Refit of the 83 Footer Noel.

October 2011

2011-10-22T06:51:00.000-07:00

October has been spent finishing the last of this years exterior and paint work.

We faired the port side of the cabin, blending it to the rounded cabin front. This involved grinding down some high spots, and filling low spots until it followed a smooth arching curve. Each of the window openings remain flat, but a batten and string read true as they go around.

The aft cabin wall went backwards a step, as we tabbed it to the deck, a step we had planned to do when glassing the rear deck under the overhang after the fish box and companionway to the engine room were in place.

We filled low spots along the deck line, laid a batten on deck in the inside corner and faired the corner to follow the same smooth curve. Then we pulled an epoxy fillet.

The next step is fairing the starboard side of the cabin, and on a series of warm days spraying awlgrips sprayable fairing compound around the entire cabin. The toe rails are getting fairer, and we are aiming to spray from the top corner of the cabin wall, to the outside of the toe rail each pass.

The purpose of fairing the cabin sides this fall, is so that we can move our workshop out of the upper deck, install the windows and start building in the salon. It is significantly faster to sand and fair a smooth unbroken surface, than it is to sand and fair an area with window openings already cut.

We installed the swim platform on the transom, tabbing it in with fiberglass. Not the easiest thing to do off a barge while in the water, but we managed. On the next haul out we will through bolt it to the brackets, but for now it is out of the way and water tight.

The showers in the bathrooms have been rainy day topics the last few months, the forward one is in primer and cased out for the new shower doors. We made a plywood ceiling and fiberglassed it, faired it and primed it prior to installation, as it saves sanding overhead!

The master state room shower is getting the same shower door casing, and is awaiting fiberglass around the casing. The fillets are pulled, and next week it will be primed.

We are shooting to have them shiny in Awlgrip next week, and conclude the dust making so we can move on with the cabinets.

Alas, it is fall once again. It takes longer for epoxy to cure, it takes the perfect day to paint... so the last big push to finish all the little things that need to be done before it gets to cold to do them.

Zach

Noel September 2011

2011-09-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

We've been working on the "lines" on the outside of the boat, that define her shape trying to make a big push before winter comes around.

With long wood strips called battens, that flex evenly in smooth fair natural curves we've gone around and sanded down high spots and applied putty to low spots.

We've sanded and shaped the port side of the hull, removing the lumps from her top sides from the boot stripe to the rub rail. We pulled strings, and assessed whether we would remove high spots or build out lows. We ground down the port corner of the transom, and a few high spots
under the rub rail line.

Since the hurricane rolled through, we have bow cleats installed temporarily we removed the outer stem. We had been using the stem to tie the boat up while we worked on her decks. A few years ago when we reframed the boat, we replaced the stem up to the rabbet (Boat terminology for the groove that the forward end of the planks fit in) frm the inside. The outer piece that is largely sacrificial in the event of running into something, was rotten.

We cut out the bad wood, and continued down to the top of her boot stripe. We ran into the old bronze ice sheathing they put on these boats at the waterline. 1/4 inch plate bronze wrapped around a half round of bronze... on top of a piece of 1/2 inch stainless bar.

We laminated three layers of 2 inch thick mahogany on to the pine stem we installed a few years ago, building out a fair curve as viewed in side profile, and tapering it so it narrows at the front.
After the stem was shaped, we epoxied 3/4 marine plywood to each side, rounded the edges and fiberglassed it with 4 layers of 1708 biaxial glass and epoxy.

We pulled out the swim platform and sanded it down, faired it and readied for primer.
On the starboard side we have replaced the roof edge banding, and the toe rail running around the roof. We've been working with battens and sighting down it and sanding to perfection. All the while we've been working the highs and lows out as it makes a 60 foot long curve following the hull of the boat. On the underside, we've rounded it over, with a router and a lot of sanding.
We removed the fiberglass from the front of the cabin, and sides, and have been making strides to blend the flat sides into the round cabin front.

July 2011

2011-08-16T06:34:00.001-07:00

July,

We padded out the walls in the master bath with layered plywood "studs" and 3/4 plywood for the interior walls. We also padded the forward state-room, and head to allow for electrical wire to be pulled.

We cut out the existing openings of the shower stalls, and set in place jambs to allow for new glass shower doors.

We fiberglassed the plywood roof overhang, and applied Adtech Proseal.

We cut the round on the back, matching the transoms radius.

We sanded, faired, and primed the back of the cabin wall, and corners.

The rear deck, had been a storage area for some time during the winter. We cleared everything off and began grinding and fairing the new deck, with the stern deck we built two years ago. We applied another layer of fiberglass.

The port toe rail and rub rail have been undergoing a major re-shaping to follow the line of the sheer. We ground down highs, and epoxied fairing strips of wood in various places. Troweled putty, fiberglassed, and sanded.

We removed the remnants of an old seat on the front of the cabin house, and stripped the old polyester fiberglass off. I put a few new studs in that were questionable and repaired some plywood, and then began to fair the curved front of the house in preparation for fiberglass. We will be removing the existing windows and rebuilding the window openings.

We removed the helm station, and console to gain better access to the windows, and developed a few more electrical wire paths.

Much time has been spent researching air conditioning systems, and window makers. Electrical wire paths have been drawn, and the work goes on...

June 2011

2011-08-16T05:57:00.000-07:00

June:

We completed mounting of the battery boxes and their lids.

We installed the batteries and their cables.

We cleaned and flushed the main fuel line, of the rust scale from the old Fuel tanks.

-The main line is 1 inch stainless steel pipe running from a T at the fuel tanks, to each of the engines with a drain valve at the forward most end.

We rebuilt the port engine in place. Raising it up 6 inches, dropping the oil pan and replacing the crank bearings. We removed the pistons and liners, installed new rod bearings and put things back together. We enlisted the help of Kenny Starn, an eastern NC mechanic legend...

While the engine work was going on, we fiberglassed the swim platform with west systems epoxy and sealed with Adtech Pro-seal.

While this was going on, we pulled in another carpentry crew to fit a bead board ceiling for you land dwellers. to the underside of the deck, for the boat linguists. (Boat terminology!)

We measured for doors, and drew up cabinets and started the production of both.

We built the back wall of the cabin, and the overhang for the roof using the beams we glued up over the winter.

May 2011

2011-06-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

Since the last update, we have finished painting the engine room and state rooms.

We used Sherwin Williams Tile Clad, for the hull planks, frames, and clamp boards. The transom, and bulkheads (other than the work bench) are done in snow white Awlgrip. The tile clad was rolled and brushed, the awlgrip primers were sprayed. The final top coat of awlgrip was a roll and tip job.

The state rooms we went through the long boarding and fairing process, but decided to roll a dover white satin paint.

March 6 2011

2011-03-06T12:29:00.001-08:00

Down below in the state rooms we've been sanding primer and long boarding the wall panels that are bent to the curve of her hull. In some places we are still spot filling low spots, others are 220 grit. Theres a fair bit of surface area to sand, each round of grits takes an 8 hour day with a da sander.

The varying colors of primer, are just that... We did a marathon of grey 545, ultrabuild, and fairing compound. This filled all the pin holes and a lot of the minor imperfections on the smooth parts. It also works as a guide coat of where the highs and lows are as we fair. The pink, is Awlgrip Awlfair which fills low spots. Where you see wood tones are high spots that are epoxy coated.

We found a void in one wall... which meant cutting it out and grinding the excess.

Then a layer of fiberglass, with a layer of milled glass fiber on top to fair it in. On surfaces with a lot of curves, I like to add filler that is not soft, so that it grinds the same rate as the fiberglass patch it is covering. Otherwise you get a ripple around the edges where the sandpaper cuts the soft filler faster than the glass. This patch is about 1 foot square. I sanded it smooth with 80 grit on a DA, and blended the edges smoothly with the rest of the panel. It is slower to sand with 80 grit on rough shaping, but since the rest of the panel is 120 grit it made sense not to have to blend and prime to bring this patch up to finish of the rest from using 36 grit.

After it was sanded I mixed up some 407 west systems filler to fill the low spot in the middle with a batten come Monday. The blue around the edge is the tape under the epoxy that I used to mask off the edge.

We doubled up one bulkhead that had a pucker in it with a layer of 1/2 inch plywood, glued with epoxy, and epoxy coated. The doubling will help pull it back straight for the door opening, and give enough material to allow for some shaping with a power plane. I used the extra 407 fairing filler to cover the lows pulled in the panel by the screws we used to laminate it together, after the epoxy coat gelled. (Screws removed)

We finished re-working the round corner, and brought it and the wall we replaced up to 220 grit. It took a bit of planing and sanding over the course of the week. About a half hour a day of sanding, and a flow coat of epoxy resin each day gradually filled the imperfections and grain. 4 coats of epoxy and 1 skim coat of awlfair later... it is now ready for finish primer. (Cheapo camera... shows a bow in the middle that isn't there with a straight edge.)

No pictures: This week we sanded out the glue runs and drips on the underside of the new deck we installed a few months ago, and put a coat of paint on the underside of the deck. We also put another coat of paint on the hull sides, and bilges in the lazarette and engine room.

Before we rolled the paint, we did a deep clean of vacuuming and dusting, then masked off the bulkheads, which are ready for awlgrip 545 and sanded to 320. Our game plan was to seal any of the dust that had worked its self into the crannies of the boat that might be stirred up by spraying paint. Now we are waiting for the perfect day to spray the transom, rudder table, bulkheads, and battery boxes.

Outside we've been finishing the fairing in of the six fiberglass tubes we molded, and glassed in place to keep water leaks at the port lights from rotting out the hull. We affectionately call them the "portlight tubes."

Cheers,

Zach

February 15 2011

2011-02-15T01:31:00.000-08:00

We are still sanding primer...

We had some adhesion issues in the engine room with the primer on the last go round, so we sanded off everything back to the fiberglass and epoxy coated wood.

We then applied a few rolled coats of Awlgrip 545, sanded and filled pin holes and low spots with Awlfair. Then applied a few more rolled coats of 545 until the filler was covered. We then sanded with 120 grit, and sprayed a coat of Awlgrip Awlquick over the surface and have brought that finish up to 220 grit preparing to top coat with Awlgrip.

Since all this sanding and spraying has been going on in the engine room, I opened up the stateroom end of the boat and we started the rounds of 545 and fairing compound up there.

We removed, and rebuilt one of the curved corners of the master state room head (bathroom) as it had a bow built in to it that didn't become obvious until in primer.

January 16th 2010

2011-01-17T04:21:00.001-08:00

Since the last update we have been priming the lazarette and tank room getting ready to spray. We pulled paper and tape over anything we didn't want painted, and draped plastic around the engine room. The top coat is white Sherwin Williams Tile Clad, a two part epoxy paint that is hard wearing.

We installed the hinges on the battery boxes bored the holes for cables and ran the cables to the starters on the engines.

We plumbed in the fuel lines, and spent some time tracking down the stainless bits to work with the aluminum tanks. (Brass and aluminum don't play nice together!)

Along the way we spent some time getting tools back in order, cleaned up and new shelving to clean up our work area.

Pictures later!

Zach

January 6th 2010

2011-01-06T16:28:00.001-08:00

This week we finished putting the pad under the starboard side fuel tank, and slid the tank in place securing it with boards symmetrical to the port side.

We put in 2 new frames in the engine room on the starboard side and put the finishing touches on a repair to a port side knee.

The battery boxes are in final primer, the top lids and hinges are awaiting installation.

We had a break in the weather, a short warm spell that meant work on the bow toe rail started back up... We've been pulling weighted strings across the toe rail to get the tops in line to each other. We've been squaring the inside faces to the deck with blocks of wood, and using 4.5 inch grinders with 36 grit grinding disks. We've also made little plywood squares to see that the top is square to the sides. We've also wrapped long skinny battens of wood around the outside curve and pushing them to the inside to see if there are highs and lows in the curve.

Lastly, we've power planed the bow anchor platform flat, which accentuates the curve of the deck... seeing as Noel comes to a point quite quickly she doesn't appear to have any camber in her deck at the bow.

We'll be adding a layer or two of 3/4 plywood tapered out to nothing over the first 10-12 feet of the bow, to reduce the visual effect of how quickly it tapers down. There is a bit of an illusion that her bow runs down hill from 5 or 6 feet aft the stem, and we are going to lessen this...

This is called an extended sheer line. The sheer line is the curve where the deck meets the hull as seen in the side profile. Since the bow goes from 15 or so feet wide, to the stem which is about 6 inches wide at the face over the course of 20 feet, even a straight sheer with no curve running up hill 3/4 inch to 1 inch per foot looks like it runs down hill over the last 8 to 10 feet.

An extended sheer bumps this forward 8 to 10 feet of deck, in this case the toe rail as that is the visual element that defines the line on this boat... upwards greater than the 3/4 to 1 inch per foot. Basically raising where the deck, or toe rail hits the stem 3 or 4 inches beyond what a design plan, or side profile 2d drawing would show.

What this does is tricks your eye so it doesn't see the down hill slope. Look at some boats from a side view and it becomes quickly apparent which ones have a flat sheer, and which have an extended sheer. Since Noel has a bit of powder horn, where she quickly gains elevation in her deck around 25 feet aft the stem, (3 inches over 8 feet...) her sheer line already has some lumps and bumps that either need to be smoothed out or accentuated.

Zach

January 1, 2011

2011-01-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

Over the last week we put in place new clamp boards on the starboard side, mirroring the port sides repair. The two new clamps are made of 2x8 ripped to 5 3/4, about twenty feet long each. We reframed the starboard side last fall, which required the clamp boards to stay in place... lest we lose the shape of the hull. Now that the hull is strong, we could pull the clamps without her losing her shape... Not something that would work very well on a normal wood hull, but Noel has a layer of 1/2 inch marine grade plywood sheathing outside her planks holding things together.

We sanded and primed the transom, rudder table, and generator pedestal.

We put in 3 frames in the engine room, and repaired a cracked bent knee on the port side. Noel originally had steam bent white oak knees that joined her hull sides to the deck. Most of these were cut out when she was made a yacht originally... all that remain are those in her engine room.

We pulled the starboard fuel tank out into the walkway, and started padding up the stringers so the tank will drain to the last drop. We've started pulling together the valves and fittings to reconnect the fuel system.

We finished the last of the 8 beams for the roof overhang.

We spent part of Friday cleaning up shop, pulling out the wood scraps from the bilge and generally straightening and sharpening up the worn tools.

Next week the weather is supposed to warm up, so we are moving to the bow to put the finish work on the toe rail, and start our work on the roof overhang.

All for now,

Zach

December 23, 2010

2010-12-23T04:45:00.001-08:00

New clamp boards are in place on the port side. Upper and lower with staggered scarfs about 20 feet long spanning from the lazarette to the engine room. Epoxied and screwed in place.

Bulkhead sanded and primed. The tank pad was made to bring the forward end of the tank up a 3/4 to allow the tank to run dry when empty. (The fittings are on the inboard face of the tank so it can be slid around.) The tanks are set outboard of the shaft alleys so they can be inspected and serviced.

Battery boxes are in place, engine room bulkhead is primed.

New absorbed glass mat 8D batteries. These are heavier than wet cell 8D's. Fun to tote around!

New roof beams for cabin roof overhang. We laminated full 16 foot 1 x4 pine, C and better... cherry picked for no knots and straight grain. We make the form out of 2x8's and skin the top with plywood. Then stick packing tape to the forms top, and align the first beam to the outside edge, and use blocks of the same dimensions to space them. Each layer is screwed in a staggered pattern, with epoxy and cabosil mixed to ketchup consistency. The beam is kept square by pushing or pulling the twist out of each layer until the face is smooth. On narrower pieces, we rip them all without changing the setting on the table saw so they are identical width. The boards are sanded on both faces, and set on the jig with one end butted to the jig. The jig is marked for centerline, and the beams are marked afterward. We are making 16 foot beams, but only need around 14 so we can cut off the excess, and make certain the ends of the finished beams have tight glue lines. The ends of laminations often fight you when pulling them down.

Tight working conditions, but we make it work... We are making 8 total, so that we can clear span the overhang and put a decent sized dinghy on top without springing the beams. The sawn ones in the old roof were doubled 2x material, this will be much stronger as several of the sawn beams had cracked at the grain run out in the ends.

We'll be be working on the starboard side clamp boards, and tank platforms after Christmas. The port fuel tank will be filled with fuel, to give an average weight to the aft end of the boat. Together when full the tanks will weigh just under 10k pounds, which means the aft end of the boat is going to go down in the water quite a bit. Since we are doing all of this floating, we have to do a good bit of weight shifting and forward thinking to make sure things look right. All this fuel talk is so that we can build the aft wall of the cabin, and build it plumb.

Thats all for now,

Zach

December 17 2010... Pictures

2010-12-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

New ribs in the lazarette. New bulkhead framing, as right at the hull it was in sorry shape...
Paint missing, as the planks of the hull were sanded and the ribs epoxied to them. Hopefully I won't be the guy in 20 years reworking the planking on the port side... The ribs are made of 1/4 inch thick pine, 3 1/4 wide. Built up to a thickness of 2 1/4. This picture is missing the middle clamp board. The lower one is in place, and epoxied in.

New Lazarette bulkhead... Epoxy coated, sanded to 80 grit and ready for primer. Starboard side is much the same.

New frames in engine room. Middle floor timbers (what would be floor joists in a house) ran at a funny angle. You can see the bare wood where the original frames ran. We compromised between the two runs of where it is, and where it should be... 68 year old boats.

The new wood on the floors is a pad to flatten out the run where the fuel tank is going. We added 3/4 of an inch to the forward side to make certain that when both tanks are empty you'll be able to run the tanks dry, which means less sediment in the tanks.

The clamp is holding the scarf of the new clamp board running from the engine room to the lazarette... It is easier to through bolt a scarf joint, after you can take out the screws and bore the holes and everything stays put.

We made more curved corners... For the aft wall of the cabin.

The fiberglass work continues on days that seem suitable... added infusion of technology to make things work. Wind chill doesn't effect fiberglass... Infrared thermometer makes it easy to balance out the cold spots between the light from 250 watt heat lamps.

New ladder... So we can run stuff on the table saw and not have to move our surplus stainless yacht rail around.

We also made a pedestal for the new generator, two layers of 3/4 plywood epoxied together. Rounded over, and fiberglassed, microballooned and puttied. Ready for primer.

Next up:
Get the fuel tanks sitting on rubber strips, and wedged in place.
Set the generator, plumb for fuel, water, and exhaust.
Fill the fuel tanks half full.
Hang a plumb bob and define the angle of the aft wall of the cabin. (Half full tanks splits the difference of empty and full.)

Build the back wall of the cabin, and rework the overhang. The old roof was cut back to get the fuel tanks in with a straight shot from the crane.

Thats all for now,

Zach

December 10 2010

2010-12-11T05:28:00.000-08:00

Today we continued replacing frames on the port side of the boat from the tank room to the lazarette. 13 will be replaced, we are alternating every other frame so that Noel doesn't loose her shape. We are using 3 1/4 inch wide x 3/8s inch thick kiln dried pine strips and epoxy, slid up under the shear clamp and notched into her sawn knees at the bottom end.

Since it hit a high of 55 degrees, we fiberglassed the rear deck. We laid two strips 4 feet by 20 down the middle before calling it started getting cold. It is a slow process to work with glass in the winter outdoors. The resin flows like honey, and takes its time wetting out the cloth. You have to heat up the resin and hardener to make them viscous enough to mix, as even sitting in the sun all day 5 gallons of resin doesn't flow very well after a 30 degree night. The deck being 55 degrees, means it turns the resin back into honey. That means it puddles under the glass when you wet the plywood on deck requiring you to squeedgee the excess from under the cloth, as it is now to thick to wet through the cloth. If you leave the puddles, when you come back to fair the surface all the fiberglass gets sanded off, as the puddles are high spots.

Since we had a high of only 55, we were using fast hardener. Things get interesting doing large surfaces with fast hardener. We mixed 3 liter batches, only because my latest batch of mixing buckets liters is easier to see. Grin. West Systems epoxy works with 5 parts resin, 1 part hardener.

Once heated up the resin and hardener are mixed, after which you have a limited time window to spread out the resin on the cloth, before it cools back off and gels... or if you leave it in the mixing pot, the fast hardener has a pot life at 72 degrees of only 9-12 minutes.

With two people it isn't that bad, but both have to be in constant motion of rolling on the epoxy on the deck, the underside of the cloth. Then the cloth is laid down, the top layer of cloth is then rolled with epoxy. The cloth is then unrolled moving forward, while one goes back to squeedgee the excess out from under and off the top of the cloth, followed by air rolling with a ribbed roller... Sometime between these acts, more epoxy is mixed and the process is restarted as it takes 2-3 minutes to mix a pot of resin of this size thoroughly enough that there are no spots that never harden.

It can be frustrating, wasteful, and risky doing glass work in winter... the show must go on.

Zach

December 8th 2010

2010-12-08T17:55:00.000-08:00

Today we had a high temperature of 36 degrees Fahrenheit...

We put the final touches on the lazarette bulkhead, after having stripped (laminated thin wood strips together with epoxy) the frame in place.

We ground down the rest of the fasteners along the port side in the tank room, which awaits 6 new frames tomorrow.

I spent spent most of the day out on deck removing the screws and fender washers from the deck, and grinding off the glue blobs. I have a bit of shaping to do to the rear deck. The stern at the transom runs on a slightly different camber than the rest of the boat, from last falls repair. We are getting ready for fiberglass on Friday. Friday is supposed to be in the 50's, and with a heater down below deck we should have no problems fiberglassing the deck... Though by no means a cake walk, as we'll be using fast hardener!

All for now,

Zach

Sunday December 4th

2010-12-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

This week we finished locking the deck beams in place. We tied the beams together with a 2x8. We had to put a jack post under the front two to bring them up to an even line with the deck.

We had to cut out a 3 foot section of deck the width of the engine hatch, to strengthen the repair. Lest their be a section of the deck with 3 foot deck boards. Noel has a hatch built into her deck between two massive timbers to make it easy to repower her.

The boards were #1 kiln dried pine decking boards as they are the clearest of knots and sap pockets. They also come planed to 1 inch. The boards on Noels deck were 1 1/8th red fir. We picked up the pace by not having to run all 35 1x6's through a planer to bring 2x material down to size.

Noel was planked by popping a string down the center of her frames, and laying a board to each side of the centerline, working out on each side to a distance around 8 inches from the edge of the deck where she had cover boards that were cut with notches to allow each board on her deck run out square into the cover board instead of tapering to nothing. This is called a gunstock, which looks like... well, a gunstock. This may be a local term, haven't seen it in a book.

This is the fastest way to deck a boat, as you don't have to fit all the deck planks to the curve of the outboard edges of her deck. Since her deck planks don't curve, they don't need a king plank in the center to allow them all to notch in full width rather than running into nothing, or alternating sides in a herringbone pattern. Just lay the cover board on top of the beams and scribe it from the inside, and the outside... flip it over and cut it.

We spread epoxy on the beams with an empty caulk gun tube.

We screwed down the 1x6's which we ripped to 1x5 so they would lay in Noels existing spacing without having to notch anything. All told we used closed to a thousand 2 1/2 inch stainless screws.

That concluded Wednesday...

Thursday we sanded 7 sheets of 1/2 inch marine grade plywood and started fitting them. We had some grinding and fitting work that took most of the morning so that the plywood overlapped and tied new wood to old. I ground an 1/8th inch off the existing boards to make everything kosher so that the plywood would lay to it.

We then ground off the heads of any buggered up screws, sanded the deck to take off any high spots in the planks and laid down and fitted our plywood.

I wanted to try drilling air relief holes in the plywood to see that the board was making contact with the glue as it pulled down. Normally we mix up epoxy with cabosil to peanut butter consistency and squeeze everything together with 1 5/8 square drive screws. The thick epoxy and lack of relief for the air means that the plywood doesn't always lay perfectly on the surface of the deck. On a side deck, or the tapering bow it doesn't make much of a difference when fairing for paint.

The stern deck is a wide and doesn't taper out much, I wanted to make certain that the plywood was pulled down to the deck boards so that the crown remained consistent everywhere. I slipped the same square drive screws through some 3/16ths stainless fender washers. (Stainless works better with epoxy, as it doesn't adhere quite as tenacious as it does to steel.)

This is how we laminate transoms, and did the section of the back deck last year.

I spread thickened epoxy on the deck, and the plywood with a notched spreader.

It took a little more than 40 ounces of mixed epoxy per 4x8 sheet of plywood. I mix out of 5 quart mixing buckets on projects this scale. It took 48 ounces of cabosil per bucket to make a mix that just would stay up in peaks after it I spread it, but no thicker. To thick and it makes it hard to get the panels to fit in place. I lay one side of the plywood going down against the sheet that is already glued, and kick it into place with the cleated heel of my boot. If it is to tight, or won't go... a block of wood and a hammer. Don't hammer on the end grain of plywood it splinters.

We fit each of the plywood sheets in its home, and put black marker lines across each of the seams taking up one row at a time to glue, leaving all the rest in place. You get some glue on the next row that is currently dry, but everything goes together perfectly without having to sand or cut off pieces that no longer fit. We staggered the joints so that there were no straight lines across the width of the boat, which is much stronger than just laying the sheets where 4 corners come together.

From there it was a matter of screwing everything down. Fender washers make life easy... Lay them all as pictured in the photo stacking up with a width just wider than your fingers. With your hand palm down swoop in and grab 5 or 6. Flip your hand palm up, and start your screws between your fingers. This is the easiest way to do the job. (see pictures)

I put a screw about every 10 inches square, and added one here and there along the edges to pull it where the seams are smooth.

Since it was 44 degrees today, I was using Fast hardener. I had a big kerosene wick heater under the deck cooking for an hour or two, until the deck started to warm up. It took two heat lamps to bring my resin up to normal consistency... 60-65 degrees. To much hotter than that and fast goes atomic before you can work with it. I used 4 mixing pots, just for resin so I didn't have to heat all my resin, just what I was about to use. Boat projects don't feel wind chill... but it did make for a long Saturday for me!

Thats all for now...

Zach

November 24, 2010

2010-11-24T14:54:00.000-08:00

We put in the deck beams today, with the exception of the one that is crooked at the back... As there is a bit of repair needed at that location.

The beams are pretty close to fair as they sit, the forward two are wedged partially under the sides of the deck, and will require a bit of shimming to bring them up to the line of the rest of the deck.

The work we are doing over the tank room is going back together with #1 treated kiln dried deck boards, which we have ripped the radius off each side allowing for a tighter fit. The original decking was 1 1/8th red fir, the salt treated boards are southern yellow pine. On top of that, we will epoxy a layer of 1/2 inch marine grade plywood, staggering the seams. Once that is down, we will fiberglass two layers of 1708 biaxial glass cloth over the top... then fair it smooth and prime for paint.

Zach

November 22, 2010

2010-11-22T08:06:00.000-08:00

Last friday we had a crane come by to set the new fuel tanks and generator in place on board Noel.

We finished cutting out the side decks along the length of the hole and started fitting the 11 new deck frames that are going in. We kept the toe rails, and an inch and an inch and a half of deck to the inside of them. We'll be blocking in between her deck beams from her plank out to the inside of the shear clamp to tie the new work to the old.

Noel's hull was framed on varying spacings from 10 inches to 14 inches, so her deck frames set in front of each of those frames. On account that half the frames have been sistered and are offset from where they started out life... we are putting the deck beams in on 12 inch spacing to make things a bit easier.

We went ahead and cut out the old bulkhead at the lazarette, as it was a patch work quilt of repairs... So the new one will be hung in place on the new deck beam, and we will be laminating a new set of frames for it to tie into the hull. These will be strips of wood 2 1/4 wide and 9/16ths thick in order to conform to the shape of the hull, we then take epoxy and lay the next strip in place screwing it to the first, and continue to the desired thickness, this is generally three inches, from there we scribe blocking to fit in the harshest part of the radius. We then stand up studs, and stud out the inside of the bulkhead. In this case, a true 2 by 2 1/4 on 12 inch centers. The plywood face is then fit into the hull, and epoxied in place. With the deck off, you scribe the bottom plywood sheet to the hull, then scribe the top sheet to the hull. We then mark the top as it lays against the deck beam, cutting it close and then rolling a router with a flush trim bit right across the top.

No pictures at this point, forgot to grab the camera!

Zach

A cockpit? Drawing of some recent ponderings...

2010-11-14T08:51:00.000-08:00

Last night we laminated 5 of the 7 deck beams required for the tank room out of douglas fir. 2 1/4 wide by 3 inches tall and 16 feet long. Being that the availability of 16 foot 4x10's is scarce, we had to stray from our normal method of sawn deck beams on the band saw. So, we made a mold out of two 2x10's cut to the curve of her deck and skinned it in plywood. I spent the morning sanding and ripping 3/4 inch thick douglas fir into strips... then we bent them over the mold and and screwed, glued them with epoxy and cabosil and clamped everything in place.

With the back deck cleared off, Noel is crying out for a cockpit... Certainly a different side profile possibility!

Zach

November 12, 2010

2010-11-12T04:36:00.000-08:00

A ballad of destruction has been sung this week... Chain saws, sawzalls, and really big skill saws have been put to work. Given rest breaks, when the 5 foot long pry bars and splitting mauls came into play.

The back of the cabin is moving forward 8 feet 6 inches, essentially one window spacing. The ceiling had to move out of the way in order for the crane to be able to drop the fuel tanks in place. With the white Awlgrip paint job on the tanks we didn't want to man handle them into place with come alongs and pry bars like we pulled the old steel tanks out.

We added plywood knees to the sawn frames under the fuel tanks which takes a surprising amount of time to fit and epoxy in place.

While we were down there, we squared, leveled and adjusted the sole (walking surface) of the lazarette and tank room so that it was all one level to make it a smooth surface to roll around the new generator.

Back to the big hole in the deck...

The back deck had been 9 feet deep from the back door to the transom. This will be stepped up to 17 feet, allowing room for outdoor sitting and cooking areas. I have always joked that Noel could sleep 12 in supreme comfort... but on the back deck 4 was to many for sundowners.

We are reworking 15 feet of the deck, from our new back deck to the start of the engine hatch. Noel has a hatch built into her above the engines, allowing for their removal. The trouble, is that on a 68 year old boat things start to sag and her deck as people cut hatches and deck over them a fair number of the deck beams were compromised over this 15 foot stretch. The lumps and bumps wouldn't iron out with fairing so we are putting in new beams and a new deck.

We'll also be replacing the lazarette bulkhead, as it stood proud of the rest of the beams and had to be cut in order for us to remove the deck.

The back wall you see in the pictures is temporary and much further forward than where it will be at completion.

All for now!

Zach

September 24, 2010

2010-09-24T14:55:00.001-07:00

We were rushed off the railway three weeks ahead of schedule... so another job could go up.

After 3 weeks of working till our pants fell off sunrise to sunset and beyond... we made it happen.

Nevertheless, we have reworked the steering gear to go from chain and cable to hydraulic. This entailed removing the existing rudder table and having a thousand dollars worth of machine work done to the rudder shafts to straighten the blades and cut a straight section long enough to install an upper bearing and tiller arm. Bircher Machine Incorporated did the machine work on the shafts, Jim is a great fellow to work with and made it possible for us to get back in the water in time by coming in over the weekend.

We took everything out down to the hulls planks, and started fresh with marine plywood laminated together for rudder blocks. Inside this, we installed a fiberglass tube. Inside the fiberglass tube, we bedded down the existing 3 1/2 inch rudder tubes and packing gland back filling it with epoxy and cotton fiber, with 3M 5200 around the top flange.

With that done, it is our hope that no water will be able to get into the planking or plywood sheath around her hull.

Next up we moved the stern thruster from the port side to the starboard side to get it as low in the water as possible. We had to cut one of the flanges down so that it would not hang below the boat.

Next we installed the brackets for the swim platform.

Photo's of this saga are missing some stages, as we didn't have a chance to slow down for much.

We put the rudders in, drilled the shaft collars and were pushed overboard within minutes... So no rudder shots.

Next week we will be plumbing the hydraulic steering system, installing the tillers and tie bar... and generally tying up loose ends that need attention from speeding along the last few weeks.

Zach

September 5th 2010

2010-09-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

Since my last posting we have made some substantial progress.

The starboard fuel tank started weeping diesel, so we cut a hole in the deck large enough to slide both of the 5 ft x 5 ft x 3ft tanks out on deck. Each tank has around 540 gallons capacity. These two steel tanks are being replaced by a pair of coast guard approved aluminum tanks made by RDS down in Florida.

While the tanks are out, we removed the rear bulkhead of the engine room that had been patched in places, and are replacing it.

We removed both generators from her engine room, and purchased a Caterpillar C15 with a sound enclosure.

Moving outside, we finished removing the bulwarks on her bow. We pulled up the exterior plywood on her foredeck and put down a layer of half inch marine grade plywood bedded in epoxy. It was a repeat of the rear deck and side decks... pull it up, scrape tar and grind to bare wood. Right now we are working on the new toe rail that will widen towards the stem and gain height as it runs forward, trying to recapture some of her original lines.

While we have been working on the toe rail, it has come to our attention that the rub rails aren't straight... nor the same profile throughout their run. We'll be correcting that, so your first impression walking down the dock is that of a yacht.

The winch head and anchor chute have been removed, as while they are stainless... they were not a high enough grade to take and hold a mirror finish without rust spots reappearing. The owner wanted an all chain rode, so we tracked down two electric anchor windlasses. Anchorlift Aquarius, for those wanting a sneak peek... Two shots of 300 foot G14 3/8ths acco anchor chain are in her chain locker, with crosby alloy shackles. She had originally 3/8ths BBB, but the G14 offers substantially higher working loads.

The chain brought her bow down a bit. The bulwarks being removed took it back up a bit. Setting nearly 2 tons of steel tanks on her stern deck brought the bow up a bit... All these changes in short succession are the primary reason we have gone back to mechanical work and put the interior on hold. If the boat isn't trimmed out (meaning loaded with what she will carry normally...) the counter tops and beds will run at a different slope once she is loaded.

We made the choice to haul out for hurricane Earl, and are back out on the railway until mid October.

We'll be dropping the rudders, and having some machine work done on the rudder shafts to convert to hydraulic steering. The original chain and cable still functions, but it has enough questionable pieces that we want a fresh start.

While we are out, I will be moving the stern thruster further down. When I put it in after building her new transom, I goofed and put it much to high, trying to avoid cutting into her stern timber. They make snorkels to help with shallow installations, but I'd rather have it as low as it can go before adding something that makes it quite difficult to change props and replace zincs.

Speaking of thrusters, we've moved away from hydraulics on board and have on order electric heads to replace the hydraulics on the thrusters. When we went electric on the windlasses, it made sense to go electric for the rest.

Pictures of all that has been going on... soon.

Zach

May 18 2010

2010-05-18T12:12:00.001-07:00

The last few weeks have been spent rebuilding the port side decks, reframing and plywooding the cabin sides. The plywood is all 1/2 inch marine grade, the studs are kiln dried #1 2x4's.

For the most part this half of the job was a rinse and repeat of the starboard side. The old plywood decking was rotten in a few places, with some fiberglass delamination. The cabin side wall had a pucker midway down it, and a few patches that needed to go. We decided the fastest course of action was to strip everything bare and start fresh. Once the plywood was up off the deck, we had to scrape and grind the layer of tar which was poured down when the boat was rebuilt the last go round. After the tar was up, we replaced a few bad deck planks and faired the decks to take off the high spots along her shear line to keep the toe rail fair down the line.

We discovered the side decks are narrower on her port side than starboard, and the wall follows a slightly different angle... Which in laymans terms is just another way of saying she is a boat. If we were building her from scratch, it'd be a more symmetrical boat... but there is a reasonable level of compromise on things, lest the project never reach completion.

We squared off the window openings, brought the port side door aft 16 inches, and added another set of windows center way on the wall. The rear most windows were running at a different angle to rest, trying to add some more shear to her lines. From Noel's middle aft, she doesn't have a whole lot of shear... so it looked a bit off to the eye.

When the new plywood was down on the deck, we built a toe rail along her edge matching what we did on the starboard side. Two layers of #1 salt treated 2x6's, the top planed down to an inch and a quarter thick. From there they were cut to fit around her waist, and scribed on the underside. The bottom layer was worked true with a long bench plane, and a 7 inch grinder to knock off the highs. The top was cut with a flush trim router bit. Then everything was disassembled with story marks, and reinstalled with west systems epoxy and a load of screws.

We are still in the process of developing her lines, the bulwarks on the front will end up being modified, at the very least a new cap rail will go on, blended to the toe rail. The blue tape on her in the top picture shows a few of the proposed ideas.

Moving inside, we have been priming and fairing the surfaces to be painted down below. That is a short sentence, but I'm beginning to believe the most expensive part about building a boat second to labor... is sandpaper.

We are using the Awlgrip system for paint and primers. Fairing compound we've been working with Awlfair, as well as Alexseals dark grey compound, and here lately system three's silver tip... which pulls the smoothest of them all.

Most surfaces are to an 80 grit finish. Which means we are past skimming with fairing compound with plastic spreaders, and have started spraying 2 part epoxy primers and sprayable fairing compounds. Very seldom does an electric sander come out, from here out its pneumatic airfiles, hutchins in case you are wondering, and human powered long boards.

Things are progressing nicely, when the weather gives us a break we will be glassing the port side cabin, toe rail, and deck. We'll move outside and make a big push, to try and get the boat into primer before it becomes to hot this summer.

Cheers,

Zach

April 24 2010

2010-04-24T08:05:00.001-07:00

This update shows the stage of the starboard side decks and cabin wall. Fiberglassed and faired. We are using Awlgrips Awlfair for the pink stuff. In boat yard slang, it's been pinked!

The staircase went through another spraying of Awlquick (a sprayable fairing compound) and some spot filling minor imperfections.

Sanding, sanding, sanding... It takes a lot of sand paper to build a boat.

April 23 2010

2010-04-23T05:46:00.001-07:00

We added a hanging locker, and a chest of drawers to the guest stateroom, and are continuing to work with the interior design to end up with the best utilization of space possible.

The staircase is in primer. It has been Awl Faired, Awl Quicked, sprayed in 545 primer, and now has a coat of sprayable fairing compound on it. It's turned out to be a surprisingly large surface. Lots of time has been spent long boarding to

The starboard side had a leak in the rain a few weeks ago, so we pulled up the plywood and glass off the deck, cut off the bulwarks off and stripped the plywood off the walls.

New 1/2 inch marine grade plywood went back down, on top of a few new boards. We used west systems epoxy thickened with cabosil to glue the new in place.

Once the deck was in place, we stood up new walls of 1/2 inch marine grade plywood, epoxy coating the back side and edges. With the boat water tight once more, we focused on the toe rail.

Using the cleanest kiln dried #1 2x6's we scribed the curve of the hull, and cut them down to 4 inches wide and 2 1/2 inches tall. They are epoxied in place, with 3 inch screws peppered through out.

With that done, the top edge of the rub rail was ground down, smoothing out the intersection between toe rail and rub rail for the new glass.

We glassed the deck, up and over the toe rail all in one shot. This was made a bit easier by the 1.5 inch radius on the corners of the toe rail.

As of yesterday, the cabin wall is glassed as well with a layer of microballoons fairing out the surface.

Now the sanding begins!

Zach

April 4 2010

2010-04-04T19:07:00.001-07:00

We had some water leaking on the starboard side of the master stateroom... So the side decks came up. The decks were sheathed in a layer of 1/2 inch plywood, with a layer of fiberglass on top. The deck had been glassed from rub rail to rub rail before the house was built on her.

The rotten plywood extended under the bulwarks, so we pulled them off. In the 80's when she was redone last, they put a layer of tar on top of the original decks along with a layer of tar paper before the plywood went on. This is a low tech way of keeping water from getting to underlying substrate... but in the age of epoxy, is obsolete.

So... Lots of scraping took place this week. In places it was a 1/2 inch thick. We used 1 inch wide chisels, a propane torch to warm the tar, and 16 grit hard paper grinding discs on a 7 inch grinder.

The bulwarks came of with an electric chainsaw, and a series of wooden wedges.

We replaced the outermost deck board, which was soft. After that several gallons of epoxy was mixed with cabosil, spread out and the new 1/2 inch marine grade plywood plopped down and screwed in place.

The bottom foot of the exterior wall was patched in her past, and had rotted again... thus explaining why the wall of her cabin sides is missing in the picures. We added a window and moved the starboard door frame aft to center it with the windows... so it made sense to pull the plywood and start fresh.

We will go back with a toe rail matching the stern deck, and weld up a hand rail instead of going back with a bulwark along her sides.

In other news, the stairs were in. We finished putting the round in place and have glassed the walls with 1208 biax to keep the seams from ever showing. We pulled microballoons, and have been doing some experimenting with other fillers besides Awlgrips Awlfair, the stair case was pulled in grey Alexseal... Since we are going to be painting her white, a color other than red, is easier to cover makes for less work when it comes time to prime.

The guest staterooms sink vanity has been glassed and faired, waiting final sanding.

The guest state room bulkhead was set in place, defining the doorway. Holes were cut for lights in the ceiling. The queen sized guest bunk is back apart, awaiting a quote for the stainless sheet so I can weld up some water tanks.

The pilot berth is built and glued in place. All that is left to rough in forward of the stairs is the dresser to service the state room.

That's all for now,

Zach

March 21 2010

2010-03-21T18:43:00.001-07:00

The showers are sanded and ready for primer.

The heads are ready to go, walls set in place needing a few touch ups.

The sink vanities are nearing completion.

The stair case is in, and the aft wall of the closet in the master stateroom is cut out and ready to be set in place...

We are dragging feet to make sure we have enough plywood down below, the engine room hatch only lets a 42 inch wide sheet through at full length. 46 if cut shorter... So we have a stack of plywood in the engine room wide enough to stand upright on its own.

Oh... and spring fever has set in. We had a few pretty days, so the starboard side of the cabin house is missing for about 25 feet. The door is getting moved aft a stud to be symmetrical to the stair case, and another window is cased out.

We'll be going down the side decks with 1/2 inch marine grade plywood this week. A few leaks came to attention when we test fit the starboard staterooms plywood walls. Never enough to accumulate in the bilge, but enough that it drips when it rains. The plywood on deck made it nearly 25 years, and while we could add another layer of glass to her and make it all water tight, another 25 will be a lot easier to come by with fresh materials.

No good pictures of the stairs with treads in place... each step is the same height, and the turned steps are all the same width. The old staircase had a different rise and tread depth on every step, which achieved a staircase that did the job in a 24 inch shorter opening, but was unacceptable to the knees! Hear ye hear ye, the 3rd step from the top is now just like all the rest, comfortable.

All for now...

Zach

Februray 12 2010

2010-02-12T17:41:00.001-08:00

Forward head is nearing completion. I have the outer wall off, to ease access. I figure there is no sense working inside tight places if one can help it. All the walls that can be set in to place, are glassed, microballooned, awlgrip awlfaired, and long boarded while on saw horses leaving just the tabbing to be worked on in place.

Master staterooms head has been built and assembled, and torn back down for fiberglassing and general gluing. The assembly was a bit of a challenge considering this area of the boat is where the shear of the deck falls off and changes camber. She loses just shy of 3 inches in height over 4 deck beams...

The cabin sole is mirrored down 80 to 81 inches from the deck beams, so before we started we had to make a blank slate and cut down an old walls sill plate, and then shim the stringers that support the cabin sole up to be fair with the others along the17 foot straight shot of walkable floor. This is a tall order to keep true on a 68 year old boat. When you find yourself measuring off of new deck beams and pulling bevels off of new bulkheads... and shimming stringers that are 4 years old, it leaves one at a loss to find things that are reliable indicators of anything. So, when in doubt... make it up.

The 8 foot long wall that makes up the outer side of the master bath along the center of the boat has been biscuited and epoxied together, and placed accurately to the boats centerline. This is a bit harder to do than one might think while keeping everything true with a straight edge. Screwing 6 or 8 inch tall pieces of 3/4 plywood to the sides, kept things square. Screwing 2x4's with one edge ripped straight kept things lined up vertically. Screwing blocks to the soles stringers, and the bulkheads allowed clamps to be brought in to squeeze, squish, and smash a perfect glue joint. It was a bit complex, as the steering gear blocks the center isle of the boat, so the forward half had to be sliced to be able to stand it up and get a tight fit to the deck beams. The forward edge, is glued in a slot in the bulkhead... this required a clamp all on its own to force the super thick thickened epoxy clear just to seat out where it was supposed to. Temperature forces the use of fast hardener with the West Systems, I'm glad we don't have any other walls that large.

It was soon figured the bulkheads are parallel to each other and nothing else... Each piece had to be cut. I leave the factory edge to the floor. If the sheet runs fore and aft, I leave a factory edge on the side away from the bulkhead. If a piece touches the hull running side to side, I leave the factory edge to the inside of the hull.

Perpendicular the floor, the bulkheads tilt an inch and a half over 7 feet... but, we've got her figured out, with the exception of the aft wall. I have the outboard side tacked to a structural frame on the hull. Since a piece of 3/4 plywood is a mighty nice gusset anyway... might as well turn it into something structural. Only problem is her frames were cut out of square stock, and she tapers towards the bow... meaning that a 6 inch tall frame tapers aft quite a bit!

Boats are a lot of fun. Nothing is ever plumb, a plumb bob doesn't lie when comparing your list of knowns to find the unknown oddball that makes a four foot wide, four foot long shower stall that is square on 3 walls have a leg that measures 2 inches out, which happens when you make the assumption that since the floor is square to the bulkhead over there, that it will be over here too.

Squares, levels, and straight edges may not have a place on a boat... but they sure can help un-knot your brain when making something look right! I say look right, because if you don't step back and study what you see things spiral out of control, in perfect right angle turns.

More sand bags on the bow... Not for walls and bulkheads, but so we can start to see the angle of berths and counter tops. The joys of building something that is dynamic! The more weight you put in, the closer she gets to her end product... My biggest pet peaves are water that doesn't drain off a shelf or seat in a shower, and berths that have the feet ever so slightly above the head!

Zach

Starting off 2010...

2010-01-30T13:36:00.000-08:00

Noel has been back in the water since just before thanksgiving. We've made the move from working on the hard on the outside of the boat, to working inside. With three people, and a working wood shop inside a 10 foot by 50 foot upper cabin, it takes about two days to a boat that looks like a tornado went through it.

I continue to be amazed at how much weight it takes to put a boat on her lines. The other day we filled sandbags and set them out on her bow. It takes roughly 1,100 pounds to drop her bow an inch. That means roughly 2,200 pounds to drop her an inch if placed middle way between the bow and stern. Right now she is floating around 14 inches high in the bow, and is out 6 from where she used to float in the stern. The fuel tanks are nearly empty, which will bring down her stern quite a bit, but in the meantime it is a blessing.

It is a lot of fun building the interior of a boat that has had one before... and is currently floating. The bulkheads are plumb, and are our reference point. If you take a panel and stand it up to where it looks like it is standing straight up and down, the bottom aft side is kicked out of square almost an inch. It takes a little bit of head scratching, and a fair bit of notating which side is purposefully off to keep the finished product true to her lines.

Progress slowed a bit, as we were not totally finished with the glass work around her stern before getting splashed. In Dececmber, most of the time was spent completing the glass work down her starboard side, while in the water working on a barge.

The hull is now sanded, faired, and primed... We are using glass microballoons and west systems epoxy for rough fairing, followed by Awlgrips Awlfair for the final glazing.

Now that she is water tight to rain, work has begun fitting out the interior.

We insulated the upper cabin, and hung plywood on the ceiling.

One window on the port side was moved aft, making the rear six sliding windows symmetrical.

The two bulkheads at the front of the engine room have been skinned in okume plywood that has been epoxy coated and have 2 layers of sound insulating lead lined foam inside.

Heading forward, the master stateroom's head (bathroom) has been roughed in. 3/4 marine grade okume plywood stood on edge, fit to the contours of the hull and deck beams.

In the forward cabin, the starboard side of the hull has been skinned in 3/8ths marine plywood, and the forward head has been roughed in.

Exact dimensions of counter tops, plumbing chases, and showers will be decided next week when we fiberglass all inside surfaces of the head.

We are working hard to reuse the bulk of the mahogany doors and trim that came off of Noel during the deconstruction, as they are superb quality... and we want to hold on to some of her classic 1960's motor yacht feel. Her bunk boards are close to 16 inches of varnished mahogany, and though her doors were narrow, they set the style for the boat.

This past thursday we made a repair to a rotten stretch of fore deck, where the hull to deck joint was compromised, leading to a section 6 inches wide, and close to 6 feet long rotting along the edge of a piece of plywood skinning her deck.

Noel has a layer of 1/2 inch plywood nailed over her deck planks with monel nails. The plywood has a layer of fiberglass on top, to make her a very dry boat. The reason for the plywood, is that it is almost impossible to fiberglass directly over old wood that was painted and tarred due to the oils that penetrated the wood. Bit by bit we are going around and replacing any plywood that has gone soft since she was fiberglassed in 1986, with fresh pieces of marine plywood and epoxy resin.

It is a bit of a battle with the weather at times, but with a heater on board we are making progress none the less!

Zach

New Rear Deck and stern thruster reinstalled.

2009-11-10T18:53:00.001-08:00

New planks going in, and fiberglass work... plus aerial pictures.

2009-10-26T07:15:00.003-07:00

Planks going on...
Small pile of saw dust... 12 44 gallon trash cans full.
New marine grade plywood.
Plywood going on over new planks.

2 Layers of fiberglass over new plywood... "From a distance..."More Fiberglass... White stripes are microballoon filler.

Glass microballoons, Awl fair and getting ready for paint.

Building a new transom and replanking the starboard side.

2009-09-10T19:24:00.001-07:00

Transom = 2 layers laminated on, 3rd layer dry fit.

One Bulkhead frame replaced, plywood and noise insulation haven't yet been installed.

Fun stuff all in all, nothing quite like having things starting to go back together rather than just demolition.

Zach

Rotten wood! Destruction pictures...

2009-09-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is a 4x8 sheet of plywood...

Found some rotten wood along the transom, and decided to rebuild it from scratch. Found a little rotten plywood sheathing on the hull 6 inches below the rub rail... Then found that the plywood was damp down to just above the waterline...

Then found that she had a few planks on the starboard side that needed to be replaced. When the planks came off, I found that the outer layer of a few of her frames was not solid. So... she's getting new frames in the engine room.

When they built her Wheeler used rather large silicon bronze screws, for the 2 inch wide 1 inch thick white oak strips that are laminated together making up her frames. A lot of them cracked along the screws and rotted down the middle. This is the last of the originals... New frames in the lazarette, behind the water tanks... New frames in the state rooms and up in the bow...

Kind of interesting, as these are solid on each side for a good 3/8ths of an inch, a gracious plenty to stab at with a knife or whack with a hammer and have them appear to be solid.

Bummer, but the progress must go on.

Yup, the stern thruster is back off... interesting, as it had good planks extending around it for about a foot in all directions, but the rest were bad.

Zach

I thought "Los Angeles" was a cool place to have as a hailing port, considering she is now in North Carolina!

Interior Plan

2009-08-12T11:00:00.001-07:00

Installed bow thruster pictures

2009-07-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

Stern Thruster

2009-07-10T05:07:00.001-07:00

Bow thruster.

2009-07-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

Today was the day...

Hauling out.

2009-06-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

Noel is back out of the water.

Reworking the rub rails, and installing bow and stern thrusters.

Ignore the small pile of plywood. (Grin) It is the last of a few dozen. The Navy blue line is the boot stripe. The light blue line is bottom paint. The dark stuff, is goo from the sea of being in the water for a year and a half getting worked on... and not going off to see the world.

Yup... 83 foot boat, sitting 18 inches high in the water. I'm not sure how many pounds it takes to sink her an inch.

Zach

New and improved style.

2009-05-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

The last few months have been monotonous work of cleaning, painting and rebuilding things that don't photograph well. Tight spaces, and the minutia of the details involved in removing runs of wire, and figuring out how it was done and how to improve.

The davits on the stern came off (the candy cane shaped bits used to pick up dinghys to set on deck) as they were rusted out. When they came off, we found more rotten wood in the bulwarks along the aft deck, the roof overhead.

The rest of the bulwarks on the boat have been repaired. The bow is brand new, where as the side decks inner plywood skin has been replaced and fiberglassed over. (Set the circular saw to the depth of the plywood and walk it down the length... fun stuff, makes a big mess!)

Since the roof is rotten where the davits were bolted on, I've been contemplating adding some style to her lines. Noel has a lot of character, but she doesn't have much that defines her as a yacht... other than the lack of outriggers and other things you'd find on a working boat.

I traced out the photo right off the screen to keep the scale. I pulled some measurements off Noel and I used a set of dividers, to work out the the scale of the photo was roughly 1/2 inch per foot.

From there I took a pine batten (ripped from a 2x4) and positioned it 75 degrees to the deck like the other vertical accents to give a visual representation of where the roof would stop.

One of the troubles with Noel, is her entire roof empties off of the two aft corners. The rear accent has a nice rounded bull nose on it, so in a decent downpour the water curves back towards the boat and pours on the deck.

I'm working on a few gutters, and decent camber for the new roof line so the water goes overboard without splashing someone who might want to sit out and watch the storm.

Zach

The outside...

2008-11-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

This picture is just prior to Hurricane Hanna buzzing the coast. The guy acting like he is working, might just be your author. We put out eight 1 1/2 inch nylon lines going to the dock... at the height of the wind, an elephant could tight rope walk them. In order to control the boat as they came under tension, I put together a 4:1 block and tackle pulley system to pull the boat off the pilings to starboard.

That day was almost like work...

This is what she looks like out of the water... She drafts 6 feet, which means it takes 6 feet of water for her to not be lounging around on a sandbar. I'm 6 feet tall, and can walk under her when she is out of the water...

Noel has a steel shoe protecting her wooden keel. Her hull profile is looooong and skinny, which gives her spectacular fuel economy for her length and weight.

That is her bow... When we first started working on her... she floated at the navy blue boot stripe. After months of stuff removal, furniture, and random bits of string... she floats on that light blue bottom paint. Bottom paint, eh... such colorful boating terminology.

That is a propeller. Quite useful for stirring sand, cultivating barnacles, and occasionally propelling Noel through the water on adventures. She has two propellers.

On deck...

Yikes. This is your author a couple years ago standing on the brink. Well, it sure felt like the point of no return. As you can see... the bulwarks needed some repair, oh... and the deck beams too. Maybe a few frames... Sarcasm alert: Wooden boats have a life cycle, they return to dirt. They are the antithesis of the Pheonix, much more like a parrot. When the parrot kicks the bucket, you have the choice to give it a burial at sea, or get it creamated and then place a new one on its perch. It is hard to recycle a spent parrot, even as a pattern to make a new one. Noel is a bit like that, except we've had to rebuild the perch too. The moral of the story... Wood boat restoration is for the birds.

Bulwarks? We don't need no stinking bulwarks. (For the non-nautical... bulwarks are the hand rail around the deck that keeps the people on board... and water off.)

They also keep boats from looking like a unicorn with their stem (Or parrot perch...) projecting up into the air. She does look a bit naked in this picture...
That is better!

Everybody needs a battering ram... or at least an anchor chute! Also... New rub rails the whole way around, the wood under the metal band is new too. (Yikes.)

What about some hand rails?

The view from my "little" 28 footer. This fits into the top ten things I never want to see approach from behind.

The pictures! Inside the boat.

2008-11-09T14:28:00.001-08:00

The Helm. The middle window would make life difficult for those of us without X-ray vision. It used to be an opening window... but the frame needed to be replaced and haven't "got to it yet." Glass is left for last, as broken panes are a pain.

The Cabin House... and work shop. One day the galley and settee will occupy this 47 foot long space. That big hole in the floor goes down to the engine room. The dry stack exhaust used to go up through that hole.

This is the inside of the bow. The white box is the anchor locker, the stainless steel stalactite is a hydraulic motor that drives a winch on deck. All the frames are new. The boat lists slightly to starboard at the moment... the camera guy might have been flying a little high on paint fumes too...
Through that water tight bulkhead, is the anchor locker. This area will soon have a state room. Yup... new frames here too.This is the master stateroom. This area is 17 feet long and nearly 16 feet wide. The plywood box in the left corner, are stairs that I'll be removing and changing into something more comfortable to walk up and down. For the most part, if it is painted white... it is new wood.
This is the primary diesel generator. It puts out 30kw of 240 volt AC current. It is a three phase generator, but is currently wired up to provide single phase.
That is the crash pump. It is driven off of the starboard engine, all those valves allow you to select the compartment that is filling up with water... and pump it out. There will soon be an electric pump on the left side, in case the starboard engine conks out. *This will double as a fire hose, just in case jet skiers get to close for comfort... (Grin)

Those two gray lumps of steel in the picture are pipes that keep the boat from twisting when it is rough out. The two white lumps of iron, are the main engines and propulsion for the boat. Twin Cummins 855 cubic inch diesel engines. Total, about 400 horsepower... This boat goes 1.1 miles on a gallon of diesel, and will knock off a mile every 6 minutes at cruise speed. Weeee! She's a tractor, not a speed boat.
That is an 8kw Northern Lights diesel generator, it is a back up in case the 30kw feels cranky.

*You are now looking towards the back of the boat.
Those two shiny squares on each side of the walkway, are diesel tanks. Each holds about 600 gallons of diesel. While the tanks are not new, they are painted white. The wood that is painted white... is new.

This is the lazarette. Those big timbers are called floors, the "floor" is plywood and not pictured. On a boat... the "floor" is called the sole. The bolts in oval patterns are what hold the shaft struts on. More about that later... Yeah, it has white paint, what do we know about that? (Grin)
The back wall in this picture is the inside of the transom. The transom is mostly new. That big metal pipe houses the rudder shaft. This boat has twin rudders, the starboard (right side if you were looking towards the bow) is not pictured. Noel has mechanical steering, which means the steering wheel (helm) turns a chain that is connected to long cable. When you turn the wheel, the chain pulls one cable. The cable is wrapped around a big quadrant... which is shaped like a slice of pie. Metallic pie... The radius of the quadrant determines how much leverage the captain has over the rudder. On this boat, the wheel turns 2 1/2 times to go from hard to port to hard to starboard.

The History Of Noel. 1942 83 Foot Coast Guard Cutter.

2008-09-09T08:15:00.001-07:00

Noel was built in 1942 by Wheeler Company of Brooklyn, NY for WWII. She is one of the Matchbox Fleet, of 230 boats. 83 footers had that title, because they were wooden... and filled to the brim with 2,000 gallons of gasoline!

She was Commissioned 9/29/1942 at 1622 hours, for an approximate cost of $80,000.00

Advertisement from Yachting magazine, September 1942.

Her name is an interesting story. Her number in the coast guard was CG 83370... which was learned after naming her Noel. When she was decommissioned in 1959 her number was changed to 83394 which is the hull number of another 83 footer, which happened to have the radio call sign... NOEL. 83370's call sign... NLXL. Noel sounds a little better.

She is 83 feet long, and 16 feet 7.75 inches wide (Beam) and a draft (Depth) of 5.3 feet. A picture of her in a travel lift from 2002. (Name at the time... Rendezvous.)

Her hull is mahogany planked, and "originally" had steamed white oak frames with a spacing of 12 inches. Originally she had a small bronze wheel house, and twin 8 cylinder gasoline Sterling Viking II, Model TCG-8 engines. A total of 1200 horsepower... that could drive her to a maximum of full load speed of 18.2 knots. Empty and without armaments they could run 20.5 knots. All this with a fuel bill only the government could afford! Full speed... 120 gallons per hour. Cruise, only a hundred! For an idea of scale in the picture below, the engines were 12 feet long... and weighed 6 tons a piece! A wet exhaust ran out the transom for superior sub hunting abilities.

Noel, went across the atlantic on the deck of a ship, to be part of the Normandy Flotilla, she was #12. June 6, 1944... D-Day, she was part of the invasion of Normandy.
http://www.uscg.mil/history/docs/uscgDDayVessels.pdf

"83370 (CG 621 1942-4 assigned to EASTSEAFRON---stationed at Fernandina Beach. FL; 1944-45 assigned to the COM 12THFLEET---stationed at Poole. England; Jun 44 assigned to USCG Rescue Flotilla No. 1 ---served in Normandy Invasion as USCG 12; Jun 45 assigned to the EASTSEAFRON: Aug. 45 shipped to the Canal Zone; 1 Apr. 59 decommissioned: 9 Oct. 59 sold."

She was stationed:
Fernandina, Florida 9/29/42.
New York, New York 3/28/44
San Francisco, California 7/27/45
CG Base, Alameda, Cal 2/15/46

From 1946 until 1959 she ran back and forth from Alameda to Pier 47 in San Francisco. She was assigned to the 12th Coast Guard District San Francisco.

She was also a star in the the John Wayne movie "High and the Mighty." 83370 is the first of the two white Coast Guard Cutters leaving the dock, when they are off to rescue the plane.

She was decomissioned on April 1, 1959 and stored at the Alameda Coast Guard base, until October 9th, 1959 when she was sold to Frank J. Ravis in Compton California. became a pleasure boat... documented as Apache Maid and converted over to a motor yacht in Washington State in 1960.

Her name was changed to Conciliator around 1967. A gap in the documentation where she was registered as a motorboat in California makes us uncertain when.

Here are some advertisements for Conciliator:

In 1971 she was purchased by Bob and Judy Mersey (Then President of Columbia Records.) and named Princess Helen. A news clipping saved by a past owner says that, "The ship's log indicates the yacht on more than one occasion entertained recording stars Perry Como, Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis, and even the Beatles George Harrison and other celebrities of the music world."

In 1972 Princess Helen sailed from Marina Del Rey, California through the Panama Canal to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. From 1972 to 1974 Princess Helen was based in Fort Lauderdale and cruised the Bahamas and Keys. From 1974 to 1976 her home port was Port Washington, Long Island, NY. During this period she made a trip to New England. From 1976 to 1979 her home port was back in Fort Lauderdale, and she was cruising the Dry Tortugas to Jacksonville.

From 1980-88 she used Sarasota, and then St Petersburg, Florida as her base. She cruised the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, through the keys and up to the Chesapeake.

In 1982 a Fire destroyed her cabin house when she was docked in Moorehaven, Florida. She was rebuilt in Tarpon Springs by George Saroukos. He/his company did a three year refit. The Hull and deck were sheathed in diagonally planked 1/2 inch marine grade plywood, with about a million screws. Then on top of the fiberglassed deck, a new cabin house was built, the exterior of which was also fiberglassed.

From 1988-91 Ft Myers. Florida was her home port, and she went back and forth to the Chesapeake for the summers. In 1992 Tierra Verde, Florida was her base of operations. From 1993-95 Ruskin, Florida was her home port.

From 1995 to 1997, there is another gap. Not sure where she was during those years. In 1997 she was sold, and renamed Low Flying Duck, by a couple who ran her as a charter boat based out of Everglades City, Florida. Evidently she spent a lot of time in the Dry Tortugas from talking with previous owners.

Low Flying Duck:

She was in the charter business from 1997 until 2001, when she was sold and timeline has another gap until Februrary 2003, when she was sold and renamed Rendez Vous, with a home port of New Orleans, Lousiana.

The current owners bought Noel in November 2003, documented February 2004... spent a few months revamping the shaft struts, rudder posts and framing in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. Then took her to North Carolina via the Inter Coastal Waterway, across the Okeechobee and North... With a few memorable moments along the the way.

If you have any memories of 83370, under her various names, and owners... please leave a comment!