Bottom Paint

It's that time again! 

For several months our Diver had been giving us hints that Circe's bottom paint was starting to look a little shabby and that a fresh bottom job might be a good idea! Well, it had been over 4 years so we thought we probably should take his advice and do something. The last bottom paint job was done back in the summer of 2010 by the guys at the Grand Marina Boatyard in Alameda,  when we first bought Circe. As there aren't many DIY yards in the Bay Area, and because we really didn't relish the mess and stress of a DIY job, we decided to go back to Grand Marina and let the Pro's take care of things again.

This photo shows the bottom in 2010, just before we went back in the water. At that time we had taken the Yard's recommendation that we use Interlux Micron 66 and now we were interested to see how well it had held up.

Here is a shot of Circe coming ashore again, for the first time since June 2010. 

The wind generator caused a bit of drama during the haul out as it came really close to the cross frame of the Travelift. 

The next few shots show the state of the hull after power washing. Plenty of slime came off but there was no hard growth. There were a few spots where the paint was gone but, overall, it doesn't look too bad at all.....really good actually, after 4 years.












The worst area was directly above the through-hull connected to the galley sink drain. Evidently the frequent discharge of warm water had done a number on the bottom paint.

Checking the hull after the initial sanding. The sharp eyed reader will notice the prop and prop shaft are out of the boat. We took the opportunity of the boat being out of the water to fit a PSS shaft seal conversion. 

There were a few tiny, dime sized, blisters up at the water line that were dealt with by sanding during the prep phase. 

Here is the first couple of passes with the paint roller and.........












......here's the finished job, ready to go back in the water. 

Here's hoping for another 4 years of life out of the new bottom.

Bay Bridge Dismantle - Staysail Trial

August 4, 2014 - Visit SF Bay Bridge Construction.

Recently, the dismantling of the old Eastern Span of the SF Bay Bridge has begun in earnest and, after watching from a distance, we though it would be interesting to make a run and see things up close from the water. Also, because the weather forecast promised good wind in the PM, we thought it would be a good opportunity to exercise the new #3 staysail on the Solent Stay. 

We had a great run out from Richmond to the bridge, with the #3 and a single reefed main in about 15 kts of wind. The new tack line holds the reefing points of the main sail a bit higher than the old gooseneck hooks did and the #3 was tacked on an 18 inch pendant to clear the dinghy on the cabin top, but Circe still balanced out really nice and we were able to run hands off with no autopilot. Sweet.

Even more impressive was the 6.7 knots SOG.....we have no knot meter. There was a little bit of ebb helping us, maybe a half knot, but it was pretty close to slack water. Considering the weight of all the junk we have on the boat it was still pretty impressive running just above a beam reach with such a conservative sail plan. 

Here we are, off the East side of Treasure Island, approaching the bridges from the North. G pier on the right, H on the left.

The Admiral at the helm. 

We were so busy checking out the demolition and taking pics that we strayed into to the safety zone under the G-H piers and......... 

..........got scolded by the CHP.  Yup, CHP in the middle of SF Bay......go figure!

We had seen all the relevent Local Notices from the Coasties but the Skipper got distracted.....my bad.

Plotter/Radar view as we transited. OK, OK we know the Radar is Head Up and the Plotter is North Up......we were playing around with the sync feature and different presentation views.

Here we have just transited the Bridge(s) via the approved alternate channel. 

By this time the wind was easing and clocking around toward the NW so we headed over toward the head of the Oakland Estuary, trying to get a good  tacking angle for the return trip back under the West Span of the Bridge and along the west side of Treasure Island. 

When we finally tacked over the wind was down to less than 8 kts and we ended up motor sailing. 

Here we are going back under the Bridge on the W. side of Yerba Buena Is. We debated shaking out the reef in the main and swapping the staysail for the genoa but decided that we would be into the tail end of the 'Slot' soon enough and surely then we'd pick up some wind?

This is the back end of the famed 'Slot' on SF Bay on a midsummer afternoon. We should be enjoying 20+ kts.... this day we had about 12.....Duh! It was enough to get us moving but it was a real leisurley ride home to Richmond.




A pretty good day in unusual summer conditions.....even a weird wind day is better than nothing though, right? It was good to try the staysail in moderate wind although it would have been nice to have seen how it handles heavier going. Next time! 

NFM Ports

Two years ago, while we were at the Strictly Sail Pacific Expo, we stopped by the Newfound Metals booth and discovered they were offering a huge discount on their cast stainless ports. Our existing Beckson ports were in very good shape but, as part of our 'no plastic' philosophy, we had planned to replace them with bronze or stainless at some point in the future. So, because the Show Price was so good, we went ahead and bought six of the NFM 14 x 4 ports with bug screens and 'teak' trims. We have had them in storage ever since, and we finally we got around to fitting them.

Beckson Plastic - inside

Beckson Plastic - outside

  

NFM Stainless - inside

NFM Stainless - outside

NFM provides an installation video and there is also an excellent, very detailed, 'how to' post on the Compass Marine blog, so we didn't see any point in us posting another detailed record of our project. We closely followed the Compass Marine process, with some very small deviations, and wherever we did something different we have made a note here and/or posted a photo. We've also recorded below some comments and general observations on the installation and the ports themselves. 

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As received,  the ports were scuffed all around the outer edges of the spigots, which are visible after installation.  The spigot is fabricated separately from the body of the port and then tack welded and epoxy bonded to it. The uniformity and universality of the scuffing suggests it came from some step in the manufacturing process.....possibly assembly tooling? It wasn't a major issue and the marks polished out with 400, 600 and 1000 production paper and some elbow grease, but it took time and was very disappointing to see on items marketed and priced as high end products. 

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Although advertised as teak we thought the trims looked a lot more like white oak, in both colour and grain and also, because of very close grain, the wood didn't take stain very well. We had to use several heavy coats of Minwax stain to get even close to matching the surrounding teak in the boat, and the trims are still a couple of shades lighter than we would like. 

Here are the trims after stain and varnish. Fortunately, there isn't much of the trim visible in the finished installation.

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One small step we added to the installation was using tabs of foam mounting tape to accurately align the wooden trim to the port before trying to position them in the cabin wall aperture. Without it, we struggled to simultaneously align the trim with the port and the port with the aperture while tightening the clamps onto the cushion blocks, all the while holding on to everything, and without scuffing the varnish on the trim! The tape eliminated one of those variables. (Note: This step only works if the port isn't sealed against the inside of the cabin wall - see CM Blog)

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When we first opened the various boxes from NFM we discovered the rental template was badly damaged. Because everything had been in storage for so long, the 90 day 'return for credit' date on the template was long past, but presumably some other customer(s) had used and returned it for credit, and for NFM to re-issue it in such a poor condition was very surprising. If we had unpacked and inspected the shipment on receipt we could probably have had the template replaced within the 90 days. Lesson learned!

Here is a close up of the template damage. It was so badly chewed up in this corner that one of the drill bushings had been pulled out of alignment. In our opinion, whoever returned it in this condition should have forfeited their deposit and the template retired, it really shouldn't have been rented out again.   

We called NFM and requested another template, which we received after a couple of weeks. Here is a shot of the replacement part for which we had to pay another, refundable, rental fee.

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We found the Compass Marine guidelines were self explanatory and very easy to follow, although we couldn't match their estimate of under an hour to apply all the butyl around each spigot. Even after refining our technique on three ports, the best we could do was well over 2 hours........wrong butyl packing gadget? more Wheaties?

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We don't have a photo, but one other deviation we made from the CM guidelines was to apply a little penetrating epoxy to the exposed plywood behind the cabin wall laminate. Just a little extra insurance.

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Having read the CM Blog we decided not to use polysulphide caulk to seal the outer port trim and went instead with more butyl tape. We had some of the gray Bed-It material left over from a previous project and it worked just fine. In retrospect, the whole project could have been done with the Bed-It material but there was a generous supply of black butyl included with the ports so it made sense to use it

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Once again no photo but, while CM recommends drilling the initial 3/8" holes through the template from inside the cabin, we were concerned about gelcoat cracks as the drill broke out so we moved the template to the outside, clamped blocks to the inside to minimise splitting the plywood and drilled from the outside.

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In summary....

Apart from the various points noted above, the total installation went well, although quite a bit slower than estimated. 

The NFM ports look great from outside and, especially good from inside the boat. 

With the trim rings and bug screens fitted, the new ports project approx 1/4" further into the cabin than the Becksons did. This isn't a problem other than the one port above the outboard side of the master berth, where an unwary noggin can run (literally) into trouble!

The Beckson ports had tinted lenses and, with the slatted shades, this meant quite a loss of light transmission into the Head and Pullman. The NFM port lenses are slightly smaller but have clear glass and the light transmission is noticeably better, even with the same shade design.

Because the NFM port lens shape is different to the Beckson, the Peek A Booo (aka CloZures) shades had to be replaced, which was an unplanned $200 additional cost to the project!)

UPDATE  7 - 24 - 14

When we finished the install we sent both templates, the damaged original and the replacement, back to NFM for their review. The replacement had to be returned promptly to be eligible for the $80 deposit refund but the original was totally ineligible for credit due to our tardiness in identifying the problems with it and notifying NFM. Despite its ineligibility for credit we still thought they should take a look at the original template that had clearly been damaged before we received it. Imagine our surprise and delight then when we received a credit note for both templates. A generous gesture from NFM and an example of their excellent customer service.

UPDATE 10 - 16 - 16

We have a couple of years experience now with the NFM ports and the results have been generally good.  From the inside they clean easily and still look great, the high gloss stainless steel contrasted by the varnished trim rings really adds some 'boaty' character to the interior. The bug screens remove and re-install easily for periodic washing and the seals on both the screens and the hinged lenses appear to be in good shape. We had to adjust all the hinge posts after approx 3 months as we were getting slight leakage when pointing a hose at the ports while washing the boat. After the adjustment we had no further problem so it was probably just the seals settling in. After approx 12 months, and again quite recently, the two most frequently opened ports wouldn't stay open so we had to adjust the friction hinges, again probably just normal wear.

On the downside, beyond the spigot scuffing noted in the main post above, there is considerable discoloration developing on the outside of 3 ports where the spigots are bonded to the frames. We had previously speculated that the sealing/bonding of the spigots was done with some sort of epoxy resin but we don't know exactly what was used. Whatever it was, the discoloration suggests that there is some corrosion going on at the spigot joints with the frames. Encapsulated in the sealing resin, the corrosion cannot be cleaned off. Time will tell if this is just cosmetic or something more significant. Another issue is the design of the bug screen seals. Water is routinely trapped along the bottom edges of them and then runs into the boat when the port is opened. No big deal in the head but irritating in the berth. We have to remember to have a cloth handy when opening a wet port. Finally, the angle of the cabin walls is almost exactly the same as the angle of the port drains. This means that, even with very slight heeling, water doesn't fully drain away from the port, adding to the problems of drips when opening. Again, not a huge deal but the drain angles should be steeper.

Bottom line, would we buy them again? Quite probably, but if ABI were still in the portlight business then the decision would be a bit more difficult.      

UPDATE 02 - 05 - 17  

We were surprised last week to discover that the seal/gasket on the bug screen in one of the ports in the head had a big split along the top edge. We rarely remove the screens, maybe a couple of times each year for cleaning, and we are careful not to stretch or damage them.




   

It wasn't clear exactly what caused the failure. The only thing we could think of was that the gasket had somehow stuck to the lens seal while the port was continuously closed for several months due to our unusually wet winter.  When the port was finally opened the gasket was possibly pulled away from the bug screen and split?

We easily obtained a replacement from NFM (good customer service again)  but the failure showed how thin the gasket section is. It's quite a complex molding and seemed rather fragile to us. We Armor All'd the  new seal and the ones on all the other ports. Time will tell if this was an isolated issue or if the gaskets are a weak point.





  

     

Hull Insulation

Since we first moved aboard Circe full time we had always intended installing some hull insulation to generally improve temperature control and help combat condensation but, as is often the case, we had never quite got around to it. So, during a recent spell of cool weather while we  were at a bit of a loose end we decided to make a start. But, what to use?

We had previously researched numerous insulating materials, looking for something that would satisfy two conflicting requirements: flexibility, without being too thick (for ease of installation into difficult areas) while still having a useful R value. We soon discovered there are lots of products that offer good R values in varying gauges but they are mostly rigid or semi-rigid structures that would require a lot of work to get into the boats various nooks and crannies and would reduce the size of lockers and storage areas. Conversely, the thinner gauges of more flexible materials, that are easier to work with, don't typically have very good R values. Making things worse, the more we read about radiated, convected and conducted heat transfer the more confused we became!  

So, finally, we decided to just jump in and try something. We chose to use Reflectix, which is primarily a radiant barrier product, with a rather low (R4) value, but it is very flexible and easy to work with, in either single or multiple thicknesses. We decided to make the main cabin our beta site and based on real world results over the next year we will decide whether or not to use it for the rest of the boat or look for another material.

Reflectix is very inexpensive and is readily available from any home improvement store and is easily installed using contact cement.








We used double and triple thickness wherever there was enough room and a single thickness where there wasn't. Despite its easy of handling it was still a fiddly business cutting the Reflectix into the weird shapes needed to cover the compound curves of the hull and underdeck areas, and to get round the various hose and wire runs. 

Here is the forward locker behind the settee.

This is the aft settee locker in process.

This is looking up into the forward cupboard above the settee on the starboard side showing the under deck area inside. Because of the deck step in this area it took several attempts before we got the right shaped pieces of insulation!

 

Here is the under deck area above the settee with the trim strip and panel removed to show the insulation.






We eventually covered all the accessible deck and hull areas in the main cabin, down to just below the waterline, with the Reflectix. To determine the benefits of the insulation, if any, we will have to wait and see how it performs in the various temperature and humidity conditions we experience over time. We plan to publish a review and update of this post in early 2015, by then we will have info on both summer and winter conditions. If the Reflectix proves beneficial we will complete the rest of the boat, if not we will again look for alternatives. Stay tuned!

Dinghy Debut

Among the many things we inherited with Circe when our adventure began was an almost new Achilles LSR 9 1/2 foot dinghy and an 8hp Nissan outboard with very low hours. After first establishing their condition and functionality they have been largely ignored and neglected for the last three years. While we were up to our ears in re-hab projects, interrupted by occasional day sails, we had no need for either the dinghy or the outboard so they sat......the dinghy in our storage unit and outboard on the stern rail. With most of the big rehab and upgrade projects now completed we are starting to plan some trips a bit further afield and so the need for a tender has become more pressing.  The time finally came to drag them both out of mothballs!

Checking the valves and putting some air in the dinghy.

We also discovered this Colman electric inflator we had forgotten about....neat little gizmo and quite efficient (if there is 110v available). So, we had the dinghy up in less than 10 minutes. We'd forgotten how good it was....it really is new looking. 

We didn't have a towing and lifting bridle so we had to do the lifting from the bow painter....bit of a no no but we'll make a bridle asap. 

Getting ready to drop it over the side.......thanks for the help Todd!

The "Achilles Heel" of the Achilles LSR is its air (soft) keel! It has the advantages of light weight and allowing the dinghy to fold up into a very compact package, while still having a hard floor. Its disadvantages, big ones in our opinion are its vulnerability to grounding damage and the fact that it doesn't plane or track nearly as well as an RIB hull design or a hard dinghy. Another side issue is its poor rowing performance. No inflatable is easy to row but the soft bottom designs are almost impossible. Anyway, bottom line, despite our reservations it is in really great shape so we'll stick with it until it gives us a reason to change or we find an alternative that fits our budget. 

Ready for some horsepower.

We found and downloaded both a User Manual and Parts Catalogue for the NS 8B outboard at Nissan Marine and treated it to a carburettor clean, fuel filter change, water pump impeller replacement, oil change, some grease and two new spark plugs.

Some gas and some crossed fingers, and................ it started on the third pull.

 Off we go!

Winning friends in the 'no wake' neighbourhood ....not!

Ready to rock and roll......literally and metaphorically...plus some new projects; a sling and a hoist on the wind gen pole for the motor and a towing/lifting bridle for the dinghy.