Winter 2017 to 2018: Completing the Refit Part 6, Waiting, the Boom, the Bottom, and the Transom

Waiting

This is the first post for 2018.  Milford Boat Works is still in the process of getting the boat ready for painting.  Currently are still priming the topsides.  Parts are coming in and its cold and dark.

This is typical of the way most sailors feel, except for those who sailed south in the fall or fly south for a charter sail.

The Boom

Chris Ranney from Tartan Yachts sent me a couple of pictures of the nearly completed boom.  Here they are.  I plan to go out to see it on my way to Michigan shortly.

The Aft End of the New Boom

The New Boom Looking Toward the Aft End

Then today, today being Jan 29th I visited Tartan Yachts and saw the boom...FINISHED.   Gorgeous!!!  Here are two videos.

The Pocket Boom

(Held the camera in portrait instead of Landscape; oh well I was excited)

The Bottom of the New Boom Showing Attachment Points

As you can see from the videos, the boom is shaped like a trough so that new full batten North mainsail will fall directly into it instead of all over the bimini and cockpit.  This should make using the main faster and simpler.

Todd who actually made the Boom
(Thanks Todd)

The Bottom

The bottom paint of Calypso has been a problem since I acquired it in 2014.  The reason is that I couldn't find out what the paint was.  Most of you know that most brands of bottom paint are incompatible with other brands; meaning they will not adhere properly and flake off.  This defeats the purpose of bottom paints.

Larry and his team at Milford Boat Works found a water-based paint that would work for a year.  But that meant the bottom needed to be completely repainted every year.  On my old boat, Starwood, I only needed to have the leading edges of the keel and rudder, and near the waterline repainted; these are the areas of most wear on the paint.

In the winter of 2015/16, the yard personnel found that the keel bolts had slightly loosened; not good.  And there seemed to be cracks on the keel in the joint; again, not good.  So it was not surprising when the bottom was media blasted to get rid of the old paint, the some of the fairing material on the keel fell off.  This is shown in the following picture.

Keel After Media Blasting
(Note the Lead in the circled area)

So there was one more preparation job for the yard before the bottom could be barrier coated on painted.  Finally, as shown below the fared area was painted with a sanding primer, as was the entire keel (see a previous post).  This is shown in the following picture.

The Keel and Bottom After Fairing and Some Primer

Now is was time to paint the bottom.  The same portion of the keel and bottom is shown in the following picture. 

The Completed Keel and Bottom Paint

It wasn't just the keel and its connection that was painted, it was the entire bottom, after it was barrier coated.  The paint was rolled on instead of sprayed, which make the paint a little bumpy or dimply.  If the boat was to be used for racing at the highest level, that might be a problem.  

However, even when I was racing SV Starwood I rolled the paint on.  Having an ultra smooth bottom helps the speed, but one mistake by the crew can cancel out all of the speed advantage of a smooth bottom.  Since I'm using Calypso for cruising and since the cost of spraying might be up to double the cost of having the paint rolled, I chose the latter.

The bottom paint is now ready for the water.  I wish the rest were, but it's coming along.  Here are the two sides of the bottom in the two videos.

The Port Side showing the bottom Paint

The Starboard Side Showing the Bottom Paint

The new rudder has been painted as well.  This rudder has been much more of an effort on the part of the yard, than either the yard or I expected.  I'm planning a post on the problems with this new rudder in the future so that you might have some good questions to ask before you have one built.

The Rudder

The Transom

The transom of Calypso was filled with spider cracks.  You can find the pictures of these in previous posts.  In the last post, you could see that there was still a significant amount of smoothing that needed to be done before the transom was ready for paint; now just a little, according to Larry, the yard manager.

The Transom Primed and just about Ready

So now the boat is about ready for paint, then reassembly.

I suspect I'll be waiting until the end of February or early March before I can show you much more progress.  So I'll be waiting.

Winter 2017 to 2018: Completing the Refit Part 5, Epoxy, Priming, and more Parts

Epoxy (The Transom)

During the late October and all of November, the yard personnel did little work on Calypso because they were busy hauling boats for the winter and winterizing them.  Part of the reason that I brought Calypso over early was so that they could get as much work as possible completed before fall hauling season.  Consequently, I've really posted no new pictures or videos of the boat recently.

They are back working on the boat and will complete a good portion of the work before the holiday break.  They have already completed a significant amount work.

The Transom

As you might have seen in some of the pictures and videos in past posts, the transom needed some work; well it's begun.  The transom is a reverse transom and therefore sometimes points directly into the summer sun.

Since it's Awlgripped in Flag Blue, which is close to black, it heats up.  This heats the gelcoat under the paint and the gelcoat spider cracks.  I have pictures of these spider crack in a previous post.

The people in the yard sanded down the Awlgrip and gelcoat mostly down to the epoxy of the hull.  Then they epoxied a layer of glass mat to the surface as shown in the video about.  After some additional prep work including sanding, the transom will be ready for primary.

The combination of glass mat and epoxy had much less chance of spider cracks than the gelcoat.  So, the new surface should be much better adapted to the sun, especially in the Caribbean.  So if I go there...

Priming

All the rest of the topsides have had two or three coats of sanding primary applied as shown in the following two videos.

 

The Port Side in Sanding Primary

The Starboard Side in Sanding Primary

Additionally, the cracks around the keel have been smoothed out and primed.

Keel before Smoothing and Priming

Keel After Smoothing and Priming

After the transom is smoothed out the topsides  will need another two to three coats of sanding primer before its ready for the Awlgrip.  The Keel too will need two or three coats of sanding primer, but will be followed by a barrier coat and bottom paint.

More Parts

The hatch lids have come back from Hatchmasters with their new lens and are ready to be fit back onto their frames.  Here some of them are.

The Hatch Lids

It's likely to be early March 2018 before they are assembled on the boat.

The new rudder has finally emerged from its box, as Larry the Milford Boat Works manager and his team are starting to fit the rudder to the boat.

The Old Rudder

The New Rudder

As you might be able to see from the two pictures, the new rudder has a slightly different shape (slightly more hydrodynamic) than the old rudder.  Competition Composites Inc. did a excellent job on that part of the rudder.

Unfortunately, there have been a fair number of issues with the rudder post.  Most of the issues the people at Milford Boat Works have solved.  Still there is one issue important to me.  The emergency rudder fits onto a support passing through the center of the rudder post.  It's not there, so there will need to be more work on the rudder post.

Finally, the swim platform has been refurbished, primed, and with a few additional coats of primer will be ready for paint. 

The Swim Platform

Work will resume on the refit in early January 2018.

Winter 2017 to 2018: Completing the Refit Part 4, Packages, Pieces, and Parts

Epoxy (The Transom)

During the late October and all of November, the yard personnel did little work on Calypso because they were busy hauling boats for the winter and winterizing them.  Part of the reason that I brought Calypso over early was so that they could get as much work as possible completed before fall hauling season.  Consequently, I've really posted no new pictures or videos of the boat recently.

They are back working on the boat and will complete a good portion of the work before the holiday break.  They have already completed a significant amount work.

The Transom

As you might have seen in some of the pictures and videos in past posts, the transom needed some work; well it's begun.  The transom is a reverse transom and therefore sometimes points directly into the summer sun.

Since it's Awlgripped in Flag Blue, which is close to black, it heats up.  This heats the gelcoat under the paint and the gelcoat spider cracks.  I have pictures of these spider crack in a previous post.

The people in the yard sanded down the Awlgrip and gelcoat mostly down to the epoxy of the hull.  Then they epoxied a layer of glass mat to the surface as shown in the video about.  After some additional prep work including sanding, the transom will be ready for primary.

The combination of glass mat and epoxy had much less chance of spider cracks than the gelcoat.  So, the new surface should be much better adapted to the sun, especially in the Caribbean.  So if I go there...

Priming

All the rest of the topsides have had two or three coats of sanding primary applied as shown in the following two videos.

 

The Port Side in Sanding Primary

The Starboard Side in Sanding Primary

Additionally, the cracks around the keel have been smoothed out and primed.

Keel before Smoothing and Priming

Keel After Smoothing and Priming

After the transom is smoothed out the topsides  will need another two to three coats of sanding primer before its ready for the Awlgrip.  The Keel too will need two or three coats of sanding primer, but will be followed by a barrier coat and bottom paint.

More Parts

The hatch lids have come back from Hatchmasters with their new lens and are ready to be fit back onto their frames.  Here some of them are.

The Hatch Lids

It's likely to be early March 2018 before they are assembled on the boat.

The new rudder has finally emerged from its box, as Larry the Milford Boat Works manager and his team are starting to fit the rudder to the boat.

The Old Rudder

The New Rudder

As you might be able to see from the two pictures, the new rudder has a slightly different shape (slightly more hydrodynamic) than the old rudder.  Competition Composites Inc. did a excellent job on that part of the rudder.

Unfortunately, there have been a fair number of issues with the rudder post.  Most of the issues the people at Milford Boat Works have solved.  Still there is one issue important to me.  The emergency rudder fits onto a support passing through the center of the rudder post.  It's not there, so there will need to be more work on the rudder post.

Finally, the swim platform has been refurbished, primed, and with a few additional coats of primer will be ready for paint. 

The Swim Platform

Work will resume on the refit in early January 2018.

Winter 2017 to 2018: Completing the Refit Part 3, Almost Ready for Paint

Completing The Refit, the Continuing Saga

Readying for the Awlgrip

October 28th: Calypso is in Milford Boat Works paint shed being readied for painting the Awlgrip on the topsides.  Work is continuing on repairing the vertical cracks in the gelcoat of the hull.  The work is shown in the following two videos.

The Starboard Side

The Port Side

As you can see the final coat of a surfacing compound has been applied in preparation for the primer.

Calypso is not going to be primed for several weeks because the transom still needs a significant amount of work.  The reason is that the spider cracks on the transom are caused by the sun's heat over time working on the flag blue color of the Awlgrip.  You can see these in the following photo.

The Spider Cracks in the Transom

Larry, and many other authorities tell me that the only color for a hull in the tropics is white.  I guess I'm still enough of a romantic to appreciate Flag Blue, so Calypso will be Flag Blue.

Normally, these cracks would be repaired by routing out the cracks, adding an epoxy-based filler, sanding smooth and repainting.  

However, according to Larry, the yard manager, the best way to repair, as opposed to fix, this problem is to sand off the paint, gelcoat, and undercoating.  This gets down to the glass/epoxy hull.  Then apply a coat of epoxy to smooth out and paint.  This eliminates the gelcoat and under layer that both dry and crack in the sun.

The Transom

As you can see from the video above, the boat has been wrapped up from deck level as part of the preparation for painting.

More when it happens.

Winter 2017 to 2018 Completing the Refit: Part 2

Completing the Refit of Calypso

The Cracks in the Hull

In the last post I noted that Calypso had a fair number of vertical cracks as shown below and in the previous post.

The Vertical Cracks are Showing

This was puzzling to me, since cracks in the paint caused by the sun are spider cracks.  However, when I visited the Annapolis Boat Show on Oct. 5th and 6th, I met Tim Jackett, the designer of the boat and he had the answer for me.

Gelcoat does not adhere to the epoxy resin used in the hull.  So, Tartan inserted a bonding material in between.  Over the years the material cracked as did gelcoat, but one the epoxy resin in the fiberglass.  So the hull is sound and seaworthy, the Calypso just looks cracked.

October 10th: I found the boat in one of the paint sheds at Milford Boat Works.  It had been moved in sometime earlier.

The Shed

The location of Calypso is in the white plastic covered shed in the picture above.  After I did some work consisting of removing the solar panels and the bimini and taking some measurements of the lens of the crazed hatches and did some other minor maintenance, and after I discussed some items with Larry, the yard manager, and Cliff, the electrician, I took some pictures of Calypso's state.

The Deck

As can be seen from the pictures above, the deck of Calypso doesn't seem to be particularly out of order, but for the fact that the wheel is laying on the foredeck!

However, the topsides are still looking like a mess, though a well sanded mess as shown in the following pictures.

The Sides of the Boat

Obviously, I will have some difficulty taking pictures of the boat inside the paint shed and that's OK since it will have a much better paint job inside.

Work Continues

Now Calypso is completely surrounded by scaffolding as the work continues.  The first thing that I noticed was that there was some work on the bottom.  The last time I saw the boat the joint on the starboard side is shown in the following picture.

The keel joint on October 3rd

The epoxy covering the lead in the keel had separated from the actual lead.  Now, (October 17th), new epoxy filled in the separation.  Notice, also, that the some initial barrier coating has been done, apparently.

The Keel Joint filled

Preparatory work on the topsides looks to be about complete except at the stern.

The Starboard Side

The Port Side

However, there is still much work to do on the stern.  As shown in the following pictures, there are many spider cracks (look carefully at the blue in the pictures following).

Port Side Stern

Starboard Side Stern

While they are hairline cracks they are visible (looking carefully) in the pictures and will need to be repaired before the Awlgrip primer is applied.  I have been told that the reason for these cracks is the color of the boat, flag blue.  Dark colors absorb light converting into heat which causes spider cracks in the finish.  This one of the reasons that so many cruising boats are white.

So I suspect it will be another week or two before Jerry, the man refinishing the boat, will be able to start applying the primer, though I may be wrong.

Another item on the list was one that the surveyor of the boat noted, before I acquired the boat.  Many of the exhaust ports for gray water and water from the cockpit come through the stern above the waterline.  These ports are plastic that crazes in the sunlight and therefore were liable to break apart.

As shown in the following picture, these are being replaced.

The Exhaust Ports

Hatches and Woodwork

October 17th: went back to retrieve the companionway woodwork and hatches. The folk at Milford Boat Works deconstructed most of the woodwork of the companionway, exclusive of the two walls, one of which I did last spring and the other that I will do this winter.  

Here they together with the hatch lids in the back of my car.

Parts in the Back of the Car

You can see the lens crazing in the following photo.  While it really doesn't look like in the two photos above, the wood of the companionway needs some serious TLC. 

Crazed Hatch Lens

Apparently, crazed lens like the one you can see can split or cave in during a serious blue water storm.  So the lens need to be replaced if I actually use the boat for some blue water cruising.

And Calypso's deck looks very forlorn with no hatches.

The Deck in Deconstruction

Until next time, in two to three weeks.

Winter 2017 to 2018--Completing the Refit: Part 1

Completing the Refit of Calypso

As of September 18th, 2017, Calypso was on the hard.

Port Side

Starboard Side

Repairing and Refinishing the Hull

As of the 20th, the rudder has been removed.  While I was on a trip I received these pictures of the work on Calypso.

Port Side

Starboard Side

You can see from these pictures that the boat is really a fixer-upper project.  Jerry, the technician opened each crack and has started to repair it using a epoxy and fiberglass.  Notice also, that the rudder is missing.

On October 3rd I went to check on Calypso.  What I found would have made many a sailor and insurance adjustor turn green as shown in the following pictures.  Honestly, it looks like many abandon hulls that I've seen.

However, to me it looked like real progress.

The First Look

Like I said, Calypso looks more like an abandon hulk than a performance cruiser.  The following pictures show more detail of the work.

Starboard Side

Port Side

Like I said, Calypso looks like a hulk.  Jerry at Milford Boat Works (MBW) has sanded down the finish on the topsides and the bottom has been walnut shell blasted.  So the preparation for refinishing is well along.  Notice that in the "port side" picture the swim platform has been removed from the transom.

The Rudder

Here is a picture of the rudder that was removed.  While it doesn't look bad on this side, as pictures demonstrated in previous posts, the other side was not good at all.

The Old Rudder

Now MBW is getting ready to install the new rudder as shown in the following pictures.

The Transom from the Side

The Transom from Underneath 

Problems

As with all projects, be they a bathroom renovation or a boat refit, the farther you get into it, the more problems you find and the more you learn about how the product or system is constructed.  This is true for Calypso's refit as well.

The Swim Platform

First, there is the swim platform.  The hinges on the swim platform were held in place by aluminum straps inside the platform.  Over the years, saltwater found these and they corroded and expanded, splitting the platform along a seam.  The MBW team had to cut the swim platform open to repair the problem.

Jerry with the swim platform

From the picture above you can see the work that needed to be done to complete the repair of the bottom edge of the swim platform.

The top edge of the Swim Platform

There were also cracks where the external handle of the platform attached to the platform that the team repaired.  Shortly it will be ready for repainting with Awlgrip.

Cracks in the Bottom

Of more concern were the hairline cracks in the bottom of Calypso that showed up only after the bottom paint had been removed.  These cracks are mostly extensions of the cracks in the topsides of the boat as shown in the picture below.

The Crack Extension below the Water Line

There are a fair number of them and that is unexpected as well.  The good news is that none of the cracks are weeping, meaning that no water got into the hull.  Instead, apparently, the spider cracks were filled by the barrier coat and paint.  They only showed up when the paint was removed.  More on this soon.