N1EE wrote:
Your spring project reports are due soon. (10 pts)

Well, since I'm working on the boat pretty much full time, I don't
really have any "spring" projects. But here is a list of what is
currently going on:

Final stages of installing heater: wiring 12V power to the main board,
insulating the exhaust (which involves wrapping a special hi-temp "spun
ceramic" (does that sound better then just plain "fiberglass"?) tape
around the exhaust pipe inside the welded-on heat shield... not fun),
filling & testing the water loop, finish the mounting & insulating of
the water loop hoses, route the air intake. Maybe by summer the heater
will be working!

Installing remote mike/speaker/control head for VHF radio.

Clean engine heate exchangers, install new hose.

Install new raw water impeller.

Rebuild battery platform (already done this for the genset start
battery)... btw a great source of strong rot & rust proof material is
thick plastic cutting board. It's resistant to battery acid too and a
really big one costs $7 at Wal-Mart or the like. Much cheaper than
Star-Board!

Remake fuel system connection with slow (1 drop every 3 days) leak.

Install check valve in fuel line to genset.

Build up spoke/hub of steering wheel to make it less wobbly. I have to
have at least one ongoing job invovling WEST epoxy.

Later this year I'm going to install a new house battery bank. To show
what involved, the first step is cutting a hatch in the fore cabin sole
to get access under that space. One reason the heater project has taken
so long is that every little step has required the massive amounts of
planning, re-planning, and eons of labor.


My report: Hull Fairing and Painting Project

Hoo-ee... now there's a LOT of labor. I've faired some boats 24' and
smaller. One thing to do that makes it easier to see what's happening is
to use different colors, just t little, in each successive batch of
fairing compound. I feel it should not take more than three passes to
get it all perfect (although on a 46' hull, each pass represents a HUGE
amount of labor) otherwise you're just plastering it on and sanding it
off. But the results are really nice... fairing the hull was the single
biggest go-fast improvement I did to the Lightning.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King