December is here and it snowed!

Well there were a few flurries and a little dusting to the ground but the real change in the
weather was the temperatures. Very cold sub-freezing at night and barely breaking 40 during the days.

So my boat yard has cut off the water for the winter. I had planned to run the diesel a little more but that will have to wait. I will try it with water from the fresh water tanks at least once more in a week or so to suck a little anti-freeze in the raw water side of the cooling system. Then it will be time to drain those tanks.

Most of my work this weekend was removing the final ceiling battens from the V-berth area. They call this "ceiling" but it is not overhead - but on the side walls. The first step is to dig out the wood plugs hiding the screws in the trim - not a hard job but a little tedious. Next is the 100+ unscrewing job for both sides. Most came out easily - but some needed the aid of a screw extractor.

The area behind the battens was a little grungy but nothing too bad.

If you do look at the top of the picture above you can see a white glassy thing. It is a deck prism - something boats used hundreds of years ago to get light below deck. And it works really well.

So my plan is to refinish the batten at home, clean up the area behind them and add some urethane foam insulation to the hull before reinstalling the battens. Now I have about 90 or so battens plus the drawers, doors, floorboards, and other wooden items to keep me busy through the winter.

Let me jump back to one of my earlier successes - the propane stove/oven. It is a nice Shipmate - but not exactly designed to be left underwater for 3 weeks. I did remove it the second weekend after salvage and immediately torn it down. I removed the propane tank, regulator and solenoid from the boat. Assembling everything in my shed - I found the solenoid and regulator worked and the two top burners did as well after cleaning the jets. I didn't even think about trying the oven as it will definitely need a new controller.  I do like the Shipmate construction  - it is well made. Note the nice blue flames.

Ok - enough for now - but I have progressed nicely with wiring of the Vetus Diesel control panel so I will write about that next time.....

Sailor Jim

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi Everyone,

Yes, I am a little late with my greeting but better late than never. I also noticed that it had been 10 days since I last posted and had told myself I would like to make this close to a weekly deal so I'm just plain late.

I did have a nice Turkey Day with my kids - Liz and Michael visiting along with my sister from Charlotte, NC. I cooked a 20 pound turkey and it came out great!.

Now back to the Westsail. I have been busy working on it, but unfortunately nothing too exciting to report. On Thanksgiving morning I cleaned the storm jib and the main sail. The jib had been in the boat underwater - full of salt.

While the main did not go underwater - in was inches away and the salt did need to be washed out. It had been home to several mud wasp nest -- leaving a nasty yellow muddy stain.

A couple of weeks ago I had the drifter, cruising spinnaker, and tri-radial spinnaker all washed in my bathroom whirlpool tub. Those light fabric worked well in the tub. After washing, I hung them from a third story window to dry. The cruising spinnaker is huge!

I have continued to remove wood from the boat. After removing all the easy items (drawers, shelves, doors) I moved on to the more difficult. The cabin walls were made up
of horizontal battens, which are screwed to vertical stringers. Most of those screws came out easily but the end trim had to come off as well. They had their screws behind wooden plugs which had to be dug out. At first I struggled with that process but now have a small chisel and a method that works rather well. I know I have plenty of more hidden screws like that to come.

I did attack the plumbing in the bathroom as well. I removed all the hoses, sewage transfer pump, and head to be kept in storage till later. My plan is to remove all hoses and wiring. Most of the hoses will be reused but the wiring will all be replaced.

So next time I will tell you of my progress with the engine control panel. It is coming along nicely and I may have taken it for a test run by the time I write again.

Sailor Jim

Let's Catch Up!

Ok, let me use this post to update you as to where "nameless" is right now. Sorry - I will name her but I just haven't found the right one yet.

After raising her, the salvage company towed her to a local repair yard in Deltaville on Fishing Bay. It was at their dock that I was able to get my diesel running and then they hauled her and power washed the exterior grim off.

So this is how see looked straight off the bottom -- remember she was under for 3 weeks.

and then after power washing......

The biggest surprise is that the teak decks cleaned up very nicely.

So what have I been doing so far?

I've spend a fair amount of time playing with the diesel - running it and changing fuilds. All the electrical controls, indicators and wiring will need to be replaced. I will not be using the OEM replacement unit that cost $1000 - instead I'll make my own custom unit.

On the interior I have been ripping out the headliner - and underlining plywood. I have removed every drawer, door, panel - that could be removed and have them in my garage.Those made of solid teak look great and will refinish pretty easily. I'll done a fair job of getting the muck out
but the water tanks will need to be removed and all hoses and thru hulls reconditioned.

So that is where I am now -- more after this weekend.

Sailor Jim

Pickling an Engine

Well I have been working my normal job this week, so I haven't been able to make any progress on the boat. I did think you may like to hear a little about my success in bring my diesel back to life after being underwater for 3 weeks.

I'll heard of many other salvaged diesel being saved by the process of "pickling". The key is you get on it as soon as possible and not let the engine sit. In my case the boat was refloated on Friday at around 3:00. I would have loved to start immediately at the owners dock but at his request waited until the following day when we were out of his creek. The first part is actually pretty clean. You suck out the water and old oil and fill the engine with diesel fuel. And I do mean fill - right up to the top of the valve lifter cover. You also remove the injectors and pour diesel into the top of each cylinder. Then you let it sit overnight. The starter is removed - washed in fresh water and dried - some use an oven -- I used a hair dryer.

The next day the fun begins. You disconnect all fuel line and purge the lines with fresh diesel -- I used a yellow fuel container as my new tank. Don't forget to run the recirc lines back to the container. I didn't at first and had diesel returning to the already filled fuel tanks on the boat and out the vent.

You drain the diesel fuel from the oil pan and spin the engine with the injectors out - to get the fuel out of the cylinders. Next to add new oil and bleed the injectors. And then you pray......

I wish it was as simple as I made it sound but it wasn't. Injectors put in had to be pulled back out -- the starter overheated so I pulled it off to check it. It almost ran --- spinning but never catching for about an hour of tries. It was not bleeding well enough and during this time unburnt diesel ended up in the water.
I used detergents to clean up the mess but felt a little like BP.

Finally it happened it really started to fire -- and it ran -- and it ran well! It was pumping cooling water, the exhaust was smoke free and it sounded like pure music to my ears. Here is the motor running for the first time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su16L-HsUbs

Ok - I was a little punchy after working many hours on that engine but I was one happy camper!

So since then I have started the engine almost every time I visit the boat - even on the hard. I have changed all the fluids several times and have bathed the engine in WD40.

While I will need a new alternator, control panel, and wiring -- not having to pull and disassemble the engine is a big plus.

Sunday - Demucking the bilge - not fun but necessary

Ok - today was a little too windy or I might have tried to go for a short sail in Entropy II but it was a tad breezy. I did enjoy the extra hour of sleep last night and the chore today was to demuck the deepness part of the bilge.

I will treat everyone to the refloating of the Westsail video. It was at Carter Creek off the Rappahannock River. I hired a professional company to raise her. They thought they might need an air bag or two, but the tide lowered to the point where that wasn't necessary. Their diver plugged the thru hull fitting from the outside with wooden plugs and also sealed hatches and compartments with towels and used weights here and there. They had three gas powered pumps. The video is not continuous but as you can see it did come up pretty fast. While only on the bottom for 3 weeks  - it was a mess inside and out. Here's the video of the refloat...
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK1sjmxd0oU

I'll back track later to tell you of getting the diesel running and the trip to my repair yard but for now I'll jump back to today.

Ok - I will keep this short. I have been spraying everything down inside with a garden hose and letting it run down into the bilge. As the water level got high I would pump in out using a small 120VAC pump
that connects to a garden hose. Well that worked  - and was fine until now when I got to the bottom of the deep bilge sump - maybe 2 ft deep maybe more. The sump was a settling place for all the heavy sandy, muddy, oily mess. At first I thought I could just water it down and pump it and some of it did get carried away using that method. But in the end it was the trusty shop vacuum to the rescue. I watered it down slightly and sucked the crap up and it was not a fun job at all. In the end the bilge is now clean - and I did hose down the area below the cabin floor where the water tanks are located. In the future everything is coming out - the water tanks and all hoses and at that time I will clean the area again much better.

Well that's it for today. And if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Sailor Jim

You got to start somewhere.....

Hello Readers!

Destiny has graced me with a beautiful boat - a 1976 Westsail 32. And it was given to me by
the owner for a transaction cost of only $100. This is a world cruiser -- the boat from the
movie "A Perfect Storm". Only one problem -- the boat was sunk and sitting on the bottom at the owner's dock.

Wait a minute - let me back up. I'll get around to the refloating and restoration that is underway but for now let me introduce myself.

My name is Jim Engle - I have been sailing nearly all my life. Some of my fondest memories are sailing with my Uncle Edward off of Silver Beach on Virginia's Eastern Shore. As a matter of fact that boat is sitting in my garage, a 1935 sailing sneakbox about 85% restored. My current collection of boats include Entropy II, a 1983 Cape Dory 28 which I keep in Deltaville and cruise up and down the bay.

My son and I built a 10 foot sailing skiff, Scarlet Skiff, and few years ago through a family boat building program held by the Mathews Maritime Foundation.

I'll fill you in on my other boats later but you get the picture, I am a little bit of a boat nut. For now I'll post a few pictures and write more later. I do have many pictures of the Chesapeake Bay and boats so I'll be posting them as time goes by.

Time to call it a night.... I had a long day working on the Westsail 32.... which I will get to soon.

Later,
Sailor Jim