I have a new favorite bar in Beaufort, NC: The Handle Bar.( Read more... )

For a couple of years now I've been wanting to refinish Galena's counter tops.

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I had bought a radar unit a couple of years ago. Back then I was thinking about sailing North up to Maine. I was worried about the fog they have up there.
But I never got around to installing the unit on Galena.

As it turned out, I could have really used radar while heading down the US East Coast last fall. Too many times I was out in the ocean on an offshore leg at night, or in the fog, or in the fog at night and would have loved to have a better set of eyes on board.
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I finally got off my butt and finished taking apart the Aries Windvane that we affectionately call "Harvey." The Aries is best described as a wind-directed, water-drive autopilot.
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I finally put Galena's genoa track back on the caprail.
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Finally, the stern of The Good Ship Galena looks like a Westsail again. The boomkin beams are in place and securely bolted down. The stern pulpit is bolted into place. The new mainsheet blocks are rigged and secured. The tiller is bolted into the rudder and Galena is ready to sail... almost.
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I've removed the boomkin and have started to build a new one.

OK, "What's a boomkin" you ask?
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In taking off the cap rail and sealing the hull deck joint (no leaks yet, knock on polysulfide) I found the teak rails to be badly rotted.

Here's a picture of the underside of the cap rail board.
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Galena's interior is almost entirely teak and mahogany. And it was at one time oiled to give it a nice finish. But that was 30-years ago and now it's just dirty and dull.

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I bought some of the foam from which I will construct the dodger coaming. That's the little raised sill that supports the bottom edge of the dodger where it attaches to Galena's cabin top.

I'm using rigid Dow Styrofoam insulation sheathing in 1/2-inch thickness. I've cut 10-inch wide strips. I'll bend them around a form laminating 4 layers together using West System epoxy to glue it up. Following that I'll do the final shaping before covering the whole thing with a couple of layers of glass cloth.

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I took the frame for the dodger kit down to Galena on Saturday. It was a nice enough day for January. But by the time I decided to go, it was already late and by the time I got there it was dark and cold. So early the next morning I was hard at work.
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The dodger kit is setting on my family room floor. I have unpacked it and am just about ready to start building it. Actually, I'm going to build the frame, then Jane is going to sew the canvas.
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Time to get back to work.
The bow pulpit had been removed (to replace the bowsprite). While cruising last winter we had destroyed the port side navigation light. So I decided to replace the lights and the wiring.

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Galena's portlights were leaking (surprise, surprise). The wood on the inside of the cabintop surounding the portlights is delaminated. I removed one of the small forward portlights. I placed placed some tape on the inside of the wall. Then I painted a lot of West System epoxy on the edge, allowing it soak in between the delaminated layers.
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Yesterday and today I sealed more of the hull-deck joint. I removed another section of teak toe-rail, about 6-ft on each side. That exposed the joint back from the bow to about 2-ft astern of the chainplates. Conveniently, there was a toe-rail joint just forward of the genoa track. That will have to removed before I can do more. And that's the hardest part of this little project. The tracks are through-bolted and I need someone on top with a screwdriver and someone inside with a socket on a very long extension to reach the nuts. Also, I have to disassemble more of the furniture inside Galena to get at the inside of the bulwarks.
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I had already removed 10-ft of caprail on each bow and cleaned out the old caulk/sealant. I had been waiting for the polysulfide. Since I'm too cheap to buy a bunch of Boatlife Polysulfide, and since I really wanted to use a 2-part poly, I bought the stuff they use to seal highway expansion joints. I used Pecora's Synthacalk GC-2+ which is a "2-part, chemical resistant polysulfide sealant."

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I rounded the tip of the bowsprit to accept the ringband. It fits very snugly, as it should. But there are some voids in there. When I'm ready to attach the ringband I'll give everything a good coating of thickened epoxy and let that fill the voids.

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This weekend I mounted the new VHF radio and painted the inside of the hull.
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I've begun to shape the new bowsprit. The three 2x6 planks are now one 4.5" x 5.5" spar. I need to work that down a bit and taper it to 4x4 at the tip.
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Glued the bowsprit together today. Used West System with 403 microfiber filler. The three 2x6's were clamped together and left to kickoff. The cold temperatures overnight gave me some pause but the epoxy seems to be curing just fine.
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