Repair to Lazarette/Saloon Bulkhead

There was some delamination of the tabbing between the bottom of the bulkhead and the hull.  Removing the tabbing revealed some wet plywood behind it.

All but the most forward wet ply we're removed.  The single remaining ply was used as a form for the 1/2" of epoxy wetted 1708 fiberglass that was installed.

The repaired area was filled and faired.

Three coats of Rust-Oleum gloss white enamel finished the job.

Teak Deck Maintenance

All the teak pads on both the bow and dinghy deck got some TLC.  The perimeter of the pads was re-caulked with Teakdecking Systems SIS 440.

A sharp chisel makes fast work of seam topping.   New caulk was added as necessary to any seams with voids.  

Hull Wax and New Sending Unit

Waxed the hull and polished the rubrail, anchor strike plate, and cut water today.  

Out with the old.  

The homemade $8 press made easy work of extracting the well bedded, old sounder's sending unit.

In with the new.  The new sending unit is bedded in an abundant amount of BoatSeal.

The homemade deep-socket allowed the sounder's wire to pass through it as the socket tightened the sounder's 2-3/8" retaining nut--something a traditional socket would not have allowed.

Each of the last four days working on Nellie has gotten a little hotter.  As the car's thermometer shows, it was 108°F on the tarmac at 11 am this morning.

The Bottom Job

 

After being lifted out of the water Nellie was power washed then left drying on the hard for three weeks.  Any flaking bottom paint was scraped off and all underwater running gear (that needed it) was repainted with epoxy.  

The bottom was painted with 3-1/2 gallons of West Marine CPP ablative: one coat everywhere; two coats on the running gear; three coats on the bow and;  three coats from the waterline down three feet.  The remaining paint will be used when Nellie's back in the slings to double coat the area under the eight stand pads and three hull blocks.

Note: some of the old bottom paint had come off revealing the barrier coat.  The barrier coat is in excellent condition and no blisters were seen anywhere.  DBH

Removing Wall Finish

This very sharp paint scraper works well to get Tommy's two part finish out of the wainscot's chamfer.

Serendipitously Finding Engine Mount Natural Neutral

After installing Nellie's new Cushyfloat 45 engine mounts, the vibration data shown by the graph's red line were collected.  The amount of vibration was greater than expected.  I suspected that the aft, starboard mount was a little low.  So, with the engine running, I began the leveling procedure by loosening the mount's nut (shown in picture).

 I was surprised, to say the least, when the vibration instantly stopped. By loosening the nut with the engine running, the engine adjusted itself to find its own natural neutral. At this point I re-tightened the bolt.   The graph's blue line shows the marked improvement.  

Engine Mount Lessons Learned

I've learned a lot putting new engine mounts in Nellie.  One, it's not a hard job.  Two, selecting the proper engine mount is critical.  

Nellie's factory-original Cushyfloat mounts had no model number.

The first new set of mounts, Cushyfloat 65's, were dramatically noiser than Nellie's factory-original Cushyfloat mounts.  I then removed the 65's and installed Cushyfloat 45's.  The graph below compares the wheelhouse noise level with each mount type.

On average the 45's are more than 50% quieter (-12bB) than the 65's. 

Why?  Because as the graph above shows, they're better at dampening the engine's vibration. 

Bottom line, Nellie has never run been quieter or smoother.