Thnis appeared in another usenet group I follow, and thought it might
be of interest here (stay tuned for news of splashing in a week or so):

From: maryanne kehoe - view profile
Date: Fri, Sep 22 2006 7:24 pm
Email: (maryanne kehoe)
Groups: atl.general

???

From: Skip Gundlach - view profile
Date: Mon, Oct 2 2006 3:44 am
Email: "Skip Gundlach"
Groups: atl.general


maryanne kehoe wrote:
???

Well, nobody else has spoken up, so I'll start.

I've been a bit busy lately, so I didn't see this until this morning -
Hi, NC - when I woke up at 2:30, scratching with an allergic reaction
to the stuff I've been grinding off the bottom of the boat. Could be
bottom paint (heavy copper content), could be fiberglass, or perhaps
epoxy resin. Maybe all three.

In any event, I caught it before it got to the stage it did a couple
of weeks ago, where it had gone for a couple of days and I woke up at
about the same time, my arm on fire, got into the car and went off to
WalMart to get some cortisone cream.

No such luck. Had no impact at all. I've since learned that plain old
vinegar is better, along with some heavier prescription corticosteroid
lotion, but, chiefly, accompanied by a massive dose of benadryl
equivalent, which both knocks down the histamine reaction but knocks me
out. So, in about half an hour, I'll have difficulty focusing my eyes,
and go back to bed, getting up with some difficulty a few hours later.
Back to the Sonny-do list...

Earlier this week, and earlier tonight, too (pictures in the current
gallery), I reinstalled the transmission after resolving various bolts
stripping out the aluminum part into which they mounted. But mostly
I've been grinding and then sanding out the problems with the bottom of
the boat.

Now that all of that is put to bed, I'll go off (later) today to fetch
the drive shaft which will be reinstalled. I'll also install the new
shaft bearing on the outside of the boat, and the special bearing on
the inside of the boat which keeps the water out (three rules of
boating - keep the water out of the boat, keep the boat on top of the
water, stay in the boat!). Then I'll install the coupling which will
mate it to the transmission and lightly secure it. I'll not realign the
shaft to the transmission/engine for a couple of weeks after it goes
back in the water (a week this morning, if all goes well), because the
boat's been on its keel and 7 jackstands for over 2.5 years, and will
need to regain its water shape, which has distorted from sitting only
partly supported. Once the shape has returned, we're hopeful the
alignment will fall back into place. Otherwise, fine-tuning the motor
mounts in 3-D will surely be on the list.

And, once all that's finished, I'll reassemble the adjustable pitch
feathering propellor, grease it, and reinstall that, too. Then I'll
tackle the water flow through the transmission cooler, after which the
boat *could* be put in the water. Before then, though, I'll have
finished replumbing the supply and waste lines in the aft bathroom, and
reinstalling the toilet, which will free up the bathtub, where it's
been sitting for way too long, awaiting that day.

That's just the short list; there's a very long list after that.
What's on everyone else' list?

We start sea trials in less than a month, if all continues to go as
planned. Up to this point, it has been impossible to forecast - but
we're finally on the short list (yes, I know, I said there's a long
list - but the list of what's been done before now is enormous), so at
least predictions in the weeks-ahead vs months/years-ahead are
possible!

L8R

Skip (and Lydia, who's been laying up all that new fiberglass filling
the holes I've ground)

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery!
Follow us at and


"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing,
messing-about-in-boats; messing about in boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

I'm not quite sure what a "Sonny do" list is,
although I think I get the gist.

One month ago, I spent three 100F+ days repairing
the keel and bilge of our Catalina 27. The repair
included referring the keel and installing
stiffener plates in the bilge along with new keel
nuts.

The Catalina is currently at the Fiberglass shop
with a new bottom job, and freshly buffed and
waxed topsides. It looked so good when it was
finished that we decided to re-gelcoat the deck
while we were at it. My wife and I spent all day
yesterday stripping every bit of hardware off of
the deck, and pulling everything out of the
interior as well. I finished the last of the deck
hardware this morning by removing the rub rail (a
bazillion screws...) While the fiberglass shop
does deck repairs and re-gelcoats the deck, I'll
be spending the week power sanding, staining,
refinishing, (and building new as necessary)
interior woodwork. Oh yes, and re-painting the
1996 Yamaha 4-stroker. Its amazing what that
Texas sun does to paint left outdoors all the time.

When the fiberglass shop is finished with the
deck, we will re-bed and re-install all of the
hardware, re-install the interior, and re-mount
the engine. In the meantime, we are making custom
sunbrella covers for everything so that hopefully
the re-finished teak will look good for a while.

I'm not sure that this amount of effort was a sane
thing to do for a 1979 model Catalina, but have
you priced the new ones lately? They've jumped
quite a bit with the high oil prices. This way
we'll have a nice lake sailboat without spending a
ton of money, and we'll know what has been done to
the boat--unlike when you purchase a used one.

Meanwhile, the rudder to our Irwin Citation 38 is
in the garage awaiting repairs, and we are still
re-bedding and caulking trying to get all of the
rainwater leaks stopped. Since the Irwin is on
the coast 3 hours drive time away, this fun work
takes place every other weekend.

Awwwww... We'll get there eventually. At least
that's what I keep telling myself ;-)

Don W.

Don W wrote:
The repair included referring the keel and installing
stiffener plates in the bilge along with new keel nuts.

Darn spellchecker... that should be re-fairing the
keel

Don W.