It’s a good thing we got a sailboat, because Jason is so creative with using ropes and pulleys to get shit done! We needed to get the exhaust tubing off of the muffler, but didn’t have any space to work in. Jason tied a rope to the exhaust and rigged up a few pulleys and a line that could be pulled with the winch up on the deck. The hose came off easily! (Jason’s a keeper, but I already knew that!) So that’s half of our exhaust replacement done. Today we hit up the other side, which is connected to the transom of the boat. Jason did another crafty thing with ropes and I pulled on it using the winch. (I got the easy part!) Unfortunately, this side didn’t come off as easily and we literally ripped the 3″ hose in half. This is shitty for 2 reasons… one is that it means that this entire run of hose has delaminated and the wire inside is rusted away so it’s completely failed… and the other is that now we have a stub of broken rubber hose to pull off of the boat and it’s located in a very hard to reach area.
This is another one of those things that was annoying to have to fix, however if it failed could have sunk the boat, or at least filled it with exhaust fumes and seawater. This is why I’m inspecting all of the hoses to make sure they’re not cracked and corroded. One of the bilge pump hoses is looking pretty rough, but it’s on our list of things to fix at a later date.
While I was in the aft lazarette I remembered that I needed to paint these spaces bright white! I started to clean the paint with acetone and realized that it made the paint sticky. I’m not sure what the boat was painted with and I have no idea if it’s compatible with the paint that I’m using (bilgekote white). The can says that it’s compatible with “any” paint… so I did a test patch and we will check it tomorrow. If it’s adhered and dry, I’ll go to work! Otherwise… I guess I get to scrape it off.
The lazarette isn’t the only place that needs paint though… I also need to paint the little storage areas in the master bedroom floor where we did the structural repairs. Those have been sanded and prepped for paint for weeks now, so they’re good to go!
Also, we never installed the canvas on the dodger at the front of the cockpit of the boat. There’s nowhere outside the boat that has any shade at all. Usually I don’t care, but there’s no room inside the boat to work and I have engine room insulation that I need to cut and spray with adhesive. While cleaning out the boat Jason and I found this lightweight blue tarp thing. We had no idea what it was for, so we threw it into the cabinet with the other spares just to get it out of our way for the time being. I drug that out today and strung it up haphazardly. It’ll work just fine and now I have a shady spot to work!
She’s still a classy boat even with a blue tarp on top!