| 20040827 |
After spending many years dreaming about owning my own sailboat, I see one for sale locally that matches my criteria (actually it was pointed out to me by a fellow co-worker who we'll refer to as Crazy Kimmie). It must be easily trailered (needing a retractable keel), fit me, my wife and 3 kids and most importantly be affordable. This one matched the bill so we all hopped in the van and went to take a look. I instantly fell in love and much to my surprise, my wife was also keen on the idea. I called back later that evening to say we were taking it!
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| 20040828 |
Spent a few hours surfing the web looking for more info on the sailboat we would soon be bringing home. The boat hasn't been sailed or maintained for about 4 years and has some water damage in the cabin. My wife has happily volunteered to sew new curtains and cushions and I knew I would be needing to remove and redo all the wood interior.
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| 20040829 |
Went to do some online banking and move some money around to prepare for sailboat purchase. Discovered large amount of money missing but couldn't do anything till Monday morning when the banks opened. This does not look good, especially since the previous owners of the boat would be waiting Monday for me to drop by with a cheque.
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| 20040830 |
Spent entire morning at bank to discover we have been a victim of bank fraud. Fortunately the bank took care of the problem and our money was returned so I was able to finish with our sailboat purchase plans. Due to all the problems with the bank I was unable to secure a truck to tow the boat home but at least I could drop off the cheque. Upon doing so, the previous owners happily volunteered to drop the boat off and I took them up on their generous offer. Woohoo!! we are now the proud owners of a Sirius 21.
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| 20040831 |
Removed all cushions, curtains and wood coverings from cabin. Some of the wood coverings were quite heavy from soaking up large amounts of water. We will keep these around as patterns for cutting new material and wood.
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| 20040901 |
Grabbed every type of cleaner I could find in the house and hauled it out to the boat. Time to do a little cleaning. Hmm, make that a lot of cleaning! After scrubbing down all the holds and everything alse I could get too, things are looking very white and bright.
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| 20040902 |
Disassembled the porta-potty and started clean up in that area... yuck. While getting up I pressed against a wooded wall causing it to break in half. This makes me realize I must remove and replace ALL wood. This is not a problem since I feel much better having all the interior new, clean and strong.
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| 20040903 |
The boat did not come with a name so we had to decide on one. My littlest daughter wanted to call it "Chicken", which is not to strange since she finds it funny to call everything "Chicken". My son wanted to call it "The Blue" something. We're thinking "Great, the Blue Chicken". So playing with that as a starting point, we think of the french dish "Chicken Cordon Bleu" and decide that our new sailboat would be named the "Cordon Bleu"… always knowing that it would be our way of refering to the "Blue Chicken". I went to work on a logo but unfortunately the wife didn't like any of my ideas so, back to the drawing board. It is suppose to rain all weekend so it looks like I won't be doing any boatwork.
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| 20040906 |
The rain let up for a bit so we decided to visit the local marina. I had noticed a boat similar in length and size to ours and I thought it would give us a good idea what ours would look like in the water. By the looks of it, our Sirius has made much better use of space and seems much bigger than the OBoy 22 that we looked at. While on the dock, the wife accidentally dropped her cell phone in the lake. With a depth of about 15' there's no getting it back. Even if it were possible I'm quite sure it would be damaged beyond repair from being submerged for so long. Regardless, we finished off the day by going to marina number two to check out the larger sailing yachts. The kids enjoyed it alot.
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| 20040907 |
After seeing a number of the larger sailboats with what seemed to be smoked plexi-glass cabin doors, I went down to the autoglass shop to see if this is something I could do for our boat. Turns out they stock the dark stuff I'm looking for but it is not thick enough to use alone. It would work well to redo the door panels and use the plexi-glass as a tinted window. I think it might look cool to create a round portal type window.
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| 20040908 |
Rain has finally let up so I took the tarp off the boat and went in to see if any water had leaked in. There was only a small amount in the holds and was easily wiped up with a rag. Also decided to take a photo of the interior to document the cleanup/fixup process. I only wish I has taken photos from day one so we could compare what we started with what we will have.
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| 20040909 |
I decided to put a new tarp on the boat to prepare it for fall weather. When I went looking for the new tarp I discovered my wife had taken it and used it for a base in the kids sandbox. The older tarp full of holes which would have been much better to use as the base was still sitting under the back patio deck. Grrr… Down to the hardware store I go to buy a new tarp. Unfortunately I decided that the rope to tie the tarp down would cut faster using a lighter and also seal the ends nicely. I did not take into account that the rope would liquify and spatter onto my hands giving me large burn welts on my fingers. As I stand at the kitchen sink soaking them in cold water to relieve the pain, I stare out the window and dream about how great it will be when we can finally go sailing.
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| 20040911 |
Got a call this morning from the previous owners of the boat. They were going through their closet and found another sail. They said I could drop by any time and pick it up so I hurried over right away to see what it was. Turns out is was a very colorful spinnaker, awesome!! I also decided to take the mast off the boat and store it in the backyard. Much to my surprise, my wife came out with a bucket and scrub brush ready to do some more cleaning. By the end of the day she had half the boat a bright white. Guess it takes a woman's touch to do it right.
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| 20040912 |
Today we were back at it with buckets in hand, scrubbing down the rest of the boat. It is quite amazing how it has come from a dull yellowish white with black specks to a solid bright white. We also decided to remove the two blue stripes on each side. Wow, the boat looks naked without the stripes. It's hard to believe how much character some colored stripes add to the overall appearance. I guess the next big decision will be whether we have a new logo and stripes printed for us as decals that we can stick on or if we should use paint and paint them on.
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| 20040914 |
Got the cordless drill out this evening and decided to remove the rest of the wood from the cabin. All that was left was hardwood trim which I think will look really nice sanded down and coated with a high gloss varathane. I will have to remove the two extremely weathered pieces above deck tomorrow. Oops, just recounted… make that 6 pieces.
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| 20040916 |
Picked up some Red Mahogany stain and Marine Varnish today. I took two rail pieces from above the cabin and started by sanding them down. They were very weathered and grey in color, as well as having patches of black and green from various things growing on them. The sanding fixed this problem and after applying sealants and stain, it looked very impressive. I must now wait 24 hours before applying the gloss varnish. This is so exciting seeing something that looked so bad to start with, turn out looking so good!
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| 20040917 |
Added a semi gloss sealer to the two pieces of wood I stained yesterday. After letting dry for about 6 hours (which is what it said on the can) I tried adding the final coat of high gloss marine varnish. Oh no, the wood starting turning a cloudy white. Not good!! I quickly wiped it off and decided that maybe the semi gloss coating was not fully dried. I added a second coat of semi gloss and will let it dry for 24 hours before trying again with the high gloss. Hmm, better make it 48 hours just to be safe.
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| 20040918 |
Spent the day sanding, staining and scrubbing. Actually the cleaning crew (rest of my family) were in the boat cleaning all the mess I made from removing the rest of the wood trim. The kids really enjoyed joining in on the cleaning process. I also noticed lots of foam pieces stuffed in cracks between walls while cleaning. This seemed somewhat messy to me so I picked up some spray-in foam filler, removed all the foam pieces and replaced with the spray foam. This filled and sealed the cracks much better and also looked much more professional.
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| 20040919 |
My wife is quite good at sewing and has one of those embroidery sewing machines. After we finally decided on a logo for our boat, she decided to do something special and make sailing shirts with the logo embroidered on them for all of us. She did the kids shirts first and I must say, they look very good. Each of the children was allowed to choose their favorite color for the star so each shirt is also unique. On another note, after staining and varnishing more trim all afternoon, my head hurts and I don't feel so good. Might have to set up a fan to bring in more fresh air and get rid of the fumes.
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| 20040920 |
After feeling sick all day and having headaches as a side effect from staining and varnishing, I decided to spend the $40 on a proper respirator for working with lacquers and solvents. What a difference it made! I was able to work on many pieces this evening and not have harmful fumes affect me. If only I had picked up the proper equipment to start with (instead of trying to save a buck) I could have saved myself a day of suffering.
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| 20040922 |
Wife was babysitting this evening so I went out to the garage to do some more sanding. After sanding only one piece, she's telling me to shut it down. My kids have no problem sleeping through the noise of the sander but the one she was babysitting was awake and crying right away. Grrrr!!! Guess I'll put the paint mask on and do a second coat of semi-gloss on all the wood trim I have so far. I have 3 pieces of trim that still need to be sanded, stained and clear coated then I can start marine varnishing all of them at once.
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| 20040923 |
Decided to sand down the last piece of wood in the boat and stain it. This piece must be worked on inside the boat since it cannot be removed. Not sure what the official name of it is but it's the piece that sits right under the mast and seems to keep the cabin roof from collapsing in from its weight. Sure glad I have that paint respirator since the fumes from the sealer and stain would be quite unbearable in such confined quarters. Sure wish we would have a few nice sunny days in a row so I could remove the tarp and let in some fresh air.
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| 20040925 |
Finally a warm sunny day!! Wife took the kids to the city to look at material for cabin cushions so I had the whole day to work on the boat. First I added a coat of semi-gloss to the piece of wood in the boat. Then I finished sanding down the last of the wood trim. One of the pieces required some holes to be filled so I jumped in the car and headed to the hardware store for some wood filler. I figured it would also be a good time to pick up brand new brass screws, which would hold all the trim back in place when finished. What should have been a 15 minute trip turned into an unpleasant 2 hour quest. I spent my time running from store to store since it seems no one likes to stock more than one package of any one size of screws. Stores that had a few packs then had no washers, and the ones that had washers had no screws. When I asked one of the store employees if they would be getting any more in, they replied "beats me, I don't do the ordering" and quickly walked away. Regardless, I was able to aquire all the screws and washers I needed.
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| 20040926 |
All pieces of wood trim are now sanded and stained. Four pieces need the semi-gloss sealer and then all pieces will be ready for the final high gloss marine varnish. Used epoxy to fix some hairline cracks and did a lot of sanding after drying. Not really sure what I'm doing and seem to be making a bit of a mess in that area. Think I'll have to do a little research before continuing.
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| 20040929 |
Had a chance this evening to finish semi-glossing the rest of the wood trim. All pieces are now ready for the high gloss marine varnish to make them all shiney and new looking.
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| 20041002 |
Did some varnishing today but the weather is not cooperating. It's getting cold and snow is forecast over the next few days. Might have to pack things up until warmer weather visits again.
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| 20041009 |
Finally a nice day to work on the boat! All the trim is finished and I have decided to paint the textured walls of the cabin. This will not only give a brand new appearance, it will cover up the yellow discoloration made from what looks to be contact cement (used to fasten velcro to the tops and bottoms of the windows). While preparing the walls for paint, I discovered some extra wood flooring in the head. I had not noticed it before because it had been painted to match the fiberglass interior. I pried the wood away from the floor to find it all wet and rotten. The rotten wood was removed and the head was scrubbed clean. Hmm, funny how that mysterious odour that was plaguing the cabin is no longer present. Anyway… boat is now masked and ready for painting.
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| 20041017 |
After a week of hoping it would warm up again, I must hang my head and admit winter is finally here. Today I removed all the tape I had put down in preparation for painting the cabin interior. If I had waited any longer before removing the tape, I would be forced to use a knife to scrape it off. It's just to cold to apply any type of paint so instead I picked up some wood and built somewhat of a tent frame for the canvas tarp to lay over. This will prevent snow from building up anywhere and protect it over the winter months. All I can do now is wait... sigh ... wait many cold months.
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