New port light #3 of 3! Finally done.

Well it looks like the saga has come to an end! I think I figured out a way to have shiny new plexiglass on the boat.

Seeing how the screws into the wood were not holding on very tight. Noticing that the professionally made ones bolted through the hull. Much easier to get them nice and tight, much harder for them to come out! I wanted to find a way to bolt the port light to the hull.

The inside of the boat is just bare fiberglass. No wires or anything important in the way. It sure looks like I should be able to drill through the boat and bolt the portlight on. I did see that one of the screws lined up with the little bulkhead we have in this boat. No surprise there, life as usual. Always something, right?  I can easily drill out a small area for the nut to sit neatly inside.

All that is left to do is get the bolts and drill more holes in this little boat. So I was able to get a bag of 100 stainless steel bolts the right diameter. I also got fender washers and nylon locking nuts.

I was able to remove all the screws holding the starboard side and the portlight stayed stuck to the boat. So I was able to just drill through all the holes.

Carefully lined up the drill, and drilled away. It went through the balsa core pretty easy. Took a little bit to get through the fiberglass on the inside. After drilling all the holes, I cleaned up the inside a bit. Some of the fiberglass holes were a bit rough.

Then I started wrapping butyl tape around all the bolts that I would be using. Making sure that I had enough to easily fill the holes in the plexiglass and the boat. I made sure to wrap it down the bolt pretty far to make sure I would have some butyl tape contact the hole I drilled and fill the space between the bolt and the hull. Man do I know how to have a good time or what?

Then cleaned up the inside fiberglass. Bolting through the boat and making sure to have large washers on both the inside and the outside. Then tightened it down, not cranking down really tight. One thing that prevented that is that the bolts that I could find was considered a "security" bolt. So it has a special head that used a special tool bit. After tightening down a few of them I snapped the bit. Luckily I got 4 bits just because of that.

Made sure to use plenty of butyl tape around all the bolts. It looks like they sealed up pretty good. The next thing to do is test it. So I grab the hose and soak down the portlight really well. Not a drop of water on the inside!!

Some of the bolts needed to be so tight that they snapped the bit. So I had to make a tool to be able to tighten them enough. Looking at the two little round places for the bit to hold on, it looked like a nail would fit in there. Luckily I had some finishing nails that fit pretty good. So I pounded two through a little board with a long handle. I was able to really tighten down the pesky few that needed to be really tight!

Simple wood and nail tool

Put the bulkhead back in place to mark where I need to drill a little hole to make room for the nut. Luckily I was able to bulkhead right next to the nut and screw it into place night and tight! So something went quickly and easily. Man I like it when that happens.

Then the next day I was able to repeat that whole process on the port side! Now I have 2 shinny new portlights to look out of. They sure make a difference with how much light gets inside. Not the most perfect or beautiful of jobs. But so much better then what was there before.

I am so glad that most of the anxiety of trying to figure out how to work on a boat and doing it right, is gone. There is so  many new things that I have had to learn. It is very different then working on cars. That is my greatest amount of experience working on and fixing.

I have just been so worried about messing it up. Cutting the plexiglass, you can't just put it back together. If I don't seal something up perfectly and we are in the middle of the Puget Sound it would be really really bad for us. Its not like driving down I-5 and having something not working on my car. I can usually get to the shoulder.

I am very glad and happy so many people share their experience, knowledge, and information on the internet. It would have been so much harder for me to try and figure this stuff out if it wasn't for people sharing with the world!

New port lights part 2 of ????

Finally got a day that it wasn't raining cats and dogs and was able to test the installation of the new port light. Well it was very obvious, real quick that the new window leaked much worst then the old window! This sucks!

So I took the port light off. Man that butyl tape is sticky and stretchy! It took a good amount of work to get the plexiglass off the hull. Until I got to the top part. Obviously the port light was not even touching the hull!

This plastic 1/4 inch plexiglass is not as flexible as I thought! So the only way that I can see to fix this problem is bend the plexiglass so that it can touch the hull. Now I have to clean everything up and off to Google how to bend plexiglass.

Cleaning that butyl tape off was not an easy task. It was just slowly pulling and scraping with a plastic putty knife. After that taking some of the butyl tape and touching it to what was left on the plexiglass and it was able to pick up some of what was left behind. Then cleaning up the remaining stragglers with mineral spirits. Then cleaning the plexiglass really well.

So after some reading and watching YouTube I see several people agreeing on using a heat gut to heat up the plastic. As usual the YouTube videos make it look easy, but the forums and what I read says it is tricky. So off to get a heat gun to add to all my stuff!

Cut off a small chunk from the extra plexiglass I have and went for it. Found that it was pretty easy to get the plexiglass to blister and bubble under the heat gun. I really have to keep it just the right distance away and keep it moving just right. Move it to fast and the plexiglass does not heat up and get soft. To close or to slow and it bubbles!

So I put down a 2X4 on my little work table and lined up the spot where I wanted to bend to start. Then put a 1X4 on top of the plexiglass and clamped it all down to the table. Fired up the heat gun. Starting at one end of the port light I carefully worked on heating up both sides. Making sure to take my time and keep that gun moving.

Of coarse today was the day the weather decided to jump from 60 degrees to 80! So trying very hard to be patient and just carefully heat up a small section. I used a small piece of wood to push down on the hot plexiglass. It takes a lot of heat to get this stuff to get soft and bend. Then moved down a little bit. Heating it up carefully, keep the gun moving. Finally was able to get a little bit of bend. Then move down a few more inches, rinse and repeat.

So it took me a good long time to work my way down a few inches at a time. I had a hard time getting a good picture of the slight bend I finally got. After slow and carefully heating and pressing down on the plexiglass.

With having a hard time getting the top part to connect with the hull I decided to put two layers of butyl tape on the top part of the port light. Also carefully put the butyl tape down on the edge. Carefully cutting angles to go around all the corners. With having a hard time getting the top part to connect with the hull I decided to put two layers of butyl tape on the top part of the port light.

Carefully put it in place lining up all the holes in the port light with the hull. Unfortunately the bottom of the port light touched the hull before it should have. Man that butyl tape grabbed hold and wouldn't let go. So you want to have some help and line everything up very carefully.

One thing I have not mentioned yet is that several of the screws that go into the balsa wood core would just spin and not tighten down. So I got the largest screws I could. I have to have the holes larger then the screws to allow for expansion. Those screws would not work either!

So I still don’t have this one issue fixed yet. So got to keep looking and trying to figure out what I can do to get this done. Hopefully I will find a solution soon!

Of time, sailboats, and projects.

Hello again everybody,

On this adventure learning about sailboats and sailing I am learning a lot about time! There is so much that I am learning about that never entered my mind! There is so much to do, understand, and apply. I am sure learning that I didn't have a clue of what I was getting myself into!

Usually it doesn't take me long to get an idea how long it takes me to do things. I am thinking I have worked on cars before. There is nuts and bolts on the boat. It is pretty much the same, right? Well not really, because there are several bolts on this little boat that I can get to the bolt, or the nut. I can't get to both at the same time. Something I have not had to deal with working on cars.

Another very different thing is that when I put the nuts and bolts back together, I have to make sure they are water tight! So they have to be bedded properly. After reading some reviews and information about butyl tape, that is my go to stuff!

So I have found that the last person that did a lot of the hardware on this little boat did it in a way that it should not have been done. So not only does it take the time to take it apart. After finding a second set of hands to hold on to the bolt from the top. I also have to clean up the mess that the last person made.

So when I think it should take me about 10 to 15 minutes to remove a few bolts, it turns out my estimation is way wrong! So things like getting the nuts and bolts removed, I find that the bolt is rusted. So after getting it torn apart and and cleaned up I have to run out and get new bolts. So my little project takes me over an hour!

I find it funny that when I am out sailing time seems to slow down. We get the sails set. We have a nice breeze going. The boat is sailing across the water. We get to hear that nice sound of the water rolling off of the hull. It is just so peaceful. So calm and nice.

But right now she is sitting on her trailer needed some work. I am also really wanting to learn how to do everything I can about taking care of, repairing, and rebuilding a boat properly. So I want to take my time and do it right. So that means things are taking a lot longer then I expected.

For example the "U-bolt" that the trailer wench attached to the boat didn't have a good backing plate. Also the poor nuts where pretty rusted. Plus there was a chunk of the old nasty carpet stuck under it. So I soaked the nuts in some penetrating oil. Trying to get them loose. The top one I was able to get. The other nut was actually falling apart! So I had to chisel it off the "U-bolt"

Why no backing plate?

So laying down on the plastic in the V-berth made it very interesting to try and get the nuts off. You sure do slide around a lot on that plastic when you are trying to muscle off rusted bolts! So that is a new issue I never thought of.

I am surprised at how hard it is to work with stainless steel. Man that stuff is tough! So I got some 1/4 inch stainless steel stock to make backing plates. I got myself a drill press. It is just slow going drilling holes in that stuff.

So I got the holes drilled in my new backing plate. Got the butyl tape all wrapped around the U-bolt. Got it all put back together.

Backing plate!

So I know that it is taking longer then I would like it to be. I do want all of the projects done. Being a pretty typical male I really focus on the goal and getting stuff done. I am working on learning on taking a deep breath and going with the flow. I am very happy knowing I am working on doing the best possible job. That this thing will be so well cared for and put together that my family will be very safe. That this boat will take good care of us out on the water. Because so much is being done to take good care of her now!

New bow hardware!

I finally got to the bow part of the hardware that needed to be replaced and worked on. The stanchion bases where cracked and corroded. I knew that they needed to be replaced. Turns out that the bolts that held the cleats on where so very corroded! When trying to loosen them the bolts snapped! They would not have held the boat with any kind of forceful wind or waves. Also the last time they where replaced they did not put any backing plates on them! That needed to be taken care of.

Broken nav light.

Crack in the stanchion base.

Odd cleat.

I was amazed at how the last person just tried to fill up under the base with silicone. There was a lot of rust and dirt that got under the stanchion base. I made sure to clean everything up really well with degreaser then acetone. Then I filled the holes up with epoxy. Then drilled new holes bigger then I needed. Then filled them with epoxy and let them cure for about a day or two. Then I drilled holes just the size of the bolts. This way if there is any leaks then the wood will be sealed by the epoxy. Letting only the epoxy get wet. That will prevent any water from messing up the wood between the fiberglass on this boat.

So much crap!

I made sure that there was good size .25" stainless steel backing plates for all the cleats and bases. It would take such a massive amount of force to pull those things through the fiberglass and the wood. They are on there nice and safe now!

Backing plates.

It looks nice having it all back together! Knowing that everything is very strong and solid is wonderful. I am learning so much more then I expected with this new adventure.

All put together!

I am so very glad that I learned about butyl tape! I have to say that it is the easiest and best bedding material. It is easy to work with. Easy to clean up after. Don't have to wait for it to cure before it is water tight. Just can't say enough about this stuff. I only learned about this because of people willing to blog and share on YouTube. It is awesome that people are sharing this information with the world!

Bedding butyl tape applied.

Re-bedding and trying to fix a leak!

The last couple of days has been spent removing hardware from around the cockpit. I knew one of the mounts for a stanchion was cracked. I am also hunting down and trying to fix a leak where the rain is leaking into the starboard quarter berth. I figured I would find some more problems after getting into this project.

Dirt and silicone.

Turns out that the last person decided to use silicon to bed the hardware.  For some reason used silicone around the inside, and not around the holes where the bolts went through! Also lots of dirt under the hardware. Also found that there was some old unused wholes that where filled with silicon. So I have lots of work to get this done correctly.

First step of course is to clean up this mess. So used a plastic putty knife to brush of the chunks of dirt and scrape off the silicone. Then used a degreaser and a scrub brush. After getting it as clean as I could. Dried it off then used the old acetone.

Getting out the drill I drilled out the silicone from the holes. Then scraped all the silicone I could with the drill bit. Then cleaned it up again with acetone.

I put duck tape on the underside of the holes. Mixed up some 5 minute epoxy. With a toothpick carefully filled up the hole with epoxy. Making sure that their was a little rounded bit raised from the fiberglass deck.

4 epoxy filled holes

Getting to some of the nuts on the underside was pretty hard. Luckily I was able to get the youngest to help out. Me using a ratchet underneath and him using the drill or a screwdriver with a bit was able to get everything taken off. A lot of the nuts and lock washers where rusted. So they where pretty hard to get off.

I found out that none of this stuff had any backing or support underneath! There was no backing plates! They didn't even put on fender washers! So I will have to drilling holes in some 1/4 inch stainless steel plate to strengthen everything.

I have used butyl tape in the past to re-bed the other hardware I have worked on. I have also used a 3M calk out of a tube. I really like the butyl tape so much better! That is what I am going to use to re-bed all of this stuff.

Luckily I have a farm supply right down the road from me. I was able to get all brand new stainless steel locking nuts and washers. Unfortunately they only have Phillips head bolts. Hopefully I will be able to get the longer ones I need tomorrow!