8-26-16 Cleaning part 1

So I ended up having some time on my hands this afternoon - with the help of my father-in-law - Jeff, we mounted a hitch to the bucket of my tractor to allow me to move the boat and trailer out of the shop as necessary.   So we gave it a try and sure enough my old John Deere could pull the trailer right out of the shop and onto the gravel so we could start pressure washing the grime off the boat.

During this process I discovered a couple of things -

1.  On the trip home I lost the teak sliding roof hatch cover.  I thought it was secure when we left, but should have made more of an effort to verify.  This goes on the list of item to fabricate.

2.  The wood trim on my boat is indeed teak - which is what I had hoped for.  It is great boat wood, but sure does come at a premium price.  I will need to decide how far I will take this on the restoration.

3. Buying a cheap ($8.00) in line pump that hooks to your drill motor to "suction" out the water from the bilge is waste of money.  After burning the contraption up, I ended up resorting to a bucket and scoop to get 90% of the water out of the bilge.  The rest will need to be done with a shop vac.  Oh yeah - bilge water is not very nice stuff, I have no idea how long it has been in the boat, but it is great to have most of it gone.

Pressure washing the deck and hull.  Pulled boat out of ship with a hitch mounted to my tractor bucket

Existing condition of interior trim & cabinets - not much worth salvaging other than the teak

Bilge hatch covers - all will need to be replaced/rebuilt

8-24-16 Coming Home

After nearly 2 months of preparation - it was time to bring her home.  With it only being about 1 hour from my house to the boat yard, I had assumed about a 3 hour ordeal.  In the end it took about 6 hours, but we were able to safely make the trip home.



Completed Trailer at Boat Yard

Lifting Boat From Cradle Onto Trailer

  At the last minute, I added a 7th brace for the bow, not knowing the exact angle of the bow.  I took a guess and got close enough, but will put this on the work list of items to be addressed down the road.

Loaded Up, Tied Down, Ready For Travel

As we were picking the boat from the cradle and setting it on the trailer, it became apparent that even though she was sitting correctly over the trailer axles, we still didn't have as much tongue weight as we should.  It was fine for the short trip home, but when I replace the mobile home axles with new trailer axels (both to lower the trailer to the ground and to add the ability for trailer breaks, I will need to look carefully at where the weight distribution is at that time.

On the trip home there were no issues, she road steady with no bouncing (helped to deflate the MH Tires down to 60psi from the original 90psi).

Summary of Costs to Date:

1.  Used Boat Trailer - $400 (craigslist)
2.  Used MH Tires - $200 (craigslist)
3.  Steel pipe and angle iron for brace fabrication - $166 (Ramm Steel)
4.  Welding equipment & supplies -$50
    5.  Tools (welder & grinder) - $0 (borrowed)
    6.  Tow Vehicle ( 2007 Dodge Cummins Turbo Diesel) - this thing is a beast -  1 tank of diesel & 6 pack of beer  (thanks Dale!)
    7.  Boat Cost - $1050
    8.  Trade in value on old blue trailer (too small axels - see earlier post.  ($300)
    9.  Value of boat cradle not needed ($150)

  So the total cost to date - $1,416.00






Parked in my Shop, her new home for the next season

8/7/16 - Trailer Part 3

Work continues on the getting the trailer ready/ converted to a sailboat hauler.  I never thought that a sailboat restoration would involve so much welding or steel work.  Great leaning process through it all.  Used 2" schedule 40 pipe stanctions with 1 1/2" schedule 40 for the interior portion,  1 1/2" x 3/16" angle iron for the braces.  The keel sits on some L 4x6x5/16 that I had laying around.....should be pretty stout.