Dorade Vent Grilles.

On early Freeports, pre-1980, there was flex hose running from the cabin-top dorade vents to deliver air down into the engine room area. In many cases, bilge blowers were also fitted, under the cockpit, for air extraction from the same area. The hose from the dorade to the engine room was hidden behind cabinetry over the berth area. It was a good system which kept the engine compartment and and bilge well ventilated but, around 1980 as Islander looked for ways to cut costs, the blowers, vent hoses and cabinetry were eliminated. The dorade vents were retained but were left open directly into the cabin! 

A teak trim ring was installed where the dorade comes through the head liner to address the cosmetic problem of holes in the cabin roof but there was no way to control airflow through it, other than rotating the dorade away from the apparent wind!

Even with the dorades rotated away from the obvious wind direction there was still a draft! Also, naturally, the wind clocks round when we are at the slip and so periodic adjustment of the dorade was an ongoing chore to avoid those unwanted drafts. While this direct airflow into the cabin was a nice feature in hot weather, it most definitely wasn't good when the temperature dropped and was particularly irritating with the vent over the Admiral's side of the Pullman berth!

What to do? The answer was very simple and inexpensive.....once we found a suitable adjustable vent grille. 

4 inch Sea Dog Butterfly Vent Grille

While mooching around the West Marine on-line store we saw an ideal solution. Made by Sea Dog, these chromed brass vent grilles were perfect. With one of our WM discount slips we got them for less than $3 each! What a deal.

Vent Grill open.

Vent Grille closed.

Who would have thought that  a couple of such small parts would have such an impact on cabin comfort? The grilles aren't completely airtight and with them closed and the dorade facing into the wind there was still a hint of air coming through, but with the dorade rotated away from the wind the grilles stop the drafts completely.

LED Courtesy Lights

During the pre-purchase inspection we had discovered that the courtesy lights were all original and only one was working. We threw in some new bulbs but only used them occasionally after we saw the big current draw they generated. On top of whatever else we had turned on they were a major power hog! We finally got around to doing something about them, deciding to go with LED's. We are slowly converting all the cabin lighting to LED.

Ammeter showing approximately 4 amp draw with all eight courtesy lights on using original incandescent bulbs.

After a lot of surfing over all the usual suspect marine sites we couldn't see any suitable LED replacements that combined the right features with the right price....yes, we are cheap! There are plenty of good lights available but the prices are crazy. So, we started looking further afield for sites that specialised in LED's for all applications, household, marine, auto etc., etc. After a bit of browsing we found some powerful, twin LED license plate lamps at Super Bright LED's that seemed to fit the bill at less than $6 a copy! Compared to the offerings on the marine sites they were a steal. We bought a dozen, planning to use the extras inside the hanging lockers.

Compact and inexpensive, twin LED license plate lamp. 20 lumen (approx 15 Watt equivalent) with just 40 Milliamp draw.

By far the hardest and most time consuming part of the job was removing the face plates from the original units. They had all been screwed 'uphill' in their various locations and there was only about 4 inches between the cabin sole and the bottom face of the cabinetry where they were located so a specially modified cross-head bit in a miniature ratchet and some painful wrist action was needed to undo them! It seems likely the units were mounted before the furniture was installed during manufacture without thought of maintenance....a situation we have seen in numerous other areas of the boat.

Once the old lights were out the new ones went in without a problem except that, after testing the first one, we determined that they were too bright to face directly outward. We flipped that one and installed the rest facing inward and got quite a nice result with the light reflected back from the furniture. The pics below were taken with varying levels of background light, from moderate to pitch black.

But by far the most impressive result of the whole exercise can be seen in the final picture at left. All eight courtesy lights plus the florescent light over the sink.......barely 2 amps........enough said!

Head - Woodwork Varnish

Next up in our head rehab project was the re-finishing of the all the teak. Although the vanity, bench, lockers and all the trim looked fair from a few feet away, up close they were very shabby having been originally oiled from the factory but very infrequently, if ever, thereafter. 

There were a lot of dings, scratches and stains all over the place. The worst areas were the shower bench, the fiddle strips along the front of the vanity counter and the trim strip on the divider between the  stool and the shower bench. 

The hand-hold on the bulkhead and the fiddle above the stool were also really rough. They looked like they had been used by an infant crocodile as a teething aid!   

Sometime in the past the USCG documentation numbers had been stuck to the anchor locker bulkhead using self adhesive vinyl numbers 'sealed' with a couple of coats of  some sort of lacquer. Not the best location and no way were they permanent as required.  In the photo they don't look too bad but up close it was ugly! The numbers had lifted in several spots, the lacquer looked as if was wiped on with a rag and had yellowed with age. They had to go. The USCG compliant alternative we decided on will appear in a future post.

Although we had good results with re-oiling the interior of the vanity in the head, as part of our head-liner repair project, we felt that varnish was the way to go for the exterior of the vanity and the rest of the wood in the head as it would be getting wet on a regular basis. So, we were faced with a lot of cleaning, masking, sanding, filling, varnishing and sealing! Our only previous experience with varnish was with a two part product that we used on the cockpit table project detailed in a previous post. That product, Bristol Finish, gave good results but disappointed us due to what we felt was excessively long curing time. This time we decided to try something different and settled on Cetol Marine Natural Teak base with a top seal coat of Cetol Marine Gloss.

        


We used three, wet on wet, coats of the Marine Natural Teak base followed by a  little flatting with 320 grit Sandblaster pads and a single coat of the Marine Gloss to finish.

But first.....we had to clean all the wood using the WM one-step cleaner/brightener that did such a good job for us inside the vanity. After cleaning we taped the edges of everything so that we wouldn't scuff the gelcoat on the hull liner while we were sanding. The taping was a much bigger challenge than we had anticipated.....tight corners, compound curves and hidden edges all conspired to make it very time consuming.

After sanding with 180 followed by 220 production paper, another lengthy step, we wiped over with acetone and a tack rag and then started to apply the Cetol. We started with the foam 'brushes' we had used previously but changed to 'real' brushes after the first coat. The foam did a fair job on the larger areas   but wasn't as versatile as a good quality 1" brush when it came to the louvres and tricky corners on the trim strips.

When the sun was shining we could open the forward hatch and get good natural light. When the weather changed and we had to rely on artificial light it was really easy to miss spots in the shadows....which we did many times! (Looks like a trip to the Barber is in order, huh!) The repeated brush cleaning was a major PITA and we used a lot more acetone and cleaner but we felt the results were better.

Removing all the locker doors made things a bit easier but then we had a space problem!

Pretty soon the whole salon and galley had pieces and parts in varying stages of completion!

The louvres were a real challenge, trying to get good coverage without a lot of drips and sags. Fortunately, one crew member had the necessary patience and tenacity for the job!

After getting some sags and runs in the first coat on the door, applied while it was still hung, we got smart and took it off. Working on flat surfaces in good light made things much easier.

We totally underestimated the sheer time it would take do this job. Disregarding the time to actually coat and re-coat what is, in reality, just a few square feet of wood, the preparation alone took us around 45 hours spread over a week and a half. After a couple of weeks of back and forth to the boat every day we took a little break before going back to the grind.

Getting back on track, we persevered with the seemingly endless coating process....so we can now relate to the folk that paint the Golden Gate Bridge!

Looking back into the hanging locker area showing some of the weird shadow and light conditions that caused us to have several do-overs! 

Finally!!!!.....we got to pull all the tape off.....but even that was an epic. After sitting in place for almost three  weeks it had taken root and, despite us running round all the edges with an Exacto knife, it still lifted the edge of the varnish in several places as we peeled it back....more do-overs! We should have listened to the advice that we remove the tape while the coating is still green. But it was done. From start to finish was a full month!

We learned a lot on this project and when we get to the galley and companionway areas things should go a little faster and easier....at least we hope so! The next few pics show the results of our efforts. We will never get a job in a furniture restoration shop but things look pretty good and should hold up for the duration.

New Shower

Somewhere in a previous post we spoke of Circe's interior cosmetics suffering from 'benign neglect' so, in keeping with our plans to reverse that situation, we decided to start our refurbishment with the shower & head area. In another post we also described the first part of the process, which was installation of a Tecma electric head with macerator, new holding tank and new plumbing.  This post describes the installation of new shower head and mixer plus new shower curtain and track. 

The original shower head and hose were dirty, clogged and generally ugly. They were first into the trash. 

The mixer was also the 1982 original, a Price-Pfister unit with major corrosion and missing knobs. It went into the trash right behind the shower head and hose!

We checked out all the usual suspects for a replacement shower head and mixer and looked at literally hundreds of different designs. There were lots of really fancy units at some of the home improvement stores but we decided their prices were crazy for what we needed. So, our next resource was the major RV parts suppliers where we found a great, direct replacement for the mixer together with a high efficiency, low consumption shower head at PPL, for less than a third the price of a comparable household or 'marine' unit.

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com

Oxygenics low-flow, high pressure shower head and Utopia bulkhead mount mixer.

The new shower assembly was almost a direct swap for the original but with better much performance and reduced water consumption. We had a bit of a struggle hooking up the water supply lines to the half-inch NPS threads on the mixer unit, which were molded nylon rather than machined metal, but after a bit of 'encouragement' everything went together correctly.

The only big problem we had was with the shower head holder. It was a suction pad deal, which was good because it could be moved around to suit different height people, but it wasn't solid on the hull liner and kept coming loose or falling off! It will be replaced by a screw-on version.

The shower curtain was shot and the curtain rail was rough so.....into the dumpster they went. We found a good replacement shower rail at Recmar. It was cheap and can be bent to almost any shape you want.

http://www.recmar.com/

We went to Bed Bath and Beyond for a new curtain, a squeegee and a toilet roll holder to keep the curtain out of the way. Simple idea and it works well.

New shower head, squeegee and toilet roll holder adapted to keep the shower curtain tidy.

We also fitted a 'soap-up' valve which will help save water and add to the overall economy of the unit.

The new shower works really well and the venturi design really does seem to do more with less water. The jet is quite powerful with low consumption, very economical. We think it also looks pretty sharp too!

An old friend, with the emphasis on Old, remarked how it was reminiscent of the heat ray head on the Martian War Machines in the 1953 War of The Worlds movie.......anyone else remember back that far?

Port-light Shades

When we started staying overnight on Circe we quickly discovered a lack of privacy in the head and berth area due to the absence of any shutters or blinds on the port-lights. On the hook this wouldn't be an issue but in the slip at the marina it is another matter. We are fortunate in that our slip location means we don't get a lot of foot traffic on the dock but people do come and go and, at night when we are bow-in, it is easy for a passer-by to see through the head ports when the lights are on.  Evidently our modesty threshold is somewhat lower than the PO's!

The PO had replaced all 6 of the Beckson 414 self draining ports a couple of years ago so they were in excellent shape. We had originally considered fitting the popular stainless ports from Newfound Metals but we couldn't justify such a big expense to replace essentially new ports! Either way, the absence of blinds had to be addressed.

We did a bit of research through the usual tried and true resources and quickly found a huge selection of marine blind and shade designs from the simple, cheap and cheerful to the complex, with a big price spread! We didn't want to spend a lot on what was a simple issue so we eventually found a solution at Zarcor in Texas.

http://www.zarcor.com/

Zarcor has a nice product line and we were particularly interested in their 'Peek-a Booo' sliding shutters. They are a simple design of two overlapping, slotted acrylic sheets with matching patterns of opaque strips printed on each sheet. The outer sheet attaches to the inside face of the port-light lens using self-adhesive velcro pads and the inner sheet slides on the outer sheet. When the opaque strips align, the shutter is 'open' and light comes through the clear areas. Moved to the 'closed' position, the opaque strips are misaligned and block the clear areas across the whole lens. The assembled shutter fits neatly and unobtrusively to the port lenses. They can be quickly and easily removed and replaced for cleaning and, most importantly, the price is right.

The biggest downside is that the Peek-a-Booo design blocks almost 50% of the surface of the lens, even when the shutter is open. Fortunately, we don't depend on the port-lights as much for light as for ventilation, so the reduction in light isn't a problem for us. The Zarcor promo pictures show the Peek-a-Booo being used on small ports and much larger windows and hatches where, in our opinion, the reduction in light would be much more of a problem.

Here the shutter is open

Here the shutter is closed.

The Peek-a-Booo can be custom made to suit any particular port or hatch shape but, if the port is symmetrical like the Beckson, the shutter can be reversed to offer either L to R open or L to R close.  

Mattress Topper.

In a previous post we described getting rid of the moisture damaged zip-on mattress cover from the Pullman Berth and putting a mesh underlay on the bed base. Rather than get a replacement mattress cover we elected to get a custom made mattress 'topper'.  Here are a few photos of it.

We chose the Tufted Topper based on some research that suggested leaving the foam mattress open to the air rather than enclosing it would help dissipate moisture and discourage 'sweating' that can occur when the foam is fully enclosed.

Tufted Topper on the top, Hypervent mesh underlay on the bottom.

The final outcome of this purchase will fall into the category of a future 'what works and what doesn't' post when we have had some real world experience. Stay tuned!