Update on the project
Thought I'd give a little update on the progress...I'm all about function, and this boat is functioning to beat the band!! Took the whole fam damly out this weekend for a beautiful sail around Penn Cove here on Whidbey Island. A couple of weeks ago, I hauled the boat out at the little yard in Oak Harbor, and cleaned all the tonnage of marine growth off the bottom...(Ecologists..hands over the eyes please!) Put some new bottom paint, zincs, super cleaned the prop, and this boat fairly well flies!! bust out the waterskis..The bottom was in really good shape, only saw a couple of little blisters on the whole thing...except the rudder, it looked like it was laid up with champagne resin..lol,,, I figured the boat won't sink because of blisters on the rudder, so in keeping with my budgetary restraints, I painted them with anti fouling, and threw it back into the water!!!! I bought some new running rigging from the nice folks at the Sailboatowners.com chandlery here on this website, great price, excellent product, and I was able to pick it up myself from there store in Seattle. Didn't take long to run the new all line main halyard, slipped right on, attached a runner onto the tail of the old wire to rope halyard, slipped it over the masthead sheave, attached it to the tail of the new halyard, and pulled it back into place. I got the new jib sheets on in a jiffy, and we were ready for sailing! I still haven't gotten all the mould or what ever it is off the outside yet, but that is my next focus now that the interior is all cleaned up, the motor is running like a top, the rigging is coming together, and my wife is getting all excited about sailing (her first time sailing was Saturday...She likey a lot!!! Yay!!)
Just a word about the fuel system, When I bought the boat, it had old fuel, 10 gallons to be exact. I had been running out of a jerry can with a hose for a while, it kind of sucked be cause I had to have the engine compartment open to run the hose. I found some stuff online called PRI-D, a fuel additive that supposedly refreshes old diesel, I put new filters on and put this stuff in the fuel tank, and have been running off of the old diesel since, maybe 5 hours or so. The engine runs as well as it did on fresh fuel, it starts instantly as it did on the fresh stuff, but I notice a lot more soot coming out with the exhaust....incomplete burn of the old crap?? This little yanmar uses such little fuel, it may take a while to get the tank down enough to put fresh in and make a difference... for now though it is doing fine. I am adding a couple of photos of the boat in a much inproved condition, still going to replace the main sheet, and traveller adjustment line, but Whoo Hoo! She Sails NICE!!!!!
