New car

The trip home was a run through hell. It was rainy for 80% of the trip. I thought that the great flood was returning at times. Finally, we reached Michigan, in the rain, at night, only to have the “new” car break down on the expressway miles from the nearest exit, about 50 miles from home. The wrecker towed us to the next exit and we left the car. In the morning, we returned with parts and I replaced the idler arm and the destroyed serpentine belt. As I told Anna, “stick with me and everyday will be an adventure”!

Last coat

You all are probably sick and tired of checking this site and finding more work projects… well, so am I. The good news is that the project list is finally coming to an end. The green gets its last coat of paint today and the bottom gets its paint job too. All that’s left is to pre-paint the name on the backside. Then we are taking a vacation and going home for turkey day. While there, we’ll close on the house and take care of other business before heading back to the boat. With luck, we should have the Goose back in the water by the first week of Dec and heading south soon afterwards. It’s been a long, long stretch of work here at Deaton Marine but the results have been rewarding both in the financial sense and in the great friendships that we have made here at the marina. One of the hardest things as the months have piled up was to watch as new friends finished up on their own boat projects and head south. Soon, we hope to be joining them too.


the final product, she sure looks good!

Last coat

You all are probably sick and tired of checking this site and finding more work projects… well, so am I. The good news is that the project list is finally coming to an end. The green gets its last coat of paint today and the bottom gets its paint job too. Then we are taking a vacation and going home for turkey day. While there, we’ll close on the house and take care of other business before heading back to the boat. With luck, we should have the Goose back in the water by the first week of Dec and heading south soon afterwards. It’s been a long, long stretch of work here at Deaton Marine but the results have been rewarding both in the financial area and in the great friendships that we have made here at the marina. One of the hardest things (as the months here have piled up), was to make new friends, watch as they finish up on their own boat projects and then head south. Soon, we hope to be joining them too.

Green paint

The first coat of paint is on and it’s a 100 foot paint job. I’m disappointed. Next coat goes on Friday Maybe it will look better.

Time to paint

If it were only as easy as splashing a bit of paint onto the boat I’d be a happy man but it’s all of the prep work that has to be done that’s the killer. All of the existing paint has to be sanded and then carefully washed down to remove all of that dust you just put on it. Then, wipe the entire area down with acetone to clean the surface of any possible oil or grease. Finally, tape the area off to keep your paint lines clean and crisp. Only then can you open up a can of paint, get your roller ready and roll the paint on THEN quickly “tip it” off, which is running the tips of a brush across the surface of the paint to produce small uniform paint lines that will then flatten out into a perfectly smooth finish (yea, in your dreams). Anyway, if you do it right it gives a great ’20 foot’ paint job… that is, from 20 feet away it looks great.

More hull blisters

It’s been 3 – 10hr days of balancing on my home made scaffolding but the hull blisters are now filled, faired and primed and I’m pooped.

Sanded smooth, I know, it doesn't look like much but a LOT of work went into getting to this stage.
Here's the prime coat. Ready for the green paint.

Hull blisters

It’s amazing how much work and time it takes to repair the finish of a hull. If I had Deaton do this work I could have 10 to 15 thousand dollars invested in the job. As it is, it will cost us about $300 in materials and about 2 years off my life when it’s done! Now, all I have to do is sand the areas until there smooth and fair.

As you can see I have a bit of work ahead of me.

Odd jobs

Along with the major jobs I still have a few smaller jobs that need to be done. Such as repairing the rust spots in the port holes
Finishing the rudder
Clean all of the port hole screens, (Anna volunteered to shine them up).
And put the last few coats of paint on the prop. Don’t you just love the bright green?

Rudder

Just like the hull the rudder seems to have a delamination problem so, I ground out the places that the fiberglass had cracked. Then I had to rebuild the many layers of fiberglass necessary for the protection of the rudder. In another week or so, the hull and rudder will be ready for another 5 years of life.

Cutlass bearing

The cutlass bearing is a fiberglass tube, 6 inches long with rubber spines inside that the propeller shaft rides on. To replace it all you have to do is remove the propeller shaft. Of course, to do that you have to remove an 11 foot tall rudder, the propeller, all of the batteries, the battery housing, the muffler, the connection to the engine and the shaft seal all working in an area that can only be accessed by kneeling in a tiny area, leaning over until your head is resting on the hull (lower than your knees) and stretching out your arms through a bulkhead to undo bolts… lots of fun. Of course these parts haven’t been apart in 5 years just to add to the fun. Then you can use a hack saw to slowly cut the old bearing off. Needles to say, it was a bad day for Rich.

Going "down under" to un-bolt the rudder. Anna lifting it off the boat,
With a bit of help.
Removing the prop.
Pounding out the shaft.
Next, the batteries
The muffler which hasn't come out in 5 years.
All to replace the cutlass bearing. Here's the final product... that little ring around the shaft.

Blisters

Now that the bad spots are marked off it’s time to grind. As you can see there was quite a bit of delaminating between the hull and the paint job.

While I wait for materials to arrive to repair these grind areas, I’ll tackle the cutlass bearing.

The setup

The Goose needs a lot of work on the outside paint job. After 5 years in the water the green and the white paint is blistering in spots. First I will have to cut out the blisters and then grind these areas back to the steal hull. Then epoxy the ground out areas and re-fair the hull. Before that though, I have to set up scaffolding around the entire boat so, I am using every spare saw horse and walking board at Deaton Marine. I just hope that they don’t need any of their boards and scaffolding for the next week or so and that the weather cooperates.

After the scaffolding is set up I take a marker and mark the areas that are loose on the hull.

Next is grinding.

Red man

The worst job of a haul out is to scrap the loose paint off from the bottom. Anna just “happened” to have to go to New Bern for the day so I spent 6 hours under the boat getting covered with old bottom paint. YUCK.

Shitty jobs

The day before the haul out Anna told me that the toilet had stopped working. After the haul out I spent 2 hours disassembling the plumbing to clear the clog. What a way to start a week of hard work. I just hope that it isn’t an apocalyptic warning about this haul out.

Haul out

It’s that time of the year again and for this haul out I had them remove the rear mast. It has some breaks in the glue joints, just like the ones that caused the main mast to fail so, I thought that I’d get ahead of the curve on this one.
After a good scraping and power wash of the bottom it was off to our new home in outer Siberia.


The “other” work ward is about a football field from the office and shops so I will be getting a lot of exercise going back and forth.

The finished lounge

I thought that I’d show you the result of my week + of work rebuilding the boaters lounge. I wish that I had a before and after picture to show you but all I have is the finished product. If you’re ever in the neighborhood stop into Deaton Marine and enjoy a day at the dock and the new lounge and bathroom! Now, it’s our turn. New washer and dryer in the wall recess, notice that the clearance is 1/4 inch!
All the walls insulated, sheetrock (instead of paneling) and new trim,
Two bathrooms now.