So I finally found a shipwright to come down and take a look at my boat the other day.I got lots of good advice from him and a estimate on the cost of repairing the hull and deck. It looks like I can get most of the work done for about $5000 but knowing how things go on the water , Im bugeting for $10,000. I know once we start ripping things apart there will be unseen things that need repairing.Im hoping I can store the boat at my old house while its being worked on. I figure I can attach a tarp from the side of the house and build a lean-to to cover the boat, this would save me tons of money instead of storing it at a shipyard and buying a very expensive shelter for it.
He gave me a good suggestion for fixing the leaky fiberglass decks. Im to put a double laminated plywood deck on, cover it with epoxy 2-part resin and then cover that with canvas which then gets a heavy coat of paint on it. He recommended I paint the boat with a special lineseed paint from Sweden. This paint is very durable and lets the wood breath so it won't rot. The paint is supposed to last for 15 years or so and is maintained by rubbing a lineseed wax into it periodically. http://www.solventfreepaint.com/ Ive noticed that where I painted the bathroom, the paint on the outside of the boat has bubbled. So this new paint should sort that out. I will have to put some more braces under the walkways as they are barely supported at all right now. None of this sounds too expensive or hard, so am hoping to start work on it in the next month or so. Just waiting for it to get a bit warmer and drier. I will get David to redo the windows at the same time and then hopefully will be able to get the tarp off in time for summer. Whoohoo, I cant wait for that.
He was quite concerned about the rot in the hull and the possibility of me sinking if i get hit with anything. For the time being he recommends I staple doorskin over the soft spots and caulk it with 5200 to seal things as best as possible. I will save money over the summer and start stockpiling the red cedar boards I need to redo the hull. He figures his work will have slowed down in the fall, so am hoping to get her hauled out and redone at that point. I am looking forward to seeing how this is all done, hopefully I can learn from this guy so that if I ever need to patch a spot in the future, I can do it myself. Sanding and painting the boat sounds like a huge physical chore which I am somewhat dreading but at the same time, I know how good I will feel when she is all done and beautiful again. Im hoping all goes according to plan and by next winter Im shipshape and dry.
My mouse problem seems to have vanished. Not sure what happened to him, I never caught him in any of my traps, so not sure if its the electrical buzzy thing that is keeping him away or if he met his doom in the jaws of a predator or something.Im just glad he is gone, he annoyed the f**k out of me.
I never figured out how to light the oven on my propane stove, so in the meantime, I invested in a convection toaster oven. It works awesome and we have had some tasty meals from it. The only downside is I lost the tiny bit of counter space that I had. Im still hoping to get the oven working but will leave that for some other time.
Daves world has been interesting of late. Your probably wondering what happened to the log salvaging we were going to do. Well a few months ago, David found an ad on craigslist for some property nearby that had a water lease attached to it. He contacted the owner and started proceedings to aquire the water lease so he can have a place to run his Marine Salvage and Construction business. Its been a lot of logistal run-around to get this done. He found a wonderful woman who believes in his vision and has joined forces with him to make this happen.
The water lease is completly out of the water at low tide so dredging will be neccesary. To get that done he had to have an enviromental survey done, deal with Fisheries, the City of Richmond,and Enviroment Canada to name a few. He may have to wait until August to start dredging , so as not to impact the fish runs. In the meantime, he has rented space at a local shipyard and bought a ton of material to build docks and floats. He met a man who is getting rid of a bunch of mobile homes for free and is getting them hauled down here so he can build floats for them and turn them into floathomes.
While waiting for the wheels of city hall to move and give him the go ahead to start, he has taken advantage of our warmer weather of late to do some more work on his his own floathome. He covered all the outside walls in heavy black plastic to seal it up better. He is planning to put metal siding over that. Originally he wanted to use cedar cutoffs, but is realizing that he has a weight issue with the house and has to keep that in mind when adding heavy material.
He finally got some decking put in around the sides of the house, and got a nice big float for the front deck in place. The temporary interior walls have come down and the floors ripped up (AGAIN!!)so he can fix some of the stringers that cracked under the weight of the wood cookstove. He has put some doorskins on a few of the walls which helps to make it look more like a home and less like a garage. He has a few days of hard work ahead of him trying to level the rest of the floor in the bathroom and workshop, then hopefully the bathroom will finally get built. Once the place has plumbing, it will look a lot more like a home. If all goes well, I think he should have the place done by fall. In the meantime it will be a good summertime place with all the space and decks to play on.
I really need to meet a good mechanic. I have 3 non-running boat motors, a van that needs repairs and my car could use some work too. I still havent been out on the speedboat, I really want it up and running this summer. Im in a quandry, Ive been working tons and just want to have lots of time off in the summer, but I need lots of money to get all the work done on the boats and vehicles. Ive been offered 4 days a week at the clinic. I want to say yes as the money is awesome there, but I wouldnt have much of a summer or time to work on anything. Whats a girl to do??
1 comment:
Life seems good for you so far? re the new canvas deck use the "fibreglass" equavalent of canvas and coloured resin (gell coat) so as to finish it with the weave so that it looks like traditional painted canvas ! that way you won`t have to paint it each year, or suffer from the scuffing and leaks that eventually become the problem of painted canvas decks.
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