Finalizing cabin and interior

Here are some pics of recent progress belowdeck.  Currently (June 20th) I am finishing the cabintop, fitting the Dorade boxes and hatch shroud, and remedying the PO's repair of the bow in preparation to paint the hull and fit the stem fitting.

Hanging locker

Aft of the port-side rode locker, opposite of the microwave and toolbox, was planned this locker.  In framing it I realized there was much more space than I expected.  As it is now, it has several bins to hold shoes, balled-up t-shirts and cottons, various personal effects as well as 12" worth of clothes on hangers.  Shirts and coats will fold onto the floor; but it's much better than having nowhere to hang clean clothes at all.

The first photo shows the after bulkhead, where the plumbing is (which necessitated the locker being delineated from the bunk space in the first instance).  The 1-1/2" vented loop is for the holding-tank pumpout; the smaller standpipe is the holding-tank vent which goes to a 3/4" through-hull in the hull.  The wiring will go to a 3-gang panel over the head sink for the lights.  The little 1-1/4" elbow shown coming through the wall is the head-sink drain, going to its trap and thence to 3/4" hose for the seacock.

I don't know if I've said this before but, when fitting plumbing traps to boat sinks, one should always make them turn forward or aft first and then inboard only after they have gone downwards, to ensure sufficient drainage on either tack.  (This says nothing about the shape of the basin which may retain water to leeward of the drain; but that can't be helped unless you have a basin more steeply sloped than the usual angle of heel.)

The other pic shows the forward side of the same locker.  The "Get A Grip' placard came from a hook-and-loop strap display at the West Marine store where I worked; I thought it was hysterical and swiped it from the trash when the sale was over and cut it to a minimal size (and then spilled acetone on it, causing the blur).  It's been in the boat for about 6 years and by now deserves a place as decor.

 

This locker will get covered with a canvas curtain to keep water out, as the foredeck hatch is directly overhead.

The vertical door-jamb pieces probably need some cleaner way of terminating outboard of the sill-- I'll look to that later.

Main cabin, aft

These two pics show the back corners of the main cabin, the electrical panel to port and the galley and bookcase to starboard.  Among other things can be seen my re-use of the (1974) teak fiddle rails that were originally fitted to the outboard hull shelves over the settees.  This wasn't an easy task since the cabin, as molded, is not symmetrical-- the port-side bulkhead was fully one inch wider than the starboard side, as is evident since the vertical posts are keyed to the hatch's opening.  The solution lay in justifiying the space between two spindles on the center of the opening and then ensuring that no spindles are too close to the ends.  I think one of them is a little off, by less than 1/8", but you won't be able to tell (and one strict rule of Diana is that no one is permitted to visit this boat with a ruler in hand!).

In the spirit of complete disclosure: the cheek piece at the after end of the overhead cabinet (where the radio goes) is teak, not mahogany!  It came from a very weathered piece in a trash bin and I didn't recognize it till I'd sanded it down and applied varnish.  Oh, well-- at least both sides are the same (from the same board in fact).

On neither side is the cap fitted to the top of the divider bulkhead.  I've been getting impatient about getting this stuff varnished and installed, just so it doesn't clutter up the cabin and inhibit other progress (as it's all been doing for too many years) and so I screwed this stuff into place as it is now.  I'll fit the cap pieces after I finish the after side of these bulkheads (more on that-- and a surprise! --later).

I haven't had the motivation to build the drawers for the galley yet and so the cabinet bulkhead beside the ladder is still missing.

I don't go in for the trite little piracy fetish so many yachties favor; but the skull-and-crossed-bones can cooler is in tribute to my late cousin Peter, who co-founded Raider Yacht (for which this was a logo).  So it shall remain on the boat.

  

Other stuff

Here is a cool pic of the foredeck hatch.  It lets in some phenomenal light-- you can read by it in the saloon, even during a rain, even with the other hatch closed.  I've been saying all along that if this project is taking far too long, at least I get to spend my days with gorgeous bits of varnished Honduras mahogany; and here's an example.

The stick holds up the hatch because the hardware isn't on yet.  The cords are what secures it down against wind, rattles and motion.

The green tape is a sign reminding me which end goes forward.  Remember that the hatch frame is cut from the base on the deck, to ensure that they fit together, before the base is installed.  Even with a rectangle it matters which way it goes.

Below is a pic of the (too dusty!) sink in the head.  The cabinet lift-out panels are not painted and so not fitted yet.  The leaning board is the divider, not screwed in, that will hold a shelf in the forward locker.

The portion of counter after of the seam in the fiddle hinges up for access to a 4-inch-deep bin (the original bin over the footwell of the settee berth.  The astute will recall that this idea was my contribution to this boat's design in 1972; see here).

I messed up the trim stick that goes atop the blue countertop along the forward bulkhead and it hasn't been remade and installed yet.  In (typical) impatience I had just "eyeballed" the angle against the fiddle and cut it; and it's too wrong to be tolerable.

I could have tugged the wire loom a little more tightly into the upper shelf, under the window, for this pic; but there's still wiring to be run in it.

Don't say anything about the after cheek piece protruding below the upper fiddle rail while the forward one remains even.  This is an oversight and will be remedied!  The trick deserving the credit is in the making of both cheek pieces, one wide and one narrower, so that they align with the locker face which, which like the sink-counter face, is parallel to the centerline.  How else would it have been done?

And this allows the curtain rods to be fastened to the cheek pieces, more or less parallel horizontally.  My mom, the accomplished seamstress, is currently making the curtains for these hull windows.

Main saloon

Lastly here is a pic of the saloon bulkhead after I fitted the cheek pieces along the top.  This had been long unfinished because I just didn't know a way of making it all in one piece; and then (in the shower, as so often happens) I conceived of the positively brilliant notion of making each side in two pieces.  I wanted some straight line to avoid emphasizing the roundness of the cabintop in here; and here is my solution: an ogee curve descending to a second cheek piece and a further horizontal line.  Together these just about cover the ragged fiberglass tape (though not quite) and represent an apparently-structural deck beam in conjunction with the compression post (the true structural deck beam is on the forward side of the bulkhead, requiring the horizontal door header).

In keeping with the conceit of having these pieces represent a real deck beam, I deliberately made these of Phillipine (lauan), not Honduras; so they appear greyer, darker, a little greener than the footwell trim and table cleat mounted lower on the bulkhead.  The cheek pieces to cover the gap between bulkhead and cabinside will be of (thinner) Honduras.

All of these pieces, as well as those on the forward side of this bulkhead, are "permanently" installed now.  If the white or varnish requires any more touching-up, it'll be done with them in situ.

I should have reinstalled the arched door header here; but in fitting the cheek pieces I ran one screw into the bulkhead, thinking it would be covered by the door header, and just missed; so I have to fill it and paint it again first.

Dave saw this and commented on my practice of simply screwing these pieces into place without concern for hiding the screw heads behind plugs or multiple cleats, saying it was just like what Uncle Joe would have done.  I took that as a high compliment, as I have long admired Uncle Joe's clearheaded sense about what's least complicated being the most aesthetically pleasant... but I really meant it all this way to be able to remove all these pieces for varnishing (and revarnishing.  As I always say, 'It's never the last coat of varnish!').

I have a really cool idea for after I paint the fiberglass around the companionway hatch (where the centerline is indicated, top of photo); but I won't share that till it's been done.  Stay tuned.

* * *

It's been a long, cold, lonely winter.

The winter of 2013-2014 has been harsh to New Jersey. Most people of a certain generation are hard-pressed to recall more nasty weather. It hasn't been the frequency of snow, nor the intensity, but something like a combination of the two. We had two major power outages in the region and the township plowed exactly once in six major snowfalls. Plus I was commuting 52 miles each way to work at a marina on the Shore and lost plenty of time and income due to weather. Nearly nothing got done on Diana between early December and about five weeks ago.


Here are some updates, in no particular order.

Foredeck hatch

I finally got the foredeck hatch done (or done enough) and set it on the boat the other day, just before one of the rainfalls we've been having on and off all week.

The poor contraption has been kicking about for about three years. Here it is getting a coat of varnish after I plugged the screw holes in the two sticks on top. (They are aligned over the two ribs which stiffen the frame and the Plexiglas.) I had to take the mahogany down to about 80 grit in some places. Right now it has about three coats of Captain's Varnish on top and about five or six on the sides (on the frame).

 

Here it is (below) after I set it onto the hatch base. The construction of this is exactly as we do on the Cherubini 44-- it is essentially two boxes, a frame and a coaming, made separately. When you have fit the frame box to the deck, you slice off the top portion (in this case 2-1/4") with the table saw, rolling the thing over the blade to cut the four sides. This ensures you have a mated base and hatch. Once the base is installed on the deck, you install the coaming inside it. I set the front of the coaming back about 1/16", using some lauan doorskin plywood, to allow the bottom inside edge of the hatch to clear the coaming as it hinges open. I also slightly tapered the outside faces of the coaming, above the base, to provide clearance. Actually there is a bit more clearance than is necessary or desirable; but it's not bad.

 

As viewed in profile, the hatch base is probably too high. During my usual intellectual communing with my dad, I apologized to him for it. He would have had it a whole inch lower to the deck.

At 24 x 26 inches, this opening is sort of a forward "command center" from which one can lower or raise the anchor, navigate and deploy or stuff headsails. The dimensions also allow for the hatch cover to be unpinned from its hinges and lowered through the opening to stow it below-- a consideration I considered paramount and one which led me to increase the former molded coaming's opening (in essence I sliced out the whole molded coaming entirely).

Today I got to enjoy this in a light drizzle, which was actually pleasant. The translucent white Plexiglas allows majestic light below and even when only partially open allows adequate ventilation.

Electrical panel

I have since added the rest of the trim to this; this is a pic from a few days ago. Today I concentrated on wiring the guts of this panel. As you can see the electrical space is located along the hull shelf above the quarter berth, using the original faux-teak-plywood shelf and just adding a front and top.

 

 The small panel to the left (aft) is the 115VAC panel.  Below the double breaker is the slot for the battery-charger's breaker.

The two main 12VDC panels are for the lights and other circuits.  There is also the bilge-pump switch, voltmeter, fuel-level gauge and a 12VDC outlet.  The voltmeter reports the status of the three batteries (a two-battery house bank and one starting battery) by way of three push-button momentary switches.  There is a switch to turn on or off the fuel gauge as well (switch is not in this pic; it was installed today).

The two rotary switches forward of the double panels are selectors; one is on the running-lights circuit to choose between the masthead tricolor and the pulpit-mounted lights and the other one is on the cabin-lights circuit to choose between the white and red lamps.  In this way no one can activate a white light below when the boat is being navigated at night.  The two rotary switches are aligned with their respective master switches in the panel to their left, as though pointing towards their home circuits when they are in the "normal" positions.

Bookcase

I installed this a while ago but never got a decent pic of it. (This isn't really a decent pic either.) The bookcase is an alcove built into the head (aft end) of the starboard-side settee, under the galley counter. It is scaled for paperbacks of 6 x 9 inches and accommodates things like the Eldridge's, novels and certain tools manuals. There is a blue LED lamp inside, activated by a switch above the galley. The little plywood end (to the left in this pic) opens to a compartment outboard of the books where I can "hide" (stash) CDs and DVDs that are not immediately needed or already loaded into the computer or iPod.

 

Head compartment

Almost all the trim in the head has been installed. As built, the Hunter 25 did not come with a basin in the head; there was just an open bin above the footwell of the berth on each side. Diana's PO took out the floor of the starboard-side one and added a hanging bar so that coats on hangers draped into the footwell of the bunk. I restored a floor here and made two "duffel-bag lockers" for guests' gear. This pic shows the top of those lockers (without their access panels installed) and the trim.

 

To port I installed a proper basin for foot-pump pressure water.  The portion of the countertop aft of it lifts up to the old bin's original floor, providing a space about 4" deep for "lady products" (for my daughters) and other stuff that isn't needed every day.

The old-style black-based Whale faucet is mounted in a 7/8"-ID stainless-steel flat washer serving as a trim ring.  The other washer lying on the countertop was meant for the bottom but I haven't been able to get my (arthritic) fingers up into the access hole underneath to install it.  The aluminum tube of the faucet is a little tatty and I may opt to replace it later; so this is a job that will remain "temporary" "for now".

The lockers outboard of the sink are for towels (aft) and toiletries (forward). Right now they hold everything I took out of the galley lockers in order to finish those now.

In this picture I still owed the fiddle of the lift-up some varnish; but as of this writing it's been done.

The black conduit tubing will get tidied up. But due to the crossmember (on which the junction box for the spar wiring is mounted), the wire loom can't drop straight along the bulkhead; so it is led about an inch away along the cabin side and through a hole in the top of the locker. I did not make a fiddle here; the trim is just a common corner bead. It's too narrow a space to put anything on it anyway.

My mother, the accomplished seamstress, is making the curtains for these windows. They will span the full width of the space so that, when closed, they will be proper drapery that regularizes the oblong shape of the deadlights. The same will go for the main saloon as well.

I still have not connected the fresh-water lines to this sink. The holdup is solving the water-filter question. It's looking like I will install two undersink cannister types, one here and one in the galley. RVers tend to use a "pre-tank" filter, hooked up to the garden hose as they fill the tanks; but this requires that the water in the tanks is presumed good. Most of the bad-tasting water I've encountered has gone bad in the tanks. I'd rather apply the charcoal and coconut-shell filtration at the tap(s), so I'm looking into Purete and Whirlpool compact filters. The one I've got in mind for the head sink is meant for icemakers and its connections are for 1/4" tubing. I may be able to do without the small-ID "quick connectors" and adapt it to 3/8" supply hose for the head sink. The galley can get a 3/8" one adapted to 1/2" supply hose.

* * *

Interior developments, 2013

I have not been on this site for some time!  Here are some photos of recent progress as this boat really is coming back together.

 

Anchor-rode lockers

I have long had the idea for relocating anchor rodes farther aft in the hull.  One of the biggest detriments to performance, especially in small boats, is in carrying heavy ground tackle at the pointy end of the boat.  Of course this is where it must be deployed, and from where it must pull; but nothing but some shortsighted concept of 'convenience' says it has to be stored there.  Ancient ships brought their anchor rodes aft to the foremast or even abaft it; but this was only because the ship was sufficiently wide there to allow for a human-powered vertical capstan.  When I designed Starchase (an 84-ft lug-rigged schooner) in 1981-82, I envisioned a whole full-width compartment aft of the foremast in which sails were stowed and through which the anchor rodes were dropped to a deep well under the sole, right in front of the ballast.  This is where such weight should be; but of course it entails the leading of chain aft along the deck, which can be a tripping hazard and much else. 

 

For Diana I had already given over the idea of using the V-berth for a two-person sleeping area.  Its foot is too cramped and the whole space is too hot.  And I had already committed the after outboard corners to plumbing and such for the toilet and holding tank.  Against the forward bulkhead is the toolbox locker (with microwave above, since it's the only place a microwave can fit) to one side and a hanging locker (the only one in the boat) to the other.  So I decided to extend these lockers forward and to make room for the anchor rodes as well. 

   

My first idea was to use common plastic trash cans for the rode bins.  They're cheap (and replaceable) and, if fitted with a plain nylon through-hull, can drain into the bilge or elsewhere.  I bought two trash cans; but after cutting out the V-berth hull shelf I realized they were just not going to fit.  So I concluded the sensible plan was to use the trash cans as trash cans somewhere else and to just drop the rodes into the spaces as they were. 

 

The two bulkheads are show here, each side, before the fitting of the longitudinal bulkhead that will finish them off.  Each side will be fitted with an access plate; but the bulkheads will be removable as well. 

 

This 'glass did not kick off immediately.  I suspect bad MEKP, or just an improperly light quantity of it, as my MEKP dispenser's pickup tube snapped off in the bottle while mixing.  (This happens with MEKP dispensing bottles when they get old.  No matter what it looks like, replace it at least every three to five years.)  These surfaces will be painted in gelcoat later; but for now this is what the work looks like. 

1. Port side 

  
The white stuff is 5200, with which I seal all edges of plywood before 'glassing them to the hull.  Water intrusion along the edges of plywood where they are 'glassed to the hull is the number-one killer of plywood bulkheads-- especially where chainplates are mounted. 
 
(If you think it's sealed against water, think again.  It's a boat.  Water gets everywhere. 

2. Starboard side  

  

Here is the toolbox locker, complete with fiddles to hold the all-plastic (no metal anywhere) Rubbermaid toolbox.  Ahead is the old rode locker, above which the rode deck pipe is removed.  Though I fitted a proper drain pipe in the pointy space, to lead dribbles aft to the through-hull sump, this will be dry.  Some light comes in through the 'eye' windows, where the old hull-mounted running lights were.  (More on that later.) 

 

The battery box fitted with a PVC tube and rolls of wire is my Wire-O-Matic (shop-use wire dispenser, typically made from a box or barrel).  It even has a proper lid (the lid from the battery box)! 

  

The hull-side shelf is cut out for where the plastic trash can was; but now it broadens the space so there is less chance of the rode becoming caught under its edge when running out by deploying an anchor.  

  

  

 Main cabin (aka 'saloon')

During one of the hottest weeks of July I came out to the boat each day at 6.30 AM before leaving at 8.30 for my contract job 50 miles east.  I managed to use up a whole quart of Easypoxy on the bulkheads, which has been a great relief because it's made the boat look closer to done.  
   

  
Nearly all of the brightwork was removed before painting.  The very intricate and delicate doorjamb seemed stuck to the bulkhead with varnish and I would not risk prying it off; so I masked it.  Along the baseboard to port some residual tape can be seen.  The baseboards are actually structural-- they help hold the sole joists down against the hull. 

  

The thermometer and hydrometer are from a cheap 'weather station' I found in the trash.  I dismantled the instruments, cleaned them and painted the shells in matte black.  They work great.  Above them, on the same centers, will go the clock and barometer.  Below them is a bulkhead-mounted compass (mounted in the bulkhead! --imagine).  I consider it vital to have a decent compass visible below, with which one can check courses and at-anchor bearings.  Below below this, above the drop-leaf table, goes a clinometer.
  

The second blue plastic outlet box is for a 12VDC outlet and USB-based chargers.  The stereo goes between the empty box and the (now absent) table.
  

The four-foot-long fluorescent shop light is, of course, temporary. 

  

  

In this view the saloon is being used as a varnish shop.  The large piece on top of the workbench is the top of the 'duffel-bag lockers' outboard of the toilet in the head.  The other plywood piece is the top of the galley bins.  The rest are just various bits of mahogany that go all over this compartment and in the head. 

  

Plugs have been added to the vertical grab posts (at last!).  Typically I varnish the main piece a few times before adding plugs so that the plugs receive a few coats less and so show as a lighter color.  This is just an aesthetic I happen to prefer; and I have always done it this way.  

  

The galley counter is still covered in cardboard.  I have decided to add ceramic tiles to that 3-inch-high bulkhead above the settee. 

  

The small red toolbox is the 'jewelry box', in which I keep all the cool rigging stuff (my favorite parts). 

  

Here too can be seen the side of the speaker box, at the forward edge of the hull shelf, and where I 'glassed the small athwartships bulkhead of it to the hull.  The white-pine stick, old iron C-clamp, and red-handled squeeze clamp (almost hidden from view) are currently holding this shelf up into position.  Like the ones in the V-berth these two did not match each other, sideto side; and this one sagged while the one to port tilted up.  The stick is forcing it up till the 'glass cures.  Hopefully this will remedy some of the problem; but the little mahogany block under the forward end of the shelf (partially painted white, because its proper replacement is undergoing varnishing) will assist in this.

  

Other stuff

Here is a pic I took, on my back, up at the new foredeck hatch with the old hatch, which fit only the original trapezoidal molded-fiberglass opening, on top.  Still waiting on white Sikaflex 295-UV to complete the new one.
  

The terminal blocks are junctions for the spar wiring.  These get screwed to the teak crossmember (now painted white) and enclosed in a cute little mahogany box with sliding door, currently undergoing varnishing.  

   

   
At the other end of the boat, I 'glassed a short bulkhead across the back end of the fuel-tank shelf, tucking it in just ahead of the fiberglass rudder-post tube.  The problem with all skegless rudders is that they are liable to catch something nasty, such as when shooting some dodgy inlet.  In this eventuality, there are two possible outcomes: one, the rudder will break off below the stainless-steel shaft (preferable) or, two, the rudder, tube and all will tear backwards and out of the boat (not good).  If this were to happen, there is little anyone could do to save the boat-- unless that water were able to be confined to a watertight compartment.  ALL rudder tubes should be isolated from the rest of the boat, so that intruding water cannot invade the rest of the hull and overwhelm the bilge pumps.  (We all did learn something from the Titanic; right?)  
  

 

This bulkhead is not high; and it will be fitted with a drain tube as well-- but in the event of a leak at a stricken rudder tube, the drain can be plugged and this compartment will contain much of the water before it is overwhelmed.  This may be enough time to shift weight forward, get something over or into the torn hole(s), or fix or reroute a pump to handle the inundation.  In any case it's far better a solution than that on most other boats-- which is to say it's better than nothing at all. 

 

The little block is just holding the bulkhead in place and gets removed.  In fact I painted this recently and probably should have taken a newer photo.

 

The little step in the foreground was added for climbing down into this locker through the cockpit-seat hatch, which I have done about 350 times since I have owned this boat.  I got tired of leaning over and lying upon the edge of a 3/8" piece of plywood.  Above this is the top of the under-cockpit locker, forward of the fuel tank, which is accessible through the quarter berth and, as of this writing, is now isolated from the rest of the under-cockpit space and its attendant gasoline fumes. 

  

 
* * *

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 quarter berth

The first-series H25 came with a 12-foot-long berth to port.  Having come up with the original concept for this interior when I was 14 or 15, I suggested that the ‘nav station’ be its own little cubbyhole but got vetoed by budget and marketing at Hunter, perhaps the first of many rude awakenings over the years about how these two departments, not engineering and design, govern how boats get made.  So when I got an H25 for myself I was determined, as with the bridge deck, to rectify this fault and create something cooler about my boat for myself.
 

Immediately ahead of the quarter-berth I added a bulkhead to correspond to the forward bulkhead of the galley on the other side.  In this photo the camera is leaning on the vertical grab post that terminates the inboard end of that bulkhead.  But the original space was only 12’0” long, a kind of head-to-head double bunk.  Putting in this bulkhead left the quarter bunk about 5’8”.  So I would extend it.

[photo 2011.09 q.berth 1a.jpg]

Fortunately on poor Diana, the after bulkhead here, at the foot, being the mounting space for the (dumb) idea of the gas-can locker, had got so rotten from the boat’s being operated with the hatch open in rain that I was able to remove it... with no tools.  One of the first things I did was to build a new bulkhead 9 inches farther aft and make a shelf over the foot end.  It appears as a winch-handle shelf in the cockpit-seat hatch.  The same shelf extends forward over the foot of the bunk, making a duffel-bag locker there (see the one at the far end, here cluttered with small boards and other stuff).  The lockers along the side were an afterthought.  I had a piece of wood in my hand, going around the boat fitting it into places, and suddenly got the Eureka idea to make what we used to have on C44s up front, the underwear, t-shirt and swimsuit ‘stuff lockers’ over the bunk.

This side locker face was VERY hard to fit properly.  There was no structure here to rely upon-- I was measuring things in thin air.  It is not parallel to the centreline nor to the angled side of the bunk.  Immediately forward of it, in the space where the fiddle-rail shelf used to be, is the electrical panel.  (In the photo the panel is lying back in the bunk with two rectangular holes for the switch panels.  It appears here face-down; the switch panels are to the right when you look at it.)  This was hard to fit against the back of the cabin but I finally just left the end long and figured I’d make some kind of bin in the back end, over the end of the fiddle-rail shelf.  This end of the electrical panel actually formed a good anchoring point for this new locker face.  I mounted it with no bottom and cut the bottom to fit.  It’s bonded to the hull with 5200, lending strength and stiffness in this notoriously flimsy area.
 

The fit of the overhead of this space has yet to be determined.  I intend the roof of the locker for the shotgun but have to install the traveler and backing plates before I can see what I have to screw the hinges and latches to.
 

The bit of what looks like plain trashy plywood in the back of the crosswise locker is a bit of plain trashy 3/8” CDX plywood I had been using for templates and the like till one day I got the silly idea to make dividers for these lockers out of it.  Diligently I fit the pieces, sanded them carefully (try sanding CDX some time!) and saturated them in Salem sealer before installing them.  As such they’re adequate for humidity and will last ages.  Another divider is visible beside the blue duffel bag.  One of them I signed (before the varnish and installation) as a tongue-and-cheek reminder to the next owner that I really did know what I was doing using this plain trashy plywood and that it was meant as a joke.  The one in the back blocks off a ragged piece of ‘glass from the earlier bunk-foot structure.
 

The little cubbyhole down at the far end is where the original after bulkhead was-- its forward bulkhead is heavily ‘glassed to the hull.  The two blades of ‘glass after where I cut it off have remained strong even though the wood between it was rotten to nothing.  There’s still some (good) wood in there.  The inside of this locker isn’t pretty-- I put it there mainly to trim off the remains of what had been there.  I had to make a floor in it, uncharacteristically blocking off the space below to keep things from disappearing into an invisible and almost inaccessible wedge in there.  I call this locker ‘Indiana’ because its plywood face is the shape of that state only mirrored.  Beneath the foot of the bunk, beyond the original bulkhead (still there under the bunktop), is another locker against the inside of the hull.  If you were to peel up the front of the mattress some day you would assume there are only the two stock traps under the bunk; so it might be a good hiding spot.  But I’ve just said that in this blog; so you can rest assured that’s not the only secret spot this boat holds!
 

I will take other photos of the under-cockpit area and the ladder but I have been waiting to pretty it up with more trim.  I have been going up and down that ladder about 6 years now and only recently have I considered that the treads might like another coat of varnish.  Captain’s Varnish is made for spars and is excellent for durability as well as UV protection.
 

The trim around the lockers came from C44 hull 5, which was in for restoration while I was collecting scrap wood.  The wood is only 3 years younger than this (1974) boat.  The trim around the teak cabin back looks washed-out from the flash, but it is really more golden than the long-varnished other stuff, and it is all Honduras mahogany (not the pretend stuff you get now).  I just screwed it on and let the screws show-- it’s too thin for plugs and it’s how the trim was originally on this boat.  I also don’t believe in staining wood that’s already pretty.  I leave it as-is, apply sealer and then Captain’s Varnish and let it have its own identity.  So the interior appears a mix-up of varying wood colors, which is exactly how it should be.  It reflects the reality and naturalness of the natural material.  (Also it is much less work.)  I tried a bit of stain on a bit of mahogany-plywood bulkhead and even though I used only a very little it got so black that it was downright ugly and I remade the piece and just varnished it as-is. Varnished mahogany marine plywood, going back to the Cherubini Sea Scamp days, is as much of my heritage as are original artwork, Roman Catholicism and frozen waffles.  In this boat I am surrounded by what I am.

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