Bits and Pieces

Now that we have completed the BIGGEST job of clearing out the core, we are at the point where we are starting to put things back together....bit by bit, piece by piece.

6/6/17

Tuesday after work

Sanded the swim platform. We had two electric sanders so both of us got to sand. I am a novice sander so I was very nervous about messing it up. Shawn told me to not worry about it because if I messed it up we would just make a swim step instead of a platform. He is so much fun to work with!

6/7/17

Wednesday after work

Cool and cloudy so we sanded the platform more. First we used the 50 grit sandpaper (on the top) and then we used the 80 grit sandpaper on the top and bottom. Flipped it back over and oiled the top, then the bottom and then a second coat on the top. Shawn then put the swim platform ladder back together as we had already sanded and oiled those stairs last week.

June 8

Thursday after work

We continued to work on the swim platform. Shawn scrubbed it with ajax and we oiled it (again) with Tip Top Teak oil. Two coats. Three coats...maybe four? It looks really good. Some places look better than others. We have not been able to get the deep etched grooves completely clean so they still show gray rather than the beautiful golden color we like.  We did sand between the slats a bit and all around the edges of the platform and oiled them as well.

June 9

Friday after work

We prepared everything for the weekend of working on the boat.  We gave the platform the final coat of oil and reinstalled the chrome edging. Shawn cut out backing plates for the swim platform braces. He used 1/2” plywood and we pre-drilled the holes for remounting, thinking it would be a time and labor saver when we got to the boat.

June 10

Saturday

Beautiful sunny day with a nice breeze. The kind you want to spend on your boat (on the water!!)…so we headed to the boatyard for our day of labor. We began by installing the backing plates. What a chore that was! Shawn had to maneuver himself underneath of the cockpit while I was outside on the ground. We caulked around the holes and the perimeter of the braces and then I screwed them braces into the backing plate that Shawn was aligning on his side. A very hot and uncomfortable two hours ensued. The braces were a bit warped so our predrilled holes did not entirely match up. We used 4000 adhesive/sealant/caulk and it was quick dry so that meant….yep…when we were done all the excess was hard dried so we had to use a razor blade to cut it and then peel it off the transom. But the backing plates will add additional strength and halt (hopefully) the fine cracks in the transom from the swim platform weight. HOT, sweaty work and not fun at all (we might have used a few choice descriptive words while working)!

We then finished removing the stripe/adhesive from the hull because we decided to paint tomorrow. We need to “see” some visual progress to keep ourselves motivated! And we cleaned/sanded the door frame in preparation for painting. I decided to use gloss white for the door frame to brighten the cockpit and get that airy look I want. I am still pondering whether to paint the salon side white or keep it dark.

Shawn also removed the propeller....something about a shake or unevenness or I don't know what exactly, but it came off and a different one will go on!

We came home and walked down to our dock to imagine what it will be like in a couple of months when the Yellow Bird is again at her home port.

June 11

Sunday

We loaded more tools into the truck and headed off early this morning. We scraped, sanded and taped…then painted the bottom with a “carolina coat” of a pretty blue (my choice). This was my first experience with painting a boat, so Shawn gave me CAREFUL instructions to AVOID the tape so as not to paint the hull…he turned his back and OOPS! “Uh-oh”, I said. “Are you kidding me”, he asked. “Um…no…what do I do?” (In my defense, we were listening to an awesome radio station (97.7 The Rocket http://977therocket.com) and who can resist dancing and singing while painting? Soooo….we determined my skill lay in painting the lower part of the bottom while Shawn paints near the tape!

I painted the door frame white while Shawn removed the door threshold trim. We installed the swim platform (easy and fast!) and the swim platform ladder.

Then back to the door threshold to remove a previously botched patch job. The second calamity of the day occurred. We had to remove the braces in the cockpit to get to the door threshold. I held the top 2*4 at one end while Shawn knocked the support beam away at the far…and the top 2*4 end near Shawn hit him in the head…a HUGE OOPS! Luckily no blood or mortal injury…just seeing stars for a bit.

So we (mostly Shawn) cut out the rotten wood and removed the bits and pieces of wood that had been cobbled together previously. I vacuumed and swept all of the ensuing debris. We cleaned up (unhooked water hose from the boatyard water supply and wound it up; ditto for the power cords) and headed home.

A good week with much progress...and seeing the paint and the swim platform gives us a great "sneak peek" at how great she will look when she is done.

And our cat is going to miss having the swim platform as his personal perch!