Replacement cockpit drains - Take Two

18-19 July 2014

I don't think I mentioned this before, so....

The small brass fittings I installed about two seasons ago (here) were really too small.  After making a big deal out of putting them in, I decided to replace them with the very idea I have been advising other H25 owners to do for many years.

The original H25 drains were RC Marelon through-hulls straight out the back wall of the cockpit-- necessitating that water either climb up the 5/8" threshold to flow out or else stay in the cockpit pan.  I installed the little brass drains in the sole itself, fitted them with 90-degree elbows and though them good enough.  After consulting with my friend Roland (SV Moonshine) about his solo Atlantic crossing, I decided too big can never be big enough.

The fix I have been long suggesting for this entails the fitting of a rigid fiberglass tube straight out the very bottom corner of the cockpit pan through the transom.  In what has to be the most productive two two-hour work sessions I have ever had on this boat (even in the face of predicted rain), I drilled the holes, bedded these into place, removed the old ones and filled and faired the old holes.  I did one one day and one the next, after a full day of work each time.  It impressed even myself!

 

Here's the view from the cockpit.  The tubes are 1" inside, 1-1/4" outside diameter, pressed fiberglass, ordered from McMaster-Carr.  It was about $21 for one 60-inch piece, which, cut in half, fit perfectly for this application.  I deliberately made the cut on an angle, twisting each tube in its hole in order to fill the corner (shorter side inboard).  Bedded in 5200 and faired with WEST epoxy and Microlight, they look like they were molded there.

 

At the transom I allowed the excess length to just stick out and, when the epoxy had dried, cut them shorter with a hacksaw and used the orbital sander to smooth them over.  This picture doesn't show it so well, but the factory's installation wasn't symmetrical-- one old hole (filled as of this picture) will appear closer to the new tube than the other side.  I just eyeballed the site from above, applied a ruler and made them lead  out parallel to the centerline, straight aft from the corners of the cockpit pan.

The green tape covers the HIN.  I got some epoxy into it a while ago and decided to preclude any more messing it up.

The other two through-hulls are the Marelon ones I installed for the bilge pumps.

 

Looking under the cockpit the downward angle and parallel leads are seen clearly.  The duct tape is part of one of my 'mooyock' solutions for filling holes.  When the old through-hulls were taken out (with hammer and chisel), I taped over the holes in the inside and made up 'communion wafers' of fiberglass to stuff into the voids from the outside with epoxy.  Why try to fill a hole that's overhead or angled so that the epoxy will only dribble out?

This isn't a great view of it, but below the tubes is a little floor I installed aft of the low bulkhead in the foreground.  This low bulkhead, a little higher than the waterline, will contain water from any rudder-post leaks in the event of a rudder strike (which should be high on the list of any sailor's worst nightmares).  A small hole, here seen stained in epoxy, is fitted with a brass tube which will accommodate one of those little rubber transom-drain plugs.  It's not the most secure arrangement; but it's much better than having nothing at all in the event of this happening, for which Stephen Dashew says your best scenario is to crack the rudder blade.  Any other possibility involves catastrophic damage to the hull-- and, with your average production spade-rudder boat, probably the end of your voyage.

 

This pic, with the fuel tank in place, shows the upper end of the cockpit-drain tube.  With the little brass things in place, there had to be an elbow over the back edge of the tank that seriously complicated attaching fuel hoses and intruded on space for removing the tank.  Now this is practically structural-- no worries for stuff in the lazzarette weighting down the drain hoses till they fail or pop off.

(The dark spot on the tank is an old epoxy spill, not a leak or any damage.  This tank has been kicking about this boat for very long, getting dusty and spilled-upon, and only now (September) is is finally in its place for good.  Of course I've kept all the openings well taped-up!)

* * *

Finally! --it's paint.

9-10 October 2014

I have been procrastinating the hull paint on this boat for an inordinate time.  This is really 'just because' --I truly haven't felt like investing the time and effort into it till now.  But I've had the gallon kit of Interlux Primekote for a while, just for when I decided to do it, and so I finally bowed to the constant encouragement of my friend and boatyard neighbor Jerry (C44 Second Alarm) and together we attacked this.

 

(The spots on the bottom are my repair of some hull cracks that had spread through the Pettit Protect barrier coating that I applied last year.  Discovering these was distressing; but I've been determined to have this boat done properly and so the Dremel took was applied right through it and WEST epoxy, with milled fibers as filler, was troweled into the gouges.  As of now it's really pretty good.)

 

Jerry did the rolling and I was going to try tipping it, for which I bought a couple of really good brushes, but we found that Primekote doesn't want to be tipped.  We also found that it should be thinned more than the 20% the label advises-- I approximated about 25% (or a little more) into each batch.  We mixed 5 batches of about 20 ounces each and this did a little more than two full coats of the hull.  Jerry was a champion with the rolling and really made the paint spread well with virtually no heavy spots.

 

Earlier pics will show the extensive repair on the transom.  Upon removing the center-mounted backstay tang, I discovered its load had sort of impressed upon the transom, creating a hollow.  I filled this with new 'glass and plenty of WEST epoxy with Microlight.  With Jerry's help I sanded the entire hull with 80 grit, and then 120 grit, using DryGuide, this marvelous black powder that, applied to the hull before sanding, illustrates clearly where your highs and lows are.  Sand it all off and it's fair-- and, amazingly, that stuff does not lie.  This hull is incredibly fair-- and, in some places, fairer than it was fresh from the factory!

 

I haven't seen this transom all one color since I brought the boat up to Delran!

 

This poor boat had numerous close encounters with pilings and the like, to the point where some PO cut off a section of bow rail to effect a repair.  I took this off again to repair his repair and left it off for the painting.  By some odd coincidence this is the very section of rail that needs to be cut down to accommodate the anchor roller (as it's tradition for sailboats to have the primary anchor rode to starboard).  The whole nose has been redone with 'glass, Microlight, milled fibres, and endless sanding.  Now in the bright white Primekote it looks almost done.

The holes formerly occupied by the hull-mounted running lights will be fitted with teardrop-shaped black Plexiglas windows, giving light to the forepeak locker and finishing off the bow in a familiar way.  I'm putting little blue LED lights in here (called 'docking lights' on the breaker panel) to represent Diana's personality.

* * *

Inner-forestay support

This pertains to the pole-lift/inner staysail idea I've had for a while.  The blog post is here: http://dianaofburlington.blogspot.com/2012/08/internal-pole-lift.html

In fitting an inner forestay, even if it's a detachable one, the foredeck needs to be reinforced.  Though I've filled all the rotten core adequately, the deck alone won't support something that amounts to a chainplate and may be called upon, in a catastrophe, to support the rig as the only surviving headstay.  So I decided upon a "horse", a structure going athwartships at this point.  Here is my original drawing (on the piece of plywood I would use for the crossmember/deck beam).

Below is shown the initial structure, two short little bulkheads in the forepeak, aligned with a couple of sticks.  The stick under the starboard-side shelf is propping up the shelf from its as-built position, as it was both angled downwards inboard and also too low.  The cleat on the forward bulkhead (what used to be the rode locker)  is aligning the two shelves more or less evenly; though the starboard-side one, once leveled, is too high by 1/4".  Such is the nature of budget-minded mass-produced yachts of the 1970s.

Of course these pieces narrowed the space considerably.  I had trouble wedging my out-of-shape self forward of this to disconnect the running-light wiring (along the port side) which kept getting in the way; so I decided to cut out the bulkheads a little.

I am always wary of amorphous shapes like this (such as on the back of the Hyundai Sante Fe SUV, which is downright hideous) so I just used a 4" sanding block to scribe a line parallel to the hull and deck all round.  This picture shows the cutout with the crossmember in place.  The bulkheads are 3/8" and the crossmember is 1/2".  I use mainly good-quality cabinet-grade plywood, well-saturated in epoxy and sealed in epoxy paint (these will be done in Easypoxy).  The void to port is for the wiring, which here I have tucked back out of the way.

 

Pretty cool how the bow-locker door hinges open and fits into the curve of this new bulkhead; huh?  (Should I say I planned it this way?)

(And, yes; this is where the microwave goes.  I've written on this before.)

On most budget-minded production boats, the V-berth shelf is meant mainly to stiffen the hull above the bunktop, as this tends to be the longest and highest section of otherwise-unsupported fiberglass hull on most boats.  It's not there to be useful; and most of the time the fiddles on the shelf are so miniscule as to be only for show.  Determined to have a proper forepeak, I made these high enough (6" inside) to contain plenty of gnarly gear that will accummulate here, like fenders, mooring lines, a mooring pennant, spare tackle, and probably even a couple of sailbags (Diana's main and jib already share a bag that would fit in here as it is).  The fiddles are made of 1/4" plywood, just decent cabinet-grade lauan that I had got to finish some Barbie dollhouses for my kids.  I cut them down forward of the new bulkheads to allow the little door (the only cabinet door with hinges in the whole boat) to open fully.

 

Above is to go a mahogany plank, about 4" wide and 1/2" thick, to serve as a backing plate for the deck winch (which serves the anchor rode), the mooring cleat, and the inner-forestay attachment fitting, as well as the aesthetic purpose of representing the centerline.  Originally I made this for the full length of the space; but I will cut it and fit two pieces to the fore and aft of this crossmember.  It occurs to me to have some really nice bright white LED floodlights under the deck, forward of this, to illumine the whole compartment.

Along the deck, against the hull, kind of like a facia meant to hide the toerail bolts, I will fit a wooden cleat between the new bulkheads and the (new) chain-locker bulkheads, on which can be mounted hooks and straps on which to hang line and sailbags and other stuff.

These pics were taken a few days ago.  As of today (Saturday, 24 May) I have applied a fillet of 5200 along the hull and, using WEST epoxy, 'glassed the bulkheads and crossmember into place.  When this is kicked-off I'll be painting this with semi-gloss Easypoxy.The original faux-teak forward bulkhead will be left as original; though when I replace the door I'll be replacing the tired old brass-plated-steel offset hinges with some in SS or chrome.  My daughter Rachel hand-painted ship's wheels and anchors onto some wooden knobs for my mother's kitchen cabinets recently; there is one left over and I may use it on this door.

Stay tuned for the pics of after I install the rode-locker bulkheads and trim up here.  I've mocked it up a few times and it's going to look really cool.

* * *

Diana's new stemhead fitting

I never liked the three-legged Hunter 25 pulpit and meant to replace it with something cooler from the very start.  This would mean cutting off the 7/8" stainless-steel stud from the stemhead fitting and polishing it over; but as Diana's PO had put her into some kind of close encounter with a piling, the original stemhead fitting was quite mangled and badly restraightened.  So I determined to make a new one.

I designed a very nice replacement part for this but found no one to make it at a reasonable price.  Then I happened to stumble across one on the Racelite web page and ordered it.  Though the dimensions on the site represented an adequate part, the actual thing seemed to represent them only nominally-- the thickness was not a true 1/8" and the length was entirely too short.  Rather typically I sat on this problem for over a year, working on other things, while I contemplated some solution.

Finally I ordered some flat stock, cut it to length, and sent it out to the local welders' with a pattern of the correct angle.  The part I received was simply beautiful.  I have begun to polish it and will finish it off before it's permanently installed.

 

You can see how the original part was only about 60 percent as long as it needed to be along the stem.  The flat stock welded to the part effectively doubles the thickness for the first three holes.  It is true that the tang for the forestay is still of the thin (original) stock; but as it's already thicker than were the shroud tangs I'll install it as it is and see if, as the rig is tuned, I get any elongation of the hole.  If that will be the case (which I doubt) I'll have it remedied with more welding.  As this Racelite part is meant for 20-to'22-footers, and as it's already meant to carry the load of 1/4" clevis pins, I'm betting it won't ever be a problem.

 

In this pic I have set the part on the bow to check the fit.  Thanks to my template the welder's work resulted in a perfect fit. You will see the gap behind the very top of the fitting-- this requires attention.  If I were to mount this as-is, two things would happen: Diana's J measurement (foot of the headsail) would be longer than that of a stock Hunter 25 by about 7/8"; and the natural stresses of a tuned and ruggedly-used rig would attempt to bend the fitting aftwards, putting the single screw through the deck into a shear load, and some distortion would occur.  This is why it is never wise to suspend rigging attachments over air, as would be done here.  I will fabricate a little block for in this gap, just something to support the compression load, and 'glass or epoxy it into place prior to paint and prior to attaching this fitting.

The horizontal pencil lines are marking where the mounting holes will go.  Only one of the original holes lined up.  I have a mahogany backing block for this, to be bedded in 5200 inside, and will drill new holes for the 1/4-20 hex-head cap screws.  Hex-heads are best for this sort of thing because you can put a ratchet and socket on each one and really tune them well.  Large-scale Phillips and, worse, slotted-head screws are really kind of pointless after a while.  A larger screw implies a larger load which means installation torque matters more.  No one can apply appropriate torque with a screwdriver handle.  I think the only reason people dislike hex-headed cap screws is because they make the boat look like Frankenstein's monster.  Personally, I like the look.  It's its own aesthetic.

The evident damage to the bow was from the PO.  The starboard-side toerail was cut to facilitate the fiberglass repair and reattached.  Coincidentally, this piece will have to be cut down to accommodate the anchor roller.  I'll fill the seam in the toerail with black 4000-UV to minimize the appearance of a crack.  Much of the old fiberglass repair was faired over with 3M filler (the grayer stuff).  The darker brown-olive is raw fiberglass from my sanding.  I have filled all the imperfections with both Evercoat 27 and epoxy and after painting with epoxy paint (Perfection or Brightside) this won't be visible or vulnerable.

The brown thing above the deck is the work-order tag from the welders'.  Mistakenly they wrote it up as being for my cousin Dave's shop; but this was my project and I contracted and paid for it.  (This happens a lot, actually.)

Sales pitch #1

If any other H25 owner is interested in having one of these parts, I will be happy to supply it.  It does, however, require a 4-legged pulpit; though I'd consider that an improvement.  I've designed an updated bow rail for Diana, along the lines of a J27's, complete with step-through end, varnished-mahogany seat/step with nonskid, and mount for Aqua Signal running light; though I'll be installing a plain-Jane castoff pulpit from another boat for the short term.

Sales pitch #2

Yes; the boat beside Diana, evident in one of these pics, is one of her sisters-- in this case a fellow February 1974 boat, this one the later trunk cabin/pop-top model.  They are both of the same series, Diana being number 027 and the other boat being 140.  At that time Hunter had two production lines of H25s at their Marlboro, New Jersey, plant; and I believe that the "0" signified the period's production series of "blister-canopy" or "flush-deck" models and the "1" signified the trunk-cabin models. If these boats were not on the production floor at the same time, they are probably not more than two weeks apart in age.

I have been referring to this other boat as "the sweet sister" and  hope to enter negotiations with her owner to take over her care and to restore her-- for she is still, even with an inadequate cover, in better condition than Diana was when I first found her and would represent a pretty easy, quick and profitable "quick fix" and resale.  She'll need some deck-core repair, paint, new cushions and upholstery, lifelines and probably cordage; and I do not know if there is an engine available.  But it wouldn't take much more than that for her to go sailing again.  As soon as Diana goes in I will have this boat shrink-wrapped and set a dehumidifier in her, to help preserve her.  Anyone interested is welcome to get in touch.

* * *

Cockpit drains

Hunter, in their infinite wisdom (read that: attempts to save money) devised a simple way to install cockpit drains in the back of the H25 cockpit.  I really cannot fault this too much because they spared the cockpit sole itself from the potential for damage; and indeed my 38-year-old balsa-cored cockpit floor is one of the soundest parts of the boat.  But by installing the through-hulls through the vertical after bulkhead of the cockpit they kept much of the water from running out.  You always had to sponge out the last 1/2" or so while people stood towards the rear of the boat to get it all to run down to the drains.

This was something I meant to remedy from the start.  I found some nylon drains by Starboard East (that's the brand name) having a flattened side, meant to go in a vertical bulkhead down low to the floor; but they are nylon and subject to UV-exposure damage and stems' cracking and this is not a place one wants to risk that.  After searching high and low I found what the plumbing guy called 'bar-sink drains', at 1 inch diameter (though I have 'bar-sink drains' in the head and galley sinks and they are 'standard' at 2 inches).  They are rugged, heavy brass, but not stainless-steel and will go green unless I paint them.

Here is the mess I started with.  In this photo the starboard drain has already been chopped out.  I left the port side one for later as the boat on its stands is sort of tilting to that side and rainwater will have to go somewhere.  I had once removed the old Marelon (nee RC Marine) through-hulls and rebedded them with 5200 to stop leaks when I first got the boat.  Now I just hacked them out with a chisel.

The flange itself, now separated from the stem, is standing next to the hole.

All the tools used are in the picture!

The next step was to fill the hole.  Here are shown the 'communion wafers' of fiberglass to be used for the fill.  I used about six of these for each hole. These are of 1708 biaxial, because it was what was available.  For a small job like this really any 'glass will do.  I would not use cloth alone; but if you had at least most of it done in plain mat it would be fine.




The smaller ones are for the other holes in the cockpit getting filled at the same time. (Yes; I used the one with the bite out of it.  It doesn't matter.)



My simple 'mooyock' system for this is to apply duct tape to the back or harder-to-get side (the outside of the hull, for example) and to fill from the front or upper side.  Why make life hard on yourself?


This photo shows the power of 5200-- the gash to the left of the hole itself is from the through-hull's parting from the 'glass and its 5200 taking some 'glass with it.

Here is a close-up of the port-side hole before filling.  Apparently I missed a little with the duct tape (doing it by feel with arm down port-side seat locker).

Here is the port-side hole filled.  This-- like all the rest of these holes about the cockpit-- will get sanded and faired with Microlight before Epoxy Primekote and paint.

There is nothing wrong with overfilling it, so long as it's with 'glass.  A patch like this is easy to sand flush and it's reassuring knowing you've got solid material completely filling the hole.

As ever proper preparation is key.  Scrub the back and front sides with sandpaper and clean thoroughly with acetone before mixing up your resin & hardener.


The holes in the bulkhead above were from something the PO or the factory had here.  I really don't remember.  The smaller one is the lower drain hole of the port-side seat locker's drain, which I eliminated when I made the replacement drain trough (which now only uses the upper hole).

In this photo the right side (to the left) is already done (more or less) and the left side is to be filled.  Some days passed between these stages, to allow for a weather window which would let the port one cure before rain might leak through the cover.

You can see how Hunter's money-saving scheme for these did not include ensuring that they were mounted symmetrically.

The ugly patched place to port is from where the PO had installed his bilge pump's Auto-Off-Manual switch-- right into the bulkhead, without sealant, and without cognizance of what happens when these electrical things get wet.  In this photo it's been filled with 'glass and begun to be faired with Microlight.

The big round hole to starboard is for the Whale manual bilge pump.

 
Here are the drains newly installed.

These nifty little fittings came with very good flanged nuts for the other side.  (I did not use the rubber gaskets.)  The surface-mount flanges are not too thick-- certainly much thinner than the flanges of normal nylon or Marelon through-hulls would be.  When I drilled out these holes I was relieved to find that they would miss all the balsa, which starts about an inch or two forward of the holes, and would go through solid 'glass.  It did occur to me that I might rout out the 'glass to set the flanges flush; but what tool would I use for that in this tight corner and how would I get them smooth and level enough?  I have lately decided I will mask these off and fill the space behind them and around to the outboard edges with Microlight, so as to keep water from pooling against the edges of the flanges.  Though I set these in with 5200 I did not get as much 'ooze-out' as I would have liked.  Most of it is between the stem and the hole I drilled for each one, where it should be.


My yardmate Roland made a very good point that these 1-inch drains are probably too small for offshore work.  I don't expect to do much sailing far offshore in this boat; and boats with cockpit drains of this size or worse have done successful passages.  But his point is well taken; and once I have fewer tasks in front of me I may look to replacing or adding to these with larger ones.  My choice of size for these was governed by only the existing transom fittings; but they could be changed too.

After discussing with him I did decide I will not install check-valves in these lines.  They are almost straight runs and are subject to pooping from heavy water directly aft, which would lead to not only water shooting into the cockpit but the water already in the cockpit not going out.  But the check-valves would further restrict water flow.  The H25 is pretty buoyant aft and would probably rise away from heavy swells; but who is to say what happens in such conditions?  People with experiences about cockpit flooding at sea are encouraged to comment!


I don't have a photo of the underside, but the Marelon elbows I meant for the bilge-pump outlets screwed onto these brass fittings perfectly (with plenty of Teflon thread-seal tape) and I was able to hook them up using the old hoses.  I did, however, wait for the 5200 to fully cure (about a week).  Shields no.148 hose can be a monster to fight on and off; and experience has shown it is strong enough to work loose the 5200 on recently-bedded fittings and through-hulls.  So-- proceed gently, with patience.

I reused one of my old hoses for this (just temporarily) but found the other was too short.  I hacked off a piece from the (as-yet) unused bilge-pump lines, not measuring very well as I was doing all this from lying inside the starboard-side locker, and got it almost too short again.  For now one clamp is sufficient; but these will all be done properly before the boat goes in.


The very dusty state of this cockpit is due to its being prepared for Epoxy Primekote and paint.  The nonskid of the sole did come off with scraping from a chisel; but it is adhered really well and since I don't need to bed down any more hardware to the sole I may only rough it up enough to take the Primekote and paint over it.  The same goes for the deck/cabintop.

* * *

Cockpit-seat lockers

These are some older photos that never got posted under any specific topic.  In most cases there has been much progress since these were taken.

1. Here is a view into the port side locker, what used to be the fuel-tank locker.  As I have said before, this area was so soggy when I acquired the boat that I removed the bulkhead and shelf with bare hands-- really; no tools needed!  The bulkhead was formerly under the drip rail to the right.  I made a new bulkhead about 8 inches farther aft, to make the quarter berth about 6'4" or 6'5"; the foot of it is under this shelf, which, with a fiddle installed, will hold winch handles and the like.

In this photo the shelf is holding a plastic bulkhead vent fitting which I may end up not using and a length of SS angle intended for the backstay's backing plates (since substituted with aluminum).

Outboard is a little box/shelf I made to hold quart cans of paint, solvent, 2-stroke oil, and whatever.  It drains into the area farther inboard.

I really hate black 5200-- it always looks unclean and messy somehow.  But it's what I had; and this will all be painted in white Bilgekote.

The port-side battery's breather tube comes up through the box/shelf and extends up like a snorkel to within a few inches of the underside of the coaming (the PVC coupling seen on the shelf is for that).  The battery is under the main-cabin settee.

The after bulkhead replaces the one that was there holding up the fuel-tank shelf.  The 3" hole will accommodate a ventilation tube leading from the Dorade box (after of the tiller head) to the foot of the quarter berth.  This will be PVC, as it should be rigid to keep from being damaged when stuff gets dropped or thrown into this locker.

You can see the bodged-up job the PO did in increasing the size of the openings in the hatch's drip rail.  The real reason he had such leaks is because he had cut out the drip rail itself along the outboard side of the hatch to accommodate overly-big hinge bolts.  I patched this, not prettily, but adequately to lend it strength.  This will get sanded and reshaped prior to paint.


2. This is a look straight down at the starboard-side locker.  At one time the fresh-water tank was under a platform at the forward end of this space.  It was not there when I acquired the boat.  My new fresh-water tanks go under the main-cabin settees.  I fitted this shelf in here to lend stiffness to the hull the way the quarter berth does on the other side.  All major flats and verticals should be structurally bonded to the hull-- they all help.

For access under this shelf I made two lift-out panels.  I really cannot think of what I would put down there, as the top of this shelf will be full of things like life jackets, mooring line, fenders and a folding bike.  The inboard opening without a cover (left side of the pic) is for the engine-starting battery.  A standard-sized battery box fits into here with its ear handles holding it from sinking all the way through.  Of course this will get screwed in place-- and a strap fitted over the cover when the battery is installed-- as well.

The little block of mahogany is a step I made on top of the edge of the stiffening rib so that, for the many times I have climbed down this hole for access under the cockpit and aft, there is something to step and lean upon that is more substantial than the knife-edge of a piece of 3/8" plywood.  (My back is grateful for this!)

Under the cockpit at the lower edge of the photo you see the black plastic (Tempo) fuel tank, which is 11.5 or 12 gallons.  It sits on a plywood shelf, the edge of which protrudes a bit this side.  As it is located, the tank is about one inch off center but otherwise fits perfectly, with all access points at the after end for vent, sender, feed and fill.

The openings in this hatch's drip rail were enlarged too but not as clumsily as the ones on the port side; I filled and faired these as well.

3. This is a look from inside the starboard-side locker, looking forward.  You see the two lift-outs and the hole for the battery box.  All of this has received one coat of Interlux Bilgekote; it'll get another coat before it's done.

The things in the forward corner are a brass tube, which will be installed in that bulkhead, down by the hull, to admit bilge water from this compartment to where the bilge pump is, and the ends of the PVC tubes that lead to the electric and manual bilge-pump pickups.  I made this section of them in PVC because it would be nightmarish to thread any replacement hose through this route once the boat is done.  PVC can be assembled in pieces, in place, so even in the unlikely event that the PVC might fail it too can be replaced after being hacksawed out.  From this point hose, with check valves to avoid backfill, will lead towards the transom outlets.  The vertical PVC tube mounted on the plywood block is the starboard-side battery's breather which extends up to within a few inches of the underside of the deck.  The battery is located under the settee berth.

The wooden bulkhead is the back side of the teak plywood bonded to the inside of the cabin back.  It extends down below the galley counter back here and provides a surface to which to fasten wiring and other stuff.  In this plywood will be fitted the on-off switch for the engine-starting battery, so one can reach down to the galley from the main hatch and switch it on or off.  Also the wine lockers will be mounted in this bulkhead (more on that later).

The long skinny shelf along the side of the cockpit (to left in the photo) will get a varnished-mahogany fiddle to hold stuff (mainly because I have plenty of countertop-fiddle stock).  This shelf was installed to seal the under-cockpit locker from potential fuel fumes (the tank is out of view just to the left of the camera).  This whole compartment gets vented via a Rule #140 blower and a hose leading to the Dorade box.

Just forward of the drip rail (angled feature at top left in photo) in the cockpit side will be mounted the throttle and shift for the motor; so those cables will run straight towards where I was holding the camera here.  Also the Whale manual bilge pump gets mounted in the cockpit side just to the left of the camera.


* * *

Lost Star Yacht Club’s restoration-project quiz

An informative and entertaining self-examination


Anyone involved in restoring his own boat for any length of time will readily recognize the answer for each that best represents reality here!
(Note: as though you can’t guess, ALL of these are based on real-life experiences.)



The best-laid plans

Apparently, the previous owner of your boat was

1. A dedicated yachtie who kept it in pristine order
2. An older guy who let it go during the last few years he had it
3. A complete idiot

Carefully-drawn plans or instructions for your intended projects

1. Serve a valuable purpose in organizing, scheduling and budgeting the work
2. Give a general idea which usually gets changed once you start the work
3. Are likely to be left in the bathroom at home and thus disregarded in place of ‘just winging’ it when you’re already at the boat to work

Schedules and budgets are

1. Valuable guides to keeping a sense of sanity and proportion
2. Seldom absolute
3. Completely pointless

The last time you had a completely new idea about what to improve on the boat was

1. The last time you sailed it
2. Right before you began an organized plan of restoration
3. Five minutes ago

Parts catalogues will

1. Be worth browsing to what’s available and what can be ordered
2. Be important sources of ‘how-to’ information
3. Get comprehensively marked-up with underlining, highlighting, circling, arrows and diagrams as well as notes and gift hints to family members who will really never see or heed them

Tools of the trade

The average yacht restorer’s tools and supplies are stored in

1. A shiny metal rollaway tool chest with locking doors
2. A handmade mahogany-and-plywood toolbox
3. A mismatched collection of eleven (or is it twelve?) lidless containers and damp cardboard boxes, organized, if at all, in such a way that Rube Goldberg, Charles Manson and PeeWee Herman would consider it crazy

Your stepladder is

1. A new orange fiberglass one from Home Depot
2. An old aluminum one that has seen many years of dependable service
3. A really crappy wooden one that was surreptitiously ‘borrowed’ from some other guy in the boatyard

The tool vital to starting the next job will mostly likely be found in the

1. Tool box
2. Last place the tool was used
3. Bilge

Your electric extension cord is

1. A brand-new blue one, 100 feet long, 12-gauge, with a heavy-duty plastic recoiling reel and a molded-in 4-outlet box with circuit breaker
2. The two lengths of orange cord relied-upon for the hedge clippers at home
3. Possibly more duct and electrical tape than actual electrical insultation

A flashlight’s most common function is to

1. Illuminate poorly-accessible areas
2. Attack would-be burglars or wasps’ nests
3. Store dead batteries until you decide to throw them away

The usual condition of the average cordless drill/screwdriver’s batteries is

1. Both at full charge as soon as possible
2. The one in the unit dead, the other one charged and waiting in the charger
3. The one in the unit dead, the other one, which died last night, nowhere to be found

Wood plugs are frequently sealed in the screw holes using

1. Weldwood wood glue and an overnight drying process
2. WEST epoxy and an acid brush
3. The varnish, when you noticed the missing plug(s) right after you started to brush it on

Your boat-work shoes are

1. High-quality leather moccasin-type deck shoes
2. Sturdy, sensible work boots
3. A pair of ripped, stained and punctured CVOs with the soles completely blown-out or held together with duct tape; and your wife wonders why on earth they are still in the house

Rubber gloves and dust masks are

1. Essential, for safety and hygiene
2. Frequently necessary for really ugly jobs
3. Unheard-of

The procedures

You tend to have help in this project

1. Most of the time
2. About half the time
3. Pretty much never, unless you count the times when somebody from the yard comes by with a beer and talks while watching you work

‘Cutting corners’ in quality is

1. To be avoided
2. Sometimes necessary
3. Totally acceptable, so long as the task gets done

When you encounter a necessary task involving an area of expertise in which you have no experience, you will

1. Seek help from an expert
2. Read up on the procedure and treat it as a learning experience
3. Get out the tools and epoxy and start doing it

During a restoration, the bilge usually contains

1. Dirt and liquids, till they are cleaned or pumped out
2. Hoses and wiring that would be unsightly if run elsewhere
3. Wet pencils, locknuts and expensive electrical connectors you thought you mislaid and have had to buy again

When working on the boat, trash is

1. Stuffed into a 5-gallon paint bucket which is emptied at the dumpster each evening
2. Brushed into a corner of the cabin sole or cockpit
3. Pitched out the companionway hatch at the spur of the moment; and may God have mercy on the poor people who may have stopped below to look over the boat

Some of the fiberglass lay-ups in your boat may contain

1. Small air bubbles
2. Dust or wood chips
3. Sandwich lettuce, Dr Pepper and your blood

When installing fittings on spars, you will use

1. One thread tap, carefully maintained with oil
2. Maybe two or three taps
3. So many taps that you must make the 20 minutes’ trip from the boatyard to the auto-parts place several times a weekend

When you are kneeling or balancing on hull timbers to install new cabin-sole panels, the electric drill that gets in your way will most likely end up with the point of the new spade bitt in

1. The bilge
2. Some finished woodwork
3. Your leg

The usual procedure for electrolytically isolating stainless-steel fittings from aluminum spars involves

1. Applying nonconductive thread-locker liquid to the threads
2. Smearing both sides with white lithium grease
3. Sticking a piece of white electrical tape under the part before screwing it down

When cutting plywood outside, the rain will begin

1. The moment the pieces are cut
2. In the middle of the job
3. As soon as you have run the extension cord, clamped down the part, and switched on the jigsaw

The most valuable application of white Krylon is for

1. Gas grilles, bicycles and outdoor furniture
2. Models made of metal parts
3. Anywhere you neglected with Durawhite, Bilgekote, or Awlgrip when it’s time to put the boat in the water

When cutting Plexiglas, the typical experience will involve

1. A slow, clean cut with the jigsaw
2. Easily peeling off the protective paper backing
3. Having the blade get stuck in the middle of the cut when the material melts itself back together and then using hacksaws, grinders or lots of sanding to ultimately finish the part

When cutting G-10, you should use

1. A brand-new, fine-toothed jigsaw blade
2. An old blade that is almost ready to be thrown away anyway
3. Someone else’s blade (and saw)

With the spars out of the boat, the usual procedure for reeving new halyards involves

1. Carefully ‘sewing’ and whipping the braided messenger line to the new halyard
2. Tying the messenger line to a paperclip ‘buried’ into the new halyard
3. Hastily wrapping the messenger line to the new halyard with about half a roll’s worth of electrical tape

The 5200 is usually applied

1. In assemblies that must hold out seawater and are not likely to be dismantled in the regular course of maintenance
2. For anything and everything that goes together
3. All over the cabin sole, your knees, the clipboard, most of the tools and half of the sub sandwich you had intended to finish

The usual disposition of an unfinished tube of 5200 is to

1. Cap it so it stays airtight and store it in a cool dry place
2. Stick a machine screw down the nozzle and wrap tape over the end
3. Leave it where you last used it and expect to throw it away next week after the remaining half has cured in the tube

When painting decks or soles, the usual experience involves

1. Careful planning so that you can work from a ‘wet edge’ in painting from one end to the other
2. The occasional oversight requiring that you lean over wet paint to reach neglected dry spots
3. A completely disorganized nightmare involving spills, runs, blots and numerous opportunities to wear your work home

When the tarp that covers the boat needs to be changed, the wind will pick up

1. As soon as the new tarp is tied down
2. As soon as you arrive at the boatyard to do it
3. As soon as you get the old tarp stuffed into the dumpster and begin spreading the new one over the cabintop

Your primary motivation for doing painstaking work is one of

1. Interest in the value of your investment
2. Concern for the durability of the boat for the future
3. Pride, to demonstrate your superior ideas and craftsmanship

After-work bathing typically entails

1. A long refreshing shower
2. A rush to finish and get on to other tasks
3. Dishwashing liquid, Fast Orange and Scotch-Brite to remove all the paint, 5200, epoxy and resin from your raw skin

Beat the odds

The likelihood of damaging or dislocating a seacock is inversely proportionate to

1. The cost of the seacock
2. The importance of the supply line attached to the fitting
3. The need to replace it

The likelihood of drilling a hole through a spar or bulkhead and breaking into a length of electrical or plumbing conduit is inversely proportionate to

1. The cost of the conduit
2. The importance of the hole you’re drilling
3. The amount of time left before the Travel-Lift comes

The likelihood of tossing a screwdriver up into the boat and damaging something is directly proportionate to

1. The cost of the screwdriver you toss
2. The proximity of the object it hits
3. The amount of work you put into what it hits

An example of an unexpected negative correlation may exist between

1. The quality of the varnish job and the cost of the foam brushes
2. The cost of a VHF radio and the time it takes to receive it from the supplier
3. The time and effort you take to install the paper-towel holder and the importance of the paper-towel holder to the overall project

The costs

The way to really recognize a yacht owner who is performing his own work is by

1. His smile of sublime satisfaction at the launching banquet
2. His nearly-empty wallet at the end of the weekend
3. The 5200 under his fingernails at church

One of the most humiliating things about taking so long to restore your boat is

1. Your friends’ nagging impatience to go sailing
2. Paying 12-month dry-storage contracts
3. Discovering that the state-of-the-art CD stereo system and FireWire computer network you installed 4 years ago have become obsolete before you got to use them

One way to be sure you’ve spent too much money on parts is by

1. The smiles on the faces of the staff at West Marine
2. Your wife’s interrogation about the Visa bill
3. The way the UPS guy, who is not a yachtie, is on a first-name basis with your dog and knows all about the product lines carried by Defender.com

The Bible verse that may best approximate the current status of your restoration project is

1. Hebrews 11:7 (‘By faith Noah, divinely warned, built this ark to save his family’)
2. Ezekiel 15:3 (‘Is wood from this tree fit to make anything useful?’)
3. Luke 14:30 (‘This man began to build, and could not finish’)

Life lessons learned

One thing you’ve found out about yourself that you never expected is that

1. You’ve learned many new things and gained a priceless experience
2. You have physical strength and stamina you didn’t know you had
3. Falling sweat actually splashes

By now you are convinced that marine-toilet plumbing should be

1. Replaced every three years
2. Replaced by every new owner
3. Made of heliarc-welded and polished 3-inch schedule-40 type-316 stainless-steel pipe and never changed at all

One maintenance cycle you did not expect to need to know is that

1. Bottom paint, no matter how old, should be reapplied within two weeks of launching
2. Spars should be removed and inspected every three years
3. The screw threads on jackstands should be oiled annually

When your restoration project is complete, you will know your boat

1. Better than most yacht owners know their own boats
2. Enough to trust it in nearly any conditions
3. More intimately than you know your wife

Your restoration project has taken

1. More or less the amount of time you expected it would
2. A season longer than you expected
3. Several years longer than you expected

The one most likely to perform future major maintenance and repair on your boat is

1. A trusted yacht-service facility
2. The next owner
3. You

When the boat is finished

The bridge deck

  One of the periennial drawbacks of the 1972-1978 series of the H25 is the lack of a mainsail sheet traveler.  Some clever people have fabricated one on brackets across the aft end of the cockpit.  This is not a bad idea and the sheetline leads are not too bad.  Putting one on the cabin roof, as many do with other boats, would place the mainsheet so far forward as to be utterly useless (except as a vang).  Moving the sheeting point forward on a boom is never good anyway-- mid-boom sheeting is a significant loss of mechanical advantage as well as a loss of sail trim.

  Those with mostly-original H25s will notice that the early H25’s boom is about a foot longer than it has to be.  The foot of the mainsail is designed to be at about 8’8”.  The boom which should be about 9 ft is more like 10' on some boats.  This was to extend the sheeting point, at the after end of the boom, far enough aft to connect to a single block at the back of the cockpit coaming.  This was the Cherubini-and-Seidelmann solution that enabled them to keep that lovely little egg-shaped cockpit surround.

  Part and parcel with the lack of a traveler is the lack of a bridge deck.  No one venturing offshore in any sized boat should have a hatch opening down into the cockpit pan.  Some people have said that keeping one or two hatch boards in is enough to keep most of the big stuff out; but remember that wooden boards float! --and in anything big enough to poop the whole cockpit you run the risk of one or more of the boards floating off and out of your life for ever.  Of course you could argue that in weather like that you’d have the whole hatch closed-up and when it’s nicer out you could have the whole thing open for air and convenience. But we singlehanders don’t like to leave any more than necessary in a state of needing attention as the weather escalates.

  The construction of a bridge deck on the H25 is an obvious solution to this two-pronged problem.  It provides a place to mount the traveler that is not too far forward of the end of the boom and effectively blocks the water’s access to the lower third or even 40 percent of the open hatchway’s space.  Its only drawback is having to step over it like one has to on just about every other seagoing yacht anyway.

  My first design for this involved a really cool folded-aluminum bracket that spanned the after end of the proposed bridge deck with legs down the sides of the cockpit pan to take the shear load of the traveler.  A gusset plate welded across the after side made it stiff and gave a place to mount the compass and engine-start switch.  I cut a plywood template and fitted it into the three-dimensional wedged space till I could screw it to the cockpit with sheet-metal screws and get good measurements.  (Look on the picture at the hole in the side of the cockpit pan, under the after edge of the deck-- this is where the mock-up's leg was screwed.)

  But no one would weld my bracket cheaply enough.  I wanted it for 60 bucks.  (‘It’s just a bent piece of metal!’)  The best quote I had was over $200.  That was out.

  Then I bought some aluminum angle from McMaster-Carr and started to fabricate a bracket by myself, mainly bolting it together.  The more pieces I put together (and paid for) the less I seemed to need each one.  Then my cousin Lee said, ‘Why don’t you just ‘glass it?’

  So I did.

  Mind that it was VERY hard to fit this thing.  The cockpit seats slope upwards as they go aft and the cockpit sides slope outwards as they go forward and inwards as they go down. By the time I’d got it screwed into the only place it could go and got one layer of ‘glass and epoxy on it, I found out one corner was too low.  So I built it up with more ‘glass and ground it fair again, and it’s thicker in one corner than elsewhere.  (I won’t tell you which corner.  You'll never be able to tell when it's done.)

  The piece of teak came from the old CBC shop which, in the process of being taken-over a long time ago, built big bulky trawler yachts about as cheaply as they could be made.  One of the ‘savings’ was from buying very bendy (and fragile) ready-made panels of teak decking. The 2-inch planks, about 5/16” thick (same as we made our teak decks on C44s) are already bonded together with Thiakol, the same stuff production teak decks used to use before we at CBC (and many others) discovered black 5200.  This piece was a scrap from the trash.  I cut it in its appropriate trapezoid and bent it over the very mild, but correct, crown from seat to seat.

  Once I was happy with the fit I figured out a very annoying but structurally-sound way to screw it in place from the bottom and test-installed it.  Owing to the thickness issues with the plywood substrata it wasn’t exactly flush all the way around.  I solved this by putting masking tape over the screw holes on the bottom, running a fat bead of 5200 round the perimeter, and then setting it down with clamps.  Relying on the 5200 ‘dam’ around the edges I drilled a few little holes in the top and flooded the uneven space between the teak and the plywood with WEST epoxy, the same as I do to repair damaged deck core inside ‘glass decks.  Then I torqued up the clamps and gave it a few days.

  The result is so strong that it probably doesn’t need the metal traveler support, but I’m putting it underneath anyway, just to spare my little artistic creation from literally flying off the handle in some nasty jibe some day.  This bridge deck allows for the mounting of the traveler about 9-1/2” aft of the cabin back, which is about 9-12 inches in from the back end of the sail.  That’s good enough for only one boom bail and fiddle blocks.  The Schaefer traveler setup has double blocks with cam cleats at each end, better than the clunky setup we had on our Raider 33, Antigone, with cam cleats mounted vertically above the traveler-control blocks so that it could only be adjusted from above, not from abaft.

  The Schaefer 1-1/8" track has holes 4” on center.  If I center one hole, one on each side goes into the gap between the teak and the ‘glass.  I have to settle on two in the center, each 2” from the centerline.  That just means I have to be particular about where I cut the track.   It takes a 60” piece, which is ideal (part 42-75).

  Along the gaps beside the teak deck will be lines of black 5200 which will resemble the Thiakol.  Amazingly-- for clearly there was some divine intervention-- I got the slivers of the outer planks more or less even and the central plank on center.  How that happened I don’t know, so don't thank me.

  The waterstains are from a leak in the aging cover.  They will sand out and I am not concerned at this point.  Eventually this teak will go silver in the tropical sun-- which is what it's supposed to do.

   So now I may have the only original-series Hunter 25 with a teak deck (ha!).

   I had intended to put the compass on a ‘dashboard’ underneath this but my neck is bad enough from using a computer already and you never want to take your eyes too far from the way ahead to steer compass courses.  I have two compasses, one from this boat and one from a wreck, and I will mount one on each side in the back of the cabin.  The current hole on the port side won’t used as it is balanced with two holes for wind gauges to starboard; so the starboard compass will be mounted below them, rather low on the bulkhead, and the other one in the corresponding place to port.

  The wood behind the hole is the epoxied back of the teak plywood laminated to the inside of the cabin top.

  The photo shows the top of the patch I made over the old deep hatch opening.  Having planned this bridge deck from the start I left the teak plywood on the inside all the way up (it was once much higher than this) and so was able to lay up half a dozen layers of mat and cloth with WEST epoxy (much of which dribbled into the cockpit pan-- see the brownish staining-- and created an increased fillet along the forward edge).  It isn’t a perfectly-smooth layup because it doesn’t have to be; only the beer cooler and cockpit bucket ever have to see it under there (though it will get more or less faired just the same before Perfection).  Above the teak it matters because a mahogany block with a white-ash threshhold gets fitted to it; and after that I can establish and install the hatch-slider boards.

  Since this picture I have cut out the bottom and sides of this hole and dry-fitted the ash threshold and the mahogany under it.  At finished height it's only about 2-1/4" above the deck now.

  The black Plexiglass deadlight admits light to the quarter berth.  As of this photo it's only dry-fitted.

  The thing along the side that looks like teak Formica is the original cabin table which isn’t going to be reused because:

  1. it’s teak (or pretending to be);

  2. it does not fit to the bulkhead and new compression post as I would like it to;

  3. it weighs about 850 pounds.
  I just never seem to throw out any part until I am absolutely sure I won’t ever need it again. I saved the original weatherbeaten hatch boards too and just recently figured out how I can reuse them on this new opening.

  The can of Bio Blast came from a WM closeout.  I like it but it doesn’t work as well as StripEaze does.  I’d much rather be bio-friendly but there is such a thing as getting the job done; and this job desperately needs to be done.

  Down below can be seen the grab-post and the top of the bulkhead I added between the saloon berth and the quarter berth.  Above the quarter berth is the cabinet for the VHF and the wallets-and-sunglasses compartment (here stuffed with clean shop towels).

  There is another picture somewhere of the head compartment forward.

  As I have mentioned before, all the of the trim wood on this boat, beyond the ash threshold, the teak plywood of the cabin bulkhead, and this bit of real teak decking, is mahogany.  None of this teak will be finished with anything; but the ash will be saturated (as well as ash can ever be) with WEST epoxy and given about 19 coats of Captain’s Varnish for good measure. Much of the mahogany came from remodelling old C44s.  Also I consider it a much prettier wood; and of course whatever I got from old C44s is REAL Honduras, not what you get now, rosier and deeper and more beautiful.  And I am amused to think it’s almost as old as Diana is; so that’s fitting

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