She's home again

Success! Oh man what a great week. Not only was I able to get the pieces assembled but we have had an exceptionally successful shake down cruise.

I'll start with last Monday. In the middle of a hectic process of opening the season opener at work I took the day to put in all the last pieces. As has been the case through this entire project, I hit a couple snags. The steering was a bear to put in. The cable was stiff and argumentative. I managed to wrestle it into place. But there were three extremely important pieces missing: 1. the long 1/4" machine screws holding the steering into its steel anchor in the dash. 2. The nut to hold on the steering wheel (at this point in the story I had no clue what size it was, the original was long lost). And 3. a small steel wedge that fits between the wheel and the steering shaft, again extremely important. The first two can be purchased, the third is a unique and impossible to find little beast. It took three trips to the store to get long enough screws and a steering nut (1/2" fine thread, and no, Home Depot does not carry them). The little steel wedge I cut from a scrap of steel from work. I cut a tiny piece of what I think is 1/8" steel and shaped it with my grinder.
Once the steering was sorted, I installed the stereo, speakers, kick panels under the dash, and attempted to put in the stern trim with the drape over the bilge and fuel area. Since the vinyl is thicker than the old that last piece didn't fit. It will need to be stripped, trimmed, and re-upholstered. Not the end of the world just annoying since it can't go in until then. I also fixed the bow carpet down with spray adhesive, it turned out better than I expected.
I ended the day there, everything took so much longer than I expected there was no time left for a test run. This was unfortunate because Rachele and I decided that since the next weekend was our anniversary we were going to spend the weekend at Lake Chelan and wanted the boat there with us. While I was confident the boat would be fine I was wary to have the first test run 180 miles away after dragging it over the mountains. Not to mention I still had to put the seats in and the last time I did that we put a hole through the boat.
So once Thursday and opening of the show came an went I got up ridiculously early and took the boat and trailer to Discount Tire for an axle lube and a sign off on the tires. Then it was to Seward Park for a test launch. It was 9am and there was no time for ceremony so I put her in for a total of 15 minutes just to check for leaks. Since it was rushed and only a "please god don't sink" test we won't count that as it shake down.
There we were, ready for a real launch and a room with a dock waiting for us at Lake Chelan, So over the mountains we went. Better, stronger, and hopefully at least as fast.

Before we get to the launch here are some close ups of some of the upgrades I've made:

New tongue jack, grade 8 hardware, chains, and paint job. The jack swivels 90deg when connected to a vehicle so it's out of the way.

New winch and stainless steel bow protection

Keel guard for protection from the trailer and the occasional beach.

Anchors on the four quarters for fender tie downs

Loooooove the new vinyl

New storage compartment under the forward most seat. Handy for the rarely used gack.

Speedometer and power jack in the dash. The jack will be used to plug in a charger to maintain the batteries while in storage. Also, you can see the new kick panel under the dash with a speaker.

Here's a bad picture of the new depth sounder.

The sending units on the stern for the the speedometer and depth sounder.

Stereo for some rockin' tunes.

New 6.5 gallon fuel tanks. What's not featured here is the brass tank selector valve. No more wrestling with a leaky line to change tanks!

And the prop is black again.

Fret not loyal readers, as promised here is a video of her maiden launch (sorry about the poor quality, that's the price of a free blog. If you want a better copy I can get you one):

Next stop the water!

I haven't been very good about updating this recently. I have been working a bunch and hammering away at the Phantom to get her finished in time to go out at least a few times before the weather turns. Since I am now about 5 hours worth of work away I will make a push here to fill you all in.

As you can tell from my last post, the motor is fixed. Two weeks ago I took it up to Master Marine in Mount Vernon and they replaced some old corroded wiring in the starter relay and now she runs like a charm. Why Mount Vernon you ask? Because in 1988 when Dad bought the motor they were the dealer and have been maintaining it ever since. For a while in the 90's and early 00's Dad often joked that the motor was the only part of the boat worth anything. Of course now it's the oldest piece. Hopefully in the next couple years we'll be able to replace it with a new fancy 4 stroke.

 Here she is as I drop her off at the mechanic

After the motor got fixed I concentrated on getting the batteries, charging relay, battery switch, and lighting wired up. On Monday Ira came over and cut, sanded, and finished the wood trim for the upholstery so I could get the wiring done. While Rachele stretched and stapled the upholstery together (huge job unto itself)  and Ira finished the last bit of carpentry I did my best not to blow myself up cramming all the pieces into a bilge area never meant to hold this much. But all three of us were successful in our various tasks so by the end of labor day weekend there was no more construction to be done, all that was left was to assemble

And of course I am rapidly running out of time. This week has been work-a-palooza every day 11am-12am so boat time has been non- existent. Fortunately I was able to squeeze a few hours out this morning. I started on the bow railings. Ira was able to bend them for me so I laid them in to get anchored down. Here is where I hit the first speed bump of the day. The new posts are much shorter than the old ones so I couldn't align them the same way. I had to shift the entire railings in a little to clear the cleats and make room for the mooring ropes. After the rails were in I began on the bow upholstery. Rachele worked her butt of to get it all stapled together and did an amazing job. It's a huge pain but looks great. I pre-drilled the trim and line it all up completely unprepared for how hard this step was going to be. The screws had a heck of a time penetrating the fiberglass and I stripped more than my weight in stainless steal. It took longer than it should have but its all in. I began with the back padding and finished with the seats. With the seats I bolted down new brass hinges and then screwed the hinges into the 3/4" ply. The new upholstery is a little thicker than the old but not too much to cause problems, it just means they are tighter to each other. I had hoped to turn the forward most seat into a hinged storage compartment as well for the anchor and BBQ but the rest of the seating is too close. So I'll have to make some clips to hold it down. I will need the storage.

Simply beautiful

You'll notice some carpet on the floor. That section of floor is a mess of rough fiberglass edges and lag screws so I will need to have carpet there, even though the rest of the boat will not.

After the bow was finished I turned my attention to the main panels in the rear. I started on the starboard side so I could anchor the throttle. Since the new pockets are wider than the old I went without padding to save some of the room eaten up. This actually made them much easier to install. I could also use shorter (read: cheaper) screws. The hard part here came in wedging the piece in. It's larger, over 65", thin, and stark white. So I could force it it might break or get really dirty. Once wedged in I pressed on the aluminum edging to protect the vinyl along the top edge of the pocket. the  metal on starboard was a piece of cake, port however seems longer. It won't go back in and needs to be trimmed. It must have grown in the last two years. After I anchored down the large starboard panel I bolted down the throttle. This turned out to be a piece of cake. The only other time I performed this task was floating on Lake Washington after I had lost the key to the lake. The garage is a much easier place to bolt this puppy down.

Starboard assembled. All it's missing now is the steering wheel and seats.

Port, you can see the aluminum trim sticking up waiting to be trimmed.

Now all that's left is: Prop (kind of important) that's coming in on Monday, 
Seats which will take almost no time, trimming the aluminum on port, reinstalling the horn, steering, and anchoring the fuel tanks. Then she'll be ready to go!

I hope to have video of her rechristening cruise for my next post. Stay tuned !!

Vroom vroom

Two more steps

Since Rachele finished the third coat of blue yesterday I had a few specific goals today:
1. Glass in the side shelves for what will be the pockets
2. Slather a second coat of gel coat on the floor and the above shelf
3. Install the bow nav lights
4. Cut holes in and install dash panel
4. Finish cleaning the aluminum of the windows
5. Install the windows

 Where I started, this is after the third coat of paint. It looks AMAZING.

This is the starboard interior trim piece skinned with white vinyl. (yes it's upside down). This is my first attempt at upholstery, not too bad if I say so myself.


As is often the case, I got a late start since I spent the morning running errands and getting the hardware I need for the above to do list. When I did start I began with the shelves. These turned out to be much harder than I would have expected. Since I have spent so much time with fiberglass this summer I assumed it would be quick and easy. I set up quart pant cans for height and laid the wood on to of that. Since the sides of the boat angles out I had a hell of a time getting it flush. After I laid the glass in on the first one on the port side and moved to starboard, port quickly slipped off its cans and fell apart. Before the glass set I had to pull it all up and toss it out. The second attempt was more successful.

Here's a view of the starboard shelf with white gel coat

*Time Lapse* it's now Saturday evening. I got distracted Thursday...

While the gel coat and glass were setting I prepped the windows, dash, and bow nav lights. Earlier in the week I installed the transducer and sender for the depth finder and speedometer, so I figured the gauges were the next logical step. Before I could place the windshield I had to anchor down the fish finder stand. This wouldn't have been much of an issue but the new floor in the bow is just enough higher to push up the dash and make the windshield a little off center from where it was. I had to jimmy and shift it around a bunch to get all the pieces line up, mark it, remove them, screw down the anchor, then reset the windshield and anchor it.

I am now left with two more steps: 1. Finish the interior vinyl and trim 2. Wire up the lights and gauges. Of course the engine still needs attention but that will come in due course. I have an appointment Thursday.

Bow lights and windshield. She's beautiful

Saphire Blue

As is often the case August has been a donkey show of busy. Weddings, summer youth theatre, end of season paperwork, etc, etc. As a result my mad dash to finish the boat has had a few hurdles. Fret not though, I have been able to hammer out a few days. Last week I slathered on a coat of bilge paint in the rear as well as gel coating the floor and sealing the interior stern cap seam. Of course the imperfections in the floor are highlighted now but that is to be expected

Bilge area coated with heavy duty gas resistant paint.

Floor painted with white gel coat.

Also, I sealed and painted the new dash. I decided a while back not to try and fill all the old dash holes but to put a panel over it and cut new holes for the gauges and steering wheel. It'll be easier and a lot less messy

Soon to have a snazzy new speedometer and steering wheel poking through it.

Then today I sanded (and sanded, and sanded) the blue areas. smoothing out all the patched I have been making as I went along. After sanding I wiped it all down with acetone and taped off the aluminum trim. Once that was finished the long awaited first coat of new blue went on. It's considerably darker, but that's a good thing. To be honest, I have never cared much for how light the old blue was. That may be surprising to some, but after all it is a pastel. And I hate pastels.

First coat! It's patchy but the second coat will take care of that

Interior bow. This section is the hardest with all the tight areas and corners

Splash well. Here you can see the old blue as comparison. Plus a bottle of my own fuel.

Next week the engine is getting fixed so it's a dash to the end. The vinyl and piping is also in so I should be able to get the interior panels finished this week.

As always, more to come.

Paint and Power

No huge updates this time around but still some significant happenings.
First the paint. The bottom paint and white sides and bow are all finished. I put the second coat on today and I have the gummy perma-white spots on my legs to prove it.
Second, I broke the motor. I have no idea what happened but the motors electrical system is fried. At first the tilt worked but when I went to turn it over the battery would spark and the whole thing would go dead. If I left it off the battery over night it would heal itself and I could tilt it again. I did some digging in the wiring harness and figured that since I had removed the long broken oil meter the loose cables must be causing a short. So I disconnected that cable from the engine system, and as if by magic it worked again. I could tilt and it would turn over, all was right with the world. Then yesterday I got a bug up my butt to connect the new fuel tanks and fire her up. And lo and behold it sparked and died again. This time it isn't healing itself so I get the pleasure of taking it in and paying waaaaaaaay too much money for someone to figure out and fix what my dumb ass broke.

And don't worry loyal reader(s) the irony that I am a theatre electrician and I have broken the electrical system is not lost on me.

With the eternal passion of a thousand fiery suns...

Those who know me know a simple truth: I hate painting. And not in the simple "I hate doing laundry but when I'm out of socks I'll suck it up" kind of way. I really really hate painting. It's messy, tedious, and never turns out the way I want it to. With the eternal passion of a thousand fiery suns, that is how much I hate and loath painting. This may be why I married a scenic artist. She loves it so I'll never have to touch a brush.

When this project started Rachele got excited about the prospect of painting the Phantom in bright shiney new colors. And I was more than willing to let her own that step entirely. Then fate stepped in. Much to the benefit of her career and our lives she received a long over due call from her union to go to Portland and work as an artist on the new NBC series "Grimm." How could anyone pass up such an amazing opportunity? The only problem was that it was time to paint the bottom of the boat. We are already a week past when I promised to be finished with the stands. I needed to be done under it and get the whole jobby back on the trailer. With the family painter gone that only left one option: I have to pick up that cursed brush.

So I picked Rachele's brain about what I needed to do to slather on the bottom paint. I got the brush, drop cloths, thinner, acetone, mask, everything.

Fancy new high end brushes
After sanding the whole boat I taped off the edge of the waterline along the sides, stern, and bow prepping the whole jobby. From there I had the paint shaken at the local Home Despot and began slapping it on. I figured out quickly that anti fouling bottom paint is sticky, gooey, and quick to make a mess. I used the old bow seat foam as a cushion and crawled under to get the whole bottom coated.

While the paint dried our friend the Unsinkable Kate Jordan Rivera came over and helped finish the interior wood and get the keel guard installed. We also mixed up the new topside paint and threw some on to test. It's a much deeper blue than the old. I like it.

The bottom paint curing. Tape will come off tomorrow

The new blue.

I finished the second coat of the bottom paint today. Saturday we'll be able to get the boat back on the trailer and finish the inside and fire up the new fuel tanks and batteries.

Soon.......

New toys and new patches

In the last two weeks three major steps have happened. 1) The trailer has been painted and rebuilt. 2) The underside of the boat has been scrubbed, sanded, and patched. And 3) the major order of new toys arrived.

I'll start with the latter. In early June when I was working on the wood with Dad it was dawning on me how much money all of these fixes were going to cost. I spent some time on line searching for discount parts and pieces but even the most complex combination of eBay, Amazon, local stores, and fly-by-night cheapos still cost over $1k for everything. While Rachele and I have both sorted out full time work and are doing better, we're not doing that well. So I decided to reach out to the family for help. Mike purchased the wood, Dad offered the cover, and most importantly my awesomely amazing sister Kelly and her husband David picked up the big pieces. It's safe to say that without them this project would be dead in the water (pun only kind of intended). I went online to West Marine's site, I picked them because they have local stores (which would prove to be a prophetic decision), and built a cart of dream purchases. This included paint, fuel tanks and lines, gauges, trailer hardware, and new bow railings. To my utter disbelief they picked it all up! I may need to rename the boat The Blacker.

Once all the pieces were in I began with the trailer. I stripped the hardware, sanded, then painted it. Once it was painted I put a new tongue jack on. From there I went to install the new keel rollers. This is where I found the first of my mistakes with the order. I ordered 8" rollers which were not right, the old ones were 12" so they needed to be exchanged. I also realized that the gallon of anti-fouling paint we got for the bottom was entirely too much, we only needed a quart. Thankfully West Marine has a pretty liberal return policy so I was able to make an exchange. Yesterday I got new rollers, paint, and with the dramatic difference in the price of a quart several other pieces I needed, mostly electrical.

 The trailer stripped and painted

New jack, rollers, and bunks


After the trailer was ready I spent a couple hours under the boat sanding, and sanding, and sanding the underside. Once the sanding was complete I whipped the whole thing down with acetone and prepped some gel coat. There were many, many scratched and chips in the old coating so it took me quite a while to slather all the areas with new coatings. Between coatings I also sprayed the old striping and logo with a citrus remover Rachele got from Home Depot. This stuff is amazing, it rapidly gooyfied the old vinyl and glue. For the first time in at least 32 years, maybe ever, the hull does not say "Phantom" it's kind of sad. But worry not faithful reader, Rachele has a plan to paint on the name in glorious new high gloss letters.

Magic orange stripper

Say goodbye

...

As of writing, the last coat of gel coat is setting. Once that is complete I will sand it smooth and begin the painting process. We plan on three coats of bottom paint. From there we can get the boat back on the trailer and finish the side and top paint.

Patched and ready for paint


It's getting close!

Starting to look like a real boat

Huge update today. Ira and our friend Josie came out and helped me get the floor in and the boat off the trailer. By the end of the day we had accomplished both tasks as well as getting the engine painted. As usual, it was messy, smelly, itchy, and all around unpleasant. It was nice having friends help.

First, while Josie and I prepped the wood, Ira sanded and cleaned the engine shaft for paint. fortunately for me and the engine he has much more patience for this kind of minutia than I do. He painted it with two coats of Moller engine paint. It was labeled to be the same color as the engine was originally. It, of course, was not. It's much more of a darker almost gun metal blue. So the engine is now two-toned which would normally bug me but it actually looks pretty good.

Hard to see in this light but the difference in color is pretty distinct.


We started the floor by laying in the center piece Dad and I prepped a couple weeks ago. Last week I had laid in the bow piece. With the top still in it was a pain but I was able to successfully seal the edges and get it glassed in fully. Unfortunately in my haste and excitement to lay in some flooring I neglected to make sure it was strait. as a result when I placed the center piece it wasn't square and there was a sizable gap. It's not the end of the world just kind of ugly.

This is the bow floor piece with its glass skin on pre-installation.

So after prepping, trimming, sanding, resining, and dry fitting the pieces we laid them in. First Josie screwed them down with stainless steel screws and sealing the holes with 3M 5200 fast cure. Then I spent just under an hour in my socks fiber-glassing in the whole floor. Much of the side tabs were bubbled up and extremely difficult to get in with the CSM tabs I had brought around from the under side. This seemed like a good idea at the time but turned out to only cause problems. As a result there are a few sections on both sides that didn't laminate properly and will need a sand down before painting. Again, not the end of the world, just a challenge.

NEW FLOOR! You can see the bubbling glass along the edge, I'll have to fix that once it's back on the trailer.

While the glass on the floor hardened we lifted the boat off the trailer. Originally I had intended on building my own stands to save money. Then my Dad came up with a much better solution. He called his buddies at Master Marine in Mt. Vernon, they have worked on the boat every time it needed any engine service. They were kind enough to loan us some proper boat jacks, two for the stern and one for the bow. We rolled the boat out a touch on the trailer then Ira and I lifted the stern while Josie pushed on the bow. This was to get the requisite 2' of stern off the trailer so we could get the jacks in. Once placed we jacked the whole rear up, clearing the trailer skids by about 1/8". Then we lifted the bow and rolled the trailer right out. All in all, this was the easiest step so far.

 Very surreal to see it off the trailer. Almost like it's flying.

As always, as I look at the trailer sitting there in all of its rusty, no working lights glory I'm daunted by the work that needs to be done

Huge day, lots done, ut as I crawled under to take a look at the outer hull I found much more damage than I would have expected. Sanding, filling, coating , and painting the underside will take more time than I expected, as usual.

Thanks to Josie, Ira, and Dad. Without them it wouldn't be a boat. Which I am proud to say it is again

Phantom Phoam

It's official, there is only one more step before the boat will be technically legal by the USCG regulations. That sounds huge, and it feels great but there is still a TON of work to do before the first shake down cruise.

To get to this point Dad and Captain Dave came out again last Monday to finish off the stringers and prep the glass on the deck pieces.

This is a shot of the starboard stringer glassed in and ready to go

After we got the stringers in and the first layer of glass on the middle deck piece we ran out of resin. Looks like I'll need to head down and get another 5 gallon barrel. Not too great for the old pocket book but we're on a roll and being finished next month will feel sooooooooo good.

When the stringers and glass were finished the next step was the floatation foam. The Coast Guard requires all boats under 21' to have enough floatation material to create neutral buoyancy when swamped. The forums have multiple ideas and solutions for this from the two-part polyurethane foam to multi-colored pool noodles. The main characteristics that all the solution share is high buoyancy, light weight, and closed cell. I decided a while ago that since the old foam had so much rigidity in the stern I wanted to stick with the firm polyurethane expanding foam. But this stuff is expensive. Most local retailers sell it for $75-$100 per cubic foot. So how many cubic feet do I need you ask yourself? Well through the magic of math we can figure that out. The formula I found is for salt water. But fret not! There's a coefficient to compensate for the difference in fresh water:


Hull weight: 750lbs
Specific weight of fiberglass in salt water: 1.5
Positive buoyancy: 500
Negative buoyancy: 250
Engine weight: 250lbs
Specific weight of cast iron in salt water: 7
Positive buoyancy: 35.71
Negative buoyancy: 214.29

Total negative buoyancy: 464.29
Fresh Water coefficient: 1.025
Fresh water buoyancy: 475.89

Flotation factor of foam 60lb/cu foot

Total cubic feet of foam needed: 7.93

So at $100/cubic foot that's $800 worth of foam! Fortunately I found an online retailer that sells it for a much more reasonable price.

This is my 16lb kit of two part foam from US Composites out of Florida.
This stuff is ridiculously tricky. You mix equal parts of A and B for 20 seconds then there is only 45 second to pour it before it begins to expand. Then there is the issue of ambient temperature. For optimal expansion 80 degrees is required. Since this has been the worst spring in the history of humanity, our neighborhood hasn't gone above 70 on the best day. And yesterday was not the best day, it was only 65 in the sun. To overcome the heat issue I used my wife Rachele's hair dryer to blow hot air down the length of the boat, it actually worked quite well.

It took ten small batches to get it all in but here it is all foamed up:

You can see the blow dryer in the right side of this picture

Next we need to get the boat off the trailer to patch and paint the underside. I want to get this done before we lay in the deck, it'll be much lighter this way.

So big thanks to Dad and Captain Dave. Another couple weeks and she'll be ready to sail!