Raising A Few Brows

The teak brows were probably the least attractive pieces of wood on the boat and a pain to keep up. All of the screws that secured them to the sides of the cabin have been a source of leaks that we knew we needed to deal with soon. We did some caulking early on to stop the water intrusion, but caulking is just the proverbial band-aid, and more drastic action was necessary to resolve it once and for all. Just as with the flybridge, removal has been my choice since day one and the time has come to tackle the project and check it off the list.

The teak brows wrap around the forward and aft section of the cabin. The brows around the flybridge are a thing of the past as we noted in the previous post. Removing these and saving them was not going to be easy, and since I had no intentions of putting them back, they came off in pieces. Some of them were caulked really well when the boat was built, but many were barely caulked at all, and there in lies the leak problem.

With the brows removed, it was easy to see that water and dirt had been getting behind them for years. And in a 30-year-old boat, that's not a good thing.

The next step was to clean it all up, sand off the heavy residue and open up the screw holes a bit with a drill countersink. The cabin sides had been painted with AwlGrip by the previous owner, but of course not under the teak. This was the original gelcoat, so the surrounding area had several coats of primer and paint, leaving an indentation where the strips came off.

The screw holes were filled with a thickened epoxy mix, West System being my preference. It's important to be sure that the epoxy mixture gets deep within the old screw holes. This needs to sit for at least 24 hours to give the epoxy plenty of time to set up properly.

The epoxy is then sanded smooth, and the indentation left by the removal of the teak is filled by applying about 3 to 4 coats of white 545 primer. Once the primer is completely dry, everything is sanded smooth with my orbital sander and 220 grit sandpaper.

Prior to painting, all the surfaces need to be wiped down with a tack cloth to remove dust and then with AwlGrip Surface Cleaner. I like to wipe it down at least twice and sometime three times before painting using two cloths, one to wipe on the cleaner and one to wipe the cleaner off. This assures that all wax and residue has been removed and also gets off the last of the dust.

Next step is to tape off all of the adjoining edges that I don't want to get paint on. Some places will get a single strip of tape while others will get a double-wide treatment. The paint is going on with a roller so there is not much splatter. The varnished wood and any other surfaces I am concerned with will get 3M delicate removal tape. Around the new non-skid material, I used Frog Tape to keep the paint from crawling under it, a common problem.

With the surface prepped and ready for paint, it's time to mix the topcoat. Just as before, we are using AwlGrip Cloud White. The paint is a three part, topcoat, converter and brushing thinner. And I add a few drops of drying accelerator so the paint will dry before the sun sets and the heavy dew here in south Florida ruins all of my hard work. The paint mixture needs to sit for about 20 minutes and cook before applying. I use small foam rollers to apply the paint which often requires no tipping and the results gives us a finish that looks like it has been applied with a spray gun.

The cabin sides will get only two coats of paint instead of our usual three coats. It has been painted previously so the third coat is not really needed. As soon as the paint is dry to the touch, all of the tape is carefully removed. I don't like to leave it on any longer than necessary since the longer it's on, the harder it is to get off. 

With all of the nice fresh paint on the cabin sides, the boat is looking almost like new. But with the brows gone, it looks a little stark and really does need something to dress it up again.

So we decided that a nice matching teal strip would be just the little something the project needed. The stripe was added in the exact same place that the teak brows had occupied before. It really is a nice touch.

The aft end of the cabin got the same treatment and soon we were getting lots of compliments from our neighbors and folks walking the dock. Our neighbors might just be glad that all of the sanding and painting is finished.

We're really pleased with how all of this turned out and this does cut down on the amount of teak we have to maintain and the extra caulking needed on a regular basis. Not to mention the dozens of holes for water intrusion. Drop us a line in the comments section and let us know what you think.

The Flybridge Makeover That Never Ends

I know that after this post I will get some feedback, but not all positive. I have committed a major sin in the trawler society, but I am not sorry and offer no apologies. The interior of the flybridge is finished, the uppermost of the outside now has a fresh coat of paint and it all looks great. Now it's time to finish up and get the last two steps of this ongoing project finished so I can move on to other more pressing parts of the to-do list. The inside of the flybridge is now fiberglassed to the deck and there will be no removal possible, so it's only logical that the outside gets the same treatment.

 

We have been cursed with an excess of teak on this boat as well as our previous sailboat, Sea Trek. The teak looks beautiful and we got lots of positive comments on the boat's appearance, but keeping it up is not at all fun, and frankly, we would rather be doing other things. So if any of the teak can be eliminated without changing the aesthetics of the boat, we are all for it. Add to the problem that all of the screws holding the teak go through the cabin sides and decks, and you get lots of sources for water leaks. This is exactly what has happened with the teak brows attached to the cabin in various places. One choice is to remove it, re-bed the screws and re-attach it to eliminate the leaks. Removing it is very difficult without damaging the small strips so we chose the next best option. Get rid of it all together, if possible. The teak border around the lower outside of the flybridge was in such bad condition that we opted to not even attempt to varnish it anymore and just painted over it until we could finally reach this point. The one-inch brow was also on the elimination list. It had to be caulked to keep it from leaking, and the caulk always looked dirty. The narrow strip also made it a pain to varnish.

 

With the brow removed, all of the many screw holes were opened up with a countersink bit, filled, covered with small strips of fiberglass cloth and then fairing compound covered the whole area to eliminated uneven spots, voids and other irregularities in the gelcoat. A big surprise, once the brow was removed, was that there was a wide gap in the fiberglass under the strips. This all had to be re-glassed. Everything was sanded smooth with 150-grit sandpaper and our trusty orbital sander. The surface received three coats of AwlGrip 545 primer, each coat sanded with 220. Then three coats of AwlGrip Cloud White would be applied after the handrail sections were removed.

The bungs were removed and the screws extracted. The screws in the handrails were over 3 inches long. Keep in mind that we have already painted the white above this trim. It was important to be careful and not damage that new paint. The teak came off without too much effort, but some time was spent cleaning what was left of the old caulking that has been there since the boat was built.

With the wood removed and the caulking all cleaned off, the underlying fiberglass was sanded, all of the screw holes filled and the sides glassed to the deck just as we did with the interior of the flybridge. Rather than try and do all of this at one time, I did sections. Once the glassing was done and everything faired, three coats of gray 545 primer was applied. This strip was going to get a dark color, so the gray primer was a better choice.

This is a good example of what the surface looked like once the teak was removed. It was not a pretty sight and the gaps could vary from a fraction of an inch to an inch or more that would have to be filled and fiberglassed. The clean-up process alone was messy and time-consuming.

But little by little, things began to look better and the whole process moved forward, albeit at a slow pace sometimes. The reason I decided to do sections at a time, instead of just pulling everything off and tackling the whole thing at once, was my fear that I would have everything pulled apart and we would get one of our South Florida torrential downpours, creating lots of problem. Doing it in sections, I could at least get the section I opened up cleaned and sealed with some fiberglass in one day.

We try to keep the mess down as much as possible when working on paint and fiberglass and also try and keep as much as possible out of the environment. My Porter Cable orbital sander is easily attached to my shop vac and eliminates most of the dust involved with all of this sanding. And my neighbors in adjoining slips appreciate it too. The down side is that the vacuum has to be dragged around while I am sanding, but it's well worth it. The clean up and prep goes faster too.

Once the fiberglass work, priming and all of the other prep work was completed, and the surface was smooth and fair enough for painting, three coats of AwlGrip Teal was applied where the wood trim had been. This is the same teal color that we painted on the Boot Stripe during the spring commissioning. The overhang was painted with three coats of Cloud White. Any hardware that had been removed - antenna mounts, boat hook mounts - were re-bedded and re-installed. Things were really coming together.

The navigation lights, which were too tiny in my opinion, made of very old bronze with faded lenses, were also replaced. The new Aqua Signal lights are much larger and will be considerably more visible at night. We chose the white plastic rather than black to give a better contrast to the Teal stripe.

We also found a very nice set of wicker-type furniture at Lowe's that was a good size for the flybridge. It's an outdoor plastic material so it should hold up well in the marine environment, and the light weight won't put additional poundage up in the flybridge. We just love it when a plan comes together. Next step will be to remove the brows on the lower section of the cabin sides.

30 Year Old Boat Plumbing Replacement

Replacing the 30 year old copper plumbing in our fresh water system was on my Things-to-do-when-there-is nothing-else-and-I-have-lots-of-time list and I expected to get to it some time in the years to come. But as with all things boats, that was not to be. Our hot water began flowing ever so slowly out of all of the taps for no apparent reason. I disconnected some of the lines and attached a hose from the dock in an attempt to blow it out. I also took all of the faucets apart in case the blockage was there, but ALL of them? None of this helped so now the project shoots right to the top of my Need-to-do-it-now list.

The original plumbing had many different connections and was probably put in the boat as it was being built. Our problem was due to a build up of material in the copper pipe that by now had choked off the water flow almost completely. Taking it apart piece by piece to clear the obstructions was an option but not one I would consider. Some of the runs passed through places that would be totally inaccessible without pulling the boat apart. Replacement was now our best choice, and I had to decide what type of material the new pipes and connections would be. A lot of study and research was needed to be sure we chose the right material, did it right and did it right the first time. The last thing we wanted was plumbing failures once we started cruising. I had considered replacing everything with PVC since the copper was not only too expensive but too difficult to get into the needed sections of the boat to connect to the hot and cold water sides, make connections at the galley sink and to the two head sinks, including the shower. The PVC was quickly ruled out because of the concern for failure of the glued joints as a result of vibration. After much thought and feedback, I decided to use the PEX system with the 1/2 inch pipe and plastic push connections. I was concerned with this type of plumbing for a boat, but as a service tech for a large power and sailboat dealer in Texas, I knew many of the new boats were coming from the factory with PEX and we had not had any problems or failures. Additional feedback from other boat owners that also had PEX on board convinced me that this was indeed the way to go.

My first task was to layout the pipes and connections on paper so that I would have an idea of how much pipe I would need and how many of what connections it would take to replace the old system. Since some of the piping had to be routed differently, I couldn't just count what was there now. Adding to the problem was the section where flexible hose had been added by simply sliding it over the copper tubing and hose clamping it to fit in place. We have had these connections come loose and fill the bilge with fresh water.

There are a couple of options with the PEX tubing. You can use the blue for cold water and the red for hot water or opt to use white throughout. For simplicity and to save some on the expense, we decided to use the white throughout, since the plumbing on Beach House is not that complicated. I also decided to purchase the 100-foot roll instead of individual 10-foot pieces. Had we needed mostly straight runs, I probably would have used the 10-foot lengths.

The fittings are fairly expensive, but I did buy several more than I needed. This saved running back and forth if changes were needed as the installation progressed. I also bought a cutting tool for the pipe. It's important to cut the tubing square to insert it into the fitting. Some new faucets were planned for the galley and head sinks.

Each fitting comes with a small insert to stiffen the end of the tubing as it goes into the fitting. These fittings are important to keep all connections together and leak free. The tube is cut square then the fitting inserted before pressing the tubing into the fitting. Be sure and keep track of the inserts since it is easy to forget one. That means taking the fitting apart, something I had to do a couple of times.

The tubing will fit into the connectors at about an inch and a quarter, so when measuring, an additional 2 1/2 inches need to be added. It took a few runs before finally getting the hang of measuring for the length of the tubing plus the connectors, but it quickly becomes easy and the tubing is forgiving if the measurements are not exact.

The handy cutting tool makes all of this a quick project. If you have the luxury of being able to shut down your system and pull out all of the old plumbing, then by all means do it. Since we live aboard most of the time, doing without fresh water even for a day or so is a real inconvenience. The answer is to build the new system right along side the old one. I did the hot water first and when everything was in place, simply disconnected the old plumbing and reconnected the new. Then I could take my time removing the old copper pipe, which was no fun due to the pipe running through bulkheads and into places I have never accessed.

I chose the twist and lock push fitting for a couple of reasons. They were much less expensive than the SharkBite fittings and much easier to install than the crimp fittings, which require some very expensive tools to install. Putting the connections on is very easy to do if you follow directions. The fittings are threaded and have a blue line which tells you that the fitting is unlocked and the pipe can be inserted. If the blue line is not visible, the pipe won't seat, but by loosing the twist cap, the blue line becomes visible. With the insert in the tubing, push the pipe into the connector until it is as far as it will go - about an inch and a quarter. With the tubing fully inserted, the screw cap is tightened until it touches the body of the connector. The blue line will no longer be visible. That's it and the connection is tight and won't leak. The fitting can also be turned to any direction needed without concerns of breaking the seal.

The tubing will make some sweeping radius turns, but for the most part, will need 90 degree elbows, tee fittings and special connections for the sink faucets, hot water heater and fresh water pump. The tubing is rated for hot water according to the pressure on the system. We found it more than adequate for the boats hot water and pressure pump. The hot water in our system almost never exceeds 180 degrees, well within the rating for the PEX. Once all of the hot water side was finished, the change over took less than 30 minutes to switch for the hot water heater, galley sink, both head sinks and the shower in the forward head. The old plumbing was disconnected and the new PEX reconnected at the same time.

With the hot water side done, the old copper plumbing was removed over the next two days. Then the cold water side was started. The hot water heater needed 1/2 inch NPT to twist lock connectors and a few elbows to make the connections from the cold water inlet to the hot water outlet. The cold water side was much more involved than the hot water side. This would take a couple of days, but again, it was built along side the old plumbing so we had no interruption to our fresh water on the boat.

The same type of connectors on the water heater are needed to bring water to the three faucets on the boat. I decided to add valves so the water could be cut off if the faucet needs repair without shutting down the entire system. This is much the same as found in most homes. The valves are then connected to the faucet itself by a flexible hose designed for just this purpose. Two of these are installed in each head and the galley.

The final connection is to the fresh water pump itself. A special swivel fitting connects to the pump itself. We also have a charcoal filter on our water system that has to be connected. It all went much easier than expected and certainly much easier than many other projects. The entire process, installing the new plumbing and removing the old, took a total of about 20 hours. And that was taking my time and included breaks for head scratching. The results have been a major improvement and the water is flowing as expected once again.

While working on the plumbing, there was a few other modifications I wanted to make. The design of the galley sink on this boat has always been a matter of consternation. It's made to have an insert sit over the sink to give more counter space. But we don't use the insert and what it does is make a space where water sits and can't drain off into the sink. It's a poor design and we even considered replacing the sink with one that surface mounts on the counter. But finding one that is deep enough and a size that will fit has been impossible so a modification to the existing sink is in order. The answer is simply to fill in the space with decorative ceramic rope trim. The edges are taped off to keep everything clean and the ceramic is set in a latex grout. The grout also fills the space between the trim pieces.

The galley sink also gets a new single handle faucet. Susan didn't like the old double handle when cooking and washing dishes.

While we were at it, the wood behind the sink has been stained with water and no amount of sanding or varnish is going to make it look better. A row of bullnose ceramic tile to match the trim around the sink was perfect. The bottom edge of the tile was caulked using a silicone caulk to seal it and keep water from getting between the tile and the edge of the counter against the bulkhead. Then the tiles were grouted for a nice finished look. We used a bisque color for both and it goes well with the surrounding teak.

Susan is very happy with the results and that is the important part. It's amazing how much of a difference just a small project like this can make to brighten the galley up and correct what has been a nuisance up until now.

We didn't want to head to feel left out and the old faucet, which was probably original, was looking pretty shabby. So it now has a shiny new one. On to the next project.