I’ve been so busy working on the boat the last few weeks that I haven’t had time to add the articles I wanted to. Since I last wrote, I have washed, compounded, polished and waxed the hull over the long 3 day weekend spending over 30 hours on it.
Compound, Polish and Waxing the Hull
It was very expensive buying the buffer tool and the its accessories but I am pretty happy with the results. The hull has never looked better and after removing the old peeling boat stripes, I am ready to give the boat a new look.
I am also re-naming the boat. I know its bad luck but I have always had a problem spelling out “El Otro Lado” to marinas, and nobody ever remembered it. I am still un-decided on the new name but have narrowed down the decision to 3 finalists. I’ll unveil my decision next week.
One of the other nagging projects that has given me a lot of pain has been removing the hand rails from the deck of the boat. Water has been leaking in through the screw holds into the boat, so I have been trying to remove all the 32 hidden screws, epoxy over the holes and re-bed with proper Butyl tape.
Ryobi vs Princess Auto Screw Extractor
The bronze bolts have been a real challenge removing however. 0I had stripped a hand full of the screws and spent weeks trying to drill them out. I finally bought a better screw extractor and threw out the lousy screw extractor I had purchased from Princess Auto. Lesson Learned.
The increasing heat in the boat as the weather warmed up has also brought to my attention the smell leaking through the aging holding tank hoses. Replacing these hoses has been a foul job. The previous own had somehow forced the 1.5″ waste discharge hose over the thru hull fitting that was too large for it, so after cutting it off, I can not for the life of me put the fresh new hose back on. I am hoping to get a proper size tail pipe onto the sea-cock without ruining the seal to the hull. If I fail that, I will end up having a new project of bedding yet another new thru hull.
The boat is being launched June 1st, so I have less than a week to prep the engine, finish the head plumbing, thru hull fittings, electronics testing and safety equipment check. To add to this, I am moving this weekend so I have a lot on my plate right now.
More to come, as soon as I catch my breath.
