Old Wiring & Interior Damage

I spent about 4-5 hours today tearing old wiring and fittings out of the interior of the boat.  The end result:

The pile of wires, hoses and rotted cabinet doors that I removed today.

There was one section of wiring that I wasn't able to remove.  There is a conduit molded into the the structure of the boat that starts under the stbd settee about even with the back side of the keel and wraps around the front of the keel and comes out in the cabinet under the galley.  There are a couple cables and a water hose that run through it.  I'll have to work on removing these parts later on after I tear out some of the interior.  Here you can see what I'm talking about:

Stbd end of conduit is just forward of the water tank.

Port end of conduit is just forward of the valve.

As for the rest of the interior, it is in pretty bad shape.  I'll have a lot of plywood to replace after I get the deck fixed up.  I'll step you through it starting from the bow.  Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I've been taking these on my cell phone.

First, the v-berth:

Damage to interior in v-berth.

The big problem up here has been the fordeck hatch leaking.  In about an hour of collecting water from the worst drip spot, I collected about a half inch of water in that pink bin you can see in the corner of the picture.  Getting a new Lewmar hatch to replace the old RC Marine hatch is a top priority, along with all the deck recoring.  In the picture below you can see the lovely color of rotten plywood.  This plywood had been coated by some kind of resin system, but it is so old and out of repair that the stuff is just flaking off.  On top of that, the hatches outboard of the toilet on both sides are badly warped and wont lay flat.  I tried to remove the stbd side one today, but I couldn't get the screwdriver to grip on a few screws.  I'll have to come back with the right tools.  By the way,  I'll most likely be getting rid of the head... it just doesn't seem worth the hastle.

The stbd side forward of the companion way:

Stbd side, forward.

Stbd side aft, former location of the electrical panels.

In the first picture here between the two access hatches, near the bottom of the pic, there is some water damage to the plywood.  The area moves under my weight more than I would like it to.  So probably the whole stbd side settee will need to be replaced.  Just aft of those two access hatches is the water tank, which I havn't had a chance to access quite yet.  The second pic is further aft, near the companion way where the electrical panels had been installed.  There was a plywood panel in place over the upper section here, but it was completely water logged and tore right out.  It seems like holes were drilled through all the woodwork here to run the wiring to and from the breaker panels and the radio, but no one bothered to seal up the wood.  Lots of locations for water to get into the plys here.  Also, notice the little pad in the upper right corner of the pic.  It is a lovely piece of work that I'll tell you about down the page a bit.

Port side, bulkhead and galley:

General view of galley and bulkhead.

Close up of damage to bulkhead.

It is hard to see much in the first picture here.  The actual surface of the galley seems to be in decent shape.  The plastic glued to the top of the plywood must have saved it from some water damage, and this is one of the drier places on the boat.  There is some bad damage to the underlying structure however.  I didn't take a good picture of it, but you can see it a little if you go back and look at the port end of the conduit.  the panel against the keel trunk is a bunch of rotten mush.  I'll probably just be extending the settee and getting rid of the galley idea.  The bigger concern here is the damage to the bulkhead.  The two holes you can see are where wires passed through for the galley and head cabin lights.  Once again, it looks like holes were drilled and not sealed.  There also seems to be some water getting into the bulkhead where it intersects the deck.  Not good.  Not good at all.


Stbd side, under the cockpit benches:

Battery box?

I'm not quite sure what this box was intended to be used for.  Maybe for the battery, but we always kept the battery just forward of here under the settee.  In any case, this box is going to have to go.  It is just soaked through.  The joint on the left side of the image had a nice generous fillet of epoxy or something on the inside, but the wood swelled so much that the epoxy just popped right off.  There is also extensive water damage to the bottom few inches of the longitudinal bulkhead under the cockpit floor here.  It is the worst on the stbd side (probably because this box gave water a way in) but both sides have it pretty bad.

Now for that pad that I pointed out earlier.  You've already seen the stbd side one.  Now look at the port:

Mounting pad for port cabin light.

These used to be the mounting pads for the cabin lights.  The first day I was taking things off the boat I bumped the port side one and the plywood just fell apart.  There are still 2 or 3 plys attached to the boat  The white dot you see is what is left of a screw used to hold the plywood in place.  You can also see where someone had the bright idea to mold the wires into the deck.  Completely useless.

The result of all this surveying:  The entire interior of this boat is going to have to be torn out and replaced.  Also, the cockpit benches are so badly delaminated that they are going to have to be declared no-step zones until they can be repaired.  It is so bad that the interior skin is actually starting to have major cracks open up.  I tried to take a couple pictures but they didn't turn out.

This is all much worse than I feared and it also means that I probably won't be going sailing much next summer.

Catching Up on Week 1, Part 2

Saturday morning rolls around, and I have to get up at 4:15 to give my girlfriend a ride to the airport.  Kimi is going out of town to visit family for Christmas.  She'll be gone for 10 days.

WOO!!!! Free run of the apartment.  I can dry out sails anywhere!

After getting back from the airport, I start in on the cushions.  A good serrated knife and a box of garbage bags.  Bend, cut, stuff, toss, bend, cut, stuff, toss.... A wind storm is passing through the area with gusts into the 60s, and one of those manages to kill the power.  Now, keep in mind that it is winter, and it is very early in the morning.  The power goes out, and I'm standing in a pitch black room with a knife in mind hand and surrounded by a pile of cut up cushions I can't see.  I somehow managed to find a flashlight and I continue to cut up the rest of the cushions.

Once it begins to get light out, I load up the bags of cushion chunks, drop them in the dumpster, and head to the boat.

I load the rest of the sails into the truck, remove all the hardware I can without opening any holes in the deck, take off all the running rigging and everything else that isn't tied down to the boat, and generally try to strip her down.    There is a lot of crap on this boat.

Later, at home, I draw a nice cold bath to throw all the lines into, and go out to buy some institutional quantities of bleach.  Bleach the lines and that main with the leather bits.

First sail:  Code Zero from Mariner Sails.  Seems to have some surface mold, but otherwise looks like it is in pretty good condition.  Toss it in a bleach bath, rinse it off, dry it, and pack it.

Next sail:  spinnaker.  This is the newest chute on the boat, probably 6 years old or so.  A little beat up, a little blown out, but still usable.  Dry it out, pack it.


That brings me to where I am now:

Boom, spin pole, and D4 jib in storage behind the couch.

Main (with the leather bits) and lines drying in the living room.

Sorted dry sails, dry lines, and boxes of stuff.

Storm jib and 130 drying in the guest bath.

Sails, tillers and battens that still need sorting.

Kimi gets back into town on Monday.  6 days to have this all finished and cleaned up.

Catching Up on Week 1, Part 1

As you may have noticed from my first post, I am starting this blog about a week after the boat arrived in Seattle.  I wasn't sure if I was too busy/lazy to write anything down for this project.  Now that I'm beginning to realize the scope of the project, I decided to get started.

Now to catch up with what I've done so far:

The day after the boat showed up, I got off work early and went to the boat to take the first truck load of stuff home.  Unfortunately, the boat had been sitting on the trailer, in the Ketchikan rain for about a year and a half.  This was not the best environment for many of the things that were stored on the boat.

The first things I wanted to get off the boat were the cushions.  I was optimistic that they would be in decent shape, as they had been stored in a garage for most of the last 20 years.  I was quite disappointed to find that the canvas on the first cushion I grabbed, fell apart in my hand as I pulled it out of the boat.  Oh well, shit happens, luckily I'm a long way from needing cushions.


Next, I grabbed the carbon spinnaker pole.  It has sure seen better days.  On top of the general chalky UV damaged exterior, about 4 years ago one of the end fittings tore out.  The solution was to cut down the pole by 6 inches, and put on a new end fitting.  So, the pole is now 11'-6" long, and has mismatched end fittings.  Eh, whatever, that's another project for later.

The last thing I grabbed was a random handful of sails.  I had no idea what ones, or what condition they were in.

So, I bring this stuff all home, lay out some plastic over the guest bed, and start carrying stuff in.  In a misguided attempt to retrieve some value from the cushions, I brought them in to dry them out, then put the spin pole over top and piled the sails on top of that.  Close the door and put it all out of mind for a night.

The next evening, I start sorting through what I have.  The first sail I pull out is a blue and white chute, 3/4 oz. if you can believe the note someone wrote near the head, no sail makers mark, and sail numbers I don't recognize.  There was no bag for the sail, so I had just been sitting, getting dripped on for months.  I tried drying it out for a couple days in the living room, but the only thing I actually managed to accomplish was stink up the apartment.  My girlfriend loves it.  I did find a bunch of tears in the thing, so I finally gave up and decided to toss it in the round file.

Next sail:  an old North Kevlar self-tacker jib.  I vaguely remember tearing one of these almost in two about 8 years ago.  I thought I remember it being thrown out, but we have had 3 or 4 of these jibs over the life of the boat... nope, nevermind, this is the one I remember blowing out in 35 knot winds.  Fold it up, might be able to recover something from the cloth.

Next sail:  D4 self-tacker jib from Mariner Sails.  This thing still looks to be in pretty good shape, but the clew board will probably need replacing due to corrosion.  I know it was one of the last sails that were bought for the boat.  Dry it out, roll it up and set it aside until I find it's bag.

Next sail:   Auckland Sails self-tacker jib.  Old, heavy, dacron, but should be ok for light cruising.  Fold it up, and set it aside.

Next sail:  unknown main.  This sail looks to be in pretty good shape.  Laminated white cloth, nothing high tech, but could be a decent sail.  One surprise was the leather reinforcement at the luff end of the batten pockets.  Of course the leather is the only part of the sail with mold on it.  Great.... dry it out, roll it up and set it aside until I go to the store and buy some bleach.

So that is the end of my first load.

The Project Begins

After over two years of waiting and delays, my boat has finally arrived in the Seattle area from Alaska.  In order to keep myself sane, I plan to track my progress with this project here.  I figure it might be mildly entertaining for some people to watch me as I fumble my way through the world of yacht restoration.  First, let me introduce you to the boat and give you a little background.

Approximately 20 years ago (+/- a few), my dad was in the market for a sailboat to race in our small fleet in Ketchikan, Alaska.  Through some connections he had made in the Seattle area, he was introduced to a Ross 780 named Blizzard, a small, trailer-sailor built in New Zealand in 1984.  Before having the boat delivered to Seattle, Dad, along with his co-owner and a few friends from Seattle, raced the Blakely Rock Race.  They somehow managed to survive the heavy air and finish 1st in class and 3rd overall.  This lead to an invitation to the Seattle Grand Prix, where they got stuck in the light air and finished dead last (or near enough to count).

The boat then moved to Alaska, where it did quite well in the local fleet including a handful of silver pickle dishes (season trophies) and many a cupboard full of rocks glasses, beer steins, and brandy snifters (3rd, 2nd and 1st place in individual events, respectively).  The boat was raced hard and put away wet for years.

As one of only 3 (known?) Ross 780s in the US, ratings were always an issue.  In our local fleet we rated PHRF 156, but in Seattle where my dad maintained a PHRF Northwest rating, we rated 188.  Our local fleet always cited the lack of other boats to compare us to as a reason for dropping our rating.  After continuous frustration over this issue my dad and his co-owner, decided to move to a Santa Cruz 27, as there were already two others in the local fleet.  At the time, I was finishing up my last year of school in New Orleans, and my dad asked me if I was interested in buying the boat from him.

Now, here we are, two years later and the boat finally arrived on Tuesday, December 14th.  Here she is in all her glory: