The weather here on PEI has begun to think Spring at last and that means it is often warm enough to have Epoxy set before the next day. I included my ‘to do list’ in the post What to do in cold weather, and now I am finally getting to it.
The first projects were to do with the below-water parts. I ground off paint around the various holes that should not be there. I find an angle-grinder is the best tool. Unlike a sander, it takes off anything. The trick is not to go too far (I almost always use ear and eye protection) since it will take off paint, fiberglass, Epoxy, and wood with no regard for my intentions.
I decided to replace the depth transducer and remove the original non-functioning depth and speed (paddle-wheel) sensors at the same time. The secret to installing these new sensors below the waterline is to drill the holes and Epoxy coat them inside and out before installing the sensor. (Incidentally, it is a good idea when setting screws into the deck to put them in, remove them, coat them with epoxy, and then re-set them–that gives a waterproof seal against the wood so the hole does not become an inlet for water to degrade the wood. I KNOW this but I know this because I removed some screws and discovered some wet beginning.) I now use silicone for the actual sensor installations. Be pre-coating the edges of the wood, any water that might later get in could not get into the plywood and cause eventual rot.
In addition there is a small project of extending the raised part of the cabin top that houses the sliding cover over the cabin entrance. There are so few out-of-the-way places to install the new solar panels I decided to put them up there, but the space was too short. It was a simple task to cut a few 1″ boards and a piece of plywood to frame an extension box, but the project took at least three steps: 1) epoxy the top to the sides and coat the inside, 2) having ground away the paint where the extension goes, Epoxy the bottom edges as well as the ground-off space where they will rest, 3) with thickened Epoxy fill in the edges where the new top meets the rounded edges of the original top. The specifics are not important, but you should get the picture that this takes up very short parts of several days…you can’t rush things and setting of Epoxy takes time.
And of course, there is the outer hull repair I mentioned earlier. That has taken three steps so far and still needs to have a final glassing-over step for more strength…oops, also a step of coating the inside in case water gets in there sometime.
Mounting the new GPS and depth/speed instruments on the bulkhead at the front of the cockpit was another project. The Davis weather station goes because the polarizer coating on the display failed in the weather and the replacement didn’t work well enough. Also, new weather stations come with wireless transmitters and run for a good half year on a couple AA batteries. Being portable, it is possible to carry the wind speed reading into the cabin at night.
In summary, you can see that getting a boat ready for the season involves a multitude of tiny tasks and the Epoxy part makes some of those tasks take multiple days.
Still it is much easier to do them in the yard than to try to go down to the wharf (and come back for forgotten bits) over and over. Launching day is coming, but it will have to wait until the starling babies have the left the nest they built in my radar reflector!