Category Archives: Cheap Tricks

We’re Saving Money, Of Course

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“I don’t want this to be a forced march.” These are the words Mike uses to describe having to hurry up to get someplace on a schedule. A forced march. Must be his fond memories of basic training in the Air Force or something, but anyway, it’s his way of saying that he likes to have a leisurely and relaxed Saturday morning rather than getting out the door early. Thus it was already after lunch when we pulled into the boatyard down in Astoria. That gave us only 24 hours or so to spend working on the boat so it was crucial that we spend our time well; that we maximize our efforts; that we work as a finely oiled machine. So naturally, ever focused on the goals at hand,  I was scanning the area around Andromeda for treasure.

“Oh, too bad.”, I said. “Someone took those cool pieces of industrial art I found last time I was here.”  Since I hadn’t been to Astoria since before Christmas, it didn’t surprise me that the items in question were missing. I mean had we been in Tacoma they would have lasted maybe 24 hours before someone saw them for the funky decorative items they are. “Oh, well.”

Remember these?

As I uttered those words, Mike got a very strange look on his face. “Oh, darn it!”, he said. Now, Mike doesn’t usually care much about my garden art tenancies, and he really doesn’t care much about making stuff out of found objects. I’m the one who is prone to dumpster diving.  So I was confused by his downcast face. Could it be that he, too, had been harboring regret that I hadn’t picked those up when I first saw them? Would the future see us diving dumpsters together? Be still, my heart!

“I took them for you. They are at home. I was going to put them under the Christmas tree for you. Darn it all, I forgot. The thru hull looks cool like it is, but the other thing; I was going to do some work on it first”.  This is where being married for 31 years comes in mighty handy. I mean, how many women would have been thrilled to have garbage underneath the Christmas tree? And how many men would have thought to put it there? And STILL REMAIN MARRIED, I mean. Love is a wonderful thing.

I can see where Mike was going with the whole idea of ‘found objets d’art’ as gifts. It would certainly save money during the holidays. Money that we need to buy things like this:

Engine room insulation by Sound Down. $$$$$ You get what you pay for.

Oh yes, this weekend we began the Great Insulating of the Engine Room. So clean. So white. So pristine against that red engine! Talk about industrial art! We drove down to Astoria with three boxes of this stuff in the back of the truck, hoping we would have enough to finish the job. As usual, time became the limiting factor.

We had two jobs to accomplish this weekend: clean the tape and adhesive off of the cockpit floor so that when it is sealed we can make it water tight again, and get as much done as possible with the sheets of insulation.

The cockpit floor was a mess. There was duct tape covering the holes on the top, and the mastic used to create a seal underneath it all had to be removed. What’s the best way to remove old tape and old adhesive? Elbow grease and scrapers, and an assortment of cancer causing chemicals like spray adhesive remover, goof off, acetone and WD-40. I used them all on the duct tape, which absolutely did not want to come off, even though I spoke sternly to it, admonishing it in the most vociferous way. You can see that the entire floor needs to be refinished, so that is on our list for warm weather; that long, long list.

Very ugly. I got the stuff off, but there is no way this cockpit floor will ever look good. It needs redoing just to help keep it clean.

While Mike puttered around in his little engine room exchanging old bolts for new, admiring his rails, and generally basking in the new-engine gleam, I scraped and cursed, and scraped some more, then cleaned it all with acetone and called it good. By that time, the sun was going down, so out came the halogen work light. No time to waste just because daylight is over.

The floor to the cockpit is about the size of a baby Orca and weighs about as much. We hope we will never have to lift it off again. (I said we ‘hope’!)  Let’s just say that there was a collective sigh of relief between us when we had it lifted, turned, and turned over and in place without either of us falling into the engine room, and without dropping it. Mike stood in the engine room and scraped and sanded the rim and I sat in the cockpit and scraped and cleaned the channel in the top. The stuff that had been used was a little soft and we thought it might actually be plumber’s wax.  Several hours of this activity and 8 ibuprofen between us saw the thing as clean as it will get.

Mike works below, while I work above. Our engine is covered with a blue tarp to protect it from dust and little pieces of old adhesive. 

So now we are at a decision point on this floor. In the photo below you can see that there is a hole drilled about every 4 inches. That’s a lot of holes, and some of the matching holes below look like they’ve seen better days. My gut feeling is that all these holes need filling with epoxy and new holes drilled. And we’ve discussed that neither of us sees the reason why there need to be so many of these holes in the first place. First of all, this ‘lid’ isn’t going anywhere unless the boat turns over. And even so, it could be held in place with a lot fewer holes than are currently present. Mike says there are that many in case the engine flies off the rails while we are upside down. Right. So unlikely it hardly bears considering, especially as it is so securely bolted down and Mike will be coddling it personally for years to come. No way are any of those bolts ever going to come loose on his watch. So we’re looking at how we can secure this thing with the least number of holes. Chime in with your opinions.

This cockpit floor wins the award for the sheer number of holes drilled into it. Why? Is this necessary?

Today we determined we would work hard at the insulation job. Mike set out his cutting area and I set up an area in the salon where I could tape the edges. This Sound Down system is really nice. While the cutting requires some muscle, the tape really makes a nice finished edge.

What it looks like on the back.

The first completed panel fits snugly in the space on the door.

We were so excited to get started because it meant we could rehang those engine room doors that have been in the way since November. Rather than use the hangers made to be used with this stuff, we decided that we would try this very strong double sided carpet tape that we ordered through Home Depot. While it probably wouldn’t be the best thing to use for large pieces, the doors are small enough that we thought it was worth trying.

Double sided carpet tape. Cheap and effective.

We bought this stuff to lay carpet tiles in our office at home and were very impressed with how strong it was and how easy to use. It went down easy on this door and so far it seems to be holding the insulation panel just fine. Time will tell.

We’ll finish this door with small pieces around the window next time.

In the future we may need to be able to remove the panels from the walls in the engine room so we are using the interesting attachment system, called Insul-Hangers (get it?) provided by Sound Down. This system will allow us to remove the panels without damaging them. The system consists of outward facing nails attached to a metal mesh. These are glued onto the walls. Once the glue has set, which takes at least 24 hours, you push the panels onto the nails and cap them off with some nifty little caps. This weekend we got all the panels cut and taped, and glued the nails to the wall. Next weekend, we will finish it up.

In this fabulous photo, Mike is scooping Tuff Bond glue onto the Insul-Hangers and sticking them on the wall. Notice hole right above his hand.

It might look like peanut butter, but it’s definitely NOT.

As is always the case, one thing leads to the other. While the lid was off the engine room, I asked Mike to take out one of the cockpit drains. It was different than all the others and it was not flush with the cockpit floor; it is too tall. This causes debris and water to collect in that corner of the cockpit. It seems like now is the best time to replace it with something that is more like all the other ones. Hope springs eternal!

Mike is taking this pathetic excuse for a drain out of the hole. You can see that if this were sitting down in the hole, it would still be too tall for water to drain properly.

A quick run up to Englund’s marine store produced a patterned response that I’m sure exists in some mathematics or logic textbook somewhere. It goes like this: If A and B are true, then C must also be true. In our case, A) we don’t know what we have because it’s old and not marked B) new ones will cost about $60 each if we can find one that will fit. Therefore C: Let’s try to recycle the old one by repairing it. See how that works? We’re saving money already!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home is a Fiberglass Hull

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One of the biggest projects on my personal list for Andromeda is insulating her interior hull spaces. The benefit of this effort is brought home to me each time we spend the weekend on Andromeda and realize that it takes running the diesel heater constantly to keep the boat warm and the interior free of condensation just from our living activities. And it hasn’t even been that cold outside yet. This will only get harder as the winter progresses. Without insulation on that hull, even with the good air circulation this boat has, I can look forward to mildewed cabinet interiors and clothing that smells like mold. I feel about mold and mildew the way Mike feels about fog: it is a malevolent  force of nature that is out to get me. And I cannot let it win. Ever. My nose is a fine tuned instrument of mold detection. I can always smell a cat litter box, a wet diaper, and mildew. Gauntlets have been thrown down. Lines have been drawn in the sand. The game is on.

I would really like to find a paint product that insulates against condensation and is easy to apply. I live in a complete dream world, apparently. What I’ve found so far is Mascoat Marine Insulating Paint (or, more accurately, a ‘thermal insulation coating’). It looks like a first class product but it’s expensive and difficult to apply. It has to be sprayed on, and I have to sand the fiberglass first. Andromeda is a 47 foot boat with a ton of cabinet space.  Oy vey, that’s a lot of sanding in weird positions, not to mention all the taping off and the fact that I would have to wait until summer for the temperature to be warm enough to apply this product.

Not to mention that this is how this product is usually applied. Notice there is no cabinetry in this photo. Photo courtesy of Mascoat.com.

I would love to find something easier in an insulating coating; something I could brush or roll on, for instance. Would rubberized roofing paint work? Would the insulating paint they sell for homes work? When I’ve researched this question on the sailing forums, I have generally found ideas about what I can glue on my hull like cork, or bubble wrap insulation, etc. I’d prefer not to go this route unless I have to. I’d like the insulation to extend pretty far below the water line, and anything that I glue onto the surface has to have excellent and complete contact with the hull or mold will grow behind it. In addition, there will always be some condensation as long as we’re in cold water, so I can’t use anything that will get soggy or hold water. Water must be able to get to the bilge. An insulation coating would be much easier in many ways. Please comment if you have suggestions.

Loot!

Anyhow, so while Mike was wrangling with the engine room, I spent time poking around in Andromeda’s nether regions. She has quite a lot of storage space and many cabinets have false floors, opening to reveal yet more storage space that I can only hope I never need to use. All of these need to be empty in order for me to get at the hull, so I got to emptying and suddenly it felt like being on a treasure hunt. So much stuff! At the end of the day I decided there was too much stuff taking up space and I better bring all this loot home. What I found was yards and yards of Sunbrella canvas like this:

What is this thing? It’s folded about 8 times so it’s huge. FYI these tiles are a foot across, to give you an idea of the size of this thing.

Apparently this is some kind of boat cover. It was much too big to spread out on our living room floor, so we’ll have to take it outside during the day and see how it works. I cannot imagine needing something like this in our climate, or using something like this while cruising, so it’s possible that what it represents is hundreds of dollars worth of Sunbrella canvas in excellent condition. Either way, score!

Also this:

Just long rectangles. I thought maybe windscreens, but then there is that zipper…any ideas?

In one cabinet I found a long bag made of polar fleece, obviously protecting something fragile. Upon opening it, I found these:

Maybe this is a score, maybe not.

What we have here are two panels that fit at the top of the companionway: one with a bug screen, and one made of plexiglass or something like that, creating a window to see out into the cockpit. These will be dead useful! Then there are tiny bug screens for the opening ports. These are in very poor condition, but the frames are still good so I’m putting their refurbishment on my project list. Why buy new ones when I’m fairly sure I can make these as new again? They are even labeled as to which port they are for. To the left are what appear to be bug screens for the opening hatches. To be sure, we’ve never needed anything like this in Washington, but I know we’ll want them other places.

In the drawers of the quarter berth cabin I found a pile of soft and stretchy terry cloth covers.

Soft terry covers

I think these are slipcovers for the Bottom Siders cockpit cushions to keep said cushions from sticking to skin in hot weather. A definite score! They are used and faded, and a couple of seams need to be mended, but I am totally prepared to repair  and refurbish these suckers with a little thing I like to call ‘fabric dye’.  I will have to count them to see if there are enough for all of the cushions. Another small project.

In the v-berth, I found this:

Biggest score ever.

This is a full cockpit enclosure. Yay! It looks like it is quite well made and needs only to be cleaned and one zipper replaced. When the weather warms up, I’ll give it a good scrub outside and let it dry in the sun, then take it to a canvas worker and have that zipper replaced. I am so looking forward to having an enclosed cockpit in this area.

Cheap Tricks in Boat Decorating

And speaking of refurbishing, before we left the boat this weekend, I got a wild hair and took down the curtains in the quarter berth, aft head, and master cabin. These curtains are really well made and of high quality. The fabric, however, is faded badly from the sun and from just being pretty old. However, these things are expensive to buy, and I am not in the mood to make them. Whoever did these did a damn good job on them so I’m going to reuse them.

Really nicely made curtains, faded from years of use.

I brought them home and washed them with laundry detergent and bleach, then decided I would try my hand at dyeing them. I am planning to use a combination of blues and greens, perhaps some lavenders, in the interior of this boat and I had two packages of teal green dye in the cabinet. So why not? I had no idea the fiber content of this fabric, but it felt like it was a cotton/poly blend. I brought out my big canning pot, filled it with water, added a cup of salt, a dash of laundry detergent, the two packages of dye, and some eye of newt and set it on the stove to heat. The curtains were already wet and clean so I placed them in the dye bath and commenced to saying my incantations while I stirred. There is something about dying fabric that feels so much like magic!

Lovely dye bath!

After about 30 minutes in the hot water it looked like they were dark enough. I figured they would not be perfect, but that’s the beauty of hand dyeing fabric. All those little imperfections are fine and will totally go with my vision of casual comfort below deck. Turns out the color is great, and I saved the dye bath for the next batch. Total cost of this redo? Less than 5$. That’s my kind of remodeling. Et Voila!

Once we start heading south, I’ll put some clear UV film on the ports to protect the color from fading.

I can’t wait to hang these back in the cabins and do the ones in the salon and v-berth areas.

If you have insulation on your fiberglass boat, speak up. Let me know what you use and what the pros and cons are of that substance. I’m hoping for a paint-on solution but my dreams may not fall on fertile soil.

 

 

 

 

 

Another Cheap Trick – A Pretty Cool Boat Seat

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I can’t take any credit for this cool trick. When Mike and I went to Vancouver a couple of weeks ago to look at boats, we looked at a 1971 Nautor Swan 40. I’ve added a boat review for that boat here. While that didn’t turn out to be the boat for us, I noticed the owner of this boat had a very cleverly done seat on the foredeck, close to the mast. I tucked this idea away for future reference and to share with readers.

It even has matching canvas, which totally makes sense considering how nicely kept this boat is.

He showed me that the seat could be placed on any winch, as the connector was basically the same as a winch handle.  I can totally see how useful this trick is! Sometimes you just want to sit on deck in a proper seat rather than on the deck itself. And this can be removed and stored away when you don’t need it. Wish I could have thought of it myself, but thanks, Swan owner, for this excellent trick. I hope you sell your beautiful boat soon.

Seems straight forward enough, which is how all the best ideas seem to work.