Rikki-tikki-tavi... Yard Work

First the power wash...

then we line up in one of the rows of boats being or not being worked on. This was to be our home for nine days, not all of which were blue skies! We had wind and rain, leaving the yard a muddy mess. Keeping the mud out of the boat was a challenge. Jergen, from the boat just in front of us with the reverse stern, lent us his extension ladder (thanks, Jergen!) and Frenchie kept us entertained with his stories as we worked.

Here I am sanding the hull paint to the new “waterline”, which will be about three to four inches above the actual water. Figuring out how to mark it was quite the brain twister. One can’t just mark at a uniform distance from the existing line; one has to allow for the turn of the hull. The other problem was that the boat wasn’t level on the trailer, it was off kilter about three degrees! A tri-square, a level and a straight-edge were used to find the vertical rise from the old line. It worked.

We found a spot on the rudder that was rubbing a little, so instead to ignoring it, we fixed it without removing the rudder, one thing I didn’t want to muscle with!

I also moved the engine exhaust up a few inches so it wasn’t so close to the waterline and removed the weighty brass throughull for the head discharge, thanks to the Airhead.

Our surveyor came and spent nearly all day “sounding” the hulls and climbing over everything, through every bulkhead (even the ones in the amas), and looked behind each door and locker lid, inspecting wires and hoses, engine installation and pumps. It was great meeting Kent– his grandparents were very good friends of Nina’s family when she was growing up. He had also some good stories to tell of his life around boats. We also enjoyed touring his own classic Herreshoff wooden boat, which was there in the same marina.

He wrote a glowing report of our Rikki-tikki-tavi!

Back to the water...