Alajuela 38
I know this may seem trivial … but the tiller was installed this morning. It has been six months since the tiller/rudder was complete. Somehow, this seems momentous. I am very pleased with the esthetics of the rudder rebuild … so much better than the ugly stainless cap that was about to be put on by the previous owner.
The instrument panels were installed in the cockpit today. Enough room was left to the left to install the Standard Horizon SSM-70H 2.5″ Wired Remote Access Microphone (RAM4).
All of the instruments in the cockpit have been replaced except for the Westerbeke Diesel engine instrument panel. The panel looked pretty weathers. However, it was possible to buy spare parts for the panel, including the bezel, Plexiglass window, and rubber covers for the buttons. The challenge was to move the instruments to the new bezel. There were perhaps 50 wire connections. A label-maker was used to label all of the terminals and the wires.
The final result was a new-looking panel.
Note a new Westerbeke Admiral Instrument Panel costs $750, but the cost for replacing the bezel, window, button covers and a new ignition with was about $100.
I replaced the rusty vinyl-coated steel cable lifelines today with 1/4″ Dyneema using Johnson Marine fittings:
Taper the tail:
Bury the tail:
Two different Brummel splices are used. Fittings that are too large to fit through lock-splice are put on first using Brummel lock splice where both ends free. For the smaller fitting that can pass through the rope, a Brummel lock place is used for one end attached. The additional step in the later splice re-inverts the rope after passing the fitting through the tail.
In prepping the mast for painting,
I discovered a tang for one of the upper spreader stays has partially pulled out and was bent.
There is come corrosion of the aluminum, so a significant repair/reenforcement is called for. I have designed a stainless steel cap and Rafael is manufacturing it for me.
After a half-dozen workers labored for almost two days, Aegir-Ran’s mast was finally unstepped.
The problem was the previous owner has fiberglassed the base of the mast, presumably to block water (which make no sense because the mast is open at the top). While some people advised that we cut off an inch from the bottom of the mast to free is, we instead removed the bracket for the boom vang, moved the Spartite plug up the mast and away from the deck, so enough room was created between the mast and the deck so the mast could be rocked back and forth to free it.
It is noteworthy that the initial effort to remove the mast put so much pressure on the crane that one of the cables broke (and had to be held in place by a Cat tractor while the mast was removed.
The original stove was probably a two-burner propane model. During the refit in the early 2000’s, a genset was installed, the propane stove and locker were removed, and a non-gimbaled induction cook surface and convection oven were installed. Toward our goal of being environmentally friendly, we removed the diesel-burning genset and the galley appliances. Our options for a replacement propane stove were limited. In fact, there was only one commercial stove that would fit, a Force 10 “Euro Sub-compact” 3-burner stove. Unfortunately, the new stove is about 3 inches narrower than the previous one. As a first effort, we made a spacer out of teak (using the discarded cheeks from the rudder). While functional, we did not like the appearance., the gap seemed to invite dropping things in the crevasse, and it did not seem sturdy enough. So, we set out to construct a proper cabinet. Because the brackets for the new stove required high tolerance (within a 1/4″ in width) and the existing cabinet was (naturally) not square, it was necessary to have proper woodworking tools. Unfortunately, ours were not in Mexico. We borrowed a cheap miter saw from a relative in Tucson and purchased an inexpensive table saw from Home Depot. As an aside, we highly recommend the Ryobi RTS12T Table Saw for about $200. While at Home Depot in Tucson, we also picked up some 1 x 3″ (actually 0.75 x 2.5″) appearance board. To make the construction easier, we also picked up a cheap nail gun at Harbor Freight (on sale for $20) and used the compressed air in the yard. The first step was to create a frame (the piece in the back is temporary and some of the components required gluing before ripping to the proper width).
After filling the nail holes, sanding, varnishing (necessary to apply the veneer), and sanding smooth, we insulated with some fiberglass and installed locally-sourced 20 gauge 306 stainless.
Teak veneer with 3M self-adhesive is easy to cut (and trim once applied) with a sharp utility knife, and once a couple of coats of varnish are applied, it is unlikely to come off.
Because considerable effort was put into “measuring ten times and cutting once”, the stove fit like a glove.
A bonus of the stainless firewall is the lock for the gimbal (lower right) is simply a hole drilled in the firewall (no need to install the hardware supplied by Force 10). As a note, if you are going to drill through stainless, you will need cobalt-tipped bits.
The hull was painted with primer today.
The original problem in the rudder was delamination, which we detected during the original survey by “tapping” the fiberglass. After drilling a hole to check the integrity of the foam (which was fine) and establish the core was dry, the delaminated section was cut out.
After the edges of the cutout were ground beveled, the area was built up again with a series of increasingly larger pieces of mat. A small section of the rudder at the position of the middle gudgeon was removed (shown in lower right) to allow the rudder to be more easily removed without the need to remove the corresponding pintle.
Stress fractures were ground out and patched.
The entire rudder was covered with a layer of mat.
The backside of the new 316 stainless-reinforced cheeks (April 22 post) were glassed, then they were mounded to the rudder with countersunk 316 stainless bolts.
A spacer was fabricated from the old teak cheeks and the bolt holes were filled with epoxy.
The entire rudder was covered in mat and epoxy mixed with West Systems 407 filler (which makes it easier to sand).
After sanding, the entire rudder was coated with epoxy mixed with some primer. Below the waterline, the epoxy was mixed with a powdered aluminum vapor barrier (the darker color).
After several months of work, the rudder is now ready to be remounted on the boat.
