Well its been a long couple weeks since launching... Time to attack the interior... Getting an education on just what a pain in the ass it can be just to get people to work on a boat... Enlisting Murray and Rybovitch help is expensive and getting their guys to free up is harder than getting congress to pass a bill bailing out we the people...
Corian countertops? Yeah right... get in line... Been weeks since I placed the order and maybe on Monday they will template the area... Whats funny is their cabinet people were only contacted a few days ago and they're already building the new entertainment center...
My canvas man has been great all along so I was taken back when the wall he was supposed to replace and the full boat of "welds" wasn't done. Come to find out that his main worker pulled a traffic ticket and INS got a hold of him and gave him the boot back across the border... The owner of the business himself is swamped but has given his word that he will do the work himself.
Floors... Now theres a sore subject... Five different people from five different sources gave me five different quotes and five different ways to do it but none of them wanted to take on a job this small... The boss and I got fed up and were going to go back to carpet... Even more of a hassle trying to find people who will do it for a boat... Finally one of the hardwood guys boss's showed up... This guy was the only one I have encountered with his shit together. He took the job and next day had his crew chief aboard assessing waht all he will need to do to get it right... Teak... Love it and hate it but it beats stinky old carpet...
My old mechanic buddy showed up finally and is ready to address some plumbing, and refrigeration issues... Found some leaky pipes and a dead shower sump pan too... Monday ought to be good. Mechanic and his worker below. Canvas man, Floor dudes, cabinet man, and corian counter dudes all stuffed in that little cabin...
I have spent the last couple days tearing guts out of inside and for the next few I get to play traffic cop and start "fishifying" the pretty girl...
When we got this boat I did a pre survey. The sales person was mis informed or full of shit when it came to certain things. The boat had a set of smells to it... He said the owner of the boat didn't want to over load the power box running the a/c units hard. Bull shit... the cooling pump for the air conditioners was dead and judging from its condition I would say for years. The A/c couldn't run...
Stink involves more than a/c running or not... Something has to start it and then feed it. Sometimes its a simple thing or in our case it was a series of things... Lets start with the biggest culprit... The boat maker... I love Viking... My favorite boat but when they built this particular one somebody was not living up to the Viking reputation...
In going over the boat we noticed rusted staples that hold the canvas to the walls. First off, why they used cheap ass staples instead of monel or at least stainless is past me. Bottom line though; they did... The rusty staples were a side symptom of a bigger issue...
We tore the rotted section of wall out and I could instantly see the issue. The rub rail had been affixed with every third screw missing and the rail it self had never been sealed... A couple tubes of 5200 would have stopped the shit before it started but now I'm looking at 12 years worth of catch up to do...
First thing was to address that rail and see to it that no water ever enters the boat again to feed the funk. A single tube of 5200 and that chore was done...
Next was to start hunting out stink hidey holes... A trip between walls and hull was necessary and man did that turn up some yuck. I removed walls, backs of cabinets, got under floors and went in a full scale hunt... Pocket after pocket of stagnant water puddled were there. Mold farms now choked off from life giving water were blasted with X14 Mold killer. Its not enough to just blast it... It only kills the surface. You gotta kill that layer then wipe it off and kill it again til the whole damn thing is dead...
Days upon days I hunted the crap down and finally got a handle on it... Good for a start but not near enough. Some mold finds places you dont readily see... Another trip through the bowels of the boat finds that it has holed up in the wiring harnesses themselves... If you're gonna go on a mission you need to commit 100 percent to killing it all and so I did.
I found mold in some weird places that shouldn't have ever seen moisture... Under the built in couch for example... No way for it to get there or can it... Enter the next big culprit... A carpet... For the lack of a better word, a "wick". Tracing the source back from there led to other important discoveries. Like they never used sealing tape in the plumbing and though just a tiny seepage from any one fitting, add em together and you may as well have had a sprinkler system.
You now have killed the major sources but still it smells... Aha! The a/c ducts them selves have been transporting the spores for years. They get tore down and douched...Still the smell is there? Duh... That carpet you're standing on is the farm...It gets slung... The mold smell now is less and less noticable... Whats that new funk?... The walls them selves have been "breathing" diesel fuel and fumes for a dozen years... A surface clean of them and the cabinet surfaces reduces that facet of odor... Cedar lined closets when scuffed with some light sand paper once again start releasing their fresh cedar oil smell...
No longer masked by mold and diesel, the remaining smells show stronger... Dig in places you havn't been. We don't shower aboard the boat so we never looked but under the deck was pandoras box of shitty stagnant putrid reminders of three presidential terms... That shower sump box fed by the aforementioned slow leaks needed a hazmat team to remove... While at it we noticed that the very hoses feeding it were full of vile crap. Take it to the next level. Lose every water toting hose on the boat and do em right...
The funk grows fainter... "Hey I know that to be the smell of squid from days gone by..." How the hell can that be? We dig... A solid looking set of hoses and fittings around the fish box weren't as good as they looked. A hairline crack here and a pin hole leak there had been feeding this scent... The boat's bilge drains forward... Got a lot of surface area to cover before it gets there. Hello Clorox... The entire trace gets rubbed into "eat off clean" surface...
Hey those coffin sized bridge boxes could do with some love so they get a purification of their own. Tackle drawers can hold smell. The central vacume... a hell of a nasty collector of stink.
Walked on this afternoon...Smelled only fresh laid 5200 and some of the stuff they're preparing the floor with...
The Vik I was on this past summer was a 2 year old Florida boat and appeared mint in many ways ,looking further found many small harmless leaks but mold starting to grow ,mainly in the lazerette area .pulled the center box and went to town with all kinds of bleach products ,replaced the gasket for the fishbox and will know for sure next season if that was the water entry point
A good way to maintain your sink drains and shower sumps
is to splash some hydrogen peroxide periodocally no smell and i can't stress what bleach will do to your holding tanks and sumps over a period of time ,,,never in the head ,and don't ask how i know
Start with the obvious rotten wall...
Tear it out and clean behind...
Not just behind the cabinets... In the wires too...
And can't forget under the floors and carpet...
Even iin "Dry" places
While the salon was jammed with bodies, the engine room was deserted as can be. We have a freezer re-charge and a water maker left to put in there and its doen... I took advantage of the quiet down there to install a new toy that I think every boat should have...
A surveylance system of cameras is a good thing and the boss green lighted me to get one and get it in... I could have run the receiver to the cabinet where our new entertainment center will be and run it on the big screen but thats a pain to leave the helm to see. The boss gave the green light again on adding a second set ( a mini portable one). That I can place in plain view when running...
Ran one cam forward looking aft anoter aft looking forward and by mounting them in the corners they cover all I need to see. A couple hundred bucks for piece of mind and safety is well spent money...Small enough that it doesn't burn up valuable storage space for our upcomming Bahamas trips...
When we got it... Reconditioned the wheels, patched the trim tabs, changed the zincs... Did a 50 to 2 x 30 amp split.
Got head functioning, changed thermostats and control pannels for two ac units, eskimo and freezer. Recharged freon in all units. New AC pump. New Eskimo fresh and salt water pumps.
New breakers and rewire 110, 12v and 24v panels.. Three new gps df units... 2 new radios... got instant hot water working... installed oil changer... Replaced 24 lights, replaced charger for 12v side. New batteries on 12v system, new fish well macerator, remove old, cleaned 12 years of build up off inside and out... 256 hours labor...
Brought it down: Rempoved carpet of barnacles in oc, silicone sealed the rail during a storm... Ran down in shit weather...
60 hours labor...
Addressing leaks, buffing out where abrasives had taken off protective coatings, finish unfinished chores from up north, 80 hours labor, ...
Got her on yard... 16 paint rollers, 14 brushes, 50 bags soda, 6 gallons 2000 sealer, 6 gallons micron 66, one gallon micron 33, five cans tri lux, replace 4 thru hulls and a whole sea ****, 3 tubes 5200, 210 linear feet of bead, 65 sheets sand paper, 3 dozen rags, 2 gallons 3m perfect, 2 gallons of 3m wax, 2 quarts, orpine with wax, 110 hours of my labor another 90 from outside help.
10 bridge deck cushions, new mezzanine seat, 12 new zippers, 3 new interior bunks, 160 feet of canvas weld, two new walls. 12 cans air spray, 4 gallons, bleach, 2 gallons X14, 12 rolls paper towels, 2 new bilge pumps, new shower sump, new macerator, new head valves, 118 new hose clamps, 41 hoses, 23 new pvc plumbing joints, 250 sq ft teak plank, 16 feet corian, 2 tv sets, 1 blue ray player, security cam system, Guy harvey print and an original, new fridge shelves, new cabinet, refasten 340+- screws... New coffee pot... 144 hrs my time and counting...
When we are done we will have the single sharpest 43 express out there... period end...
In the never ending quest to make ours the finest best 43 Viking of all we are back in the yard... Before christmas we added a UV light/ TiO2 Air cleaning system for the cabin a/c units. Also we went to polycarbonate enclosure panels... Now they are slick!
Today was the haul out and pressure blast. Man! You gotta love Micron 66. Stuff looks like it did when I put it on last year. I could count the Barnacles under there on one hand...
Got a couple side detours on this haul. First of which we started today. New rudders are on the menue after having one shear off. The one that sheared had been worked on before. All the assemblies that hold it in place were done properly with one part broken the rudder itself had been original and we did some Sherlock Holmesing . Seems that the less than great grade metal they used had pitted to the point that it was tearing up the packing... Allowed a wobble (including a leak into the boat we noticed this summer). The wobble then worked it to the point that the metal gave up.
Now we get to the side that still had its rudder... All original and what a cluster! Galvanized nuts on low grade stainless against brass on aluminum plates no never seize and the list goes on. Ripped up some carbide grinder blades getting that crap out. Nothing and I mean nothing could come apart short of cutting. I don't know what the hell Viking was thinking but I'm not impressed...
Should have been an hour but ws closer to three getting that crap out...
Tomorrow I start on the bottom and change some intake screens. Adding another temp and speed sensor in the morn too. Hopefully other crew get there to do our new Awlgrip custom boot stripe and get started on a fresh hull polish job.
Took nine days to get a response from Viking and the one they thought might work had wrong specs. Very wrong...
Blade was close bit if I got it I would have had to send out, cut three inches off shaft then cut in six more inches of key and re drill for the set screws...
The factory installed components were an absolute abortion. Must have just grabbed stuff from around the ground. Galvanized nuts? Five dissimilar metals, no never seize? The other side that had been worked on at least had been done right.
Came to learn that they "notch" cut the shafts so it works at all angles of turn radius... Thats the bottom line trouble spot. The cheap ass low grade aquamet pits and starts that eating of packing and subsequent wobble.
Gonna go A22 on the shaft and maybe get a little "creative" with the blades. Boat never did steer worth a crap any way. In the water I was thinking they were a couple inches higher than the wheels but I see its several inches. The ones we had were standard heavy flat stock but with flat not very hydrodynamic edges... And again cast bronze over steel...
I'm thinking A22 shaft and stick with stainless all the way right through the blade. With them so far above prop blade tips I'm not going to worry about smacking one. Touch of cutting edge and maybe a sweep back.
Boss stopped by today for a visit. Now a lot of guys might object to having their boss loom over them while they're doing the often ugly back braking crap that goes with a yard trip. Not me... Boss has been stressed bad for a while now. Today gave him a break and let him be one of the boys. All too often we tend to exclude those cutting the checks from being part of it. Being there really did him a world of good. It also let the other guys working with me explain what issues we encounter (like yesterdays cut out of most of the steering system) and what processes need to be followed to really do things right. Having that back up adds so much more than if I just try to translate and fill in the blanks.
Though too cold to lay paint or even tape, we got a load accomplished. Removed every strainer off the bottom, sandblasted , and/or replaced. Got new steering parts in place for when rudders get done. Ran new trim tab lines. Ran new holding tank hoses and installed new vents. Did touch up on engine room vents when we did get a touch of warmer air. Tripple dooshed the bilge and engine beds. Opened every compartement and under seat storage, shot with mildew remover and let air all the way out. Sanded around the exhaust pipes and other spots where we had a little bit of uneven build up of bottom paint... Got the starboard side compounded and even started the wax there.
Ran a bit of polish on the aluminum until I slipped and kinda fell out of the tower. Hit a couple rod holders on the way down, tore up my jeans, but landed right and as far as I can tell no busted bones or life threatening injuries...
I truly am a workaholic... I love my family but that crap gets so old so quick. With this ongoing job I can see the results. We truly have the worlds slickest 43 Viking... In fact I'll even stack her up against any newer 45.... I'm thinking a repower in the next year or so and this boat will be newer than new boats...
Its fun to take pride in ones work. Yes I'd like to fish more than we do. And we will as we're nearing the end of our renovations and upgrades lists. We still get out some between bouts for now and I'm happy... The boss is happy and that is what it really is all about.
Well Hell! Long day today. Spent hours cleaning the little strip of white before our boot stripe. Acid, acetone, sand and do again. Then the wind shifted and the boat next to us though tented started covering us with their bottom paint dust...
I did some grinding of my own and slapped a first coat of paint on her...
The rudder thing is turning into a *****. Boss got all excited about a custom set of stainless ones then reality set in. God gracious they are expensive! Tripple the price of "stock" ones... We already have established that there is fundamental flaws with stock type and he sucked it up and ordered the good ones. Hell even I wanted to cry. What should have been a simple yard quickie is gonna be 10 grand or more before we get out...
Oh well ... I have nasal pasages clogged with bottom grindings and I need to get a shower on me. Pulling the plug on yarding for most of tomorrow. Gonna go fishing and hopefully the boss can relax a bit more...
New Years blitz this morn... I laid into her at a blistering pace. Got the water line paint build up ground down on strboard side and stern. Gotta love a grinder in one hand and sander in the other when the boss walks up and sees you gettin it on what most other people take off as a holiday. Even laid a coat of paint through that section. So I'm full coated over whole bottom and done with the vertical surfaces...
Rain closing in so I shut down that operation and got right on the sounder... Last year we added a top shelf transducer that leaves no questions as to whats under us. Temp sensor went away so Airmar sent seperate probe and paddle wheel that we can stuff in place of one our unused ones. Saves blasting out that five inch beast that is installed more firmly than the hull itself.
I don't do this stuff though for the boss. When I take a job on a boat the boat gets my undivided attention. I bond to the boats, They become part of who and what I am. Its how I tick. When one of the boats gets not 100% perfect, I take it hard. We have a goal with this boat. I've said it before... We want her to be the single very best 43-45 Viking express on the water... Takes time but we're getting there...
Word to the wise... If you want to get a lot done wait for it to get warm... Spent a few hours cleaning the white strip between bottom and boot then with artist brush touched up to make a nice smooth line. Again doing that in the cold was kinda like smearing paste... Micron 66 does not run real good when it drops below sixty degrees.
New temp probe for depthfinder is in. The unit itself though now wont read. Not sure if the unit caused the probe to fail or the probe failure on the big transducer caused unit to fail. Furuno themselves is right on it!.
The frost has kept us off our game and has timing screwed up. Bootstripe and bottom paint go on til we get some warm. Touch the hull and it feels like a freezer plate... Took the riggers down today for full buff and heavy wax. I busted out my special drill bit and started workin on bringing the props to a shine... Gonna propspeed em along with the rudders when they get here... Hopefully that will get my 28 cruise back and leave it back... Drop some fuel burn too.
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The owner of the business himself is swamped but has given his word that he will do the work himself.
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