C-27 Refit/Refurb

[philwsailz]

I took the time to update my first post. Things now showing in red are completed.

Things I perceive I have left to do:

Before splashing:
* Re-touch early Kiwi-Grip installation to match recent efforts, (separate story, but be sure to ask)
* Wetsand, buff, polish and wax topsides and the remaining white gelcoat
* Build wooden A-frame or other trailer-based machine to help step the mast
* Purchase new standing rigging and re-rig the mast
* Siphon stale gasoline and put fresh in with new fuel filter plus spares
* Change motor oil
* Test run motor on fake-a-lake to make sure thermostat is working properly
* Install new Suunto B-116 compass, (or comparable) or cover nasty hole with a plate of some sort
* Purchase new mainsheet hardware to go with the new line
* Slap a coat of bottom paint on
* Get Lanocote or Marelube and hit all seacocks...
* Build new dock!!!!!!

Pre or Post-splash
* New faux-leather micro-suede interior cushions, (I may sew them myself)
* Boom kicker purchase and install

Post-splash:
* Kiwi-grip cockpit floor - wait to do this 'til after the boat is out of the shop, to prevent grinding soil into new floor coating
* Rig new loose-footed main with led-aft rigging for outhaul, cunningham/downhaul and reefing

That is a start... I may have to come back and edit the list of to-do's as I think of more.

EDIT: BOLD is additions...

 

[Stu Jackson]

Nice to see you back, Phil. Great work.

 

[philwsailz]

Nice to see you back, Phil. Great work.

Thanks Stu-

Good to be back working on the boat! Not tonight though....

Babysitting junior, he is asleep at the moment. Wife is out for a well-deserved break with a girlfriend; hopefully it is not really Jake from State Farm...

Perusing SBO store, CD, Garhauer, etc for parts....... With wife out with the girlfriend; hey, let's all spend money. You don't know how many times I have filled a cart only to chicken out tonight. I got a deal in the works, but I need to be parient and wait to pull the trigger on parts until AFTER the transaction is done.... Still, I had some rat-holed money so some new stainless jewelry from Garhauer was ordered earlier today... Mainsheet and boom vang blocks... Everything else recently added on the boat is Garhauer now, might as well keep it in the family.

I feel like I am missing something on this project... Kinda like the new powerboat owner who forgets the drain plug... Oh, just thought of something. Adding it to the list above.

Good Friday Night All!

 

[philwsailz]

The Kiwi-Grip story.

First off this was totally handled above-board and I applaud everyone involved for EXCELLENT customer service.

When I pulled the trigger on my non-skid purchase it was apparent that most everyone was backordered. I found what I needed at Distributor X. He had quarts and gallons. I ordered quickly thinking I was in on a coup, finding it before supplies ran out and hopefully before a color got killed, ( a color-kill happened to me before with Interlux, and had to send people all over the country to grab pints of disco'd paint color).

Unknown to me nor the distributor, Kiwi had changed formulations to improve shelf life. The result was a tone/color change, at least for the cream color. My distributor sent me old quarts and a new gallon. The three containers did not match. I did not find out until after I had applied the quarts. When the gallon started going on, it became obvious.

Fast-forward to January 2012, TOTALLY no harm - no foul, I called the importer and explained things to which he quickly, openly and honestly told me what had happened, how and why. He completely took care of me. Bottom line, I need to go back over my original work from the old quarts with a coat of new material from the new formulation. If you look carefully at the cabin roof in one or two of the pics, you can see the difference in a couple of spots I needed to touch up. I am happy with the resolution offered in consideration and am looking forward to having it all the same color.

Bottom line, two things:
If you are considering Kiwi-Grip make sure you purchase from same lot for all the surface you intend to cover. Ask you distributor to make sure he is aware and practices FIFO.

Know that the product is totally supported by stand-up honest people who stand behind their product and believe in it. Having installed it now I do too... I love this stuff for its ease of installation and total instant gratification. It easily takes 20 years off of a boat. Despite the small amont of extra work I need to do to get a proper non-skid installation, I TOTALLY support Kiwi-Grip and their product. It is really good stuff!

FYI...

 

[philwsailz]

Had a tiny bit of time last night. The fact that the hanging locker has been unfinished all this time finally got the best of me. The radio is mounted in there, and the pressure pump for the fresh water system is in there. I need to also be able to use this area for head items, towels, diapers, (tax deduction at work) etc. It just wasn't right that all that storage could not be used, as prior to last night I had only built the little 3-cubby storage shelving in the right third of the hanging locker. The rest of the hanging locker was just a nasty useless volume with yet-to-be bundled and secured wiring, a radio's backside and a pump in it.

So. I got out the scribe, some plywood, (template grade) and marked up a pattern to cut a new floor/shelf. Then I moved to my nice 13-ply stuff and cut it. Almost fit on the first try! Due to the cubby to the right, I am providing a riser at the front adjacent to the louvered door. This brings the floor/shelf up to a level adjacent to the cubby storage so nothing will fall down underneath. A radiused finger hole is milled in, and I have two 4x4 ply panels right behind the finger hole, one with a 3" clearance hole so that I can put a finger in and lift the shelf/floor out, but still have nothing dropping through the finger hole. There is a small fiddle installed on the front to cover the end-grain and to help keep items from rolling/sliding out.

This shelf/floor will rest on some simple cleats, yet to be installed. I will also see about devising a simple second and/or third shelf that can simply set in there. I need it all to simply and easily remove for pump service and to gain access to the chainplate.

After final milling, sanding and fitting, I will stain to match the cubbies, and then slap on a thinned wiping varnish to match the cubbies....

Please no criticism of the wiring yet. It is still to be bundled and secured. Same with the fresh water fill and vent hoses...

Here are a couple of quick pics. Enjoy!

 

[philwsailz]

Can't park the new boat on the old dock so today I built this. 8x20 float with 16' walkway. Luckily the ramp is close to my lake spot. I'll just slap an outboard on the float and drive it into position

The flotation is encapsulated... 6 at 24x48x16and then 2 at 24x48x24 under where the ramp lands on the float. The goal is to have the float level while supporting the walkway, hence the deeper floats there.

 

[jrowan]

How will you secure the floating dock from moving too much, with weights or pilings?

 

[philwsailz]

How will you secure the floating dock from moving too much, with weights or pilings?

Pilings. 3 or 4 poles through long galvanized collars. No current, fresh water inland lake so 3" - 4" pipes down through the center in a row, hopefully 3 total. Otherwise 4 in the corners

 

[philwsailz]

Paint........ Paint????????

Paint or gelcoat, either way I am finally convinced this boat has been reshot some time in its life.

Today, wet sanding and polishing transom for new boat name I CANNOT resolve the light color under where the old decals were. It is going backwards! Normally a sticker will protect gel leaving it slightly darker as it is unbleached. On this boat the letters are lighter...

As I continue to work, I start to notice 4 circles appearing symmetrical about the centerline. These have me scratching my head until it dawns on me they are large, properly filled bolt holes from an older ladder installation. gel coat finished as well; first class work with only a faint line around the edge.

The original gel on this boat is a very light tan but someone has shot the boat either in gel or in paint to a lighter white color. The new surface is obviously very well bonded to the original. The only other explanation is that they hit the mold in white first, and then filled behind with a tan to get thickness.

Regardless, the transom is gonna get repainted, maybe as early as tomorrow......

 

[jrowan]

When the surface gets that mottled, its usually just better to repaint the whole stern transom. You can tape it off at the seams if ya don't want to repaint the entire hull. Trust me, the lettering will look a lot better if applied to a freshly painted stern. Some of the other guys that have posted their new lettering jobs on a newly painted surface look awesome, if ya take your time & do it right, which it looks like your doing. Be careful spending too much time & effort on your refit, or U may never get her back in the water again!

 

[philwsailz]

New transom paint is purchased. We have a clear polished section topsides forward that we hit with a color spectrometer.

Gonna block the transom and hit it with the base coat. Then we'll apply the transom lettering. After lettering we will hit it with clear and bury the lettering... It should turn out really nice.

 

[philwsailz]

When the surface gets that mottled, its usually just better to repaint the whole stern transom. You can tape it off at the seams if ya don't want to repaint the entire hull. Trust me, the lettering will look a lot better if applied to a freshly painted stern. Some of the other guys that have posted their new lettering jobs on a newly painted surface look awesome, if ya take your time & do it right, which it looks like your doing. Be careful spending too much time & effort on your refit, or U may never get her back in the water again!

Never hitting the water has crossed my mind and while I am concerned, I also have time as we are in the middle of a drought that has been going on for a year or more and the water is too skinny to splash the boat at this point.

The last of the gear to finish the rebuild is landed including the new standing rigging, so really, rigging and polishing the major issues left... Besides oil change, fresh gas, new interior.... Uh, I better quit...

 

[philwsailz]

I am rebuilding my dock to get to deeper water. This won't help launching right now in our current drought, but next time around the boat will be able to float through it...

The floating section will be about 16 feet further out off the old float sitting dry on the ground.

Next project tomorrow morning is to chainsaw out the old float and ramp...

 

[philwsailz]

No, not literally boat related, but when L.L.Attitudes II hits the water she will need a parking spot.

Tonight I got the last piling post in and in concrete. I got a few of the railing posts installed, (making me aware I should have picked some different piling locations). The first landing is now decked. The truss-walkway is built and on-site sans decking. The 8x 20 floating portion is in my shop awaiting transport. Once in water on site I will deck it and the truss-walkway. This is a different kind of work... Hard, yet satisfying.

The most frustrating part is that I have what I thought was all the 5/4 material I needed. It is 8 ft. sticks which is fine for the float, (at 94 inches) but the fixed walkway was forced to 53 inches as opposed to 44. I am going to have a lot of fall off.... And a need to buy some 12 ft pieces to cover the shortage. Oh well; this will be the nicest dock on the lake; worth it...

The hinged ramp section will attach to the "port" extension to the left looking towards the water in the pictures It is 16 ft long and will rest on the floating section.

We get 90 days by management rules at the lake for any and all improvements. I think I will be done in 3 weeks, not 3 months...

 

[Jkenny13]

I have to ask if this is a controlled drain on the lake or if you are in need of a wet spring to bring the lake up. It would make me crazy to think that it could stay at that level...

 

[philwsailz]

I have to ask if this is a controlled drain on the lake or if you are in need of a wet spring to bring the lake up. It would make me crazy to think that it could stay at that level...

We need a wet spring. This is not a reservoir for use, although the local university-owned golf course does pump it for watering...

I have calculated that we need around 4.5 billion gallons to fill the lake back up to pool. It pained me to use the amount I did to mix the concrete for the pilings....

 

[shipwreck66]

On the bright side, by the time all the elements line up and the boat is done and the lake fills up, your son will be old enough to crew by himself. Phil, our lake is currently so full we have an extension bridge out to the marina from the parking lot, which has water in the first row of parking. Wish we could send some your way.

 

[philwsailz]

On the bright side, by the time all the elements line up and the boat is done and the lake fills up, your son will be old enough to crew by himself. Phil, our lake is currently so full we have an extension bridge out to the marina from the parking lot, which has water in the first row of parking. Wish we could send some your way.

Jealous...

 

[philwsailz]

Rain 3
Phil. 1

Rain is winning at the moment

 

[philwsailz]

Rain lost.