F***ing Boats

We're coming out of the water again.

Kamalii is close-seam construction, where there is no caulking between the seams, though the two layers of planking are bedded in rubber, so in a way she is a glued-and-screwed boat. There is a small length of seam on the starboard side mid-ships, original planking, that is a bit open, and coming down from the USA leaked off and on - mostly on. When we hauled last time I caulked it using traditional cotton caulking etc and that fixed it.

Fast forward to last week and when we went back in the water she started streaming again, and unfortunately has not taken up properly. I suspect that the high-pressure water blast may have damaged the caulking and we just didn't notice. Buggeration.

We are going to lift out last thing on Tuesday afternoon. It will only take me 30-40 minutes to re-caulk the seam, but then I'll need to pay the seam with rubber and anti-foul, so we are sitting in the slings overnight and go back in first thing in the morning.

F***ing boats.

S**t off a shovel

We dropped her in at 7:45am this morning. And she still floats - bonus!

I dropped her into gear without taking the engine off idle, and we were quickly doing 5 knots down the fairway. Wow! The insidiousness of slow decay goes unnoticed, so over time as the bottom fouls you don't appreciate how much the performance drops off. A clean bum and she goes like the proverbial fertiliser off a gardening implement.

I like the black boot-top better. We docked stern-to for a change, getting a bit of a mediterranean feel for summer.

The only bummer: the small drip in the center-board lifting tube that we "fixed" is now a slightly larger drip. Groan. We have a cunning plan, and if that does not work then it will be a chat with the marina about lifting us a metre out of the water for half an hour so we can disassemble it all and try again.

Big hugs to Sharon, she worked her backside off the last few days.

Ready for Immersion

8:45pm and I just pulled the last of the masking tape off the waterline. We are back in the drink at 7:45am tomorrow. This will be followed by frantic checking of all the seacocks I dismantled. Have faith, James.

No pics to show the finished product, it was too late, will have to wait till tomorrow.

Third floor - chandlery, varnish supplies, and rum.

Taping out the boot-top to roll up the anti-foul. Decided to go for black-on-black.

8:45pm and all done. Notice how white it looks just above the boot-top. We sanded it back and rolled on some new paint. We are going to freshen up the rest of the topsides while in the water. Old school.

I would like to give a huge thank-you to Simon Jenkin and my mum Lesley for their help with the painting. Simon gave up most of his Labour Weekend to help out. Total champ.

Race to the finish line

Today the weather turned to crap - no painting. So instead we spent the day inside pulling all the sea-cocks apart and re-greasing them. I also dismantled and reassembled the tube for the the centerboard lifting cable that runs through the engine room, as it has had a slight weep ever since we launched her back in California, leaving a slow drip of water into the engine room bilge. If it wasn't for that drip the bilge is basically dry. Fingers crossed I got it right, because once we are back in the water we don't get to have another crack at it.

Old-school bronze plug sea-cocks. Need greasing to keep them from seizing.

Prop finished with Propeller Coat. The vendor tells me this is the commercial grade product and should be good for 7 years. Promises, promises...

Tomorrow the forecast looks ok-ish, so hopefully we will get the final coat of anti-foul on, then back in the drink on Wednesday - and back to work for me!

The Pain Continues

Almost on schedule. Got the hull primed and the first coat of antifoul on today. Didn't quite get the boot-top finished, but close to where we should be. Unfortunately the weather is turning to crap tomorrow, so will probably put us a day behind.

Shiny bronze centreboard, shame we can't drop it right down.

Stripping the prop back.

First coat on the boot-top. Have decided to go black, never really liked the blue.

Sideshow Bob.

First coat of antifoul on. It's late...

As clean as I can get them.

Everything still hurts...

The Pain Begins

We hauled yesterday. Went fine. Sharon and I scraped and wet sanded the entire hull. Everything hurts. Everything.

Owwww...

Something Almost Happening

All focus is on hauling out this Friday. Watching the weather forecast closely, it's up and down.

Besides that I have also managed to find time to engage in my favorite pastime - disassembling and reassembling toilet pumps. The pump bellows in the starboard head pump that I replaced about a year ago had failed. Serves me right, I bought the after-market cheapo unit instead of the proper thing. Fool me once...

Replacement for the offending item. Proper Dometic branded part this time. 

Oh how I love it in here. 

And while I'm trying not to start any big jobs before we haul, I'm doing some little ones...

Replacing worn hinges on the oven door. Had to re-glue the retaining clip on one side - like my carefully counter-balanced hold-down weights?

Here's how the new paint in the aft cabin looks. Nice job, Sharon.

And finally. When Kamalii was constructed all the interior joinery was beautifully finished, with all fastenings nicely plugged. The only trouble with that is if you need to take any of the joinery apart to get in behind then you have to pull all the teak plugs to get to the screws, buggering your varnish, and requiring you to re-plug, sand, and re-varnish. Bugger that.

Since much of the joinery was disassembled when we got the boat, I have not re-plugged the screw holes. It actually looks OK with stainless screws. However I've experimented with putting black plastic plugs into the holes to cover the screws, and I think it works OK.

Plugs in screw holes. At least it's no drama unscrewing things now. See previous photo for shot without plugs. Look better?

And I'm Back

Overseas for 3 weeks, back and sick for a week, off seeing family during the school holidays (still sick), now I'm back. Something may happen on Kamalii very soon. Or I may just sit and drink all the duty-free scotch I bought.

Sharon has painted most of the aft stateroom while I was overseas, and it's a huge improvement. Now I have to get cracking on rebuilding the port side bulkhead so we can finish the cabin off completely.

Ha. I just had chuckle when I typed that - as if any job is ever completely finished on a boat.

Anyway, before that I have to get my shit together in preparation for hauling out - panic stations!