Well the holidays have past and the Constance Marie has been sitting on her boatstands for over three months. It was a hectic time around the boatyard as the cold weather began to move in. All the boats had to be out of the mooring field by November 1st, docks had to be pulled in, the garage cleaned up to accommodate the tractors, the club house ready for the Holiday parties, firewood chopped - and anything that needed winterizing got soaked with pink piss. I had my plan, I knew what I had and what I needed to buy and I had my first six project BOMs developed.
It occurred to me that I needed to prep the boat for all this project work. Let's get everything off the boat we don't need along with materials that I decided I could work on in the heated luxury of my basement.
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| Figure 8 Looking Forward on January 12, 2013 |
I am six foot two and the 1980 Hunter Cherubini was built for a six footer. I quickly learned to "duck" to survive as I moved around the galley going forward and aft. Remember, I bought the boat before I went on the boat!
The very first thing I did was to rip all that beautiful tan carpet off the inside of the hull. Why would I do that? BLACK MOLD!
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| Figure 9 Front berth with 35 gallon fresh water tank |
You can see by the picture on the right the hairy mass of backing still stuck to the interior hull. Once the carpet was out, I used an electric barber trimmer with a fine attachment to trim down the fibers left by the carpet. Then I washed it down with Clorox to kill any mold remaining. A lot of sanding by hand was done in the front berth area. Just could not find a liquid alternative that would do the job as well.
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| Figure 10 Looking Aft on January 12, 2013 |
Ok, for you hearty folks, its January 12th in the mid-atlantic region - COLD - if you notice in the picture looking aft, no electric heater can be seen. That surely was not going to stay that way very long. I was storming through the boat, just unscrewing things, taking drawers out, taking off and out whatever teak wood I could remove. I even opened up the electrical AC/DC combo panel and unscrewed all the connections thinking that I color coded them enought for later on. I took the engine panels off, all the interior lights, lamps, and guages.
Lesson Learned - a famous king in Biblical times wrote on wisdom. (Paraphrasing) He said that "it is wise to go and seek the counsel of experienced men before embarking on a great journey".
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| Figure 11 Some of the Parts |
I was dumber than dumb. I had a beautiful plan and not the patience to approach it correctly. As a result of this, the Constance Marie would not see a wet hull till September 2013. I had stuff everywhere and it overwhelmed me. Parts were in my car, my basement workbench, the garage, the garage workbench and on the boat. The same with tools. Today, I must have 50 straight-edge screw-drivers due to not being organized. These replace / repair projects would eventually get me thinking right after many conversations with some of the more experienced sailors on the front porch of our club overlooking the northern headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay.
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| Figure 12 - View from the porch of the Clubhouse |
We cleaned the head using a small hand steamer loaded with 2 parts water, 1 part 409 and two caps of clorox. Never noticed how clean everything was getting because the fumes had me visiting other places! My intent was to rework all the teak wood veneer in my basement using a belt sander....LOL, I can hear some of you howling now!!!!! I still have not fully remedied that decision.
Ok, so now I am ready to begin real projects. Start placing your bets on what you think happens.
Ok, so now I am ready to begin real projects. Start placing your bets on what you think happens.
