Flybridge renovation

Water was leaking into the salon from where the helm chair was through bolted on the flybridge.  We took this as an opportunity to make the flybridge more comfortable and better looking.

We first removed the two original back to back seats, the helm chair and the pedestal.

I used a circular saw to cut the top fiberglass and foam core into sections.  I know foam was not original to the mainship so this must have been done by a previous owner.

He should have used plywood under the helm chair as the foam compressed and caused the leak.  The foam came up pretty easily.

Chisel, prybar, and a small putty knife worked well.

I sanded and cleaned the cut out area.

Ready for the 3/4 marine plywood.  I filled the old bolt holes with thickened epoxy.

 I did a lot of sanding to smooth things out as much as possible.

I cut the plywood to fit the hole and coated with three layers of west epoxy.

I filled the gaps with more west epoxy and then faired the edges.

I put three layers of glass and two extra layers over the edges.  After it dried I then used thicken epoxy to smooth out the whole thing.

I removed the old indoor-outdoor carpet that lined the inside of the flybridge.  It was just rough fiberglass underneath.  I did some sanding of the very rough spots and made it as smooth as possible.

The carpet went all around the inside and was falling apart and making a mess of everything.  It came off fairly easily.

I used two coats of Pettit epoxy primer and two coats of Pettit EZPoxy paint.

The four coats of epoxy paint and primer smoothed out the rough fiberglass walls and really cleaned up things on the flybridge.

I then put the pedestal and helm chair back on.  I through bolted the pedestal and used lots of 4200 to seal the holes from leaks.  So far, so good.

 I ordered some pontoon seating from Veada Industries.  http://veada.com/  A 26" seat and a 28" radius fit perfectly between the rails of the flybridge.  These are the Regatta series.

 I then added a 55" seat to make a great seating area.  I bolted the seats together but have not screwed them into the deck.  There is storage that is waterproof under the seats.

 We got this wonderfully comfortable helm chair from Arrigoni Design at the Newport Boat Show.  https://www.arrigonidesign.com/  It fit on our existing pedestal and is invaluable for long cruises.

 I found this table top mount that is very adjustable at https://www.lagunusa.com/

I had a starboard table made at http://www.deepbluemarine.com/

This is our new dining area in good weather, and bad weather if we put the side curtains down.

 I covered the flybridge with one coat of Kiwi Grip cream color.  http://www.pyiinc.com/KiwiGrip/

 I found it easy to apply by following the instructions.  One gallon covered most of the flybridge with very little left over.  I did not do under the pontoon seating or the corner behind the ladder.  If you needed to do this you would need more than one gallon.

 You can apply Kiwi grip over old non skid.  It does a great job of hiding messy decks.

 You can choose how rough you want the finish to be.

This is a close up of the dried Kiwi Grip.

I also removed quite a bit of dead wires from the flybridge.

Cockpit ladder steps from Plasteak

I replaced the teak steps on my cockpit ladder with Plasteak.  I think they look great and no maintenance.

https://www.plasteak.com/

Swim Platform

One of my winter 16/17 projects was to clean up the teak swim platform.  I had to grind off the old bolts holding the platform to the angle brackets, they were frozen tight.  I then brought it home to the basement to work on over the winter.

This is what is looked like before cleaning.  Lots of flaking varnish.

A lot of dirt too.

Really needs work.

I wanted a platform that looked good with not too much maintenance.  I sanded with 80 grit using my random orbital sander.  I sanded between the slats with a dremel tool and drum sander.  If you use a dremel for this put it on a slower speed so you don't damage the teak while sanding.

After sanding, I put on three coats of Semco Teak Sealer.  Very easy to apply and looks good.  Semco says that it only needs to be re-applied twice per year.  We will see.

Here it is installed back on the boat.

It looks much better, but now the two ladder steps look like crap and will have to be re-done also.

 Rebuilding rear wall 

     We had some water intrusion that rotted a portion of the rear wall.  We resolved the problem by removing the side stanchions and lifelines.  I always thought they were in my way when I walked along the side decks.  They would trip me up constantly.

     Part of the floor was also rotted out.  We had a little demolition to rip out the rotted wood.

     There was an inside wall and an outside wall that needed to be removed and rebuilt.

     I also replaced the teak sole under the wall.

     I used 5/8 marine plywood with three coats of west system epoxy and three coats of Petit epoxy paint.  Hopefully if it gets wet again it won't rot.   I used the old pieces as templates.

     I replaced the floor piece with 3/4 marine plywood with three coats of epoxy.

     I also replaced the side paneling with new laminate over the old paneling.  It brightened up the salon a bit.

          Installation went well and I have not had anymore leaking problems.

 Newport Sail for Hope

October 2016

     Elaine and I went over to the dark side for a day in October.  We again participated in the Newport Sail for Hope race.  We sailed on White Wolf, a Morgan 38, with our friend Jeff Schuldheiss.

     There was almost no wind and the "race around the island turned into a "drift" down the bay.  We ended up withdrawing and cruising around Newport harbor and having a great lunch.

     There was an after party at the Newport Boat Yard and lots of money was raised for the Red Cross.

Brewer Mystic CT cruise

August 18-21

Start time and hours               8:00                 3222.67

End time and hours                 3:10                 3229.85

     On Thursday August 18 we left home to cruise to the Brewer Mystic yard.  The weather and seas were calm.  We cruised past Point Judith and over to Watch Hill.  After rounding Watch Hill and entering Fishers Island sound we encountered a strong tide against us.  It was between 2-3 knots all the way to the entrance to Mystic harbor.

     https://www.byy.com/marinas/brewer-yacht-yard-at-mystic-mystic-ct/      The Brewer Mystic was easy in and out with the boat.  Most of the boats are bow in.   They had only one dock hand on duty and he was at the fuel dock.  He would come over to help is asked but we docked with no problems.  The docks are new or being replaced.  The showers were clean, the pool and hot tub were refreshing.  There are grills at the end of every dock and they were clean when I used them. 

     On Thursday night we made the short 25 minute walk to downtown.  We went to The Engine Room   http://www.engineroomct.com/  for dinner.  The beer menu was less than what I expected and the menu choices were lacking so we just had an appetizer and beer and left.  We then went over to the S&P Oyster Company   http://sp-oyster.com/  for dinner.  They are located on the water next to the draw bridge.  The food was very good, I had monkfish, Elaine had a seafood trio.  We walked downtown a little bit and then went back to the boat.

     On Friday we went to Mystic Seaport  http://www.mysticseaport.org/  .  It was about a 30 minute walk.  There was a lot of interesting things to see and do.  We had lunch at Latitude 41 http://www.coastalgourmetct.com/latitude41/   which was located right next to the Seaport.  They have great outside seating overlooking the upper Mystic river.  The food was very good but the service was just OK. 

     We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring downtown Mystic http://mysticdowntown.org/ 

They have some fun shops and great ice cream.

August 20

Start time and hours               7:15                 3229.12

End time and hours                 3:15                 3242.65

     On Saturday we left Mystic and cruised to Bristol for the night.  The tides were against us almost the whole way and really slowed us down.  We reserved a mooring ball from Bristol Marine  http://www.bristolmarine.com/visiting/bristol  It was a little windy and it took a few tries to get the ball but we did and settled down nicely.  Barry and Suzanne Shapiro on SPRAY joined us for the evening.  I like Bristol Marine because they will take you to downtown Bristol when Bristol Yarcht Club will not.  Walking is almost two miles.  

     We had dinner at Redlefsen’s  http://www.redlefsens.com/    The food there is always great and they have real German beer.  They also have a patio so Lucy can join us.

August 21, 2016

Start time and hours               10:15               3239.12

End time and hours                 11:45               3242.65

      We left Bristol harbor mid morning and cruised back home to Cowesset.