Saturday, April 5, 2014

April Showers Bring Mayflowers

Figure 49
The Helm area, well, if you dropped
food on it, the three second rule
would be too long!
With April's warmer weather, I took a break from working inside on the features of the Constance Marie and decided to address Her finish.  I would start with the Helm area.  Needed to replace the four stainless steel hinges, clean the dirt, sand the teak pieces, fix the compass binnacle, replace the teak footers that you step onto to get into the boat, placed a new motor support for the dink's engine, cleaned up the ladder and teak steps and put a new stern light on.  The Constance Marie has no bimini.  That project is for next year.  The original knotmeter and depth finder were not working, so I knew that I would want to get them replaced prior to mid-summer. 

April is a busy time around the boatyard.  Manlifts (Fig 50A) be;pw are brought in to allow folks to check out their anchor lights.  Boats are being launched into the moorings field. 

Figure 50
A little sweat equity and She is
starting to look like a real Lady
I shopped around on line looking for 3 1/2 inch stainless steel hinges.  Went to the usual places on line and around our town, but could not find anything under $30-60 for each!  No way Jose!  I was shopping at Lowes and noticed the gate hinges and there they were!  Stainless Steel 4 inch hinges for $9 each.  And believe it or not 2 of the four holes lined up with the others.  I would patch the others before bolting in the hinges applying a good seal of silicone. I noticed that the yellow life ring in Figure 50 was mounted on the inside rather than outside.  I reversed it and made the starboard seating area much more comfortable.

Figure 50A
Yep, that's the Constance Marie
35' down the main mast.