Life of UV Thread in the Tropics – How long do you plan to cruise?

Hanging out with friends at Hog Island is the 'vacation' part of living aboard a sailboat.

"We all know that living on a sailboat is a
 vocation, not a vacation."
~ statement made by James, S/V Love-Zur, during the Cruiser's Net

Sometimes life aboard requires a bit of work amidst the fun you'd rather be having. Finding that balance is important. Sometimes, just when you thought you could have a beach day, you notice that you've got some work ahead. I call it "boat love".

If you had a chance to read my previous post on our cockpit enclosure, "What we Love about our enclosure, what we DON'T and what Sailrite said", then you know that a sewing project was in my future and what UV thread to use was my biggest concern.

Troubadour's cockpit is fully shaded by our enclosure.

This blog post is about choosing a thread you will be happy with and, yes, maybe even sucking it up and digging a little deeper into your wallet to buy a more expensive thread. The questions I needed to ask myself (and you may want to consider, as well) were, "How long do I plan to cruise?" and "How often do I want to do maintenance repairs on my fabric/sewing projects?"

Chris and I are full time liveaboards and our Sunbrella and thread is exposed 365 x 7 x 24. If I would have considered this questions carefully, and thought about where I would be living in 2-3 years and what I'd like to be doing (playing on the beach with friends), I may have purchased the "lifetime" thread. At least, I'd like to think I would have.

When I researched the type of thread to use on Troubadour's cockpit enclosure in early 2013, I wrote to my friends at Sailrite to inquire about the UV 92 thread I planned to use:

"V-92 Polyester thread in the tropics will last 2 to 3 years, in less UV areas it will last 5 to 8 years. It is the most purchased thread at Sailrite. Colors of Polyester thread will fade in high UV areas in a year or so. The only UV proof thread is Tenara or Helios P it will never fade and last longer than the canvas or vinyl project, but is expensive and hard to sew with. Another thread that is a little better than just plain Polyester is Anti-wicking thread (only a few colors choices); it will last longer in the UV, but not as long as Tenara or Helios." ~Email from Sailrite (January, 2013).

Although, Sailrite recommended other thread as well, given my cruiser budget (or was it mentality?), I chose the Sunstop V-92 polyester UV non-wicking thread ($13 for 1,000 yards) in a color to match "Toast" Marine Grade Sunbrella. I thought "Two to three years? Okay, I can live with that," and placed my order. The enclosure was completed and installed in March 2013.

UV Thread break down 2.5 years after stitching. Chafe areas from Shadetree awning friction. The area will need re-stitching and patching.

Patch and re-stitching with "Lifetime" thread. (I didn't pull out old stitches, just sewed right over them.)

Flash forward two and a half years to November 2015 and I'm not so happy about my decision. Stitches have begun to break in critical areas. It suddenly feels like the enclosure was installed yesterday!

I know. I was warned. Not one to let this issue lie, I asked Matt Grant at Sailrite if he'd participate in Q & A blog post to answer some questions about thread for this blog post and for all you DIY'ers out there.

Linda:
Would you comment on polyester vs. nylon thread for the tropics and what bonded means?

Matt:
Sure. You should never use a Nylon thread for outdoor use. Nylon is not nearly as resistant to sun deterioration as Polyester is. Its benefit is that nylon is more elastic than polyester, which makes it more appropriate for upholstery applications where sun is not the primary concern (but stretch is). Sailrite does offer a UV treated nylon but we still don’t recommend it for extended outdoor use. That said I will make sure we do a weather test on it to see how it lasts.

Bonding is the coating that is added to the thread to make it sew better (lubrication) and to not un-lay during sewing. It is also where the additional UV inhibitors are applied.

I chose Toast Sunbrella for our awning and the color "Ashes" Sunstop V-92 thread #103025, but it doesn't appear that you carry that one any longer.

We are slowly switching to A&E thread brand. The Ashes was a Star Ultra Dee brand from Coats. I still think both are excellent products.

I used the Sunstop V92 black that came with my machine and/or Ultra Dee bonded polyester black Coats DB 92 on my sail pack (that was six years ago) the thread is holding up great.

Black or white thread is always better. These do not get a topical dye that requires a “roughing” of the polyester to get the color to stick. Black is solution dyed, so the color runs all the way through.

Will you comment on shelf life of thread once it is purchased?

At least 5 years when stored at normal temperatures.

Skipped stitches were few and it wasn't necessary to fix them.

After thinking this over and not wanting to be re-stitching the enclosure again in 2-3 years, what do you suggest?

My recommendation is a white or black which are not Vat-house dyed. The dyeing process does weaken a new thread from the start. Also if you have cleaned with bleach that will further diminish the thread life. But that said I love the idea of “Lifetime” threads like Profilen or Tenara. For an Oscillating hook machine, like the Ultrafeed, get the Profilen. The Tenara will last. Just keep in mind that it is a bit harder to sew with than the Profilen (more skips on an oscillating hook machine). For anything else both work great.

Here are some facts: Polyester thread (like the Ashes) loses over 60% of its breaking strength in the first year of use. Profilen and Tenara don’t lose any strength in the first three years. Black or white are the best colors of Polyester to use – they won’t fade quickly and they last longer than other colors. Profilen and Tenara are very expensive when compared to Polyester thread of equivalent sizes.



What needle do you recommend with the Profilen thread? It sounds like the most reliable option for my re-stitching project. We plan to continue cruising in the tropics for five or more years.

I would use a #16 needle with the Profilen. The four ounce Profilen cones are $69. Eight ounce cones are $129. We have clear and black as options. The needles are our part number 857 and a 10 pack is $5.75.

~~~_/)

Troubadour's enclosure laces on making it easy to remove - but it takes time away from the fun stuff.

 

On November 18 and 19, 2015 Chris unlaced and removed the enclosure. Within six hours I had completed the re-stitching project using the “Lifetime” Profilen thread. I am elated with it! I followed Matt's recommendation of a #16 needle (but noticed afterwards that I had been using a #14). In the beginning there were a few skipped stitches, but after making a slight turn of the needle to the 10 o'clock position (as indicated in my Ultrafeed LSZ-1 Guidebook) and using a slightly smaller stitch length, I didn't have any problems. I used clear thread which I like because it makes it hard to see that I even did a re-stitching project.

I highly recommend this thread for your important long term UV exposed canvas projects.

What I used: Profilen PTFE Lifetime Thread Clear 8oz Cone, Item #: 107129, $129, compare to $13.95 for 4oz UV 92 thread (or $26 for 2 cones 8oz equivalent). Or to put it another way "Lifetime" vs. 2-3 years in the tropics.

Check out my other articles on the Sewing on Board and the DIY tabs on our blog. I hope you found this blog helpful as you prepare for your next sewing on board project.

Thanks to the team at Sailrite for your help and responses.

 

 

 

Just another day in paradise

Happy hour on deck!

Paradise is a state of mind, right? Or is it a place?

Upon our return from a long (me) and a short (Chris) visit to the states, we're back to living and liming in Grenada. Liming of course comes with the trade-offs of boat chores and maintenance ("nothing's ever easy"), as well as the mundane bits of living like cleaning and laundry. All of this is tempered with the joys we find in sharing our passions - Chris, his love of music, and me, learning and teaching yoga and reading tarot cards.

September is well into the heart of the rainy season (we don't like to use the word "hurricane"). It's also one of the hottest months here and we welcome the (sometimes stiff) Atlantic breezes and a daily dip in our "pool" to keep us relatively cool.  

We're cherishing our moments together and feel blessed to live with our toes in the water!

 "... I play my guitar
 I laugh at the bar with my friends
 I go home to my wife
 I pray every night
 I can do it all over again

 Wouldn't that be the life?"

 

~ Kenney Chesney, The Life

 

~~~_/)

 



Repairing the hatch covers after six years in the sun.

You guessed it! Boat maintenance in exotic places...like the lazarette?

Our teeny tiny laundry room!

Chris on the uke at Secret Harbour's Tuesday night cruiser's jam session.

Linda disappeared for five weeks in St. Augustine
 to become a certified yoga teacher.

With yoga buddy, Kara Joy Stewart, dancing around. Natarajasana.

Linda and friend, Linda Locke on Vero beach at sunrise.
Three Linda's (Moore, May & Locke) enjoyed a few days at Locke's timeshare.
 

Our "pool".

At Lindy May's for a few weeks of land time in Florida.

We're blessed to have each other and to build a life together on land or sea.
Paradise is a state of mind.



On The Hook Again!



Sunset over Mt Hartman Bay

After Linda’s last blog about liming, I thought I’d elaborate a bit on boat projects for those cruisers who need to commiserate about cruising (definition: boat maintenance in exotic places).

Back in May the aft head developed a noticeable leak from the same areas around the motor housing where I had already cut new gaskets and added sealant. The aft head was a Frankenstein: an original Bryden Boy with a Jabsco conversion that I didn’t feel was worth additional effort to repair, so it was replaced with a new electric Jabsco head identical to the forward head. Redundancy is good, carrying one spare rebuild kit that fits both is even better!

Household size electric head newly installed. The electric pump helps guests flush copiously.

In Bequia our generator had noticeably less power than in days of old, and combined with leaking antifreeze and some oil, I feared the worst, a blown head gasket requiring a rebuild. When Mike from Palm Tree Marine came out to see if a rebuild was necessary, he was able to determine that one of the cylinders was not firing properly: no fuel from the fuel injection pump. The injection pump is a pricey item for which I had no spare, and Mike assured me that there wasn’t anyone qualified to rebuild it on the island. With a several week delay to have mine rebuilt in the USA, and only a 40% discount over new, I opted for a new one, figuring shipping would likely eat away some of the savings and I would be able to have the old one rebuilt at a future date for inclusion in the spares.

Heavy springs keep these rollers in contact with the camshaft. Seeing the first roller not return to the down position is an uh-oh.

The first pump I had shipped did not appear to function properly, the preservative seemed to have gummed up the works. The replacement was packaged differently, in a sealed bag and well oiled and things moved well. The generator started right up but did not run correctly; it would surge and then nearly conk out. Mike returned to help me look at the governor system once we got the front cover off, and we found a stamped linkage with a bent tab. I guess I had been a little overzealous using the shutoff linkage during one of the runaway surges! With that bent back, a new gasket, and all the governor parts cleaned and reassembled, we restarted it and it purred. The governor maintained RPM (which on a generator, means a steady AC frequency) better than I’d ever seen it, and the refrigerator started easily, even with other loads already being fed (in the past, it would bog down if the electric water heater or the coffee pot were already on).

A rotted drain petcock was the source of the antifreeze leak, which had to be removed, re-tapped and then plugged as a new petcock was not available. The oil leak was repaired with a new o-ring on the raw water pump drive, and all is (knock on wood) running well without leaks.

With the ability for us to provide our own 110V power back in operation, the major obstacle to leaving the marina was gone and I could breathe easier. I tackled a “nice to have” project with some leftover wood from our salon project, some bedside shelves for the master cabin. The long straight shelves were transformed into two small rectangular ones, taking advantage of the expertise and large power tools at Driftwood to make the clean compound cuts which would have been nearly impossible with a hand saw.

Before and after of the main cabin with shiny new shelf installed on the sloping bulkhead.

A week before Carnival we slipped the mooring lines and spent a night in the Sculpture Garden/Marine park before anchoring in Mt Hartman Bay. We were able to bus into town for our favorite Carnival events, Panorama (pan band competition at the national stadium) and the Tuesday parade with all the fancy costumes. We enjoyed these even more than last year, as we were well rested, being away from the all night thump of Soca music. Yes, the days of straight partying for five days (and being able to enjoy it) are officially relegated to long past memories of Mardi Gras!

Far from the dollar bus route, shared taxis (“shopping buses”) are now another scheduled cruiser event, along with yoga, noodling, dominoes, snorkeling, backgammon, music jams, and more events than we have energy for. For the Georgetown cruisers who fear sailing into the far reaches, fear not! The landscape may change, but the activities continue.

Living to Lime

Inevitably when I visit friends and family in America I will get asked that most common of questions every cruiser must learn to answer in their own way, “What do you do all day?”

The question is asked in a way that often implies we have absolutely nothing to do except lie in the sun, read books, laugh with our friends and drink cocktails. I mean really, what else would we possibly be doing? We live on a sailboat in the Caribbean islands, and when in the Caribbean you learn how to lime!

Anyone can lime, anytime, anywhere. According to UD (Urban Dictionary) it’s a very simple concept that encompasses any leisure activity entailing the sharing of food and drink, the exchange of tall stories, jokes and anecdotes etc., provided the activity has no explicit purpose beyond itself.

Let me simplify and repeat “any leisure activity…provided the activity has no explicit purpose beyond itself.” We’ve gotten good at it. We feel we’ve earned our time to lime. Why? Because of all those "things" we do all day!

So what do we do? Weather most certainly dictates how plans are made and changed. This is going to be pretty boring but humor me. We get up when the sun begins warming our sleeping cabin; which is usually sometime between 7 and 8 a.m. (except for the mornings I practice yoga either on deck or ashore). Chris makes coffee and puts away the dishes that have been air drying from the previous night’s dinner. While eating our individual breakfasts we read blogs, update Facebook, write emails, check the weather and generally surf the net. We do this until about 10 o’clock.

We each have “things” we want to do or need to do that encompass any manner of what cruisers refer to as “boat chores”. (Remember, we earn our time to lime.) We do these various boat chores, either individually or together, until about 4 pm taking a break for lunch around 1 pm. Just to satisfy the curiosity of the folks back in America, here’s a short list of things we’ve been doing this week – several on the same day. If we get tired of it all the liming starts early. You see, the harder you work, the harder you get to lime!  

Design and make his & her bedside shelves for the master cabin; hand wash the clothes; wash the toilet; take the bus to Ace Hardware for boat parts; air out the mattress; hike the sheets and mattress pad to the laundromat; practice the ukulele (Chris); study the tarot (Linda); repair the spinnaker bag; take the bus to the grocery store, shop, take the bus (or sometimes a taxi) back to the boat; put the groceries away; bake banana bread; pay the marina bill; wash the hull; practice/study yoga (Linda); scrub the bottom of the boat; fix the broken generator; take pictures of the projects so we don’t forget what we did or what it looked like; remove the genoa (sail) and put on the new jib sheets (oops! we haven’t done that yet, should have been done last year, but we’ll do it this year) … now it’s time to lime!

Liming, Troubadour style, involves playing guitar in the cockpit, dockside or at jam sessions; enjoying laughs and conversations with cruiser friends and locals (thanks Izzy for the picture from the full moon party); reading a book - anywhere; snorkeling; bobbing (see Bobbing in Bequia); hanging around at the pool (at Port Louis Marina); sipping half-priced drinks at happy hour specials; watching the sunset; and swigging a cold beer in the shade on a hot afternoon… provided, that is, the activity has no explicit purpose beyond itself!

Cheers!

Bobbing in Bequia

As Linda pointed out last blog entry, we made it to Bequia and inertia has taken over. It has been so long since we’ve been able to follow our preferred schedule of a few boat chores followed by swimming, reading, or hiking, that we decided to just stay put.




Light sandy areas to anchor in, dark reefy areas to snorkel over. What's not to love?

Admiralty Bay, off Port Elizabeth, has been quite nice. Based on our experience last time, we anchored near Princess Margaret beach where the holding is good and the wind is not quite as gusty as if you get farther up into the harbor, between the hills, which seems to funnel the gusts down in blasts. It seems to get rolly sometimes, but I think it is a wind against tide phenomenon, as it always seems to go away within hours and I can’t correlate it with the predicted seas from WindGuru. The snorkeling is close by, and it’s a quick dinghy ride to the secure town dock to drop off garbage, pick up supplies, or sit down to a roti and fries when we don’t feel like cooking.

So as we are talking to Cheryl, who runs the Fig Tree, while there using the WiFi, we ask if there is a music jam on the island. She decided on the spot to add it to the Fish Friday dinner special they run, and we announced it on the cruiser’s net she hosts on the VHF radio at 8 AM. We’ve been to several of the jams now. The first one I was the only one to show up, so it was a small acoustic show with guitar and ukulele. Last week Gavin (Secret Smile) and Andy (Manureva) also showed up so I didn’t have to do all the heavy lifting, although I’m still the only vocalist - well, with some occasional help from Linda, Cheryl, or the audience.



One man jam at the Fig Tree

We did a hike along the road to Hope before returning for lunch and also did a rugged off-road hike to Peggy’s Rock. Glenn and Dalynn on Amoray had been wanting to do this hike for a while, so we tagged along and after a few false starts, finally found the correct goat trail up to where we needed to start climbing over rocks, finally resulting in a ridge line walk for a hundred yards or so until we emerged from the vegetation onto the rock and a stunning view.


The trip down from Peggy's Rock was a lot quicker than the hike up!

During one of our trips to town, a couple in one of the chandleries recognized us from our blog, and we met Richard and Jan from Morpheus of London. Exchanged sundowners, dominoes, and some bobbing (bobbing in the waves like a cork while drinking) ensued. As they’ve also headed south, we expect to run into them again.

The refrigeration compressor had been running longer than usual, and a quick look at the sight gage revealed that the system didn’t quite get topped off with refrigerant when it was filled. I sort of expected this, as I did not pay for the refrigeration guys to stick around for hours until the system got nice and cold and that's when you need to top it off. The only complication was that several of the hoses for my gage set were in poor shape and were thrown away several years ago. I always figured I’d get new ones when I needed them, and now was the time. On a hunch, I stopped by Joana and, as expected, Wade had a gage set also, so I was able to borrow a hose and top off the system, which is getting nice and frosty in about forty five minutes now. Other than that, it’s been cleaning sea water filters and a few odds and ends. The head and the generator will need some work when we get to Grenada, but that’s mañana.

New Rudder Tale

We talked about our selection process to have a new rudder built here. This post will continue with what happened after shipping off the rudder stock. Competetion Composites Inc (CCI) computer generated a pattern for the rudder based on the German Frers design drawings, machine cut the foam core, and attached it to our rudder stock.

Based on their experience, the rudder was rebuilt with unidirectional fiberglass reinforcement laid in the channel alongside the stainless post, extending down towards the tip of the rudder. This should help eliminate the "hard point" where the post ends and the rudder suddenly becomes more flexible, the area where the original fiberglass skin cracked.

The foam core was overlaid with fiberglass cloth and then sealed into plastic for vacuum infusion of the resin - basically a tube to a vacuum pump was put on one side, and a tube to the resin on the other, allowing very even clamping pressure all over the cloth, and a light, even coating of resin for the cloth.

Construction after the resin cures consists of smoothly fairing the rudder,

sanding and priming, and then CCI crated and shipped the rudder back to us. We waited until the hull was painted and the shaft cutless bearing was installed before opening the crate to inspect.

 

All looked well, so we removed the new lower bearing which was machined for us, and installed it into the rudder tube. The boatyard used their transporter to lift the boat, and the rudder was lifted into place. In 2008 we did this with a come-along, but the boatyard did it with six workers. I installed the ring and pin that the rudder hangs from, and then they chocked the boat back up, ready for more bottom paint!

Rough costs (US$): $5400 for the new rudder and bearing, $1500 in shipping, and $1200 for dropping the rudder, crates for the shaft outbound and rudder inbound, outbound and inbound brokerage in Grenada, Grenada ground transport.

Comparing the new rudder to the old: There is much more hydrodynamic fairing in the new foil, a flare to match the hull curve is apparent whereas this flare must have disappeared over the series of repairs I can only imagine the old rudder must have undergone. Alignment with the shaft appears better by several degress based on needing to reprogram the autopilot after carefully ensuring the rudder was aligned with the keel. We haven't noticed any difference in handling yet, but are looking forward to seeing how she responds once we get sailing.

 

Progress

It has been quite a while since we've blogged, so here's the scoop: After sanding out the rain damage and getting a finish coat of paint on the hull, this is what Troubadour looked like:

Next we got busy painting the Flag Blue boot stripe and priming the areas below the waterline where the bottom paint had worn through. We thought some more primer in spots wouldn't hurt, especially after grinding the rusty bottom of the keel, which was neglected until our "night in the slings" 12 hours before splash the last time we were in the yard in 2008. Hopefully by waiting the recommended amount of  time between coats (18 hours for the bottom paint!) the primer and paint will do a little better this time. We'll see!

While we were adding bottom paint, the solar panels arrived and were mounted on top of the new arch.

And after waiting for quite a while for a quiet day to apply the graphics, we finally got a quiet morning to both apply the cool new guitar graphic and reapply the name so Troubadour was no longer anonymous. The struggle to disconnect and pull the shaft (in order to replace the cutless bearing) was ultimately successful (yea!), so after the new bearing went in and the shaft was reinserted, the new rudder could be uncrated, hung and painted. Linda finished sewing the new enclosure top about the same time, and it was laced onto the frame.

We are in the process of reconnecting everything that was disconnected, restowing things that haven't been stowed for months, trying to find new homes for things that have been displaced during remodeling, and yes, disposing of things for which we haven't found a home, or have yet to find useful.

After completing the new settee cushions and enclosure top, we (Linda) still have front (dodger) and side enclosure panels to sew, two sets: one of Regalite vinyl windows and another of Phifertex mesh screens. We (Chris) keep tackling the project list while Linda sews. We (both) feel a big sense of relief having come this far and expect to be back in the water by the end of the month, if not sooner. Looking forward to floating again soon!

Sanding and Sewing

Since this is our first blog post of the year, a “Happy New Year” shout out to everyone, even if it is a few weeks late! We completed priming the hull as described in the last post. As the even color of the primer slowly became the norm, it was easier to see that the surface of the filler over the patches where I removed thru-hulls just wasn’t even, “fair” in nautical terms. Despite sanding and filling numerous times, the different colors tended to mask the unevenness. After coming this far, I wasn’t willing to settle so I went back at them, sanding through the meticulously applied primer to sand down the high spots, and adding a bit more filler in the low places, sighting down the hull in several different directions each time, before re-applying several coats of primer to bring everything back to even.

We managed to get the first finish (shiny) coat on just before the New Year, and marveled how the books are right: those reflections really make it easy to see every imperfection in sanding, fairing, or painting! We realize that as a first time DIY job it’s not going to be perfect, so we concentrated on refining our technique with each coat and are improving our painting technique, as well as learning to ignore the small spots we missed filling, or the small humps where filler wasn’t sanded down perfectly. The goal is to get to a “10 footer”, a job that looks shiny and great from 10 feet away.
After sanding out our worst mistakes and giving the boat an overall sanding, we were ready to apply our “final” coat this weekend. Saturday was rainy, a non-starter. Sunday was dry and cooler than usual, perfect for the paint to flow out smoothly. We got the port side painted in the morning shade, and returned in the afternoon to complete the job. About an hour into our “final” pass down the starboard side, a 10 minute rainshower passed over and decimated our work. It looks like we have another few days of sanding out the texture, washing, wiping, and painting in our future. Oh well, another chance to perfect our technique!




Water beading up is fine after you're done painting, not so nice while you're painting!

While we were sanding and painting, the guys at TechNick finished welding the new davit/arch, and installed it along with the new cockpit enclosure frame. I’ve managed to fish most of the wires through the arch legs and have reinstalled the stern light, radar, TV, VHF, and GPS antennas, and still need to complete the WiFi and Sirius antenna installs. We still have some minor additions/changes, so the welders will be back to run the “punch list”.

While wiring the new arch, I took the time to route some of the cables at the helm through the pedestal leg, and install a proper watertight seal for the radar cable, removing the putty and filling the old hole with epoxy. Typical boatyard job creep!

With the new enclosure in place, Linda was able to finalize measurements and order Sunbrella, screen, and window material for the new enclosure, including the snap hardware and zippers we’ll use to assemble everything. The fabric, batting and pillows for the new settee arrived so she has been busy covering the settee cushion foams she had cut by Nabela, nearby here in the industrial park. I’m sure each of these projects will get their own posts in the future. For now, back to sanding!

It's here!

Chris and I arrived back in Grenada this week to an early Christmas present. Yes, you guessed it, our rudder was waiting for us at Spice Island Marine . Although it is still in the shipping crate, we are anxious to finish our painting and other projects, install the rudder and get in the water. We have a little more room to work now that one of the boats near us has splashed and the yard can spare more scaffolds for us. Our projects that were put on hold while we spent six weeks enjoying family and friends in the US, include sanding, priming and painting the  hull, repainting the water line, replacing our "Troubadour" logo with a new logo (more on that later), installing the rudder, and bottom painting (by the yard). We are also working with Technick to replace our dinghy davits/arch to support solar panels in the future. In addition, I am hoping to find some foam for our new settee area (recall our remodeling project this summer) and make cushions and covers. Suggestions on settee foam and fabric are welcome.

Our goal is to splash by Christmas. In the meantime, we are staying in our apartment at Dougie's Hi Haven which we recommend highly to anyone needing a place to stay for longer than a couple of weeks. And, we plan to make it to a few jam sessions at Whisper Cove Marina.

Fairwinds

Yard Work

Boat yard life has many ups and downs ...



"Yard work" takes on a whole new meaning in the cruising lifestyle.

- up the ladder, down the ladder, up the scaffold down the scaffold, lift up the plank, move down the plank, haul up the tools, and haul down the tools. Do I need to go on? I haven't begun to count how many times a day this series repeats itself, beginning with down the hill from the apartment and then back up the hill at the end of the day. (Our neighbor, a local woman, says she watches the folks who make that daily trek get more and more fit as time goes on. I doubt she is referring to us because we usually stop for a beer on the way home.)

October in Grenada isn't all that different from the fall season in the states. People are doing yard work, chopping their lawns with machetes or weed whackers. It's rare to see an actual lawn mower. But for cruisers like us, yard work takes on a whole different meaning. Sanding, priming and painting have taken the place of raking leaves and planting bulbs, albeit equally gratifying tasks in the end. And that is what we keep in mind during the long hot days in the sun here at 12 degrees north – a shiny new hull.

As Chris predicted in our last blog post (Rudder Rebuild) we won’t get everything accomplished prior to our visit to the states (Oct. 15 – Dec. 1). It’s not so much that the deck is too hot to walk on, and it’s not that we are lollygagging and staring at our “to do” list. It’s that painting our hull is a “first time” project for us and we are learning the “figurative” ups and downs as we go. 

We only had enough scaffold to work on one side of the boat at a time.

After arranging for scaffolding from the boat yard, the sanding down of the old paint began. This project moved along OK, except when we were one plank short to work continuously on one side and would have to stop and move a very heavy 2’ by 12’ x 12’ plank to the next set of scaffolds. Actually we were two planks short, but were told they couldn’t spare any more for us because the yard was getting busy with other jobs.  So we started with scaffolding on a portion of one side of the boat, which did get augmented to a full side with weekend scouting trips (when the yard workers were off) for more planks and scaffolds to haul over to our boat as other boats went back in the water. We’d like to keep a rhythm of going around the whole boat for each step in the process, but haven’t been able to keep up as well as if we had full scaffolding. The only boat with full scaffolding is the boat being painted by the yard workers, a job which starts around $10,000. Such is life.


A great upper body workout!

Once Chris finished filling the holes from the removed thru-hull fittings, and we received our paint and special de-waxing scrub, the washing, de-waxing, and sanding began, followed by filling gouges and scratches, more faring, more sanding. Days go by. 

Troubadour's "patch tests" to determine  if we needed to do

 more sanding before priming.

Since we knew many areas on the boat had touch-up paint, we had to test to see if the paint was compatible with the two part paint we were putting on -otherwise it would just peel and bubble under the new paint, and what a waste of time this project would have been. Don Casey, in his book This Old Boat, prescribed testing paint compatibility by leaving a solvent soaked rag on the old painted area for ten minutes. If the paint bubbled it would show that the old and new paints are incompatible, and the old paint would have to be totally removed instead of just sanded smooth.  None of the tests showed any problems, which started to worry Chris. Since Interlux, the manufacturer of the paint said that their Brightside paint was incompatible with the new Perfection paint; we did a test on an area known to be painted with Brightside. No bubbling. So we left the rag on longer – no bubbling. Finally, after an overnight test we saw some bubbling, so we re-tested other areas especially the boot stripe, leaving the rag taped to the hull overnight. In some places the paint bubbled and in others it didn’t, but we agreed that the boot stripe need to be sanded off completely to the water line. Better to be safe, than sorry.  

Results of a paint incompatibility test meant more sanding in our future.

We walk by this sign everyday on our way home ... is it trying to tell us something?

To build our confidence and not feel like we were slogging along going zero miles per hour, we washed and primed the transom (the curve of which is above the waterline/offending bootstripe). Of course we really wanted to remove the old aluminum vent covers and replace them with new ones because one is dented. It would not only look nicer, but would make the painting much easier (sort of like removing the outlet covers before painting a room). As it turns out, removing them involves a contortionist with six foot long arms to remove the screws from behind the steering quadrant after sliding in from inside the lazarette. It seems they were put on before the deck was joined to the hull during manufacturing. There is something to be said for sturdy old boats, and then there are some other things one could say – but I digress. We opted to paint them in place.

The stern has one coat of primer and the stern vent covers
didn't get replaced as we had hoped.
(Am I crooked or is the boat crooked on the jack stands?)

Speaking of vent covers, Chris was able to remove three of the four water tank vent thru-hulls and we ordered new ones (after noticing the same style in much newer boats near us in the yard). The fourth one is behind the bead board on the starboard side where the nav station and the electrical panel are located. We agreed that the external aesthetics aren’t that important if it means pulling apart the interior of the boat to replace a part. As it is, Troubadour’s interior looks like a Home Depot with tools, sandpaper, solvents and paints located in every conceivable open space.

Our days begin when Chris treks to the boat yard, leaving our apartment at Dougie's Hi Haven about two hours earlier than I do in the mornings to get started. I make lunch and tidy up the apartment, do laundry, sometimes even prepare dinner to heat in the microwave later. I meet him at the boat yard late morning. Around 4 pm we clean up and put away our "toys". If it's been an especially hot or challenging day we stop for a beer and visit with our favorite bar tender Rosa, at De Island Roots Dug out Bar for 3-4-10 Caribs (all day happy hour, 3 beers for EC$10, US$3.70). They have a bottle cap contest to win up to $500, but so far we have won a total of 3 free beers. Whoo!


It's on the way home!



Highs and lows continue. After sanding off the entire boot stripe, and just as we were preparing to prime the starboard side the forecast called for a low pressure system to hang over the area for a few days. Low pressure systems usually bring a lot of rain. Painting and raining don’t mix. So we leave Troubadour in the yard, and will prime and put her shiny new coat on when we get back!


Troubadour's sanded down boot stripe reveals her previous stripes.

We discovered Troubadour once had a cove strip (a strip just under the toe rail);
 sanding also revealed that before she was named Star Chaser,
she was called The Sea Otter's.

A high point to a day of yard work.

Fairwinds