Me and My Boat: A Year Gone By

Today is January 8, 2011.  A year ago at this time I was working on the boat almost daily in my garage.  A lot has changed since then.  For one thing, the boat has been finished and put to the test.  Which, by the way, it passed with flying colors, but that remains to be told.  The other significant event is that I lost my job almost a year ago.  Actually, I was laid off due to a labor reduction company wide.  I guess that is supposed to make me feel better about my situation.

Anyway, due to the circumstances regarding my job, I stopped writing the repair journal.  I will pick up the chronicle at this point.  I apologize in advance if I miss some key parts of the tale.  It has been 10 months since I finished the boat and I stopped writing with about two months to go on the repairs.

Among the work that had to be completed was the repair of the main hatch cover, remounting all the fittings, finishing and mounting the aft hatch cover, shaping and placing the foam covering in the cabin, mounting the keel winch and making a new crank handle for it, mounting the new compass, etc, etc, etc.  I could go on but I am starting to jog my memory of the project.

I guess I will need to completely re-read what I have so far as to not repeat anything.  My plan is to accurately retell the events of the refurbishment project and then continue with my sailing adventures.  There is some good material that I think needs to be told.  Like when the boat was going to be launched for the 1^st time and Tim rolled it, trailer and all, into a bush.  There is also the term “Wank Fac” to be explained.

Please bear with me, here goes.  The main hatch cover; as I have explained it was misshapen due to the original manufacturing and needed to be fixed to make it work properly.  This involved adding aluminum strips to the front of the hatch on both slides. 

The aluminum strips were both about nine inches (?), I’d have to measure them, long and were riveted to the slides; the part of the hatch that slides back and forth in the wooden hatch brackets.  This worked but had some unforeseen consequences.

With Tim’s help, we remounted the main hatch.  With the hatch in place, we re-secured the wooded hatch bracket, including re-spooging it and tested the repair.  I slid the hatch back and watched the results.  It worked, and didn’t come out the groove in the hatch brackets.  Excellent!  But wait, where are all those wood shavings coming from?

Apparently, the new aluminum slides didn’t quite fit and were scrapping wood from the bracket.  No, that wasn’t it; it was the rivets used to hold the aluminum in place on the hatch.  As the hatch slid back and forth the rivets dug their way into the wooden hatch bracket increasing the size of the groove.  Suddenly wood shavings were being deposited all over the top of the deck.  When would the madness end?  Would I have to redo the wooden hatch brackets because of this new development? 

Closer inspection and repeated rigorous use of the hatch indicated that the fix would indeed work.  The rivets dug their groove and settled into the new space.  The wood shavings discontinued and all was right with the world.

At the time and for the immediate future the hatch repair worked great.  However, with intensive use of the boat and the applied weight of a fully mature adult male of around 220 pounds (namely myself) directly on the repair point; it broke again.  That is the fiberglass cracked at the corner where I had repaired it.  Say La Vi.  Will I repair it again?  I don’t know, but may be some day.  It’s good to have a hobby.