The Schooner Sara B Log

Home	The Schooner Sara B Log

Back to index

April 09, 2012 Post 38

April Update

Fitting the bowsprit

Since December we have mostly been engaged in small but essential tasks that are part of the re-build. The toe rail laminated up glued lag bolted and screwed together is complete. We restored the original style of rail with a cap similar to the appearance of the surviving original toe rail when we got the boat. Once change was larger drain holes! For additional photos and information check the Facebook page.

A bit more putty and fair up of topsides, toe rail joint etc is in order but we are nearing the end of that aspect of the project. About a hundred wooden plugs have been applied to taff rail, trim, after giving the plug cutter and drill press several hours of exercise. We had to buy teak plugs for the cockpit trim. No tropical hardwood scrap available anymore around here. Recent effort has mostly concentrated on mechanical affairs- re installing the shifter, glassing and building up the shaft bearing where it exits and installing the shaft new stuffing box bearing etc. After weighing pros and cons of more complex dripless stuffing we're going with the old school type similar to what was on the boat. The stern tube bearing is conventional cutlass type. Chris pressure tested the keel cooler and find a teeny tiny leak. He reached for the J B Weld. We shall see.

The workbench - plug cutting, epoxy, barrier coat, ...

Chris designed a stainless steel thru hull for the exhaust outlet above the water, the old iron one having completely rusted away. He's using high temp silicon rubber to keep the water out-We're not certain of how hot that exhaust gas ever got, as it did circulate through the muffler/cooler so we'll be watching it for any indications of trouble the first few outings. He's figuring out other plumbing issues as well, such as dealing with cockpit and sink drains and bilge pump outlets. The old sink drain which exited above the water never did drain very well. One thought is to install an easily accessible sea cock and drain similar to that on â€œTitaniaâ€. Should it be consolidated with head intake seacock? Should we eliminated head seacock with a composting set up? Pricey, but might free us from the pump out dilemma when traveling. Although none of these many small tasks seems particularly significant, each one has to be done right and they're all more or less non standard and require a certain amount of creativity on the part of the chief engineer. We still have to figure out how to clean the fuel tank. We are certainly testing the limits of butyl tape in this project as we bed deck hard ware and other bits of boat with it. Time will tell-

Coming together ...

The to do list is shorter, but there's a lot of hours yet ahead before launch, hopefully sometime this spring!

Back to index