We're Back

When we got back I almost forgot that we'd be returning to the boat in more finished state than when I left. It was exciting to see all the work AJ and his dad had done. Robin is fully outfitted to sail with a boom vang, electrical panel, depth sounder, anchor with rode, mast wiring, ropes, pulleys and winches. So much work that I didn't do! When I tell people I've been working on the boat for three years, they usually say something like "Well that will just make it so much more rewarding." And while I understand the sentiment, and the rewarding sense of pride that comes from enjoying the product or beauty of your labor, I'm honestly way past that. The fact that I don't know what the core of the cabin looks like where the new deck organizer is mounted makes it a little dearer to my heart.  I haven't felt a warm fuzzy from the boat in a long time. Seeing all this is made me feel it. It's such and awesome relief! Thank you Phil!

You may notice the bent stanchion in the anchor picture below. AJ will have to tell you about how that happened. I wasn't there. 

We still have a lot to do inside before taking off. But we are mobile! We can start day sailing and move the boat where we please.  AJ wants to sail so badly it's killing him but there has been no wind this week, and we've been busy reassessing the workload. The plans are as follows: Do final painting and finishing work inside cabin this week. Install the toilet and propane systems (stove, heater), and a couple lights. Move aboard with minimal items. Install remaining electrical wiring and fresh water plumbing. Start working on cabinets and shelves and compartments and moving household things aboard.  Fun, clean work is right around the corner!

I suppose I should mention that while in Arkansas I dislocated my shoulder again. And then again three weeks later. Totaling 3 times in 9 months. I Can't really explain how it happened either time because I wasn't really doing anything, which isn't reassuring.  I met with the surgeon who performed my scoliosis-correcting spinal rods surgery when I was 17 for a check up before we venture out into the great yonder. I mentioned the dislocation to him, and he said I would need shoulder surgery.  Because it already happened twice, it will likely continue to fall out with greater frequency until I do get surgery. And sure enough, three weeks after I dislocated it, it fell out again at a friends house. Realizing that this may become a common occurrence we put it back ourselves this time. We were eventually successful with patience, the assistance of youtube tutorials and a chewed up muscle relaxer. It took two weeks to heal and felt pretty wonky this time.  My brother has already had shoulder surgery after a dislocation that, in true form, was followed by more frequent dislocations until it got so bad he had to have surgery.  So I think my fate might be set on this one. I was really hoping that by the time I started falling apart from old age we'd be somewhere with affordable health care.  But since I turned 30 my joints seem to be failing.  We gotta get outta here before anything else happens!  Until then I'm just going to try to be really careful with the way I use my left arm.

A few months ago I had a dream that AJ and I were at sea.  AJ had lost a hand (the one he broke) and I had lost a foot (the one with the bad ankle).  I was frantically trying to solve the situation, and strapped a broom handle peg to my leg. And for AJ's hand, you guessed it, a hook. I hope this was my brain making fun of me, not foretelling, but I may want to reinforce a few joints before we try to cross an ocean.

Despite my arm not staying in place, the time spent at home was invaluable. We were there long enough to really plug into community. It was wonderful to talk to so many people again, and really have enough time to build relationships. It made me realize just how isolated we've been. I feel much more grounded coming back, armed with a stronger love for my family and friends, who I'm going to miss terribly and who should come sailing! The break was also a great respite for AJ's and my relationship. When projects go on for this long, personal relationships get shelved for professional relationships, and eventually you break under the stress induced by the absence of your personal relationship. We were at that point when we left.  During the break we were able to be us again, and that was a huge relief. We started dreaming about the future and all the things we want to do when we are living life aboard.  So many things! And with those visions, getting back to work is a little easier.

We've Got Sails!

Mack Sails finished our sails.  The mainsail is fully battened, so you can't fold it unless you remove the battens, which means that it IS seventeen feet long.  Getting it onto the truck, to the boat, and bent onto the boom and mast was like wresting a grizzly bear. But we did it!

Then the Genoa: much easier...  more like wrestling a small black bear.

It's finally a sailboat!

Rebuilt winches.

Sails rolled up and put away.  Mack Pack/sail cover for the mainsail is still on the sewing room floor.

To start sailing, now all we need to do is rebuild two more winches, get the rest of the running rigging, mount the anchor roller, attach a boom vang, and hoist one of us up the mast for final tuning.  

For the first time in two and a half years, I can say with certainty and confidence that we are going sailing soon.  

Beating Summer

We finally got smart and joined the rest of dockdwellers everywhere and got a small AC window unit. We had already employed the tent, and while it helps, it didn't prevent you from sweating all over your paint as you lay it, or whatever you were working on in the 80+% humidity with temps still fluctuating near 100 inside the cabin.  Work shifts got shorter and shorter and morale was on a downward spiral.  The AC had trouble competing against direct sun on the bare decks, but with the tent it works really well. Heaven is a box of cold air.

We mounted the mainsheet traveler.  In order for the ropes to clear the cockpit seat backs it had to be put on a riser.  A beasty four inch tall block of mahogany that required six inch screws.

 

We mounted the boom to determine exactly how much to shorten it. At it's current length it just barely clears the back stays by about 1/4". A little tight!

We also needed the boom to take our sail measurements.  We ran the tape up the halyards yesterday and delivered the measurements to Mack Sails!

Tropical storm Chantal broke up, but we are still in the middle of a week of rain and thunder. I enjoy the cloud cover but rain is slowing us down! 

Stepping the Mast

To ensure punctuality and avoid last minute delays, we motored the boat over to the courtesy dock near the haul out bay the day before our appointment. During the night ants attacked our boat.  The dock is next to a restaurant. There is nothing for them to eat. But we still haven't eradicated them all.  Anyhow, the crane drove up followed by Mack with our mast the next morning!

The crane hoisted it up and swung it over to our boat,

where it was guided onto the mast plate. 

The shrouds were run and the turnbuckles were pinned to the chainplates and tentioned. 

Roller furler.

 A few adjustments.

We tried to beat the tide going back to our dock and missed. The water was deep enough all the way up to our slip, but not inside it. We hit the bottom and were stuck.  It's a strange feeling to be stuck so close to land. And yes, that's a swim-able distance and just about anywhere else that would be the obvious course of action. But you don't get in that water unless you want to come out a mutant.  We were able to tie off to the back pilings just out of the "road". But high tide wasn't coming again until sunset. It was a hot day, we had no water, and it was only 1:00. So AJ lassoed a rope to the pier and climbed it across to the sport fishers dock line, and followed that to the it's monster deck. Then hopped off and grabbed the dinghy to rescue me and tie off the bow lines.  Around 8:30 we finished motoring into the slip.

It's starting to look like a sailboat!

The boom was delivered just before the Holiday weekend. We'll cut and mount it as soon as we get the right gooseneck bracket.  Then the sails will be sewn!

Mast

The mast is on the boat! It went up Friday as scheduled.  Unfortunately Mack forgot to bring the boom. Hopefully we can get it next week.

After stepping the mast we went to Destin to meet up with my family who is vacationing there. At first we didn't want to lose boat work time, but then realized we were crazy, packed a bag and booked it to Destin. Good choice. We were exhausted. We'll be back at the boat next week and will write a more complete mast stepping post, but for now the pics are in the Photo Gallery! 

Mast Support Pt 2: The Arch

*Rigging Update*

Mack was ready to put us on the schedule for Monday, but the tides will not be favorable for our 5.25' draft until Friday.  So next Friday it is!  The date is set. And we are ready. Aside from the arch we have also finished the genoa tracks and toe rails and are going to try to have a nearly finished interior before the mast goes up. 

Here is the new fiberglass mast support base cured and fared and ready for action.

AJ remounted the second original blonde beam and door frame trim, then glued and screwed the new sapele board into place - with a notch cut out for the arch to wedge into. 

On the starboard side the arch will be through bolted to the new fibgerglass bulkhead. To ensure correct fit we put the tile panels back up. A new base had to be made for the bottom tile.

AJ made a template for the arch, and then went to the local woodshop to hand select the sub componenet wood pieces for the arch.  He wanted to make sure that the inside corner pieces of the arch had a curving grain, and hand selected a "bad" off cut chunk of wood with a 90 degree grain direction change.  He then drew out the two corner pieces on the chunk to "optimize" the grain so it followed the curve of the arch.  Ye Olde wooden ship builders (old enough that they had access to trees instead of lumber) would select curving support pieces from branched portions of the tree for arched supports and stems and other purposes based on grain structure and shape.  Then, since we lack a table saw, a bandsaw, and an inside biscuit joiner, he had the pieces cut and epoxied together by a local wood shop.  It was then sanded and filed to shape. A notch was cut for the mast plate and the trim above the tile was cut flush. A strip of black 1/8 rubber was glued to the top of the arch to allow for flex. 

Project arch support complete. (minus plugs and varnish)

Originally only half of the mast was supported, and the starboard side of the cabin top was depressed. The trim and door frame no longer fit properly and some previous owner had to file down the top of the head door to compensate for the encroaching door frame above.. Now this shouldn't be an issue!

Prepping the Mast

This is how it all started a few months ago when the mast was delivered by Mack Sails (via Sparcraft):  a 46 foot prepared extrusion, and a pile of spreaders and castings.  The mast is a factory surplus spar (likely) from a Beneteau Oceanis 381.  It looks to be about 5-15 years old judging by the UV damage on the exposed portions of nylon sheaves and pre-installed nylon messenger lines, but it has never been stood nor even assembled.  I am educated-guessing at the boat only because I know that Sparcraft is a long time mast supplier for Beneteau, and the rig measurements and apparent age arrangement and types of the parts are a match for the Oceanis 381.  Luckily the masthead and sheaves were in place, the spreader bar and rigging insert holes were already drilled/cut/machined, and conduit with two runs of triplex marine electrical wire and three extra messenger lines were already installed.  Assembly proved easier than I thought it would be.

I had never assembled and stood a mast (at least not one that I couldn't pick up and drop in the hole by myself) and it had never been assembled or stood, so instead of having Mack prepare the spar, I figured we could both have our "first time" together...  (I hear it is more "special" that way...)

There are quite a few differences in this rig from our old one, but none that were a deal breaker at the price of a factory surplus ($3000) over new ($6000+!), especially when the only other 40 foot long spars I could find were very-well-used (why else would you remove it?) and still $3000+

At 46 feet long, this mast is six feet longer than our old mast.  That's a 15% increase, and a little bit more than I am comfortable with.  So I started by sawing off the bottom two feet to bring it in at a slightly more conservative 10% increase.  I would have split the difference and taken a foot off of both ends in order to keep the spreader locations more balanced, but the masthead on this spar is a welded unit and not a removable cast/machined cap, so the mast lengths between spreaders are now (bottom to top) 13', 15' 16' as opposed to 15', 15', 16'...  I guess the spreader lights will have to be a bit low...

Here is a shot showing the new mast's cross section, the conduits, and the quality of my hacksaw cut.  : ) I'm proud that I had less than 1/32" run out from perfectly perpendicular with a hand tool.  A touch up with a bastard file makes it perfect.

Our old rig had a single set of spreaders, now we will have a double spreader rig.  The new mast's cross section is also smaller and thinner than our old spar because of the double spreader rig.

***
Thoughts on double vs single spreader rig:
When calculating column buckling strength, shorter is stronger, therefore the diameter and wall thickness of a column can be reduced to achieve similar column buckling strength on a shorter column.  Spreaders with triangulated wires effectively separate a column into sections that are calculated for buckling strength separately.  So a double spreader rig makes shorter-therefore-stronger, sections of mast, and the final product can take advantage of this by using a smaller and thinner cross section   ... never mind advances in aluminum metallurgy since 1969...
***

While a smaller mast does result in slightly less spoiled air near the leading edge of the sail, the advantage is likely immeasurable.  The biggest advantage to strive for in any rigging change is weight reduction aloft.  We want to be lighter.  Lighter is better (*as long as it is strong enough*).
The new mast extrusion is much lighter, plus the big heavy wooden spreaders and fittings on the old rig probably weigh the same as all the new tapered aluminum spreaders and spreader bars combined, but due to double spreaders (and double backstays,) the new rig requires about 70 extra feet of wire, eight more termination fittings, two turnbuckles, and some other assorted hardware aloft...  I'm not sure which rig will end up lighter in the end, and I since I didn't weigh the old rig, I'll never know.  It'll probably be a wash, but with the increased sail area and height of the new rig, we are going to increase our ballast 10% anyway.

The new rig also has only one set of lower stays (D1), that meet up inline with the main outer stay/shroud (V1), instead of the more traditional "square" of four lower stays like our old rig.  I'm not as excited about this, and while I could have assembled it with four stays, it would have required a whole lot more hardware and wire aloft (lbs + $$), so I opted to stick with the single stay arrangement.

Other new rig differences include a kind-of-fractional genoa: the attachment point for the forestay is about 18" from the top of the mast.  Plus there is a long kicker arm on the back of the masthead to clear a mainsail with a bit of extra roach.

But onto the assembly already!
I started with halyards as I wasn't yet ready to start drilling and tapping my valuable extrusion.  There are four "halyards" total: the main, the genoa, a topping lift for the boom, and a spare on a sheave just under the genoa.  The new rig has internal halyards, and I was worried that fishing them through the mast would be difficult, but with an electricians fish tape the job was done in minutes.  I also got a chance to try out our new double braid rope splicing fids to make some eyes in the ends.

The foredeck/steaming light was the first drilling/tapping job I did.  It already had wires run and only required a couple holes drilled and tapped for #10 machine screws to match the mounting flange on the light.  With the confidence of the first holes drilled, I moved onto the Stecktronics LED mast head light, antenna, and wind speed instrument transducer.  Sarah was hard at work on the mast base while I was at the mast alone that day, so without Sarah photographing the process, all you get is a few finished photos.  The fit is tight, but due to wiring hole locations and limited mounting possibilities, I really couldn't come up with a better way.  The antenna at the back will take an antenna-mounted windex wind direction indicator.  I made sure that every wire passage into the mast had a rubber chafe protector, and entry to the devices was sealed.  All wires have drip loops where applicable and secured with rubber lined stainless straps with #10 screws, plus I left a spare messenger line for future servicing.

With the first wiring and drilling/tapping of my precious spar, now I could figure out the slightly more complex spreader light installation.

Last year I bought five waterproof 12vdc LED lights for $10 each on eBay specifically for this purpose.  They are billet machined hard anodized aluminum with a single hole in the back and a threaded rim on the face, both sealed with thick quality silicon seals, polished stainless hardware and a hard acrylic lens.  They also have a single huge CREE LED chip that burns 0.1 amp while making 900 lumens.  It seems impossible until you put an amp meter on them.  They can burn holes in your retinas while staying completely cool in your hand, and they won't burn out for ...  ever.  If you haven't seen the new LEDs and LED chip technology that has been coming out of China in the last few years, let me tell you it is truly amazing, and the prices are ridiculous.  Don't waste money on "marine" LEDs when products like this are actually superior and exactly 5% the cost. ($10 vs $200).  When it comes to LED and solar panel manufacture, the Chinese are leading the way.

The wiring required knocking out the spreader bar to work through the spreader bar mounting hole.  Prep required drilling a hole in the steaming light conduit (through the spreader bar mounting hole), fishing the wire through, soldering twin plug pigtails on the + and - terminals of the wire and crimping matching plugs onto the lights' pigtail wires.  Then I drilled tapped and screwed the lights into the mast, plugged it all up, sealed the connections, pushed the wire nest back into the spreader bar mounting hole, arranged it nicely, and secured it so it won't get snagged.
For the test: Pull the truck up close to the end of the mast, pop the hood, and place the wire ends on the 12v starter battery.  I burn my retinas even in the Florida daylight.  Yay!  (Okay, mast is partially rigged because the pic is out of sequence as we forgot to take pics on the actual test day)

The spreader bar is a stainless steel casting (with a strange bronze-y but-not-rust finish) that has two large holes to allow insertion of the stem ball fitting on the D stay from below and two small holes for the spreader retaining pins.  It pierces the mast through a hole that is quite small to have work your fingers into and try to do anything of substance inside the mast, but I managed.  You can also see the hole I first drilled for the spreader light wiring when I was originally going to mount the lights on the spreaders and run the wire through the top.  Then I got smart and mounted the lights below the spreaders on the mast...  I guess now they are called mast mounted deck lights? Much easier and cleaner.

With all the wiring and halyards done we got to do the standing rigging.  This is by far the easiest part of rigging the spar.
On the lateral stays, all of the upper terminals are stemball fittings that sit in a pocket inside the spreader bar, which is socketed inside the spreaders.  The spreaders have a notch cut in them to clear the fitting.  I had Mack sails swage stemball fittings onto slightly over estimated lengths of wire.  You can slide the stemball into the spreader bar and over into its pocket from below, then the spreaders slide over the spreader bar, held on by two pins. It comes out quite slick and clean, like this, except with wire in the fitting and the pins pounded home.

Damn, I put the spreader pins on before the stemball...  not so slick, Slick...

All the lower fittings are Hi-Mod mechanical compression terminals from Petersen stainless of England (Hayn Rigging sells them in the US).  I chose Hi-Mod over Sta-Lok and Norseman because they do not require you to deform the wire around the tip like Norseman does, and they do not deform the inner cone around the wire like Sta-Lok does.  Sta-lok also requires you to shorten the outer strands of the wire an extra 3mm.  With Hi-Mod fittings you just cut the wire off clean, slide on the outer casing, "open" the outer lay of the wire, slide on the cone and crown ring, rotate the outer strands back around and into the crown ring, and screw it all together.  It requires no sealant and nothing deforms on compression, so it can be disassembled, cleaned, and serviced years later without replacing any parts.

Below are a couple pics of the cast aluminum lower spreader tip where 1/4" diameter upper wire V2/D3 ends in an eye and meets the 9/32" diameter lower wire V2 inside its toggle with a single 1/2 pin through it all.  Also a slick, smart set up.  The D2/middle stay ends in a turnbuckle with another stemball set just inside the 1/2 pin in the cast tip.

We got it all set up except for the stemball fittings at the lower end of D2.  We originally bought 7/16" turnbuckles and stemball stud hardware to terminate the wire, not realizing that 7/16" hardware has a #8 ball on the end.  3/8" hardware has a #6 ball, which is what we needed here, so we had to return and reorder a few parts.

But even with all this delay, we aren't the one's pushing the schedule.  Rain (you might have noticed Tropical Storm Andrea) has pushed Mack back by about two weeks and they are trying to catch up.  We should be on the schedule this week...  later this week...  Expect some proud pictures of an actual sailboat on the next post...  okay, still just a masted motorboat, but sails are on the cutting floor at Mack right now!

9 Days to Raise the Mast

We got a call from the yard that has been graciously letting us store our mast for free.  Unfortunately they called to inform us that they want the mast out by June 1st or we have to start paying $30 cents a foot per day...  That's $425 a month to let a 44 foot long stick sit against the fence out back!  We had planned on standing the rig in "about two weeks" ... boat time...  But a more specific date with a large penalty attached to it changes things, so we have given ourselves nine days to complete the mast rigging and the mast support.  Today is day two. Time to break it down.

MAST SUPPORT:

Inside
Remove Toilet
Remove Toilet support board
Discover that the bottom few inches of the mast support post are rotted and SOFT
Cut out rotted portion of mast support post
Make fiberglass mast support
Glass in new mast support
Make fiberglass support for under corner of floor in the head
Attach mast support plank (replacing the delaminated top layers and thickening it)
Build mast support arch
Put insulation and vinyl on ceiling around where mast plate and arch will go
Fill old bolt holes in mast plate with epoxy
Put up mast plate
Install arch
Outside:
Reshape cabin top mast base into shape of new mast base w/ epoxy

Would be nice: but not essential
Main sheet traveler
Genoa tracks
Life lines (be nice to the riggers)

RIG:

Cut 2 feet off the bottom of the mast
Cut spreaders
Mount steaming light, foredeck light, spreader lights, and anchor/tri light
Mount VHF Antenna
Mount Wind Transducer
Mount Windex
Replace halyard sheaves
Run electrical wires, solder, terminate and finish
Run halyards
Splice halyards ends
Measure & Cut D1, D2, & D3, Swage top ends
Measure and Cut V1 & V2
Run lower shroud / D1,  No termination
Mount lower spreaders
Run intermediate shroud / D2,  Threaded stud and turnbuckle termination
Mount Upper spreaders
Run V1 upper toggle, no termination
Run upper-outer shrouds D3/V2  Eye termination
Install delta plate
Install backstays top eyes and run backstays,   No termination
Install forestay top eye and run forestay,  No termination, but Harken cruising unit 1 toggle under turnbuckle
Bundle it up
Call Mack

Not too bad... right?  The countdown has already begun.  I'm mostly concerned about having and acquiring all the things needed for this. We've got fittings, we've got wire, ropes are on the way... But there are always little missing parts that take a week to arrive. Or days spent running around getting screws and solving problems we didn't account for.  Hence "boat time." Which would be 9 days times 3.

I added this list to Checklist to Launch, and will be crossing things off as we go.

The bright side: there is no disputing about what to work on next, and 9 days or not, we will have a rigged boat in June.

Before we got the phone call, we did this:

How freakin'  beautiful is that!?  Cleat chocks. Cool no?  On the right is the original set up. We only had the left cleat on the bow when we splashed. The right one got removed because it was cracking. The left one was stubborn and we got distracted with something else.  The bow chocks set into the old toerails were angled outward and too big for our new rails. We needed another cleat, and new chocks.  We went to Marine liquidators, a consignment and outlet warehouse in Fort Pierce to see what they had.  While digging through the chocks we found a something that doubled as both! Unfortunately they only had one, not a matching pair.  Such is the luck of consignment store. But it was such a cool space saving device I was determined to find a pair.  After googleing, I found that they aren't that common, and not many people are making them. But a couple weeks of late night online diligence yielded a set of new stainless Newfound Metals cleat chocks, half price on ebay.  Another cool thing about them, is that they don't use bolts. Instead, you screw threaded rod into female threaded holes in the bottom of the cleats to create a studded assembly. Then you just push the cleat/stud/pad assembly through the deck and screw on nuts from below.  Making it a fastening system that doesn't require two people - one up top to hold the bolt still, and one below to tighten the nuts.  AJ did it himself while I was painting before I even knew what was happening.  It's not a terribly uncommon fastening system, but it's the first of it's kind on our boat!  But most importantly, there are no longer toe traps in the middle of the foredeck.  It's really hard not to jam your toes on cleats when the ground beneath you is unstable and there is no where else to step.
Problem solved.

Now, I must stop basking in the shine of the new cleat chocks and go prepare the mast for rigging.
The clock is tick tick ticking, and I've had my Redbull.

External Chain Plates: The Conversion is Complete

In the beginning our chainplates were the standard plate-through-deck affair, bolting to fins that were fiberglassed to the inside of the hull.  But the previous owner had snapped the mast in two at the spreaders while on passage to Puerto Rico when the upper shroud terminal let loose, I'm sure over-stressing at least one or more of the chainplates and their deck junctures, and causing the remaining rigging to be sub-par as you can see below:

A section of zinced chain held the now-shorter upper shroud taught enough to pull the now-rewelded-but-crooked mast into an almost straight line, though resulting in wildly uneven wire tensions.  Three different fittings on three stays, leading to three leaky slots in the deck.  We had plans for fixing and replacing what we could, and replacing the mast itself, but that obviously turned into a full re-rig from the chainplates up.  I wanted to go with external strap chainplates for simplicity, inspectasbility, and to stopp the leaking.  Bonus: the old chainplate fins get cut out of the lockers.  It started when I got a good deal on some oversized 3/8" x 2" aluminum-bronze plate over a year ago.  It has similar tensile strength to stainless, but for good faith in the bronze, I upsized from the 1 1/2" x 1/4", the rig's minimum stainless steel chainplate dimensions.  The bronze ended up not bending well and needed to be cut and welded to the necessary angles at the deck.  This made me and my engineering consultant-friend a bit nervous, but when he saw the size and quality of the finished product he agreed that it would be sufficient.  The space shuttle and the moon lander were welded after all.

We've shown you some progress in the past few months of cutting out the old fins, and more recently glassing over the area with multiple layers of biax/mat cloth and epoxy.  The new chainplates are arranged differently due to the rig.  The new mast is a double spreader rig with only one set of lower stays instead of our old single spreader rig with dual lower stays.  We have chosen to opt for the new mast's single lower shroud assembly, so the the old front and rear chainplate areas have only been smoothed into the wall, while the center plate location has been beefed up with three additional layers of biax/mat fiberglass to function as a backing plate (yes, fiberglass is an excellent backing plate when sufficiently thick) for both the upper and lower stays, side by side.

We started with the port side since it was against the dock.  When we finally got to drill through and measure the hull thickness last week, it ended up at 1 1/16" thick.  Minus our added glass, that means the solid glass hull thickness at the deck joint is about 3/4 to 7/8"!  We probably didn't even need the added glass, but it is nice to know it is there.  Then we finally got to finish the cabinet and bolt our plates through.  Final touches will be cedar shelves and wrapping that ugly hose in some white duct tape.

A finished cabinet on the boat!  Pay no attention to the underdeck immediately in front of the cabinet, we have decided to just sand it out and cover our underdecks and cabin roof in insulation and vinyl headliner.  This really gets me excited.  Last time we were living aboard, we noticed the heat radiating from our cabin roof and decks at the end of every day, and Lee Macgregor our salty sailor from Tales of a Salty Sailor, commented on how hot our cabin was, almost insisting that we put up insulation.  Here-say tales from other sailors in the area claim about 5 degrees cooler cabins on sunny days after insulating.  I see this as a refining touch for life aboard, plus it means less sanding and painting.

We re-launched Sparrow, our already-aging homebuilt dinghy, to assist with the installation of the starboard side and transom chainplates.  The straightness of drilled holes and the amount of things-not-dropped-overboard greatly improve when you have your work surface right in front and facing you instead of below and backwards.

We call this area the "saftey locker" since it contained all the flares, harnesses, EPRIB, and a spare fire extinguisher when we bought the boat.  Honestly, I'm not sure if it is the best location for those things in the future unless we can keep the door's swing area clear.  At any rate, in addition to the extra glass, this side also got a new waterfill and Sarah's loving touch with epoxy filler.  We thought this compartment would inevitably turn out a disaster, but she couldn't leave it alone, and it ended up a masterpiece...  a masterpiece of an inaccessible closet...

The aft chainplates were a bit more complex than the sides.  First, the angle of the transom meant that the bend in the plates absolutely had to be flush on the deck for good structural sense.  This is true of any chainplate, but there is quite a bit of forgiveness when a plate is only bent to 5 degrees, these ended up at 60 degrees, so anything below the plate's bend will be in bending force if it isn't properly supported with a good fulcrum at the bend.

The transom is about 7/16" thick and comes up past the deck in a flange, then the rear section of toe rail is notched to accept that flange.  I had to cut both the toerail and the flange in order to get the bend where it needed to be.  You can see the transom flange and toerail cross-section in the first picture below where I cut the big sections out for the chainplate.  It is an odd arrangement that results in the toerail appearing 3" high from the side, and about 1 1/2" tall from the back.  It also increases the apparent size of the transom.  The chainplates ended up looking a little lower on the transom than I would have liked, but structural integrity beat aesthetic every time.

The second issue with the heavily sloping transom was the top bolt hole of the chainplate was so close to the bend that it basically went right into the deck.  There was no way to get a nut on the back.  Well, I had just recently learned that fiberglass taps and holds bolts nearly as well as steel, so I solved this problem by underdrilling the top hole and tapping the fiberglass transom.

We also added the requisite three layers of biax/mat inside the lazarette for backing pads on the lower two bolts.

And it didn't end up looking too bad.  We plan to add wooden bridge covers over the top of the big notches we had to cut. That way the wood line across the back won't be broken. It will end up kind of looking like an intentional drain slot that also functions as chainplate clearance...  not too aesthetically pleasing, but at least it will look intentional.  The curve of the transom and the crown of the deck make the plate tangs slant slightly inward on the transom.   It makes a nice frame for the name.

The old teak bow plank (bow block?  big wooden termination block for the toerails?) was 3 inches tall and angled outward. The new bow plank is vertical like the new toerails and only 1 1/2 inches tall.  The old stem fitting is no longer even close to the new shape of the nose of the boat, nevermind it was also cracked and failing.  So we had a new one locally made in stainless steel.  Since we didn't want to redrill new holes in the nose of the boat, we had the plate made up to fit.  Between the errors of a cardboard template matching a boat's nose and a hydraulic bending machine making stainless plate match a cardboard template, the stem fitting ended up needing a slight shim to fit just right.  I whipped one up out of some spare teak and glued it in place using a big ignot of lead that I also happen to have sitting around.  Also, the nose of the boat was looking relatively thin at "only" 5/8" thick, so we beefed it up with five layers of biax cloth. Getting into that anchor locker is no fun. You have to be really careful not to cut your head open on all those ceiling screws, which incidentally represent the number of times somebody has had to crawl in there with a wrench, usually me.  With the stem fitting bolted on we could reattach the original pulpit.  The absence of the pulpit was the only the only thing keeping us from putting on lifelines.

Now the only thing keeping us from running lifelines is the time it takes to splice the dyneema ropes  onto thimbles.  I stumbled across a half-off deal on gray dyneema on ebay! I was already thinking about doing them in dyneema because it's cheaper than wire to begin with.  Plus, you splice the rope onto cheap thimbles yourself. Wire lifelines require expensive swaged fittings, paid labor to do the swages, and turnbuckles.  We're watching brummel splice videos on youtube and looking for our splicing fids...

... or something like that.