Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Replacing Steaming Light - Part II

Part II - cleaning up the mess

It was up the mast again on July 5th.
The boat was at the Bahia Mar Marina for the HISC Independence Day Cruise 2019 - and there was a break in festivities on the Friday, so I climbed the mast again to clean up the area where the old lights were fitted in prep for the new lighting fixture.

It took over an hour of carefully scraping away the oodles of silicone sealant that was slathers all around the old fittings.

I countersunk the outside of the holes to give the JB Weld something to grip to. Polished the area with a plastic scrub pad and then finally de-greased the whole area before applying JB Weld to the holes. (that part is not shown in the pic)




Viewed from the deck - telephoto is great - this was after applying the JB Weld and descending the mast.

Since the last climb, we purchased a West Marine Bosuns Chair - it's far more comfortable and allows for a longer time spent aloft getting the job done. But it has a weakness - it really feels as though one could fall out of the chair backwards and there's a constant need to move my butt back onto the seat rather than in the bucket that is formed between the seat and the back of the chair.

I'm thinking of adding a couple of webbing straps to keep my thighs in contact with the seat and prevent sliding backwards.

Meanwhile the area cleaned an the holes filled.

Next trip up the mast will get the JB Weld bumps smoothed down and the holes redrilled for the new light fitting. I should be able to complete the install in just one more climb - at least that's the hope. If it takes two, then OK, but probably just one more trip up the stick.

The Third trip up the mast completed the project
Here's the Combo Navigation Steaming and Deck Light that I purchased off of Amazon.



See you on the Water.

Paul

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