Almost there

Had a chance to put six solid hours of work on the bottom and it shows. I got quite a lot scraped and sanded as can be seen from the pic below. Both sides are pretty much done and only those hard to reach places remaining.

Aft to bow

 IT is slightly difficult to scrape the sides around waterline since the position that you need to get to is difficult. The reason is quite simple; snow. As you can see there is about a solid meter of snow on both sides of the boat, bit more on the SB side since there is another boat that sheds it's snow to the same pile.

Old propeller log and grounding plate 

Visible here is the old propeller log (which is not working). Right behind it the black lump is the grounding plate for electrics. I'm thinking of getting rid of the log since it has no use and only creates drag. I'm still torn if I will take the whole log of and patch the bottom, or only take the propeller away... May be the first alternative, if I have enough time.

Old patch job

So far I have found four patch jobs from the boat, which is actually not that much given the boat's age and the fact that the engines have been changed. I'm pretty sure that the patches slightly aft from amidships are old raw water intakes for the old engines (visible here on the upper left corner of the image). I sanded the patches and found that they have been done quite nicely, not perfect but they will hold. They had been painted with a primer. Curiously enough at few places the fiberglass extended over the old ablative paint from the edges, well not any more it's all dust in the wind now...

Not much left 

Not much scraping left anymore, only few square meters to go. In hours I guess that the scraping will take two hours (plus sanding) and then the bottom would be bare. Of course there's still a lot to do but it will be easy and less messy.

Tools of the trade 

These are the basic tools used in this job. A proper scraper with carbide blades (Bahco Ergo) and random orbital sander (Bosch PEX 270 AE). Most of all proper sanding discs. I will never ever sand anything with old sanding discs anymore. I have found that Mirka's Abranet sanding mesh material is supreme to anything else. It will outlast anything and also outperform anything else I have ever tried, so be advised. 

Grind by night

Once again had a chance to sand the bottom for about an hour or so. This time I started from he SB side and tackled the area around props. All went smoothly and I got about two squaremeters sanded before it was time to head back home.

The picture is horrid but you can see two things, first of all it was dark and secondly...PROGRESS!

It will surely take many trips to the boat and a major load of elbow grease but I'm getting there. Can't wait for the summer and a chance make wakes once again, meanwhile just look at the pic below.

Basic stuff

If someone else is planning to do this kind of work over the winter, please be adviced...

When the temperature goes over the freezingpoint and there has been a longer period of subzero temperatures the boat effectively gathers moisture on the outside of its hull since it is still colder than the surroundings, this is especially true if there is a high humidity level. I know all this but did not think it through...

Yesterday evening I had already set up my lights and generator up and running and I started to sand the bottom only to find it to be an exercise in futility. The moisture made it impossible, the sanding disc clogged up in seconds and it was a mess. If only the weather would stay in subzero temperatures, my life would be easier.

Still scraping and sanding

I have lost count on the number of times I have been to the boat and done the scraping thing, the problem is that it is hard to find the time when you would have more than an hour to spare. So instead, It's progress in baby steps.

Some progress, so far. The bow section on both sides is pretty much clean already. But since this is a 34 footer there's a lot more boat left. The pic below shows my generator, it is a handsome unit and should be because it cost about 45 euros. So it is a two- stroke, El cheapo machine but it delivers enough electricity for my Bosch sander, so it's all good..

If you happen to buy this generator and experience the same blackout that I had (engine runs great but no power out), here's how you fix it:

- one carefully aimed kick to the lower part of the front panel, not hard but still a sound kick.

The volt meter came back to life and everything worked. I just love technology that is this simple to fix :-)

Line drawing, sort of

Here is a freehand line drawing that has been drawn according to the original from the sales brochure which I think was originally printed in the early 70's. This drawing has now found it's way to our new "crew" shirts for the next season. So, look for Carpe Diem prints around you... If you find us, please say hi! 

"Line drawing" Storebro 34

Anchor+Winch=Fixed

Once the winch was out of the boat I could start working with it. Sadly I had to watch the kids at the same time so not many pics from the work but lets start with the finished product. On the right side of the drum you can see the gray belt, this was the culprit that caused us to drop the anchor without the line attached.

The picture below shows the internal view of the right end of the winch once the cover plate was taken off. I needed to take all those pulleys and belt driven gears off and lift the whole the side off. After that it was a breeze to put new belt into its place. 

One more shot of the winch which clearly shows the structure how the winch was originally put together. The whole operation exluding the time it took to detach it from the boat was about one hour... Piece of cake. 

Anchor + winch = anchorwinch problems

Last summer we experienced a major problem with our anchor winch. Eventually the problem lead to the fact that we lost a brand new anchor. The problem was that the winch had snapped the drive belt that guides the line spooling and makes sure that all goes smooth. Well, as there was nothing making sure that the spooling worked the line had gotten tangled and over the side of the drum, which in turn caused it to break and left us with only one anchor in the boat.

In the pic above the winch is already removed and on its way to my kitchen table where I need to take the right side off in order to install the new drive belt. The winch is a Swedish made Anchormatic line winch with wireless remote control. Unfortunately it is impossible to dismantle the winch while on boat since the thru transom bolts also tie the both ends together, thus a full removal is required. 

Here are the brains behind the winch. There is a separate antenna for the wireless control, otherwise all connections are made here. Neat and efficient. 

Here is a shot of what the aft cabin looks like when all the pieces have been taken apart. The beauty of it is that all those panels and trims come out without tools and everything is accessable. It would take just ten minutes to put everything back together.

This another shot shows the extra stuff I found from the boat. I knew that it had a disabled autopilot but I was thinking that all the extra gear would have been removed from the boat. But no there they are. A fluxgate compass and a separate hydraulic unit for the rudders are in fact still there. So now I just need to check why there is no power coming to the control unit at,the helm and whether these units are in working order and can be brought back to life. The units are here on the right hand side.