek Key pattern in pale grey and creamy white. Galapagos was pleased since she is built in Greece. This was ‘special’, more expensive Formica, but the word ‘expensive’ used here means still less than 200$ for the entire job with enough extra material that we can use it a number of other places. And it’s so much heavier than the cheap stuff I got for the bulkheads at Home Depot for about 45$ for a 4×8 sheet. That stuff is flimsy and would never last on a counter top. This stuff will still be going when we are dead.

    Close up of new Formica.

  6. The deep cabinet to the left of the sink opened in such a way that it took up almost all of the bulkhead space, which otherwise could be used for storage. I wanted to create a different kind of opening that would maximize the amount of bulkhead available and increase our options for storing dishes.

    Not sure yet how we will use the extra space. We’d like to be able to store dishes and flatware that we use all the time.

  7. We had three faucets in the galley, all of them unsightly and close to end of life. We had the regular faucet, a drinking water faucet that was hooked up to an ancient water filtration system, and the salt water faucet which did not work. We wanted an updated faucet for general work and a salt water faucet with a hand pump. I wanted the ability to rinse out the sink and fill pots and kettles with water easily. We chose this faucet from Delta because it fit the space, had the features we wanted, and a finish that wouldn’t show fingerprints. We love being able to rinse the sink out easily. 
  8. All the water lines in the boat looked original from 1974. You see where I’m going with that. Once you’re into the replacing of things like faucets, you don’t want to be hooking them up to old, tired waterlines. Mike used Pex fittings to replace all the waterlines and I’ll let him tell you all about that in another post.
  9. Kind of related to all this was Mike’s desire to get the old  hot water heater out of his engine room and have a unit that could use the engine to heat water. That way we can have hot water at anchor. We bought a new Isotemp Spa 15 unit from Sure Marine at the boat show. Mike will talk that water heater up in his post.
  10. Galapagos was built at a time when that almond colored fiberglass was all the rage. Now it’s all the tired and homely. Plus, over the years it’s been scuffed, people have put various holes in it, and in general, well, if a boat is going to have new countertops, new sink and faucets, a new freezer, and even a new knife rack, then she deserves a new coat of paint as well. I’ll do a post about how to accomplish this fine thing of painting fiberglass later. But it’s part of the overall picture. Galapagos now sports new pale grey fiberglass that matches the grey Greek Keys in her fine new countertops. She’s pretty spiffy looking, all dressed up and ready to go.

So what’s left to do? That cabinet door, for one thing. And we still need to get the sea water pump. Mike thinks he has located a small, inconspicuous unit. But there is also some finish carpentry left.  I’m not happy with the sea rails on the nav station. Since we changed the size of the cabinet door where the freezer is stored the original trim didn’t fit. We’ll be on the lookout for a better piece we can use, and a rounded corner. Meanwhile, I have a little sanding and touching up to do to what’s there. But, I mean, what else am I going to do with my time?