Konrad

I bugged outta work at 1:00 this afternoon. Got home and mowed the lawn so the whiff was happy. Then I sanded the hell out of the 4 primary areas on the cabin and in the cockpit where plywood had checked. None of these areas measueres more than about 8 x 8 inches, but collectively it looked like crap. So that's all down to bare wood. It was areas where I'd run short on glass. (Don't do that, go get more.) I also proceeded to cut most of the repair glass cloth for these same areas. Finally, with the sun getting low, I applied the second coat of varnish to the woodwork that I've been repairing. That's starting to shape up. Lastly, the sun is going down, I have steaks on the grill, I'm on my patio with the wireless laptop. It's dead calm at twilight, the bugs in the trees are singing, and my wife just gave me one of those "special looks" through the bedroom window...!!!

Well I'll tell you something, I've been wanting to put a nice big palm tree insignia on my own mainsail. (but I'm knee-deep in other maintenance items right now.) Plus, I'm thinking about scrapping my original sails and making (or buying) new ones. That would be a winter project, though. I have two different ideas for getting a logo on the sail, each of which will probably work. Just need some time to mess with it. I like the balance of green vs. white. They did a good job with the proportions on it.

Tonight I reached a milestone in my quest to transition my Vacationer from "rode hard & put away wet" to "well-maintained" status. Tonight I applied varnish to wood. That's a bigger deal than it sounds. Really. I had multiple areas on each rubrail where wood had separated/delaminated, requiring epoxy filling, sanding, refilling, more sanding, etc. Then, oh brother, staining the sanded wood..!?! That was a MAJOR pain because for the life of me I cannot remember what brand or color of stain I originally used 9 years ago. I spent days (and dollars) bringing home several half-pints of stain. Anyway, I eventually got a pretty close match. But not perfect, and I wasn't getting the results I wanted on some areas of the rubrails. I finally resorted to meticulously applying stain with (honest) an artist's brush to blend it as best as I could. Time consuming, but at least all the obvious repair spots are hidden. They're there, but you have to be looking for them. So anyway, first coat of varnish tonight, applies to rub rails and the leading edge of the cockpit coaming (if it has a name I've forgotten it). This weekend, I'm getting on top of the checked plywood areas. ONWARD..!!! Here's a tip for those of you still under construction: Make yourself some as-built lists as you go. Things like paint manufacturer and colors, stain, varnish, maybe even some of your hardware or wood species selection. Roll it up in a small plastic tube like what motorcyclists use for their registration, and hide it in your boat when you're done. I sure could have used this reference. I'm surprised at how much of this data has left my mind over the last 9 years. (No comments, Bruce..)

"You know you've been working hard on the boat when..." (My answer) "You can justify using the leaf blower to blow off all of the sawdust, wood scrapings, from the top deck of the boat." I really did this tonight. Works great. ;D

I like those green and white sails. Who's is that, and how'd they make the sails?

Yeah, that's right: York. I saw you mention Nebraska in another thread, and was trying to piece it together. It's all coming back to me now. Glad all is well in Lower Alabama. I have an aunt and uncle in Gadsden, but I haven't been down there in about ten years (their kids, my cousins, moved to S.C.) I went to Gulf Shores as a kid, my memories are that it's a pretty nice place. Tonight some of the brightwork on the Vacay is ready for varnish, yes...! I'll post those photos in another thread in a few hours. (I gotta go see if I still suck at applying varnish now.)

Yes, thank you.

Duh, what am I thinking? I'll just raise the sails on the trailer and get that prevailing west wind to push me east. I wonder if the whiff would be game to sit in the cockpit and trim the sails while we go bombing down the interstate..?

What Ray said x 2.

If you run a line up to the top of the mast, and then down to the back of the boom to support the boom when the gaff is lowered... What's that line called again?? :

By the way, who made your sails? And how do you like them?

All of us old-timers are rising from the depths of Davey Jones' Locker as ZOMBIES..!!! SEE... ?? LOOK...!!! [glow=red,2,300]IT'S BRUCE[/glow]...!!! By the way, nice photos of your sailing excursion. Thanks for sharing.

You know, I actually got on mapquest when I saw your post about it a while back. But knowing our Pathfinder and it's less-than-stellar fuel economy, it appears it would exceed $800.00 in fuel round trip. Give me till next spring, and we'll see. I'm making slow-but-steady progress getting the Vacay back in ship-shape. Thanks for the invite.

No, no mowhawk (unfortunately). Just camera angle, and the fact that (even back then in the late '90's) my hair was starting to thin a bit. I was wearing a full length spray suit and clear cycling glasses to keep the spray out of my eyes. There's a funny backstory behind that photo. I believe this was early spring 1999. It was actually big enough wind that we were double-trapped on that boat. (It was a friend's boat). "So if it was double-trap wind, why am I alone on the boat in this photo?" you ask...?? Occasionally, just as a practical joke, the guy NOT at the helm would secretly unclip and bail off the wire unannounced and jump backwards into the water, leaving the guy on the tiller (me in this case) totally surprised and positioned for iminent death and destruction as the boat pulled you up and over the top. (We were a fun bunch.) ;D Well anyway, Tom and I were doubled up on his yellow 16 and he did this to me. Just out of pure random dumb luck, I managed to save the boat this time, and didn't go over. So Tom got left in the water, and I circled around and hooked up and loaded up the mainsail and bore down right on him. He took this photo as I was trying to run him over with one of those clamshell cameras...!! Funny, no one here has invited me to a messabout in quite a number of years....

Oh my freaking WORD...!! Look who showed up..>!!! LOL, you signed up JUST to post in this thread?!? Just LOOK at your sorry, lame-O "One post" profile... ;D You know, down on about page 182 there's a funny thread about me stiffing you nine cents back in 2002. I just came across it last night. (Glad the Hurry didn't wipe you out, I was wonderin' about you bro..)

Hey Frank.. Why do you get FIVE stars..??

It's definitely not Tyvek, I see that stuff on a weekly basis. (I'm a construction inspector). I *think* it was (is) some kind of heavier pvc-based tarp material with diagonal reinforcing, that gets used in the farming industry for covering large piles of hay and what not.

Squirrels run amok... amok, amok..... Stockings stolen, nuts all ate. The tile floor is a mess (again). Ships outta control. And no one has a newspaper on their porch. The paperboy was mugged for a recess cup... And Oh yeah.. We're outta beer.

I do what Ray does.

Yeah, I figured it may have had a bad end. Seems I remember it starting to go south about the time I got away from the forums years ago. I'm just wondering about the material itself, not him or his business.

OK, let's say I get REALLY serious about this "maintenance" project, and I decide to do another set of sails.. Does anyone know what that material is (was?) that Paul J was marketing years ago? I bought it from him, and it's been just fine. But 9 years is still 9 years, you know? I assume he's no longer around. What was that stuff? It worked well.

TIME FOR A PROGRESS PHOTO, YAY..!! Ok, here's what I'm showing you... I took this image this evening (Tues). This is the starboard side rubrail, about midway back in the cockpit side, looking towards the bow. These 1/16" gaps have developed radomly here and there along the top edge of the boat. So I've been applying west systems epoxy thickened with colloidal silica. It's hard to really see what I'm pointing out, but the gaps were unsightly and now it's filled and as smooth as my 3 yr old's butt. Tonight I completed sanding down the epoxy so that it's smooth and flush and ready for re-staining and varnish. In a few days I'll take the tarp off again and sand down the port side. (Epoxy is done on that side too)

And now Fintan Murphy shows up? Man, now we're REALLY scraping the bottom of the barrel.. ;D LOL You talking about this photo?

shoud I sand these kind of spots with bare wood and let it (dry) in winter and varnish them in next spring? That's what I would do. I don't think it would take a whole winter to dry, though.

Well I'm committed now. I went and bought a yard of glass cloth. : This will be a project for next Saturday morning, as my time to work on the boat is limited during the week because of the two squids who are, right now as I type this, destroying something in the other room... > It's ok. I need the cloth for one or two other small spots where I ran out of glass 9 years ago, and eventually it checked. I'll post pix afer next weekend's progress.