Interesting stuff today. We started out with a trip to the North Star Prop Shop. They’re the folks who are making Mahdee’s new rudder stock. Big, heavy, bronze and will have a new oak blade made for it. Today was our very exciting production meeting! They’re finally working on making this thing! We’ve had many delays on this one. First, the NSPS moved, consolidating two shops into one and our point of contact at the shop left for a job elsewhere…can’t find the paperwork…can’t find the old rudder stock. Good thing I took lots of pics of it and measured every aspect of it BEFORE dropping it off at the shop over a year ago! Well bottom line is that we should have it shortly (this week or next!).
Then, on to the boatyard. David had “second Christmas” yesterday when we went to the storage unit to find a car part (electric motor for the driver side window on Wesley is on the blink, but we took the ones from Bopeep before getting rid of her a couple years back and brought them here with us along with other “might need” car parts…I digress…) he didn’t get the part, but he did pull out a bin of electrical parts that the previous owner had purchased for Mahdee but not installed. He was thrilled and spent the rest of the morning cataloging them so we’d know what NOT to buy.
John was busy this morning fiberglassing the anchor locker and putting the big 7/8″ bungs in over the chainplate bolts.
Then, I started sanding the Metacrylic on the foredeck so we can put down the canvas in the next few days. Oh, I almost immediately cut my left index fingernail at the bed with the random orbital sander (sure keeps moving a long time after you turn it of…) at a moment of inattention. Did the sanding until I couldn’t stand it any more (about half the foredeck) and spent the rest of the day re-reading everything I have on caulking with cotton. I ordered 9 more bales of cotton (210′ each) from Hamilton Marine. Should show up friday 🙂
John opened up the canvas we have, the salvage is already trimmed and the #8 duck is 84″ wide and will work for the foredeck but I need to find 96″ wide for the main deck unless I want lots of seams. I wanted the heavier stuff for the foredeck but I may have to use #10, which is lighter, for the main deck since it comes readily in wider widths. I’d have to buy way too much #8 (like 75 yards too much) in order to get the width I need. Figured some of this out today while surfing the web on my little Palm Treo since my laptop is temporarily dead–confirmed that I’d have to buy too much canvas though when I got home to a real computer.
Other cool stuff came yesterday! I’d ordered seals for the Hurth tranny and they showed up! So, now it can be rebuilt before the whole engine-tranny is dropped into the boat with a crane. We were going to have a shop do it, but David wants the experience. We figure if he can do it here in the shed, he might be able to do it, emergency basis, sometime in the future, too. Other things came…Margo, who has recently re-launched her Concordia yawl, Sarah, sent me her caulking mallets–two–one is a regular one that all the guys like to have; the other is what she calls her “ladies mallet” which is lighter weight and without the rings. Now, with them showing up in the mail, I have three mallets. David made me an oak mallet (yesterday before Margo’s two showed up) to pound away with while waiting on Margo’s to show up. I expect to copy her “ladies mallet” if I like it, too. John’s itching to make caulking mallets and will likely make a couple “custom” mallets for us shortly as well.
Taking care of more “admin”, I finally got the folks who support the greenhouse fogger we puchased last year to send us a new motor since it stopped last fall and we’re getting into dry, hot weather now. Mahdee is still 12-15 percent humidity on the planking, but that could change fast with dry weather. The motor part should show up on Friday or Monday at the latest. Mahdee is getting misted instead of fogged in the meanwhile. The difference is “wet” ground instead of “humid” air in her enclosure; “humid” air is much better!
While I was busy cutting up my finger–No, I mean “sanding the foredeck”…David finished installing the gen-set bed and John started re-working the teak scuttle which goes on the foredeck after we’ve done the deck canvas.
Well, more stuff happening for sure! I’ve gotta go and scrounge around now for an empty (or near empty) spray bottle (like Windex) so I can spray, instead of paint, CPES into the shaft log hole first thing tomorrow am. After I’ve done that, David will install the bronze shaft tube and stern bearing/stuffing box. The fellow we call “Dynamic Dave” who owns Dynamic Marine Machining, did the threading for the new shaft tube and also will be making our new prop shaft as soon as the coupling arrives (back ordered…) and we can do a “test fit.” Always something!
Off to find my spray bottle…
