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.
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.
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.
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 !!
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