Painting the FHP

Our summer is already winding down on Fishers Hornpipe.  Here is picture of Joe, fresh off the plane from Europe.  He built and installed an engine cover for Twinkie, which is ready for him to come back and put on a coat of paint or two.

Here is Aunt Marion onboard the FHP.  Marion and Dean have been putting us up and feeding us this summer.  Thanks for all the delicious meals, company, and air conditioning!

Here is Mac rolling on barrier coat to the hull below the water line.  We used an expensive and toxic two part epoxy barrier coat to seal the concrete hull and provide a primer for bottom paint.  We put three coats below the waterline and one coat above the waterline.  We even covered the deck with a coat of barrier coat.

Here is Nadine starting to roll on the ablative bottom paint.  The bottom paint is the final coat for th hull below the waterline.  It looks nice and clean, though slightly bumpy, with dark red bottom paint.

Here is a picture of the stern with the bottom paint rolled on and the white barrier coat primer on the topside.  Blue tape is covering the waterline are that will eventually be a grey or black boot stripe.  After a lot of testing, searching, and advice from the experts, we have decided to paint the hull white instead of dark blue.

We are headed down to RI for a couple more days of painting and wrapup work before we head out for the Bahamas.  We will post a final set of pictures of our finished product for the summer.

...surviving the heat and making progress

The new spreaders are on!  Andrea Watson came out to visit from Boulder and helped us attach the new spreaders to the mast.  Nadine and Andrea hung halfway up the mast and screwed the new spreaders into place.   Thanks Andrea!  She also helped us complete some deck work in between visits to the beach.

Last week the hull was sandblasted down to bare concrete from the waterline down.  There were 6 layers of old epoxy, barrier coat, and bottom paint!  The topsides, above the waterline, were sanded and ground down in damaged areas to prepare for painting.  Mac and Lucy came down to help us sand and fair the hull in order to get it ready for paint.  

Here is Mac applying a coat of fairing compound to the waterline area.  Despite the old chipped and damaged paint, the hull is in very strong structural condition.  You can hit it hard with a hammer and not even leave a mark!

We also finally fired up Twinkie our new diesel engine.  He turned over and started immediately on the very first try!  It was very encouraging to hear the roar of a strong diesel engine coming from below.

The electrical panel and battery are now installed and powering the bilge pump, engine, and various other electronics.  Thanks to Benny Urmston, who stopped by and helped with wiring during a brief visit.  We powered up the radar and were treated to a pong-like 1980's era screen with fully functioning radar.

Thanks again to Marion and Dean who have been hosting us at their house in nearby East Greenwich!

Summer Time

Yahoo Summer!

We're back for the summer and making progress.  The engine installation process is almost complete.  Just waiting on some wiring harnesses and a battery to fire up "Twinkie".

Recently we have been tearing out and replacing rot in the deck and bulkheads.  The job has not been easy since the temperature and humidity have been high in RI.  Luckily the town beach is just a 5 minute bike ride away!  Thanks to the Rmac for lending us a bunch of tools.

Rot in the bulkhead between the kitchen and master cabin.  We have since replaced this area with new 3/4 inch plywood

Here is another view, from the maser cabin looking aft and port at the bulkhead that we removed.  Above you can see the deck and beams that we removed.  The whitish stuff in the bottom half of the removed area is insulation for the refrigerator in the kitchen.

Port side deck with new floor beams installed.  The three beams shown here were rotten from water seeping in through a thru-deck fitting.  We replaced them by cutting the rotten beams back to good wood, cutting a stair-step pattern into them and laminating and screwing new 1X4 douglas fir decking planks in place.  We still have to sand everything smooth and match the stain so that it looks original.  Below you can see the replaced bulkhead which we cut to match the curve of the hull.

Here is Nadine getting ready to cut plywood to fill in the holes we cut in the deck.  We have 5 problem areas in the deck.  Three are almost completely patched up and ready for fiberglassing now.

 

Thanks to PK for donating these tapes!   They sound outstanding in our tape deck/radio onboard the FHP!  Also, thanks to Marion and Dean for some delicious dinners and hospitality!

April Projects

During our spring visit to the FHP we took down both spreaders and replaced them with solid 2x12'' Douglas Fir.  Rob and Mac built them in the Creative Cottages warehouse.  The new spreaders are now painted and ready to go up!

One of our biggest undertakings was cleaning out the bilge and preparing it for the new engine.  We removed and filtered approximately 25 gallons of dirty bilge water.  This project would have made a perfect episode for Dirty Jobs!  We had to make a few adjustments in order to make the new engine fit.  We made new engine mounts, replaced a seacock, re-routed the exhaust system, cleaned and flushed the fuel tank, re-built the stuffing box and replaced the propellor shaft.  Whew! 

We finally got Twinky to its new home!  Thanks to Larry at the boat yard, we were able to lower it into the forward hatch with a crane.  It was then placed on a dolly, rolled towards the engine compartment, raised with a winch and finally lowered into the bilge.  With some minor adjustments, it fit perfectly! 

When Mac came to visit he took measurements for new shelves and built them in his warehouse.  The new shelves are in the hallway and above the engine compartment.  This will be were the Nigel Calder books live.  Thanks Mac! 

Spring Break

April on Fishers Hornpipe

Nadine and I just got back from a couple weeks working on the FHP.  Nadine was out for her spring break and her first visit to the boat.  We worked on tons of projects mostly having to do with the new engine.  We will talk about the projects we worked on in an upcoming post.  For now: here are the people who came to help out while we worked on the boat.  We are going to try to post a picture of everyone who comes to help.  Here is your chance for internet fame!!  Just come help us out on the FHP and see yourself immortalized online!

R Mac and Lucy

Here are R Mac and Lucy Cutting a new bulkhead for the battery compartment.  See future posts for more details on this and other projects.  Dad also made a beautiful bookshelf for the hallway area in the workshop and helped make new spreaders for the mast.

Meggie

Sister gets the award for dirtiest fingers of any FHP volunteer!  She has helped with lots of different projects, most recently stove cleanup and helping with a new exhaust thru-hull.  She has also been practicing her boat-yoga, which involves constricting your body into to awkward "poses" and holding it there while working in cramped spaces.

Mom

Mom helped out with getting the oven fired up (still in process).  She also measured the bunks so we can start to make sleeping mats.  Also use of the Subaru and storage space in Plymouth are appreciated.  Thanks Ma!

Urm

We don't have a picture of benny aboard the FHP so I had to go with a classic from the Kennedy Space Center.  Benny has been working on wiring and electrical issues.  He is a co-recipient of our NOLS grant.  You rock Urm!

Who is next?

We will be back in Rhode Island in June to start up again.  Everyone is invited to come lend a hand or just take a look.  Thanks to everyone for their support.  We are going to start a FHP mixtape drive.  We found an awesome cassette tape deck onboard and are requesting your best mixtapes for our listening enjoyment.  Thanks again!

Meet "Twinkie" Our New Engine!

We have found and purchased a new engine for the FHP.  It is a Yanmar 4 cylinder diesel.  It was made in 2000 and removed from  a J-55 (fancy sailboat) in a nearby boatyard. It is 88 horsepower which is a 20 hp increase over the old Isuzu.  The builder Reuel Parker recommended an engine with a little more power to move the boat more efficiently in choppy seas and against the current.

Nadine and I are headed out to Rhode Island in early April to instal the engine and work on other boat projects.  Thanks again to NOLS IDF for the grant which helped pay for the new engine!!

First Week of 2010 Engine and Electrical with Urm

Benny Urmston came down for 3 days right after new-years to help me get started on rewiring.  Thanks Benny!  The boat has 2 electrical systems 120v AC like your house and 12v DC like your car.  In an attempt to simplify and reduce our energy use we are removing all the AC lighting.  we will leave several AC plugs so that we can plug in tools etc when we have an AC power source.  The DC system, which powers the radios, GPS, pumps, and lights will be overhauled with a new distribution panel and new wires where necessary.

Above is the existing electrical fuse panel.  It was rusty to the point that you could just pull terminals from their bars in a little rust explosion! Benny and I spent hours with our heads in every little nook and cranny to identify all the wires.

We carefully labeled all the wires that run to every corner of the boat.  Many thanks to Benny for his methodical tactics and company!

Above is the beginning of a new DC bus-bar that will distribute power from the batteries to the various lights etc. throughout the boat.  
Above is the engine finally out and in the workshop area of the boat.  Look in the lower right corner of the picture for a hole in the crank-case!  It seems the engine spent a long time either sitting in salt water or flooded with salt water.

A close-up shot of the hole in the engine.  Because the engine is so rusty throughout we are now shopping around for replacements.  Benny also helped hoist the engine out through the hatch in the bow and down to the ground where we hauled it over to his truck and took it up to Plymouth.  That sucker is heavy!

Also some great news!  NOLS awarded us a Instructor Development Grant.  Nadine, Benny and I applied to a fund for instructor expeditions and they awarded us the maximum grant amount!  This will help offset the cost of a new engine.  We are considering naming the new engine Twinkie in honor of Evan Horn who is NOLS training manager in charge of the IDF grants.  Thanks NOLS!