Second Week of Haulout - 2017

--Blogpost written by Bob

You would think that once you have a sailboat ready to cruise, that the list of the boat projects would cease to exist BUT it doesn't work that way.  We've had a number of things that failed during our first season in the Bahamas, a number of improvements we wanted to make, as well as the normal maintenance projects.  We've completed 67 projects this summer and we still have about 13 to go.  We have about eight weeks remaining to complete them...

Work is progressing on the bow repairs in the boatyard--the gel coat application was completed near the end of this week.  The surface finishing and the matching of the gel coat takes a lot of skill.

After several steps of putting on fiberglass layers, filling, and sanding,
Brent is spraying the gelcoat over the repaired surface.

After spraying on the gel coat, small surface bubbles are
filled by hand before the curing is started.

The bow guard plate was attached with two 1/4-inch cap screws.  This
should prevent small nicks caused by pulling the anchor up too tight.

The complete hull was cleaned and waxed using 3M Cleaner and Wax.

One of the last steps while out of the water was to paint the
bronze parts (except the prop) with HydroCoat.

Spots under the jack stands and the bottom of the keel
are being painted just prior to splashing.

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We decided to raise the boat's waterline by one to one-and-a-half inches during this haulout.  This was accomplished by simply increasing the height of the bottom paint.  We had some barnacle growth at the waterline (which was slightly above the bottom paint) from our 2-month stay in Baltimore Harbor.

We're also focusing on some weight reduction which is aimed out allowing the boat to float a little higher in the water.  The downgrade in the dinghy's engine will save nearly 20 pounds when stored on the stern of s/v Rainy Days.   Also, the replacement of a 44-pound secondary anchor with a 23-pound FORTRESS secondary anchor saves another 11 pounds on the bow.  We normally have four five-gallon jugs stored on the deck at mid-ship--these four jugs represent 167 pounds of contents--we can save half of this weight for our trip to the Exumas by only carrying 10 gallons of gasoline (for use in the dinghy's engine and RAINMAN water maker).  Two jugs (one for diesel fuel and the other for fresh water) will remain empty most of the time.

This photo taken just off Allans-Pensacola Cay in the Abacos
shows how close the normal water level
is to our current waterline.

By using our water maker regularly in the Bahamas (we have to use it every week to prevent the need for pickling anyway) we can save on the amount of fresh water we store onboard.  We believe we can save the weight of fresh water in our 40-gallon forward tank--this represents a savings of 334 pounds in onboard weight.  (With respect to our water storage traveling along the ICW, we can fill our water tanks every time we stop for diesel fuel.  Therefore, we don't need to use our forward fresh water tank for our ICW travel.)

We are reviewing our stores to save weight as well.  For our recent trip to the Abacos, we carried 84 pounds of kitty litter (to cover a 4.2-month supply) but we now believe a 20-pound (two month) supply is adequate, considering that we can easily resupply it in the Bahamas.  This alone will save 64 pounds of onboard weight.  We are reviewing our food stores in a similar way by using food in pouches (as opposed to cans) and limit how much we stock onboard.

Our focus on saving onboard weight will be an ongoing effort throughout the next eight weeks or so.

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We got rid of the old (leaded) aviation gasoline and it was easier than expected.  One of the boat mechanics in the yard has an old power boat with an inboard engine designed for leaded gasoline.  We gave him the 8 or 9 gallons of leftover gasoline and it will be used (which is much better than disposing of it).

We also picked up our new 6 HP Yamaha 4-stroke outboard motor for our rigid hull inflatable dinghy at Fawcett's Boat Supplies in Annapolis, Maryland.  Jesse, the manager of small boat and engine sales, ran it for us in the test tank and gave a brief demonstration of its operation.

Jesse is lifting the new 6 HP outboard into the trunk
of our car--it only weighs 59 pounds!

Our new 6 HP outboard is a single cylinder engine having a displacement of 139 cc's, which is pretty small as engines go.  It has an integral gas tank that holds a little more than a pint of gasoline--this will be used only as a spare source of fuel since we will be running it off external tanks most of the time.  On a test run from the boatyard to the cottage (on the West River). the new engine was definitely rougher running (being a single cylinder engine), somewhat noisier, and slower (having 4 less horsepower) BUT it was much easier to lift onto the dinghy from the floating dock.

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We stayed in the cottage at Hartge Yacht Harbor (on the West River) while our boat was hauled out at Hartge's Yacht Yard (on Tenthouse Creek) about a mile away.  I realize this may seem confusing because they are both related to the same family but they are two entirely different businesses, now independently owned.

Lizzie and Captain Jack are shown looking out the screen
door on the front porch of the cottage.

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Rainy Days is now back in the water but we have to extend our stay at the boatyard because one of the seals in the transmission is leaking.  The leak is believed to be due to the engine not being properly aligned when we re-powered over this past winter.  So, we will be here in Galesville another week but we will be living onboard...


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