2019 Haul Out - Part 1

July 15 thru July 16

—Blogpost written by Bob

Monday, July 15

Last night we stayed in the Guest Cottage at Hartge Yacht Harbor.  We will be staying in the cottage all week while our boat is hauled out nearby.  It was nice to have so much living space and to be able to take a bath in a bathtub (this was a real luxury for us!).

S/V Rainy Days sits just in front of the
travel lift awaiting haulout.

After a light breakfast at the cottage, I drove the short distance to Hartge Yacht Yard where the boat was due to be hauled out in the morning.  The travel hoist pulled our boat out of the water at 9:30 AM to begin this year's maintenance work.


The beginning of the boat's haulout is best described by the following photographs:

S/V Rainy Days was lifted out
of the water at 9:30 AM.

About 20 percent of the prop's surface was
covered with barnacles, most of which
probably came from Baltimore
Harbor this summer.

The pressure washing did a great
job of removing scum.

Pressure washing the area
around the rudder.

A scrape on the starboard side of the rudder from
hitting something in the ocean on our
recent return trip north.

One of the few times I get this
viewpoint of the bow.

S/V Rainy Days on jack stands.

The new through-hull installed.

Pock marks on the rudder.  These were
about 1/2-inch in diameter. (Most 
of these were just between 
previous coats of
bottom paint.)

After lunch I rented a plastic welder (my old one) from Maritime Plastics in Annapolis.  After we bleached the internals of the tank twice, one overnight and the second for about 5 hours, we couldn't see much improvement in the rust stains on the inside. (After the tank was cut, Maggie scrubbed the internals with an abrasive pad and spray cleanser which worked great.)

I began the tank modifications by cutting the tank to length (where enough space would be allowed for the water maker aft of the tank).  I cut the plastic tank with my circular saw.

I cut the tank with my circular saw after marking
it all around the perimeter. I cut off the old
end to re-use it as the new end. (Of
course, I had to cut it down and
bevel the edges for welding.)

I beveled both the outside edges of new end and the inside edges of the tank wall where the two sections will be welded together.  (I did the beveling with my orbital sander which was very time-consuming.)  The new end was cut to fit inside the open end of the tank and recessed from the edges by about 1/4-inch to allow a sufficiently large weld size. 

The new tank end was held in place by three
clamps in preparation for the plastic welding.

When I started up the plastic welder there was no heat.  Apparently, the person who used the welder previously didn't allow the heating element to cool down before turning off the air compressor and the heating element burned up.  So, I have to go back to Maritime Plastics first thing in the morning.  (I hope they have a spare heating element!)

The haulout is going great with a lot of progress made on the first day.

Tuesday, July 16

The weather for the haulout has been great except for the extreme heat in the middle of the day and the forecast is for more of it as the week progresses.  (There is a 40% chance of an afternoon thunderstorm on Thursday.)

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The bottom was painted this afternoon after the final waxing of the sides of the hull was completed.  The big surprise of the haulout came in the early afternoon in the form of a "cut into the propeller shaft" on both sides of the cutlass bearing.  On the upstream end of the cutlass bearing the cut (it almost looks like a hack saw cut) was about 0.060" deep at its worst and maybe 0.006 at the least--it goes nearly all the way around the shaft. The gouge in the shaft just downstream of the cutlass bearing was not nearly as severe.  (We remember hitting something that was submerged during one of our ocean passages coming north from Charleston SC in the spring--the gouges may be the result.)

Gouges in the propeller shaft just
upstream of the cutlass bearing.

Single gouge in the propeller shaft just
downstream of the cutlass bearing.

We will be meeting with Luke, the yard supervisor, tomorrow morning to determine a course of action.

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I drove back to Maritime Plastics this morning and they DID have a spare heating element for the plastic welder.  So I brought it back to the cottage and replaced the burned out heating element.

The broken and burned up heating element
in the Seelye plastic welder.

After I replaced the hearing element I started the plastic welding task by tacking the end plate in place by melting small 1-inch long beads at about 4 to 6 points around the periphery.  (Since it was very hot outside I performed the plastic welding inside the cottage.)

Tack welding at 4 to 6 points around
the periphery of the end.

I used 1/8-inch diameter LLDPE rods
for the first pass of plastic welding.
(Subsequent passes used
3/16-inch rods.)

After I had finished filling up the bevels I built up a little more weld on the outside.  Then, when it cooled off a little outside I took the tank outside and sanded down the excess weld.  The weld was tested for integrity by filling the tank with water and checking for leaks--it had one small leak which I had to weld repair.  I spun welded the new drain fitting onto the tank and the task was complete.  The new tank has a calculated capacity of 15.9 gallons which is about 2 days of water maker output.

The completed tank modification.

Stay tuned for the outcome of the propeller shaft problem and more...


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