Abake's "New" Sole

Abake has new life and is starting to look like she wants to go cruising!  This past week the floor was re-laid in the galley and in the dining area.  Some of it had to be cut to fit the reconfigured refrigerator and stove arrangement.  About 100 plugs had to be glued and sanded. 

Installing the galley floor

These show the galley floor and the dining area (entrance at the companionway).

Dining area (bottom of companionway)

Galley floor

The stove insert also arrived and fits the frame.  So Mike ran the gas line for the stove and installed the refrigerator condenser under the stove.  It has plenty of room for air circulation, so we're hoping to get good efficiency in this location:

New stove insert (and condenser below)

Condenser with breathing room

Mike also cut a new countertop for the refrigerator out of marine plywood and added 3" of insulation.  The current project is now to install it.

And, the roller furling lead blocks were installed, along with the line.  So along with the sail modification, we now have the forestay cruising configuration completed.  Well, we'll need a sock or cover for the jib.  But that's not urgent.

Is that Sew?

Yes, that's sew!  Jenny hasn't been sitting on her duff (while she's not at work) while Mike is slaving away on Abake.  After the winch covers were finished, we decided that we definitely need screens for the portholes.  Since the screens that fit inside the porthole frame aren't made in Abake's size (and shape) any more, we needed a quick compromise.  So, we went with what we'll call the "shower cap" design, and made 10 of them, one for each of the portholes.  Now when we get to the Bahamas, we won't be bit by mosquitoes while inside.  No see 'ums?  Probably.  But not mosquitoes.


Porthole screen

 Then, gathering up the courage to cut on the jib and the working jib, Jenny tackled the job of converting the hanked-on jib sails to the luff tape for our new roller furling.  She studied the video from Sailrite (from where we also had obtained all the materials for both sail conversions), made notes, made measurements, then swallowed some rum for courage (not too much -- the cut had to be perfectly straight!) and started cutting the hank-on luff off of the working jib.  (The working jib was the guinea pig -- if mistakes were to be made, it was on the smaller, lesser-used sail.)

For those of you who have no clue what we're talking about, the old sails (the different sizes of jib sails) were raised by clipping the forward edge (the luff) of the sail onto a cable (the forestay, see clip in picture on right).  A rope (halyard) used to pull it up until it was taut.  With a furler, you only raise the sail once (slide the luff up the grooves in the tube) and then roll (furl) the sail around the tube (the furler) when it's not needed.  The sail stays raised, but is rolled or unrolled (furled or unfurled) as needed.  And, a rope is wrapped around a drum at the bottom, allowing you to furl and unfurl (and partially unfurl) the sail from a distance (e.g., the cockpit). 


 

Cutting off the old luff with the hanks

 

Old clip that is "hanked on" to the forestay



 



Basting the luff tape to the sail



Since we were lucky and both of our sails were short enough to fit on the furler without cutting down the sail, we saved a couple of big steps.  After cutting off the old luff, the sail is held taut and the new luff tape is basted, using a stapler, into place.  You can see that the new luff tape has a small rope in the one edge.  This edge is what slides up the groove in the furler.  So rather than only fastening at the hanks, the entire luff of the sail is attached to the forestay.



Sewing the new luff tape



Then, the sewing begins.  For the two sails we used a total of 8 bobbins and only broke 1 needle!  (One was broken when repairing the sails, so that doesn't count here.)  Dacron tape is basted and sewn at the luff edge where no furling tape is sewn.  Two lines of zigzag stitching holds the new luff tape to the sail.  And the edge of the luff tape is sealed by folding a piece of draft tape over the edge and stitching it on.

Webbing basted, before stitching

Finally, sew on the 1" webbing with a loop for the new head and tack.  

This is now a sail that fits our new furler.  We took the working jib to Abake and raised it in 10-12 knot winds to make sure everything worked okay, and found we were successful.  Happily, the second jib was converted. 

Now, for those who think that it sounds easy, here are some shots of the "sail loft" we used (after washing the garage floor).  Try wrestling with this much fabric.  It took 30 seconds of sewing, then 3 minutes of adjusting the fabric so the next 12-16" could be sewn.  The top two pictures are of the (smaller) working jib.  The third (lower, center) is the full jib.

Sewing the working jib

Working jib stretched out

Full jib piled up after sewing

Almost Have Refrigeration!

This week we re-configured some of the lines under the cabin sole, so there was room for the water lines.  New holes had to be drilled between the compartments in the floor to make enough room for all of the lines.  With all that done, we have only the (fresh water) line to the foot pump in the galley yet to be run.

We also spent an afternoon tuning the standing rigging (after putting up the roller furling).  We need to order a couple more stanchion blocks for running the furling line.  (We have two and want one on each stanchion that it passes, so we need two more.)  We tried out exactly where we want to run it and are satisfied with the configuration ... that is, until we use it!  Because these four blocks go over the stanchions, it's relatively easy to move the furling line inside or outside of the stanchion, should we decide to change it. In order for the line to furl properly and evenly, this first block helps to position the line at a 90-degree angle to the furling drum.  (Thanks Elysium ... you can see your block has been put to good use!) 

The first block for the furling line

And, since the halyard that Mike was on while we raised the furler started to fray when it was rubbing against the halyard we used to raise the roller furling, we've finally ordered new halyards for the jib (2), the main (1), and the staysail (1).  It's well worth it, since Mike hasn't made his last trip up the mast. 

We also ordered the sheet metal insert and the overhead hood for the stove.  The hood liner arrived and the insert will be done this coming week.

But most importantly, we have insulation!  With the fiberglass tub for the refrigerator mounted and the vacuum-inslation panels all set, Mike was able to finish framing the refrigerator and began mixing and pouring in the rest of the insulation to fill the gaps.  He ran out and has ordered some more, but this coming week we'll be drinking our first bottle of chilled wine from the refrigerator.  One of the fitting for the cold plate also had a bad flare, so he's trying to get that fixed. 

So this pour-in insulation is tricky.  Once you mix the two parts together, you only have 45 seconds to pour it all into the space you want insulated.  That is when it starts to expand and harden.  We stood there and listened to it crackle as it expanded to press against the wood cabinet (lined with plastic) and the fiberglass tub.  We feel that we're getting a good seal of insulation.

Stirring the mixture

Pouring the insulation

Watching the insulation expand upward to fill the gap; almost full!

VIPs and A New Roller Furling

Our vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) arrived!  So Mike continued to run lines, cut teak, and frame the space for the refrigerator and the stove. 

Framing the cabinets

Then the VIPs were installed:

Insulation panels installed

and the final framing completed (there will be a narrow vertical cabinet between the two). 

Mikey does such good work!

We are waiting on some connectors for the refrigeration lines, and we need to have the stove liner made.  Then it will all come together.  The floor still needs to be replaced and we have to cut new formica and re-install the cabinets with sliding doors, but we won't have to keep toting a cooler every time we head to work on the boat!

Because we don't finish one project before starting another one (gotta keep working on it!), we installed our new roller furling today.  Well, we got it assembled and affixed to the mast and the bowsprit.  We'll go back tomorrow to finish installing the drum and the furling line.  The furler was built on the dock and then hauled up by a halyard with Mike up the mast and Jenny and a few neighbors at the marina (thanks Phil, Jody, and Billy!) helping us raise the furler.  It's secured, but saggy (shows up white in this picture):

Saggy roller furling

Mounting the pedestal guard

This past week Mike mounted the pedestal guardtook out the table saw and made an adapter plate for the pedestal guard, using starboard.  It connects the pedestal with the guard (see the picture).  You can also see that he mounted the housing and the Raymarine multi-function display.  Now there's just enough room to mount our Tack Tick instrument displays!


New Pedestal Guard and Display


He also continued to fiberglass the rest of the refrigerator tub.  The inside is almost done -- just finishing up painting over the joint.  And, he finished replacing the bad decking board (gluing and screwing and plugging and sanding, leaving only caulking to be done).  Then he began building the compartment for the oven using marine plywood.  This needs to be firmly connected to the hull, so he had more fiberglass work to do.  (The sticks are just temporarily holding the board in place.)  You can see where some leftover space will evolve into a skinny cabinet for cookie sheets and cutting boards, can't you?

We also replaced the traveller control lines for the main, seeing as how the existing ones made us a little nervous.  We kept with the "blue" theme for any lines/sheets for the main.

And, we were able to use our sail loft to repair the broken stitches we had found in the sails:




The McDiarmid Sail Loft


We're expecting our vacuum-insulated panels to arrive tomorrow, so guess what will be our focus next?  Well, that AND the roller furling that arrived via UPS.  The driver was glad we were home -- it was hot out and the boxes were heavy.  We wanted to start getting it installed, but it rained on Monday.  However, we did order the conversion kits for the two head sails that we have.