The county came through!

Got the email tonight, they reviewed my appeal and they're going to credit us the full amount for our slip. As I thought, they were looking at the specs for a wing keel. That means I'll only have to pay about $25-50 next year so let's hope the lake fills. Started work on my a-frame ginpole setup for raising the mast. Thought maybe I could put it together without any screws or bolts. Used a couple of hooks from tie down straps and a chain link. Nope, didn't work. I cut a wooden piece for the top, need to get some clips or hose clamps to hook it all together tomorrow. Should be good from there, I hope.

Another day working on the boat

Noah spent the night so I put him to work this morning. I drilled out the holes I'd filled for the genoa winches, bedded them with butyl, and crawled below. Noah held the screwdriver and we got them all seated. I put them back together and boy do they sound nice! Deborah and Noah went into town to get him a haircut and meet Heidi for lunch. I kept working. Drilled out the holes for the cabin top winches, then cleaned them up (hadn't done that yet) and reinstalled them too. Nice clicka clicka sound. While I was at it I went ahead and put screws in the 4 holes in the bow where the downhaul block used to be. It was getting too hot to work so I went inside until about 4:00. Closed up the boat and sprayed everything down. Didn't do anything for the cabin (will do that tomorrow) but it did clear off all the shavings and a lot of the dust. Fuel locker was pretty filthy so I cleaned that out too. Once that was done I decided to try replacing the halyards on the boat, instead of taking the mast off. Tied on some baling twine and pulled out the main halyard with no issues! Pulled the new (red) one back through to the block at the base of the mast. Set up the (green) jib halyard and repeated the process. That one got stuck between the sheave and the pin that holds it together. I guess the whipping was a bit too thick but a few pokes with a screwdriver got it past the problem and I pulled it through too. Since I have red/green halyards I decided they should match the bow light for port & starboard. A bit of poking with a bent wire and I was able to switch which one went to which sheave. They're going to look awesome! Tomorrow I'll vacuum out the inside of the boat and maybe take a first shot at assembling the new a-frame to raise the mast.

Holes and epoxy and winches, oh my

Saturday morning & early afternoon was spent on the boat again. Pulled the port chainplawhich showed signs of leaking last year, and found wet core. Damn! Seems the 5200 didn't work so well there. Go figure. Reamed it out as best I could and drilled a couple of holes below so I could fill the empty space with epoxy. Used the dremel with a 1/4" router bit and ground back the core in all the holes. Taped up the holes from below. Wrapped the chainplate in wax paper and stuck it in the hole it goes in, so I wouldn't have to mess with trying to grind out a new hole. Found one of my horse syringes and grabbed a tube of 6-Ten. Filled all the holes and dealt with a couple of drips, then went in to wait for the epoxy to set. Heidi and the twins took us to see the new Superman movie while we were waiting on the epoxy. It was fun and done fairly well. Not the cheesy replacement for the Christopher Reeves version that I expected. After we got home I broke down the genoa winches, cleaned them up, and oiled/greased them. They were really dirty and sound much better now. Sunday morning I bedded the chainplate and put the new clutches in. By the time I was done it was time to get ready for our Father's Day BBQ. We had a great time, with some excellent burgers, and excellent company. Parked the boat with stuff left to do. Next weekend I'll finish up the winches and decide what to do about the chainplate screw that didn't get tight. Of course it's the one that doesn't have room for a washer below.

Let the preparations begin!

Pulled Verboten out of the storage lot and into the driveway this evening. Finally getting started on the long-delayed maintenance so the boat will be ready for our San Juans trip. Pulled off the spinlock PXR cam cleats and discovered the holes don't line up with the ones in the new XAS2 clutches. So, instead of 4 holes to fill on each side I've got 7 on starboard and 8 on port. 4 of each will get re-drilled and used for the new cleats. I also pulled the winches off. The genoa winches came off fairly easily, though I did draft Deborah to hold the screwdriver. The cabin tops were another story. I could NOT get the bases off. Catalina apparently glues them to the coachroof with 3M 5200. Tomorrow (ok, today) I'll finish prepping things and then fill all the holes with 6-Ten thickened epoxy. Need to figure out what I'm going to do about a compass for our trip. The Richey cracked (froze?) and all the liquid is gone. Second one to go bad on me, though the other didn't crack. *sigh*