Many here have expressed an interest in what's going on with us; I
just posted this to the Morgan lists:


By the way, how are your repairs going? We've had some delays on our end
but we should be heading your way Tuesday of next week.

Hope this helps.

Chris and Robin Blair
SV Eliza

Hi, Chris/Robin and list,

Once I get the ENCs sorted out (Maptech made them; surely, if not
already,
there will be a capn reader for them), I have the entire NOAA
inventory
available, and as you've pointed out, up to date instantly. I don't
know
how the capn works WRT duplicate charts - I presume it chooses the
most
recent to display - but I may have to spend some time removing
duplicates;
that's a very minor nuisance.

Work on Flying Pig is poking (pardon the expression) along. Lydia's
redone
the boot stripe and reveal strip, finishing yesterday, and has laid on
the
first coat of AwlSpar, the undercoating for AwlBrite, the exterior
varnish
treatment we'll use for the cap rail on the cockpit, matching the toe
rail.
I've added more epoxy to a couple of places where more was needed in
areas
we've redone on the bulkhead retabbing/reattaching. Some pix will be
up
soon on those items.

Generally speaking, we're so happy we could do cartwheels. As
identified in
our initial assessment, there's nothing which can't be cured with a
great
deal of labor (and a relatively small amount of parts/supplies). I'm
currently working on a "thanksgiving" post for my log; the number of
areas
for which we're thankful is immense. So, labor being the majority of
the
expense, and our doing it nearly all ourselves (the replacement of the
solar
panel, and other electrical stuff, in the interest of time, is being
done by
the original contractor, but he's taken the position that the
departure of
the KISS had to have been something he mis-did in the original
installation,
and is replacing that free, the special shock mounting unit [usually
noise
reduction measure for those sleeping directly below a KISS, but a non-
issue
for us, as it was totally quiet] which will allow removal in another
case of
a short travel lift [the yard in Marathon's lift was so old they had
to
remove the backstay to lift us, and cut off the KISS mounting pole to
get
off the boat when they dropped us] being the only cost in that part),
it is
really gratifying to see all the work done without the usual pile of
receipts on the Nav. Even the epoxying (and later engine/drivetrain
realignment/test for runout) is a tradeout with a shipwright in our
yard for
the time I spent in Ft. Lauderdale helping him get a charity boat
ready for
delivery to this yard for refit.

Essentially, we're confident that Flying Pig will be returned to
entirely
sound condition. I have no need for one, we being uninsurable, but
I'm
thinking of having a survey (insurance grade) by our most picky of
surveyors, the one who used to be Quality Control and Service Manager
for
Morgan during the entire production run of M46x, just for
confirmation, and
later record should things change, or for the inevitable time
somewhere long
in the future where we sell her. He's assured me that if we're doing
as we
have (and as is my wont, documenting it copiously with pix), he'd have
no
problem with signing off on us as as good as new. Actually, of
course, as
we have already/now go about replacing and upgrading systems, the
boat's
substantially better than the usual M46, as most won't have had all
that
unless someone's just done a refit. However, the point of that would
be to
dispel any concerns - ours, our families', and any future interested
parties
(insurance, new owners, etc.) - of seaworthiness once finished.

As we go through the boat, we've found that the bulkhead
delamination/detabbing is actually pretty localized, and the start and
end
points are pretty much visible. When we epoxy those areas, we're
compressing (jacking, in essence) the existing fiberglass to cause the
epoxy
to further penetrate the wood, and put the glass fiber flap back in
position. We're using a one-to-one mixture which, if not in a pile
where
heat accelerates it, takes about 4 hours to fully set, so penetration,
as
well as flowing into open areas, is very good. So, we're happy to say
that
we believe we'll have substantially all of the damaged areas reset,
and
those which we can't reach on which to do compression, we've been
flowing
epoxy into, allowing it to set (not overflowing the downhill parts,
including doing some modeling clay damming to hold those areas we
can't
compress from overflowing out of the joint), and doing it again, thus
making
the same bond, but without compression, as the rest of it. In
addition,
we're bonding some places where there were only 'holding' tabs -
typically,
settee, vanity, cabinet and reefer fronts, which as original had only
one
side tabbed, and open space in all the rough-cut fits - further adding
to
the reinforcement of the adjacent bulkheads' repairs. As such, I have
no
concerns whatsoever, after we've had a rigging survey, and, should
there be
any issues there, having addressed them, on the integrity of our fine
craft.

Still lots of work to be done, but we're doing it ourselves, and
acquiring
more skills and confidence as we go. We've moved our Captain's course
time
to a couple of weeks from now, rather than coming back in June,
avoiding the
necessity of finding someplace to secure our boat, doing the travel
from
wherever we were at the time, finding someplace to stay, dealing with
local
transport (on the presumption that we'll pass along the vehicle we
were
given) and allowing us to continue work, perhaps do sea trials in the
weekdays not in classes (testing on May 7), and even, perhaps, get to
enjoy
some of St. Petersburg's lovely attributes.

Thanks for asking :{))

L8R

Skip, off to AirFest2007 at McDill, watching numerous flying non-pigs

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog and/or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog

There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its
hands.

You seek problems because you need their gifts.

Skip Gundlach wrote:
Many here have expressed an interest in what's going on with us; I
just posted this to the Morgan lists:

snip a long post on fixing up SV Flying Pig

Skip,

Now that you've discovered the wonders of epoxy,
and how easy it is to repair plastic boats, there
will be no holding you back.

Also, after that experience of pounding on the
reef for a while with all sorts of dreadful
conclusions going through your head, I'll bet you
never touch ground accidentally again ;-)

Don W.

On Mar 31, 10:37 am, Don W
wrote:

Now that you've discovered the wonders of epoxy,
and how easy it is to repair plastic boats, there
will be no holding you back.

Also, after that experience of pounding on the
reef for a while with all sorts of dreadful
conclusions going through your head, I'll bet you
never touch ground accidentally again ;-)

Don W.

Hi, Don, and List,

Heh. I already knew about epoxy from the massive blister job we did
last summer. What I hadn't known about, and as glad to learn, was
about polyester, the material used to rebuild our boat before the
epoxy barrier coat went on over the repairs. However, you're right
about no holding us back. As dismaying as being uninsurable is on
first thought, we realize that short of a whale getting angry at us,
it's unlikely we'll hit anything hard enough to hole our boat - and if
it ain't got a hole in it, it won't sink. And, if we manage to get
banged up, however it happens, we can fix it. Gloriously, fiberglass
and resin (of whatever sort) is relatively cheap, and if we continue
to maintain a large reserve, as well as - if we can - continue to
build the boat kitty by watching our pennies, we should be all right
in any eventuality.

As to never accidentally touching ground again, if you define ground
as stuff which isn't usually wet, I think you're right about that.
However, I fully expect we'll not only touch bottom again, there may
even be times we'll have to get pulled off, or wait a long time to
float off. Any sailor who sez they've never been aground hasn't left
the dock, or started yesterday :{)) Over in the Island Packet list
there's a thread about how the extremely well experienced and, of
course, highly qualified, captain of the QEII ran her aground at full
throttle near Boston. One of Nigel Calder's seminars features his
comments and observations on how many times he's gone aground (and how
he's gotten off, pertinent to his topic). I figure that if the QEII
captain and Nigel can admit to going aground, I won't be embarrassed
to doing so once in a while. Besides, rather than have the travel
lift pull us up, or us dig out under it, the bottom of the keel isn't
well painted. Gotta polish it every so often :{))

Thanks for your interest...

L8R

Skip

On 1 Apr 2007 06:24:13 -0700, "Skip Gundlach"
wrote:

As to never accidentally touching ground again, if you define ground
as stuff which isn't usually wet, I think you're right about that.
However, I fully expect we'll not only touch bottom again, there may
even be times we'll have to get pulled off, or wait a long time to
float off. Any sailor who sez they've never been aground hasn't left
the dock, or started yesterday :{))

That's all true but avoidance is still the best line of defense.

Speaking to that issue, I'm wondering if you've had a chance to fully
come to grips with the circumstances of your recent mishap, and put
together a plan of action for future prevention. I've studiously
avoided any public comment on what should or should not have been
done, but certainly have a few opinions based on my own experience if
you're interested. More important however are your thoughts.