Repairs and Other Lessons
Okay, so, after the last disastrous time out on the water, the weather was looking crappy for the next week. So I asked the boat yard to pull her out of the water and do the repairs I needed: get the bottom painted, rebed the chainplates, repair the soft spot in the deck, and remove the outboard engine. All those were large jobs, and I really felt it better to have someone else tackle them.
The soft spot on the deck, the inspector figured, was probably due to leaks from the chainplates being repaired poorly. I could see that, since there was some awful goo around them. Looking at it myself, though, I wondered if the leak into the hull was from the pump-out, since it was right beside the soft spot. I learned later that that was an after-market add-on. In the days when this boat was manufactured everything went over the side, including the offal from the loo.
So, Mike, the mechanic, went to start on the repair. He began by trying to release the pressure in the pumpout so he could remove the pipes. Well, luckily, he didn’t get a face full of goo, but he did get a squirt from the pipe that he didn’t expect.
Well, those who’ve read the other posts in this blog know that my times on the boat have been less than ideal. I really did did intend to empty the tank from the loo. It just hadn’t worked out that way.
So, the repair waited.
In the meantime, my budget was starting to show strain. So I asked Mike, the mechanic, if he felt the chainplates really needed to be rebedded (about a $2000 proposition). He didn’t think so, since he saw now evidence of leaks from them within the cabin. But, he said he’d take a closer look when he got the deck peeled back.
Also, in the meantime, Steve (of our last, fateful, voyage), offered to help me fix the blisters on the bottom. He also suggested that painting it wasn’t as arduous a task as I thought. So I told the yard I’d take care of that.
Sense is starting to win out over money. Well, starting. 😀