I am Mortified, Stupified, She is ELECTRIFIED!



Figure 19 - Mast Grounding and Keel Bolt

Well, the winter is wearing on and you can only stay in the basement for only so long.  After working some 35 pieces of teak and miscellaneous woods and by no means done, I was yearning to turn my attention to some else and so I fired up the portable heater on the boat and took on a another project:  This time it was the grounding wire from the mast.  It was  grounded to the front keel bolt.  It was not in good shape and partially broken at the connector. Let's talk about the grounding of this sloop.

[ABYC Recommendations, Marine Advisor, Spring 2001). Being the Constant Marie is a sailboat with an aluminum mast we have the starting point of a well-grounded lightning rod. This will provide a zone of protection for a radius around its base equal to the height of the lightning rod. Due to some vessels overall length, it may be necessary to install another lightning rod to encompass any areas that do not fall within the zone of protection. Don't forget that the mast itself must be physically bonded or connected through to the common ground - one of the keel bolts or if a encapsulated keel, to the grounding plate, in order to provide optimum protection.  In this case, to the Constance Marie's keel bolt.  The apex of the rod should be a minimum of six inches above any masthead device. The end should be sharpened to a point. The base of the mast or the mast step if metal, should be connected to a keel bolt on externally ballasted vessels. The preferred wire gauge is No. 6 or even better, #4AWG stranded copper. In no case should such a connection be made to a vessel with internal ballast. The result could be a hole blown through the bottom of the hull. Boats with internal ballast should have a copper ground plate of at least one square foot in size installed externally on the hull bottom. The grounding wire should then be connected to the ground plate. All wire conductors should be kept as straight as possible. All large metal objects above and below decks should also be electrically tied into the lightning ground conductor. This is a precaution against side flashes. Large metal objects include shrouds, chainplates, toe rails, sail tracks, winches, steering wheels, and bow and stern pulpits. These items can be tied into the ground conductor wire by a minimum #8AWG stranded copper gauge wire, or connected directly to the hull ground terminus.  And that's exactly what I did.


Figure 19
Front of electrical panel

You might remember earlier that the electrical panel was disconnected from all the AC / DC wires in the first days after the Constance Marie was pulled. 


Figure 20
Back of electrical panel

This is the original electrical panel designed for 1980. Hmmm, what was going on in 1980?

 

 

Yearly Inflation Rate 13.58% Dow Jones Industrial Average 963        Interest Rates Federal Reserve   21.5%   Average Cost of new house $68,700    Median Price Existing Home $62,200 Average Income per year $19,500.00 Average Monthly Rent $300.00   Cost of a gallon of Gas $1.19 Average cost new car $7,200.00

Back to reality.  I was looking at an electrical panel that had the alternating current (AC) designed on the same panel as the direct current (DC). Of course the AC is like the power in your house and the DC is like the power provided by the battery in your car.  Things change over time and codes now require that AC and DC be on separate panels but the Constance Marie is a 30+ years old and I chose to keep things functionally normal.  I would focus on the DC conductivity and fix the AC later.  Remember, we moor the Constance Marie and not slip her at a dock as a matter of routine.  I bought some 5 amp, 10 amp and 15 amp circuit breakers to replace the old ones in the panel.


When I purchased the Constance Marie I discovered that I did not have an owners manual for 1980.  I found one for 1979 and could barely read the wiring diagrams, so I created one myself from physically eye-balling things and the little I could get from the documentation.
I did the same for the AC which was alot more simple.  Remember you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Figure 21 - DC schematic of the Constance Marie

 

I checked all the wiring on the boat as best as I could and I was surprised to find twisted pair and not solid core.  I spent the next several weeks putting in new galley and berth stainless steel lights, new running lights, fixing the mast ground and putting in three ground fault interrupter (GFI) sockets in the galley, navigation and head areas. 







There's No Place Like Home....





It was a bit dismaying to not be working physically on the boat. After all, that is where all the projects that needed to be done could be found. I decided I would work on sanding all that teak I had removed from the boat earlier.This included all the berth and head sliding doors, clapboards, galley stairs, mouldings, storage cabinet doors, drawers, bulkheads, engine panels, helm cupholder and table and the bildge cover. I would sand them, clean the solid brass hinges and add solid brass cabinet fasteners to keep food stuffs and dishes from spilling out into the galley when heeling 30 degrees. (I have always been a dreamer!)

Figure 17 - Reworking a bulkhead on ye ole workbench 

I have worked with wood in the past and I was hoping that most of the pieces were solid teak, but I forget that boats like this were built for families at the right price.  I found that all the cabinets doors, sliding doors and storage doors were made of teak veneer.  Using a belt sander on such pieces would be risky as you can go right through the veneer and then you are stuck with blotches of the real wood.  Taking off the veneer would not help because the quality of the wood's patina surface would not premit it.  So I degreased each piece using Murphy's Oil Soap.  On the tough spots, I used that handy dandy steamer aforementioned.

Figure 18
Bilge cover and more.

 In removing these teak pieces, there was a lot of hardware to keep track of.  As I examined each piece of brass and stainless, I placed them in different plastic tupperware containers to be cleaned at a later date.

There was the need to continuously remember the guiding principal behind the purchase of the Constance Marie.  The overall intent of working these projects was to learn how a  boat is constructed and how things on that boat work.  This is not a restoration but rather more of a resurrection effort realizing that what I take away in knowledge from these efforts, will serve me well on my next boat. So in working these projects, functionality, not appearance was the driver.  I know that this may not be aligned with the thinking of many, but I have only been a sailor for a couple of years and its the performance I am interested in.  The wooden template with all the circles in it in Figure 19 below, is a shelf inlay in the Key Switch cabinet designed to hold jars or cans of all kinds.  I would place food stuffs like nuts, oatmeal, peanut butter, etc in it.

Figure 19 - CETOL is to Teak like like
honey to a bear's tongue! 

You might notice in Figure 19 also, the difference in the dark and deep maroon unfinished appearance of the drawer faces and a CETOL finished "washboard slat" used to secure the boat's entrance into the galley.  The slat was solid teak wood and a sander worked great.  I tend to like the lighter interior colors on an all fiberglass hulled boat like the Hunter 27, however Mr. Cherubini and the 1980's favored that rich boardroom look.  I guess we will see what we can do over time.  Ecletic might win out.  Hey! It's my boat!

I Wanted A Project Boat, I Got A Project Boat!





Figure 13
Single battery system with no redundancy



Starting with the battery storage area.  There was one single large 12 volt battery (gel type).  I knew that I wanted to upgrade to a dual battery system.  I also knew that I  wanted to change the key switch out so that I could put in an automatic charging relay (ACR) switch that would manage the power from the alternator to distribution for the needs on the boat.  This project was scheduled for the summer.

Another area that I had initially exposed was the boat's bilge.  I had a rough schematic of the boat's design and saw that the bilge pump was located in the wrong place.  It was located toward the stern when it should have been located in the second position forward.  See Figure 14.

Figure 14
The bilge of the Constance Marie

How did I know this because I had previously pumped the bilge water that had collected and noticed that the first and second positions forward had the most water in it.  Want I did not take into consideration was how the Constance Marie was postioned on the boat stands.  When we subsequently launched her in late summer, the new bilge worked just fine.  The space for the bilge was a bit over 4 inches so I was limited in my selection and ended up getting one rated 750gph.  Not that it would really every pump that much.  I also chose one with an automatic selector because the float really did not have that much room either.  I decided not to hook up the automatic chord to the battery as the vertical length of the hose from the bilge to the thru-hull was about five feet and two of that was vertical.  I was advised against a check valve so the bilge was constantly pumping.
Anyhow, I took a 1/16 drill bit and drilled into each of the stringers.  The first and second position stringer found no wood.  i was not worried as the stringers were fiberglassed 1/2 thick and I felt that this was sufficent for the foreseeable future.

Turning to the engine, it was red, dirty, smelled a bit and all mine!  Look closely at the lower left corner of Figure 15 and you can even see evidence of a past fire.  Oh great!  I used to drop volkswagen engines when I was a teen, but this was a bit different, but not that different.



Figure 15
"The Beast" Westerbeke 10-2 Diesel 



It was a closed system, meaning that an impeller drove a raw water system that served to wrap around and help cool the anti-freeze radiator system that cooled the engine. The water looked like it discharged out the exhaust hose.  There was no raw water filter leading into the engine, there was a series of pumps, alternator, fuel injectors, generator, etc.  What I did not like was that it was difficult to get to many of these and that there was no spare parts kit. This was the original engine and considered experimental as most Hunter 27 in the Cherubini era had Yanmars or Renaults in them.  I was concerned about the burned areas of the bulkhead and whatever unseen damage it may indicate.  The engine would have to come out, Her motor mounts inspected and repaired, all the filters would be made available by hanging them on the starboard bulkhead and the engine well all painted a brilliant white.  I would create a project BOM for this to be done during the warmer days that lie ahead. 



 

Figure 16
The Stuffing Box of Mordor

But wait......the ugliest of a Mordor ORC raised its ugly head.  The stuffing box and shaft looked as if there were built using rust as the raw material.  For those of you with weak stomachs, I warn you that the Figure 16 is rated (MA) for mature audience.  I gasped as my eyes became fixed on something that I knew was broken.   I couldn't deal with it.  It was painful yet I knew it had worked well enough to get me from the mooring to the loading ramp during pullout.  I was dismayed but not beaten.  Another warm weather project!

Gee, January was really cold.  Needed to get some heat into the boat.  The boatyard has ruggedized power stations throughout and so a 100 foot yellow extension cord (see Figure 15 above) was run to one of them.  This provided power a 1500w portable heater when I was working on the boat. It would have been unfair to the club's expenses to run it otherwise.  It was unplugged when not in use.  I needed to focus on stuff that I could work on at home during these next couple of months until mid-March when days would begin to warm up.

Lesson Learned: Don't start too many projects at once.  They will overwhelm you and one can get burned out as I did between the months of March, April and May.  I barely got anything done between that time.

 

To Work! To Work!

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. 

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! 



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. 

 

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".   



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. 




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.




Plans are nothing.....Planning is everything!

As the walls of overwhelming were closing in, I realized again that I needed a plan.  I talked to some guys at the club, Dennis, Reese, Mark, Dave and Rick.  One of them mentioned that I should get a copy of the book This Old Boat.  I told them I already had and the contents stimulated me to develop a tool that I could use each season to help me plan and prioritize my projects.  I decided to call it the Master Maintenance Plan.  The plan would have to address three major areas of the Constance Marie: structure, features and finishes. According to This Old Boat it is helpful to remember these as layers of the boat:

STRUCTURE:  These are the hull and deck, hatches and portholes, bulkheads, rigging, sails and engine. These components are central to the boat's integrity and essential to her function

FEATURES: Anything that is bonded, bolted or screwed to the structure. These include built-in cabinets and accommodations, appliances, lights, cleats, winches, handrails, electronics and cushions. These features add comfort, versatility and perhaps security.

FINISHES:  This is the gelcoat or paint on the hull and deck, laminate on the bulkheads and counters, the oil or varnish on the teak, the fabric on the cushions.  This layer has two functions:

1. Preserve whatever is underneath the surface of the decks.
2. Improve the appearance of the boat.

Figure 5 - Master Maintenance Plan of the Constance Marie (click to enlarge)

Taking these three layers, I designed a Microsoft Excel-based spreadsheet that showed each of these layers in rows and and priorities in columns.  Priorities were deemed "Immediate", "Less Urgent" and "Someday". To these were added addtional columns for estimate and actual costs for parts and labor and the same for effort to complete.  A column to the left identifies the project number in the sequence in which the projects were to be completed.

The next step was to create a simple bill of material (BOM) for the first half-a-dozen projects that I thought I would soon be doing.  The purpose of the BOM is to list the name of the project, the parts and tools available or needed and the description of each.  See the example below:

Figure 6
Project Bill of Material (BOM)

Now, I live 10 minutes from our yacht club and its boatyard.  How many of you have traveled over an hour or more to get to that same boatyard and realized that you forgot a tool, a part, or some support equipment like a portable heater.  This BOM was designed to help plan out each of the projects listed on the aforementioned Master Maintenance Plan.

Lesson Learned: It's a good idea to have 5-6 BOMs completed and ready to go so that when you have the time to knock one off, you are all set.  You don't have to stay to a particular order as motivation to accomplish will vary over time.  

Keep the BOMs in a three ring notebook containing the Master Maintenance Plan so you can easily take them with you.  Of course, now that we have a list of the tools, parts and equipment we need for the project we need to determine what is already on-hand and what we need to buy.  Don't know about the rest of you, but as for me, I use any project to ask myself, "what new tool can I buy because I have this project(s) to do"?  Hey, a certain amount of toys is necessary to maintain a guys personna, and also to help the economy, right?   

The final tool in the plan, is the Procurement Master. The Procurement Master is also an excel-based tool and part of the Master Maintenance Plan.  It is basically a rolling spreadsheet listing all the parts, their description, date needed, estimated and actual costs, chosen supplier and their contact information and all this cross-walked to a particular project as listed on the Master Maintenance Plan.

How many times have I searched the internet for the likely vendors who might carry a part or a tool that is needed.  Many times those sources come from word of mouth from members of the club and many times it takes hours of conversation on the club's front porch to get to the subject matter.  So the Procurement Master is my respository for research done once and recorded so that when Peter, Paul or Pius sails again with me and steps on the solar exhaust fan, I don't have to worry about replacing it. Oh, hello Pius! :)


Figure 7 - Procurement Plan of the Constance Marie (Click to enlarge)

Well, thanks to these tools, I now know what needs to be done, in what priority, what I have on-hand to do the work and what I need to buy to complete the project.  Whew...I am exhausted!

Winter is coming.....the sky is falling

It's been a couple of weeks since putting the Constance Marie up on her boatstands.  The wooden footers were not in good shape but they are working to hold Her up.  I was beginning to realize that this was going to be more than a weekend workshop project. I have spent my earlier career as a logistician in the Fortune 1000 moving into Supply Chain Management as a Management Consulting and Technology in the 1990s and having started several small businesses.  What I learned about myself is that I hate to run things but love to start things and that I was gifted in bringing order from chaos. Once the chaos was gone, look out for the boredom. But I soon learned that for old boat owners, the chaos rolls like a wave...up and down, up and down!  Winter was fast approaching and common sense told me I needed to do some things to the boat to get Her ready for cold weather.  I received immediate help from a club member named Dale, soon to be a good friend,  who ran a trucking company most of his life and who knew diesel engines forwards and backwards.  His boat was stored only two postions from mine.  Dale helped me winterize the Constance Marie.  He didn't do it, as he instructed while I learned the ropes of winterization.

Figure 4 - Constance Marie second from the right

I was speaking a new language.  Pink Piss, raw water (like there is another kind?), impeller, sea cocks! Somehow we got the Constance Marie winterized despite me.  Anything that had water in it, including the bilge, got pink piss poured into it.  We ran the engine till pink piss was discharging from the exhaut. It looked like the Constance Marie was participating in a breast cancer regatta.  It would come to pass later on just how sick the old girl really was.  There were a lot of things that never got done that first winter like change the oil, all the filters, inspection of the belts and alternator, etc.  Up to now, it was react, react, react.  I did not feel in control.  They say that the word "BOAT" really means "BRING ON ANOTHER THOUSAND" like in bucks, moolah, greenbacks, dollar bills.  I did not want to see that happen without a plan as I had promised myself that all maintenance would be funded from monies made from extra sources of earned income and not from my full time job.  I needed a plan before the sky fell and crushed me.

What do I do next?

For anybody who has attempted a task that they knew nothing about, this should be a most familiar question.  Well today, we took the Constance Marie out of the water.  I would have liked to sail her as October is a beautiful month for sailing but my skills are not there yet to attempt going solo. Prior to pulling the Constance Marie from the mooring field, I learned that I had to take down the Genoa, unhook the forestay, set the dock lines and motor over to the dock so that the traveller can pull her out.  I took Russian in high school for four years, but this was the beginning of learning to speak "sailorese".  Genoa, is that not a brand of salami?  Forestay, isn't that something a couple does prior to getting serious! 


Figure 3
Not the Constance Marie but very much the "pulling" process

We positioned the Constance Marie getting her ready to be placed on her boatstands.  Right away I noticed that the marine plywood footers were older than sin. 

Lesson learned: Prepare your boat storage area the day before you pull your boat.  Check the stands welds, lubricate the screws, inspect the wooden tops and footers, lay landscape fabric under the entire area of your storage site.

Too late, we settled her and tightened, but not too tight, the boatstand screw supports that snuggled up to the hull.  I then realized that the storage location for the Constance Marie was between two mid-sized cruisers whose owners nobody at the yacht club had seen in 300-400 years.  I was told that I have the responsibility to be the good shepard and maintain the correct tightness of the boatstands for these adjacent "relics" of the previous century.  If I failed to do this, then be prepared for them to fill up with rainwater and incline themselves in your direction.   Ok now that the Constance Marie is settled in.  What do I do next?   I needed a plan.

The first thing I did was to get hold of the professional surveyor who did the last survey of the Constance Marie.  To someone who knows nothing about sail boats, the 153 things he commented on in his report drove my posterior quickly to find a chair to settle my thoughts. 

Lesson learned:  Have someone do a survey on the boat before you close the deal.

One of the yacht club members told me to buy a copy of the book "This Old Boat".  He said it would lay everything out for me.  So I did.  Several days later, my nose was glued to the pages of that wonderful resource.  Good ideas, when they present themselves, are put into action with patience and prudence.  Both traits lacking in most men.  When I find out the guy who has been praying for patience for me, look out!  The ideas of a plan began to flow.  I learned in my field of work that big problems can be divided up into smaller tasks and over a period of time, significant progress can occur.  Within This Old Boat I found the framework I was looking for that encompassed a project orientation within a practical approach.

Hmmm....let's see, the problem is we have a 32 year old sailboat that has been used for local cruising.  Engine, exterior lights, electrical AC and DC, water tight portals and hatches were all known to be unreliable.  The problem seemed overwhelming.  But, I do know she floats with no below the waterline leaks!  Olivia is always telling me to look for the good in everything. This was the fact to a positive start that I needed.