1st Haul Out

1st Haul Out 

Ok, not the first, that happened when we had the boat hauled for the Survey when we purchased the boat (then 'Chris Deke', now 'Eximius') in May 2015.

The Plan

Haul the boat at Playboy Marina in Dania, Paint the bottom, clean & polish the deck and hull, install the Catalina Direct Rudder Bearing upgrade, install a new Thru Hull for the Air Conditioning.

Here's a link to my working spreadsheet, it will change as the project progresses.

Bottom Paint

From the posts on the C34 forum, it should take about 1.5 gallons of bottom paint, that's at $311+ per gallon. We're going to apply 2 coats and they need 3-6 hours between coats. All cleaning above the bottom paint has to be complete before applying 1st coat in order to ensure we don't contaminate it before applying coat #2. And the 2nd coat needs 16 hours drying time before launch. So the timing of practically everything has to be molded around the bottom paint job.

Rudder bearing upgrade

The rudder has a small amount of wobble that can be felt by trying to move the lower edge of the rudder (when the boat is out of the water). Wobble can get worse and ultimately lead to rudder failure. So we're installing the Catalina Direct Rudder Bearing kit. Basically we inject a mixture of epoxy resin between the rudder post, which is part of the rudder, and the rudder post tube which is glassed into the hull beneath the helm seat. The challenge here is to get the rudder out. It has probably never been dropped in the last 30 years, the Steel Bolts in the Aluminum steering quadrant (which is really a two part circular plate.) are almost certainly seized. My solution is to apply PB Blaster every few days for several weeks prior to hauling the boat and then to have an impact screw gun available. 

The biggest issue here will be getting the boat reblocked when the rudder is ready to be dropped and again when it's ready to be reinstalled.

If this cannot be done during this haul out, it can wait.

Thru Hull for Air Conditioning Raw Water

The AC system is cooled using Raw Water. Currently, the supply hose is about 20 feet long and reaches from the Thru Hull used for the Shower Sump and Head Raw Water (flushing). So there are currently 3 hoses attached to that Thru Hull. The AC pump (located in the V-Berth by the AC unit) has a long way to suck water, so my plan is to install a new Thru Hull in the V-Berth which will reduce the supply hose length to about 3' or less. The install will include a barbed T fitting that will have a closed cap to allow clean-out of the Thru Hull with a rod from inside while the boat is in the water.

In preparation for this project, I have made a Fiberglass backing plate with replaceable studs as shown on Rod's website. 

This project should take less than an hour on the hard as most of the prep will have been done before getting to the boat yard and having her hauled and placed in stands on the hard.

So, that's the plan. My neighbor has offered to assist with the work for a couple of days and I'm hoping to get it all done in 4 days, but have budgeted for 7 days, at over $100 per day, I have an incentive to work my butt off!

Target date to get started is 2nd week of December, but is subject to yard availability, they need about 4 weeks advance notice. So I need to book around November 27th. Time to get those ducks in a row.

And we're planning on a few sailing trips before then. Wooohooooo!

See you on the water.

Paul