Replacing the Rub Rail on C34

Replacing the Vinyl insert Rub Rail 

At sometime in Eximius' past, it had a crunch on the Stbd side sufficient to crack the gel coat above the rub rail and to totally disfigure the profile of the Aluminium Rub Rail extrusion. We added to that when we bumped the Stbd Quarter of the hull against a concrete dockside while trying to avoid an unexpected out flow from a Fort Lauderdale Pump station on the New River just downstream from Andrews Avenue Bridge two years ago.

We left the repair until our planned haul out as it would be much easier with the boat out of the water than trying to do it in a dingy at the dock. 

The vinyl insert is secured to the boat by insertion into an Aluminum extrusion around the entire boat about 4" below the deck on the outside. 

The extrusion is secured with #10 pan head screws that just go into the side of the deck, but also a Pan head bolt about every 12" that has nuts on the inside of the hull, they are part of the deck to hull joint. 

Removing the vinyl rub rail was easy: Just remove the two 1" screws that hold the rubber strip where the two ends join at the center of the transom and then teasing out the ends with a screwdriver and then pulling the rubber strip out, it's about 70' long! (In our case, it was in two pieces as it was broken at the stern quarter right on the corner of the transom) When the first damage occurred, we don't know but when it happened, the owner decided to Glue the vinyl insert to the aluminum as it would no longer 'clip' into the upper and lower edges. We found out when removing the vinyl rub rail.

This pic shows the where I cut out the piece of Aluminum before cleaning up the surface and before chamfering the holes to allow decent sealing where the screws secure the extrusion to the sides of the deck.

I used a 4 1/2" cut off wheel to cut the extrusion on either side of the damage, that was about 2' long.

In this case, I had to remove the vinyl covered piece of plywood that covers the underside of the lamp valance in the aft berth. It's just three 2 1/2" SS screws.This pic shows the where I cut out the piece of Aluminum before cleaning up the surface and before chamfering the holes to allow decent sealing where the screws secure the extrusion to the sides of the deck.

I used a 4 1/2" cut off wheel to cut the extrusion on either side of the damage, that was about 2' long.

I ordered the Vinyl rub rail from Catalina Direct - $248. And, when I found the damaged extrusion and the glued attempt to fix it, I had to order a 6 1/2' piece of the Aluminum extrusion - $31 plus a bunch of shipping, but no getting around it. An expensive bump!

With the rubber rail removed, and the aluminum cut out, it took about 30 minutes up and down a ladder trimming the new piece of the metal extrusion to fit the gap and get the holes drilled to line up with the original.

I used Butyl tape to seal the holes and Peggy helped at the top of the ladder while I secured the nuts onto the pan head screws inside the aft berth. 

When it came to installing the new Vinyl, that's when it got tough! 

I anticipated that the vinyl might have curl memory as it arrived in a coil about 18" in diameter, so I planned to uncoil the rub rail vinyl and secure it to the boat at each stanchion with a tie wrap overnight in order to remove the curl. It's much more flexible than that, and there was really no need to unroll it. Remember that I'm doing this in South Florida in January with temps around the 70ºs.

Starting at the center of the transom, I worked at getting the vinyl inserted into the aluminum for about 90 minutes and only getting the port side and the bow done and my hands warning me that they were done too! Then I figured out how to do it easily! Dang!

To insert the vinyl rub rail into the Aluminum extrusion, simply lay about a foot of the lower edge of the vinyl into the metal rail, don't worry about trying to get the lower edge into the extrusion profile, then push down on the top of the vinyl and get about an inch or so of the top inserted. Lubricate the top edge of the vinyl with liquid soap and then hold the top edge of the vinyl about 1" off the metal rail about about 3 inches away from where the top of the vinyl is already inserted. Now press the top edge of the vinyl with a plastic handle (I used an old chisel) at about 45º off vertical, such that the vinyl bends outward. In doing so, the lower edge is forced into the lower part of the extrusion, and the upper edge pops into the upper part. If I had to do it all over again, it would take more time to move the ladder around the boat than it would take to insert the rub rail!

In order to get the two ends of the vinyl rub rail to meet nicely near the center of the transom, I left about 2" in excess at the start, then when I had completed the insert all around the boat, I trimmed the other end so that it was close to the center line. After drilling holes for the only 2 securing screws, I trimmed the vinyl so that the ends would butt nicely once the screws were holding it in place.

The whole job took about 4 hours, including cleaning out the years of salty crud that had accumulated under the vinyl rub rail. The original was Tan colored, but the replacement was Grey (my choice) and now I have about 10', not sure exactly, left over. But I hope we never have to replace it!

We could have just replaced about 8' of the original in order to repair the damage we caused, but the vinyl looked original, 30 years old and the lady deserves some fresh make up.

See you on the water.

Paul

1st Haul Out - Part 4

Completing the Rudder Bearing Repair.

As mentioned previously, the lower bearing of the Rudder had slop that was reported by the Surveyor when we purchased Eximius in 2015. We dropped the rudder carefully when the boat was hauled out last week and now it's time to complete the Rudder Bearing Repair.

Original plan was to complete the repair while the boat was in the crane straps during preparation for launch, however, after reading the instructions for the repair over several times, I did not feel comfortable trying to get everything back together when we were expecting to put the boat back in the water. The risk of something taking longer than expected was pretty stressful.

So we bit the bullet and had the crane come over and lift the boat so that we could replace the rudder and complete the repair.

Now to describe the repair.

Only the lower area of the rudder shaft housing was worn, there was basically no movement of the rudder post at the top of the rudder shaft housing.

This pic looks pretty simple. That's a bit misleading. The post passes up through the housing, the rudder post stuffing joint and the rudder steering quadrant, none of which are shown in this pic.

This describes the form of the repair. Basically, an Epoxy/Silica/Graphite mix is injected into the gap between the rudder post and the rudder shaft housing.

Step 1 is to remove the rudder, we did that during the haul out before the boat was lowered onto blocks. That gave me the opportunity to repair some damage to the bottom of the rudder that occurred when we went aground in Biscayne Bay last year.

With the rudder out of the boat, the damage repair was easy, just grind away to a solid depth and then fill with epoxy and filler, the area was too small to need much glass. Then the rudder was primed ready for re-inserting into the rudder housing.

The repair kit instructions required that the rudder post be clean, free of any burrs or 'divits' and then waxed. So I used 1200 grit wet and dry paper to clean up the rudder post and felt that it was in good shape.

Step 2 was to Wax the rudder post. I measured the depth of the rudder shaft housing and the depth to the holes drilled in the housing. The holes are about 5" above the lower edge of the shaft housing. So I applied solid wax on the lower 10" of the rudder post. I was concerned that when the rudder was being re-inserted, that the wax would make it awkward to handle. For that same reason, I did not apply Anti Fouling bottom paint to the rudder except for the part that would be out of reach when the rudder was installed.

Here's a pic of the one of the holes drilled in the rudder shaft housing, there are 3. It was really awkward getting into that area in order to apply the epoxy/silica/graphite mixture, but it worked.

Once everything was back together, I spent another 2 hours aligning the wheel so that a wheel spoke was vertical when the rudder was dead amidships. Peggy was watching the position of the rudder as I made multiple adjustments to the wires from the steering wheel to the steering quadrant.



The new flax insert into the stuffing box seems very well compressed, so I really hope we have minimized the risk of leaks from the top of the lower part of the rudder shaft housing.

Lessons learnt: Double check everything before re-inserting the rudder. Get new Bolts and Nuts for any that seem corroded, have a Car Jack handy for lifting the rudder up into the housing. And wear long sleeves, my arms are pretty scratched up from snagging the steering wires while replacing the bolts in the steering quadrant. And - Don't even think of doing this while hanging in the crane straps, The epoxy mix requires 8 hour to cure.

Outcome: The wheel feels much better, less sloppy and is now nicely aligned. I'll have to do a bit of ropework on the wheel to identify the centered rudder position.

See you on the water.

Paul

1st Haul Out - Part 3

We have been balancing working on the boat and spending quality time with our Grand Daughter and with trying to avoid sitting in going nowhere traffic at 5pm each day. So progress is not as fast as originally planned, but then I'm always the optimistic.

Today's big project was getting the Rudder re-installed, it went well but with a minor delay.

The marina team re-positioned the boat stands before we got down to the boat today around 10:45, so we quickly set to work sanding the bare patches previously covered by the stands, ground out the blisters we found and washed them out. We'll let them dry out overnight and apply resin tomorrow.

Around 1:30 today, the Marina crew stopped by and asked if we could be ready to re-install the rudder early, like in the next 20mins! I was confident that we had everything ready, even if we had just painted the parts of the rudder that would be difficult to reach once the rudder was back in place.

We quickly cleared up our tool bags and boxes around the boat so that the boat lift could surround our boat. I moved the truck out of the way and just as promised, they arrived to pick the boat up.

Plan was to raise the boat high enough in order to get the rudder post inserted into the rudder post tube in the bottom of the boat. As it would be inserted, they would have to pause to allow me to put the Steering quadrant over the rudder post inside the boat before the rudder was fully inserted.

That went perfectly to plan! then, as quickly as they arrived and put the straps around the boat's belly to lift her up, they lowered her back down and re-positioned the boat stands before removing the straps and driving the crane away.

Then I realized that I had not put the Rudder Post Stuffing cap onto the post prior to the Steering quadrant! Dang!!!!

Solution? I lowered the rudder to the ground, that left enough gap at the top of the rudder post to remove the steering quadrant and install the rudder post stuffing cap.

Deep Breath! all is ok.

Having fixed that little issue, I set about reconnecting the steering cables to the steering quadrant and securing the Emergency Tiller Cap at the top of the rudder post which actually stops the rudder falling out of the boat.

Phew!

Planing to get the rudder re-installed was a stressful process, so getting it taken care of was a big relief. I spent a short while re-connecting the steering cables to the quadrant and bolting the emergency tiller cap in place. Then a quick cleanup of the cockpit and around the boat, we were ready to head home and avoid the 5pm traffic

Well! Nearly! It seems that the Turnpike and I95 both get blocked every day around 4:30, patience ruled the day and we made it home safely. Time for a Shower, Dinner and a glass of wine!

Making progress.

See you on the water - next week!

Paul

Whole Boat Filter

The fresh water plumbing on Eximius is old. If it were copper pipe, that would not be an issue, but it's plastic hose, aged, can't see through it even though it's supposed to be transparent, and the Filter is from the dark ages. Time to re-plumb the Water works.

We installed a new Galley Sink Faucet, but in the process had to change out the fittings where the faucet attached to the Hot & Cold water hoses. It seemed that every connection that I touched started to leak!

And that water strainer! Yuk!

Looking for a replacement water filter online it cost $47.99 and I could buy a pretty decent water filter for the same price.

I decided to go with this product. It's an Under sink filter but is actually $10 less than the strainer, I guess it's because it does not have the word 'Marine' or 'Boat' in the product title.

The guys at Lowes were really helpful and we figured out what fittings to use to convert the filter to the 1/2" hose barbs that will connect to the boat plumbing.

While in there, I also replaced those awful water tank selector valves with Ball Valves.

1st Step was to cut out all of the hoses from the existing system, leaving just the Tank Supply lines from the Midships and Aft Water tanks.

Next, time to install the filter housing. It fits just behind the outboard edge of the Hot Water Tank on the bulkhead between the galley and the salon dinning seating.

Here you can see the Drinking Water Filtration system covered in an earlier blog post.

I know, it looks grotty down there.

The hose that goes off to the right connects the Midships Fresh Water Tank to the Vent Stanchion on the Starboard side deck.

The Yellow foam on the right is additional Fridge/Freezer insulation applied by a previous owner of Eximius

The ply board on the lower right is dirty, it cleaned up a bit, not much, really needs a paint job - one day when I have a can of white paint open!

Here's a schematic of the Fresh Water System.

The physical installation is pretty much similar.

There's a 3 port Cold water manifold made from 3 Nylon T connectors and hose clamps. The Selector Ball Valves are connected to a Nylon T Connector.

The New Filter is connected before the Pump so that all of the Fresh Water supply to all of the faucets is filtered.

Installation complete.

The left hand selector valve controls water flow from the Midships Tank, the right hand selector valve controls the water flow from the Aft Tank

The new ball valves make turning the water supply on and off a breeze, much easier than the old mis-matched valves.

The Blue and White ring wrenches are for the two filter types.

Spare filters are kept in the under seat locker in the Aft Berth.

The Cold water supply manifold is simply Barbed Hose T Connectors with a really short piece of hose between each.

The white hose on the lower right is the cold water supply for the bathroom.

It took about 2 hours to re-plumb the fresh water system. I did not replace the hoses to the bathroom or from Midships and Aft fresh water tanks.

And here's the final result!

We replaced both the Drinking Water faucet and the Galley Sink Water Faucet - they were only about $30 each from Amazon.

Very pleased with the result of this plumbing re-work, the flow has increased at all of the faucets, including the Sink Faucet in the bathroom. So having more, easy control of the galley sink water flow will help save water.
And they look really good!


See you on the water!

Paul

1st Haul Out - Part 2

Made progress on several fronts.

We started the Sanding of the below water line paint, found several hundred tiny blisters, most less than the size of a pinky fingernail. They should just sand out and get painted.

Biggest issue was finding a crack above and just forward of the cutlass bearing support, the crack appears on both sides of the skeg but I think it's easily solved.

Plan is to grind away the area each side of the crack, and layer in several stranded glass sheets with epoxy resin before priming and painting.

Here's the Port Side of the crack with the surrounding area ground away.

There's signs of an earlier repair (that white strip from the underside of the skeg up along the crack.

There are voids where the area was not filled correctly, could have been during manufacture, but the crack looks very recent.

Here's a view from underneath. The crack is clearly visible and the voids also.

Plan is still the same, fill the voids with epoxy resin, then build up the surface with glass fiber cloth spanning the crack.

I dug in a bit further to make it easier to fill the voids. I used the West System epoxy and really forced the resin inside the open crack and into the voids.

Voids filled as best I could, I then ground away the excess resin & filler so that I could layup the glass fiber.
Once ground down, I cleaned the area again with dewaxer and then layed up 6 layers of glass cloth. That pretty well brought the surface close to the normal surface level.
 I used my glass roller to squish out any air bubbles in the glass cloth/resin.

Once the resin was set, I sanded again to smooth out the area, then cleaned and applied some more filler to bring the surface back to it's correct profile. The glass cloth and resin spanned the crack on both the sides and underside.

Primed and ready for AntiFouling paint. Notice that I tied terry cloth towels around both ends of the cutlass bearing and kept them in place during all of the sanding and painting, I just did not want to get any dust, resin drips or paint onto the ends of the cutlass bearing.

It's ready for paint, and end of Day 7

So far:

• Skeg Crack repaired
• New Air Conditioning Raw Water Thru Hull installed
• Hull blisters opened, dried, sealed, faired, and primed.
• Rub Rail extrusion removed
• Rudder damage repaired & Primed
• Starboard side hull 1st Poly Strip application
• Prop & Shaft Polished.
• New Shaft Zinc installed.

Still to do:

• Replace damaged Aluminum Rub Rail by Stbd Gate Stanchion
• Complete the A/C Raw water plumbing upgrade (connect to new Thru Hull)
• Re-position the Galley sink drain Sea Cock (to make it easier to operate)
• Prep the Rudder post tube for the Rudder Bearing Repair Kit install 
• Replace the Rudder
• Paint below the waterline with Pettit Ultima SR 60 Coat #1
• Paint below the waterline with Pettit Ultima SR 60 Coat #2
• Install the new Rub Rail rubber extruision
• Remove the damaged White Waterline Vinyl stripe
• Apply new White Waterline Vinyl stripe
• Rebuild the Rudder control steering quadrant and setup Rudder & Wheel for correct Center.
• Install New Dry Bilge System
• Buff & Polish hull above the waterline
• Prep the boat for splash, Wednesday Jan 31st at 07:30 

Phew!

See you on the water.

Paul

Dropping the Rudder

If you own a sailboat, then you know how big the rudder is, it's always bigger when you take it off the boat!

We had to drop the rudder in order to fix the rudder bearings that cause a small amount of rudder wobble.

While the boat was out of the water during the Survey, 31 months ago, the Surveyor commented that we had a bit of slop in the rudder but nothing serious. I decided to fix that during the next haul out (now).


The Rudder is taller than the gap between the hull and the ground when the boat is on blocks, and I did not know the dimensions.

Here's the rudder dimensions. I'm guessing the rudder weighs about 50-60lbs it could be more if I'm boasting.

We had to have the boat yard leave the boat hanging in the crane straps while I freed the bolts that held the rudder in place, that took over an hour, but with the help of an impact driver I was able to get them out with a few minutes of hang time left.


The pic shows the rudder after repairing the lower edge that was damaged during a recent grounding and after it's 1st of 3 coats of primer.

Here are the rudder details.

1987 Catalina 34
Tall Rig Fin Keel  #463
Rudder Dimensions

Total Height of Rudder from Post top to lower tip of rudder: 87.25”

Top of Post  to upper surface of Rudder: 36”

Top of Post to forward most edge of Rudder: 44.5”

Post center to Aft Top Edge of Rudder:16.5”

Post center to Fwd top edge of Rudder:8”

With boat on Blocks

Height of Fin from Ground: 8.5”

Height of bottom edge of Rudder Post Tube to Ground: 68.5”

Fin Clearance from Ground required to remove rudder : 87.25-68.5-8.5=27.25”

So, in order to drop the rudder,  the Keel has to be 27.25” inches above the ground  - or – about a 30” hole beneath the Rudder.


Paul

1st Haul out Day 1

Getting to the Marina

We had planned on getting Eximius hauled out for various jobs that needed the boat high and dry. Our choice of Marina was made after asking many of the HISC club members about their experience at the various DIY marinas in South Florida. IMHO Playboy Marina came out tops, and it had the advantage that it's located only 90minutes from our dock.

We visited the Marina several weeks ago to find out the details of what's allowed to be done and what protocols needed observing. Most of the protocols involve keeping the Marina clean and environmentally healthy.

We left our truck at the house where we keep the boat,  and headed down at 8:30am. We had forgotten that the bridges would not lock down as it is Martin Luther King's day. We made a leisurely motor down to Port Everglades and had to slow down due to arrival too early. Lisa from the Marina called my mobile phone and advised that we could get there early as they were ready and waiting. So we pushed the throttle forward as we were 20 minutes away and opposite the Port Everglades Port Authority building. We got to the marina at 10:25.

The arrival team easily guided us into the crane slings. FYI, if you're going to get hauled there, have Stern lines ready, they won't use bow or center lines, just stern lines. We had a fender out on each side, but the crane out point is very protected from North and West Winds like today.

As they hauled the boat out, Peggy watched while I completed paperwork in the office.

Top on my list of projects was the drop the rudder so that we could install the Catalina Direct Rudder bearing that would eliminate the slop in the rudder post. I spent 75 minutes working inside the aft locker taking out the bolts that secured the rudder post into the rudder post tubes. Most of that time was spent removing a single bolt that had corroded into the lower part of the Steering Quadrant wheel. Steel bolts in Aluminium castings never go well. By the time they were ready to lower the boat onto the blocks, I had released the rudder.

While I was up top, Peggy secured our canvas bag over the lower end of the rudder, my plan was to release the bolts and catch the rudder in the bag which was secured to the aft cleats.

It worked exactly as planned although I had issued several expletive deletives while pounding out that stubborn bolt despite that fact that I had multiple applications of PB Blaster to all of the bolts that secure the rudder post.

Relieved that I was able to drop the rudder before they blocked the boat and that saved about $200 for a reblocking fee.

Cleaning up the tools used to get the rudder out, we left the boat around 13:20 and called a Uber ride to take us back to the truck. Once back at the truck we ate our lunch sandwiches (home baked bread and turkey/salad sandwiches) and some hot thermos coffee. Then back to the Marina.

In the past, we have taken I 95 down to Griffin road and then Griffin all the way East as far it goes. But the Uber driver returned us to the dock via I595, I95 Broward Blvd. A much better route. So we took that route back to Playboy Marina.

Back at the boat I started to make progress on the various projects. 1st was to clean the hull where the Crane Slings had prevented the arrival team from pressure washing the hull, then clean out the gap between the rudder and the keel stub, not sure if there's a special name for that part of the hull. Then drill the hole for the new Thru Hull in the bow.

On the inside of the boat, I prepared the inside area around the new thru hull hole using my Vibro tool and a carbide tip. It took about 15 minutes to get a nice clean surface that the new Thru Hull backing plate will be glassed to. Next it was onto the old raw water hose from the old thru hull under the bathroom sink. The middle of the 3 old thru hulls supply the drain for the Shower Sump, the Raw salt water for the head flush system (which we do not use, we flush with fresh water) and the Air Conditioning raw water. By removing the A/C raw water hose it simplifies the plumbing substantially. The new thru hull will supply raw water to the A/C pump.

It was nearly 15:30, and seemed like a long day, but I'm really pleased with Day 1 Progress. 

Day 2 will be focused on hull prep if it's dry (no rain please) otherwise it will be focused on interior projects, there's a few!

Really pleased with how things went, no nasty surprises, and the previous bottom paint held up incredibly well, no barnacles except in the gap between the rudder post and the stub keel.

Before we left the marina to head home, we met with the owners of Blown Away, fellow members from the HISC that are having several jobs done to the boat.

All set for going back down to the marina around 07:30 / 08:00 tomorrow.

Have to back my bread now!

See you on the water.

Paul