Detailing Adventure

[Deep C]

I do a pretty hard detail on my boat a couple times a year but this one is taking on a new life of its own. Started with wanting t0o find how rain was working its way from above deck to the head floor. While there I saw a generally shabby condition that signaled time for a hard clean up.
The rain path was intricate from the tower down through the radio box then down to inside the windshield. Where it was seeping through screw holes down into the head and eventually the floor. Kind of neat crawling up into places that havn't been seen by man since the boat was laid up 17 years ago.
Along the way, it gave me a chance to get into parts of the radio box I had never bothered to visit. Radio box also serves as catchalls for some people. As I dug through, among the wiring I found not only things I had tossed in there but found goodies left by those before me. It gets you thinking about her previous ife. What did she look like new? As the Piranah what did she catch. As the HAndyman I knew some of her hitory. Kind of fun to see how different systems and repairs were done by different people thorugh the years. You look at some repairs or splices and shake your head how they lasted this long, while others that seemingly done very right had failed in short order.
You dig deeper. Stuff we just don't think about or take for granted that have escaped notice now take on new meaning. As I applied Alumaguard to the riggers and towers I sat and took notice of just how much goes into making one the right way. You start to count the welds, all perfect. You think about how precise every cut of every pipe needed to be . You then get into appreciate the craftmanship and marvel at how she has stood the test of time , rough water and not a lot of tlc along the way.
Back in the radio box you look at a mass jumble of wires. Each one having a job to do and routed though spaces so impossibly tight you swear its impossible to duplicate...That mass gets bigger behind the control center. So many systems in such a small boat all requiring those strands to go through daily stuff we take as routine.
While slapping varnish on the teak that was cleaned and sanded yeasterday you drift to exotic places where it took years to grow. Suddenly you don't curse it quite as loudly. As I venture in the cabin, the catch all traces above the bunks are tended to. Oooh there's a lure I caught such and such on... was wondering where it went... Wow! Look at that plug... remember the wahoo that wrecked it? ....... Aha! I was wondering where I put those.....
I dig under the bunks. Literally hundred of pounds of redundant parts that could be needed someday over in the islands where you cant get anything. You count up the outdated flare kits. No longer in date but too expensive to just toss away. In the cabinets behind the head there are bottles of cleaners who's lables date them to another era. CAn't remember the last time I saw Comet with a picture of "Josephine" on it.
I shampoo the carpet. I had no idea that it was that color. Other hidey holes reveal more goodies left by previous owners. Anyone need a jar of Uncle Josh's pork in "frog" pattern?
Way up under the gunwales I apply rust remover... Wow cockpit lights! Forgot about them... The bags of garbage are lined up on the gunwale for disposal. I climb back down to the ground.
Some polish and wax is applied to the transom but already I'm guaging the bottom job in front of me. Cant get there til I attend to the bilge first... Wait ... What about that chairs bushings and pedestal? While I'm there gonna be under that section of deck... May as well do some fuel tank work... More to follow as the detailng contiues...

[gradywhite273]

she won't know how to act.

[Deep C]

WIth all the crap I'm taking out of her she may actually get on plane...

This is the only way I can undertake this. Treat it like some kind of adventure or even a safari and i'll get through it. Oytherwise its just another semi annual clean up.

[gradywhite273]

WIth all the crap I'm taking out of her she may actually get on plane...

This is the only way I can undertake this. Treat it like some kind of adventure or even a safari and i'll get through it. Oytherwise its just another semi annual clean up.

don't you mean semi centennial.

[Deep C]

I usually put the super scrub to her before and the island trip. SHe gets thirty or so days of no love there (50 cents a gallon ),She gets a mechanical tweak before and after that trip then another mechanical during the fall and another in season. This is a rare (ok first time ) in season top to bottom dooshin... It'll be interrupted somewhat for a mechanial over the next few days. (oil change, filter change, high pressure line change). Then I can do the bilges. And only then decide whether or not to paint the decks...or just wax.

Kinda fun seeing how different cleansers react with each other. Did you know that if you mix On-Off, Clorox, Comet and Ajax together you get something like silly putty when it reacts with oil, grime, sand, and year old scales? I also found out honey bees like Alumaguard and silicone when those two scents mix then they slaide off the tower into my box of cleaning stuff because the Alumaguard is slick...

[Deep C]

Port side forward of helm almost done....

[scotty2]

She's gonna fall apart.........I no longer feel safe boarding that vessel. DO NOT let soap hit those fish boxes, no matter what. That chair and pedestal need work? .

[Deep C]

Man! Things are going slow today. Wind has me rockin on the blocks so bad it scared me back to the ground!
Cleaned and de rusted the tackle drawers. Put a big soak to the bilge with three kinds of soaps. I didn't know my underdecks were gray and shiny. I though they were black. I'd imagine I'll be getting a call from epa when they see what comes from out there...
Scotty... no soap in the fish box. The chair... Well... Last year I put on a square foot of back plate but I get some very large individuals that seem to test how much a half inch plate of aircraft grade aluminum can take. It seems that it is holding up but the pedistal itself and mount where it fits on the chair is a different story. Even the whole deck which is solid glass is flexing some...
Was hoping to get in tower to take riggers off but blowin so hard its not safe... Found $1.18 in the bilge in loose change

[Deep C]

Then the rains came... Wind eased up and let me polish the rails forward. Dismantled the chair and will carry ariund town to find stuff that will firm her up some. Was all set to start the rigger tear down and straighten process and the heavens opened up...
Just picked up Mini from the bus stop and dropping her at a friends house. Gotta check on the other boats quick, then back to the chair chore... Riggers are gonna have to wait another day...

At least the rain cooled down the acid burns from de rusting stuff.

[Deep C]

Fished the morning half. Again the tourney fleet had all the live bait tied up so it was dead on the end of the string. I really hate fishing with one rigger (havn't been able to get old base out of the elbow yet).. Spread just wasnt pretty. Still we punched one sail dog in shallow and two dolphin out deep.
Got done with that run and got back to the Deep C projects. Finished the deck paint first coat then straightened and re rigged the riggers I dismantled yesterday. I think I'm going to like the off white color on the decks better than the sand color before. Was hoping one coat would do it but seems that another is in order...
She's at least back to fishable mode for now so she'll go back on line and the skiff will go back into retirement...