Rainy Days

Posted on by under Systems

Late Summer, a year ago, we decided to pull off and replace Mahdee’s deck.  We figured that we could get the new deck built before the rainy season hit.  In typical weather fashion, heavy rains came in the Fall while the deck was in pieces, and by the time the rainy season arrived the deck was in place and not a drop of rain fell.  The weather is not just unpredictable, but is usually capricious–if you need dry weather and/or the forecast is for dry weather, rain will fall with uncanny predictability.  But as soon as you change your actions to compensate, the weather will change too.  We had planned to be in the water by this year’s rainy season.  We aren’t there yet, but this time the weather hasn’t been the problem it was last year.  The heavy rains are helping us to identify the small remaining leaks–mostly in the old charthouse which we chose to keep rather than rebuild.  One-by-one, we are finding the elusive crevices and filling them.  Further, during the rains, we are finding things to do inside Mahdee where it is dry (and warmer).  The result is that some things are getting done that we had thought wouldn’t be done until we were launched–that’s about right now if we were on schedule.

The big news is that, working inside Mahdee, we have both (Cummins 5.9L main propulsion and Onan 8Kw genset) diesel engines running!  Clearly these are needed before launch, so the engine work is behind schedule.  As Brenda noted in an earlier post about a friend that said 80 percent can be obtained with 20 percent of the work, that friend didn’t have a boat.  The engine has conformed the more typical ratio–at least 400 percent of the expected level of work is needed before the result will be seaworthy.  In a related observation, we have noted that, despite the fantastic selection of stuff at marine stores, virtually none of it will work as designed on Mahdee.  I think that is a combination of Mahdee’s size and age.  We spent a long time trying to design a semi-typical exhaust system that would conform to ABYC standards.  The result is a very custom design that took forever to build and contract-for the building of all the various custom parts.  Of course, there are a few details to take care of on the engine systems before it is fully seaworthy–clearly I haven’t hit 400 percent yet.

Transparent Disclosure

Posted on by under misc

Sometimes it feels as if we are just treading water and barely getting things done in time.  In the chill weather of December, I felt as if we were late getting the Shipmate wood burning stove installed.  In hindsight, I realize we beat the really cold weather of January and February.  In truth, I must admit that cold is relative.  We are in the Southwest, but the desert temperature swings mean that it is often nice during the day, but in the 20F range at night.  So, having the stove at night keeps us toasty warm and really makes living on the boat pleasant despite the lack of amenities.

One previous lack of amenities included lack of windows/glass.  A part of the “Project Boat Heat” initiative started last Fall was to get rid of some big drafts caused by open holes in the boat normally covered by glass.  Early on, the portals in the hull were installed and the butterfly hatches got beautiful new glass, but the latter was mainly to stop the rain from falling straight into the boat.  Other missing, broken or marred glass that wasn’t a big potential source of water leaks was postponed or overcome by higher priorities.  As the cold winter started blowing through Mahdee, those air leaks got higher priority.  We now have nice round fixed lights in the scuttle where we take our showers (a big improvement over the “place under the boat” with the colder weather.  We also have replaced the horribly scratched glass windows in the chart house where someone (prior to our ownership) decided to use sandpaper on the glass.  Of course, we discovered some rot under one of those two windows, so we had the opportunity to take care of that–a real two-fer.

Getting small oddly shaped pieces of tempered glass made is not easy.  The most expensive piece of glass was the forward center portal on the charthouse.  It met with its demise when we were trying to remove the portal hardware from Mahdee some two years ago.  One of our paid helpers was hitting a block of wood on the rim of the glass while I got ready to catch the portal.  This technique worked well for most of the big portals in the hull, but proved completely incapable on the small charthouse portals.  One powerful swing by this enthusiastic individual missed the block and hit the glass dead center.  The explosive impact blew out a small cone of glass similar to what you sometime see in old pickups parked by the side of the road during hunting season.  Of course, this portal, the middle one of three portals on her charthouse can’t be missed.  It is roughly 6 inches in front of the face of everyone who descended the ladder into the boat.  The visitor would then say “hunting accident?”  I would get this vision of the previous owner taking Mahdee hunting while biting my tongue and not saying, “yeah old Mahdee got mistaken for a deer and got shot right through her center eyeball.”  Instead, I would say “hammer accident.”  But I doubt that anyone believed a hammer had done the damage.  The 5 inch diameter glass in that portal was 3/8 inch thick and we had to search for a vendor who could cut a circle that small for tempered glass.  Now, however, we have a shiny new piece of glass there, no wind, and no weird comments.

That took care of most of the big air leaks, making Mahdee very nice and comfortable.  We could use a door, however, but the temporary door cut out of 1″ foam insulation is working fine.  Looking ahead, I wonder if we will be able to make the screen inserts before the weather warms and the bugs return!  I should be optimistic, since so far, we are keeping our head above water.

Minutiae

Posted on by under misc

Oh, it’s all the little things that matter.

I have a friend who follows the 80% rule. He states that he gets “80% of the impact with 20% of the cost” on a given project. Following his logic, its not worth it to pay to get to 100%.

Well, my friend is not a boater, no, not a sailor, no clearly not a wooden boat owner! Here, we find that the final little things make all the difference in the world. So, I go around attending to the minutiae that will keep the boat from rotting away and David does likewise with things to keep the engine and systems properly working. All in all, everything needed for the safety of the boat and crew.

The minutiae is boring. No doubt about this. So, off I go to do the final finish on the seam between caprail and shearplank. A seam that needs to not only look very pretty but needs to be most certainly watertight.

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