Swiftsure

We are doing Swiftsure this year on Appa.  I figure it is a good way to have people help me get the boat ready for Mexico.  Figure out what is working and what isn't.    We might have bit off more than we can chew.  The toerail on the port side right at the boarding gate was lifted from the deck.  The previous owner says that the CG did it years ago on the trip back from Hawaii.  He wasn't there though.  The toerail was secured using stainless steel rivets with no backing that I can see.  Here is a picture.

That bit I have my finger on is the rivet.  Thick deck but no backing that I can see.

Here is the socket driver that I dropped.  Put the camera phone in the hole and snapped this.  Had to put another hole in the cabinet to get the damn wrench out.

I wasn't able to pick the whole rail up as the rivets on the aft section are glassed over in the liferaft storage area.  I merely did the best I could and got to the holes I could.  I overdrilled and filled those holes and then countersunk them.  Used buytl tape and bolts with washers on both sides for backing power.  I then ordered 4 new stanchion bases to the tune of  $500.  Ouch!  But pretty.

The toe rail is not pretty but it is strong.  That'll do till I get the money for a new toerail.  That one project took two weeks or so.
I then tackled the anchor locker hatch.  Full of water and weighed a ton.  My thought was to use the dremel and cut the back of it off and then peel it off.  Wrong.  Although it was full of water, the balsa was still tenaciously clinging to the fiberglass.  I had to hammer that crap off with a chisel, destroying the fiberglass backing in the process.  Now I had to build a new backing.

 Here is the finished result getting it's first coat of paint.  Strong as hell and a lot lighter.  Used poly vinylester and this mat that Fiberlay suggested.  The reason for the water intrusion?  Someone at some point removed all the screws in the teak decking and never rescrewed the teck or sealed it.  Why?  Why would you do that?  Oh well.  Fixed now.

The wood is so wore out that I was afraid to sand too much hence the weird coloring of the deck.  Also did my first caulking job.  Very Zen type of thing.  I actually enjoyed it.
Next problem.  Stove.  We knew from the survey that the stove had one burner that didn't stay lit and the oven didn't work.  Nor the broiler.  Oh just replace a few thermocouplers you say.  Nope.  Had to buy another old stove to fix the older stove.  Force 10.  Grrrr.  Anyway, my friend Chris did all the work and it took him 10 days.  What a great job he did though.

It works!

Next up is the heater.  The PO had this wrong size duct going to the heater.  I just got back from SURE Marine and had some new ducting made.  We gonna have heat!

We went for our first test sail with most of the crew onboard and found a couple of problems.  Evidently you have to close all the sink through hulls prior to sailing on the Wauquiezs.  We had about 10 gallons of water come through the sink drains in the galley and both heads.  Lesson learned.  I also pulled the hoses for the sinks off and am going to replace them.  I found an old shower sump pump in the forward head that wasn't being used.  All rusty and nasty looking.  Gone.
The aft head had a sloshing sound when when walked on the area around the teak grating.  Full of water from the sink leaking.  Had to cut holes in that liner to get to the water and is was also very weak and thin.  I'll build that up tonight or tomorrow with epoxy.
Mascerator pump failed and I have a full holding tank.  Replacing that also.  Ugh.  I could pump out the head now if I had to.  The mascerator pumps needs to be on even if using dock side pumpout.  Why?  No clue.  Less holes in the holding tank though.
On the plus side we did get the name on.  Maybe that will give us some luck.