Yard life

Sorry, no exciting trip log here, first step with new-to-us boat was some work by the experts.

We’re all for doing our own work when we can (labor is often the most expensive part of any boat project), but there are things that are beyond our skill level, would take too long, or are simply too critical to be left to the rank amateur with a tube of epoxy and an attitude!

So our first mission with Boundary was to have her hauled into the boatyard and deal with the SERIOUS stuff, i.e. holes in the boat, powertrain, things like that. We had Boundary hauled at Seaview North who did all the work. Do a quick search and you will find many horror stories about yards and work done / not done, expenses, and screw ups. If you want to read about that stuff, following the Google searches, because you fortunately won’t find that here. We found Seaview to be easy to communicate with, true to their word, and excellent technicians / craftsmen. Also felt very comfortable relying on Aaron’s judgement in things we didn’t know that much about. Yes, it was expensive, but the initial cost estimates were accurate, and the things they found that increased the cost were things you would WANT found, as they needed to be fixed. As long as you don’t go into a yard trip expecting it to be cheap you won’t be shocked.

In no particular order, the things the yard took care of for us were:

• Sea valves
  • Check our actual through hull fittings and find they were in good shape.
  • Remove the old gate valves, plastic valves, and – under the galley sink – piece of crap domestic water supply PVC valve, and replace them with proper Groco bronze sea valves.
• Cutlass bearing
  • We knew this needed attention as our surveyor noted it
  • However, the shaft log (that holds the cutlass bearing) needed to be realigned so the new bearing wouldn’t wear overly quickly.
• Prop shaft
  • With the shaft pulled, the machine shop checked it and found it… wanting… it’s a 1 1/8″ shaft and in places had worn to less than 3/4″… replaced.
• PSS dripless shaft seal
  • The boat had one, but they have a lifespan… keeps the water out? Yep, replace it.
• Rudder foot
  • This was a big somewhat unexpected expense… the rudder foot is attached to bottom of keel and supports the bottom of the rudder shaft.
  • Surveyor told us to have the bolts that hold the foot inspected as the foot seemed a bit loose… after some inspection Seaview said the foot itself seemed quite corroded… when we asked Aaron if he would replace it if it were his boat, he said yes.
  • So, done… new rudder foot cast and installed, this time with space for a zinc to reduce further corrosion.
  • In a terrifying display, Aaron broke the old foot in half with his hands to show how corroded it was… YIKES
• Speed and depth
  • We have a laptop as “chartplotter”, all we wanted was basic speed and depth instrumentation.
  • Boundary had two through hulls for transducers, but no current ones would fit, so we had them replace the transducers with new Raymarine transducers, and we will wire up the instrument displays ourselves.
• Haloing around shaft log
  • This was some weird electrical activity onto the bottom paint near the shaft log, not sure where it came from, but needed to be sanded off, epoxy coated and re bottom painted… hopefully doing the same to the shaft log will help prevent this in the future, although eventually we might add a small zinc to the shaft log
• Head hoses
  • The old hoses smelled, pretty bad… if you read around a bit it’s almost always the hoses, not the head itself or the holding tank, that smell, so we had them replaced.
  • OK, this is something we probably could have done ourselves, but it’s a real PITA and unpleasant, so…

All went more or less as planned, although the rudder foot was a major unplanned expense (although when we discussed it, Aaron’s “guesstimate” of cost turned out to be accurate within $2.50!). Boat is now back in the water, engine and shaft alignment has been done, and the large majority of “scary” stuff has been addressed so we feel very comfortable with the fundamental soundness of the boat now.

Other projects await (replace the headsail furler, diesel forced air heat, etc. etc.) but for now we’re feeling safe and sound and looking forward to some play time!