Harpoon 6.2

One Complete Coat

2011-11-25T14:40:00.001-08:00

Thankfully we've had a bit of rain recently and more is expected (desperately needed) but that means it has been too humid to make a lot of progress lately. I was able today to get a good coat of Interprotect on that last area that was under the starboard bunk. That means that the bottom is now completely sealed with at least one coat everywhere. Two more coats to go, plus bottom paint. After that I can reinstall the scuppers and she'll be seaworthy again! If only the lakes hadn't all dried up I could be looking forward to sailing in the near future.

Last of the Red Stuff

2011-11-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

I have finally eradicated the last trace of that nasty rust colored old bottom paint. The only remaining patch was under the starboard side bunk, so I jacked up that side of the boat today and sanded it off. It really feels good to be rid of all that stuff, it has been an enormous pain. In retrospect I should have just paid someone to soda blast it all off. Next time I will know, would have been money well spent.

Removing it exposed yet another patch of blisters, so I popped them and filled with gelcoat paste (it's not obvious in this photo but they've already been filled, that's the damp looking part). It sprinkled this afternoon so was too damp to put a coat of Interprotect on top of this area but I'll get that done soon.

Next up will be another coat of Interlux Interprotect 2000E. One more coat after that, then bottom paint, which means I need to get the bottom paint decision made ASAP. I'm thinking Pettit Vivid, in either red or black. If I do black I can skip adding a bootstripe, so that may be the easiest choice. On the other hand, the bright red would look pretty spiffy. But if I were doing red, it would look brighter with white undercoat - and I got the layers of Interprotect in the wrong order; the final coat will be grey instead of white because I did white as the first coat. Oh well. Will figure it out eventually.

Another Coat

2011-10-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

Today I managed another coat of Interlux Interprotect 2000E - gray this time. Looks like the two gallons I bought will be enough for at least 4 good coats, this is the second. I was able to figure out a way to lean her over so that I could strip and paint the area under the port side bunk. That means that there is only one area remaining (starboard bunk) that isn't stripped and painted. Hopefully I can lean her the other way for the next coat. I put two coats on the newly exposed area under the bunk, so it should be about the same thickness as the rest. This stuff goes on rather thick so two coats is a lot but this coat took about 3/4 of the amount of paint I used on the first coat, so I may even have enough for 5 coats. It worked a little better this time because it was a cooler day but it still thickens quickly. Result is that it's hard to get a completely smooth coat with tip and roll. I think for the next coat I will lightly sand and then will thin the paint a little to see if I can get a smoother surface. Someday I'm going to have to decide what bottom paint to use. I like the look of Pettit's Vivid but not sure how it'll work over this stuff - maybe I should stick with Interlux paints. It'll probably be a couple of weeks before I get around to the next coat so I don't have to figure that out quite yet.

First Coat on the Bottom!

2011-09-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

Boy, am I tired of sanding. But I'm finally pretty much done with that, and today I got the first coat of Interlux Interprotect 2000E on. That's a relief because it should seal the fiberglass nicely, and I've got up to 6 months to apply the next coat (I hope I can manage it much sooner than that, but that's how long you have between coats according to the instructions). The only place not covered is the area under the bunks - I'll have to jack it up later to strip and paint that. No significant repair to do there, thankfully.

This is approximately the same spot on
the keel as in the Sept 4th picture!

I wanted to get the sealer coat on now, because it's been baking in >100 degree heat for 2 months now, without any rain at all, so I'm pretty darn sure the fiberglass is totally dry. Yesterday we had the first rain in a long time, just a brief sprinkle, enough to settle the dust. The weather today has been perfect, not quite so hot, but not damp.

Starboard side view, you can see the dark area under
the bunk which isn't painted yet. The blue is masking tape.

The 2000E is a two part epoxy primer; you're supposed to put it on 10 mil thick, which should be around 4 coats with roller and brush. I bought 2 gallons, one white, one gray (they recommend alternating colors so you can see whether it is covering properly, a smart idea). I've gone through about half of a gallon, so the calculation of 2 gallons to make 4 coats should be pretty close. It is a very high build primer, which is nice because it's going to do a great job of hiding the little imperfections that I didn't bother to fill. It's a bit thick for rolling and tipping, especially when it starts to thicken toward the end of the useful life of a mixed pot, so I think I'll thin it a bit next time. I also think I'll recruit a friend, it's really hard to roll and tip by yourself, just too difficult to get a smooth finish.

Keel Pitting

2011-09-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty much done with the needed fiberglass repairs except for a bit of finish sanding here and there. This weekend's project is keel fairing. The keel is in about the condition you'd expect for a piece of cast iron exposed to the elements (and sitting in the water for quite a while at some point along the way). That is, not too bad but there are definitely some serious rust pits here and there.

I thought cleaning off the old paint from the keel would be a piece of cake, how hard could it be to remove paint from cast iron after all? I figured I could just wire wheel it off. Well, I could, it just took a really, really long time. I've finally gotten it pretty well stripped, and have started filling in holes. I decided to use JB Weld "Industro-Weld" for that, because I've used it for some similar projects in the past with really good results. It's nearly indestructible, sticks well to bare iron, and can flex a bit if needed. However, it took quite a lot and I'll probably need a second coat for a few of the deeper pits. I think the result will work out pretty well. I was thinking of starting on the Interlux 2000E coat tomorrow since it's actually almost cool enough to use that now, but it has been so dry and windy that it's blowing dust everywhere; not sure I'm willing to risk that in my paint job, so I think I'll delay that by a bit. Besides, I still have to sand down all the JB Weld that's curing overnight.

Slogging along

2011-08-14T20:37:00.000-07:00

More work on the hull this weekend. Actually, it's coming along fairly well; the bad leprosy spots are all pretty much taken care of. Still have a few of the not so bad spots to finish filling though. I went ahead and picked up some Interlux 2000e, figuring that once I get all the holes filled that I never want to have to mess with this again and this is my best shot at that.

Also finished replacing all the halyards with ones from my donor mast. I am using my original main halyard because it is in good shape, but the jib halyard was badly worn so I swapped that out. I never had a spinnaker halyard but since I have a spinnaker now I put that in - the original pull string was still in place, which made it easy to add. And finally added a topping lift for the spinnaker, again from the donor mast. Oh, and I finished up the mast wiring, and mounted the combination deck light/steaming light. The anchor light was already installed. All that's left on the mast now is to find an 11/16 drill bit to make the hole for the wire exit and then to reattach the mast base plate unit.

I've been working on the replacement trailer as well. I have all the roller supports now properly anchored and set, just need a piece of U channel to hold up the keel and the major structural part of that will be done.

Hole Filling

2011-07-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on filling those holes in the gelcoat. I'm using some gelcoat paste which I got at West Marine - it's thicker than regular gelcoat and seems to work better for filling the holes. I can only work for a couple of hours in the morning before it's really too hot to work with fiberglass - it's hard to keep it from kicking (setting) too fast in the heat. On the other hand, after baking for a couple of months in 105 degree heat with no rain I'm pretty darn sure that it's plenty dry enough, so this is a good time to get it all sealed up. Since there's at least a slight chance of rain this weekend I went out this morning early and got a coat on all the remaining areas to make sure they are sealed while dry. It'll take one more coat for the worst of the holes but that's no big deal, I can do that anytime.

By the way, I mentioned in the last post that I thought I'd leave it clear so I could see if I was filling the holes. That turned out to be wrong, it's easy enough to get good coverage in the holes by using a paintbrush and swirling it around, but what's hard is seeing if you still have a depression after filling, and that's really difficult with clear gelcoat paste. So, I picked up a tube of blue gelcoat tint (I have blue bottom paint for it so while the color really doesn't matter that seemed like a good idea). It's amazing how opaque the gelcoat becomes with just a little tint in it. Anyway, it now really looks like it has leprosy because of all the blue gelcoat areas. I'll probably end up putting a topcoat of gelcoat on top of everything before I bottom paint but I'll worry about that after I get another coat of paste on filling the holes. At least I'll be able to be confident that the bottom is thoroughly sealed before it's all done.

Back to the Grind

2011-07-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

Well, for a long time (like, 2 years!), for various reasons, I haven't done anything on the boat. Part of it was need to focus on other things in my life, part was that I was dreading dealing with the next step, repairing all the stuff that needs work below the waterline. I've already finished the hull above the bootstripe, and the exterior still looks good. Sitting in the sun for a couple of years has caused some minor cracking in the topside paint; filling the gelcoat cracks with epoxy apparently wasn't sufficient. However, I'm going to sail her before dealing with any of that again, she has been out of the water way too long. Which means I gotta back back to hull repair.

This weekend I finally psyched myself up to start dealing with it. I sanded off most of the remaining awful rust colored bottom paint, and am about ready to deal with the gel coat issues down there (in fact, I did a small area as a test, it looks good). Due apparently to a crappy original gel coat job, there are a number of areas that look like fish scales - semicircular cracks in the gel coat. There's no damage to the glass underneath. Looks a bit like osmotic blistering, except, there's no blister. I have found that hitting them with the pressure washer pops off the scale, leaving a little pit in the gelcoat - sometimes it goes all the way to the glass, sometimes not. I should be able to just fill those with gelcoat, in the process adding a thin layer of surface gelcoat, and the result should be good as new. In fact, I think I'll put a thin layer of gelcoat over most if not all of the bottom. I've got some gelcoat paste that is easy to work with, and I found that if I use a plastic spreader to get a thin, even coat, and then cover it with a sheet of wax paper to cure, the result seems to fill the holes nicely and gives a good surface. I think I've decided not to bother to tint the gelcoat - I'm going to be painting bottom paint over it anyway, and leaving it clear makes it much easier to see if I am filling the holes well. I suppose the alternative would be to tint the gelcoat and not use bottom paint, but I think that would be even harder and I'd still have to paint over the steel keel. Guess I could paint it a contrasting color or something though. I'll think about that, need to let this dry for a while (that won't take long in 105 degree Texas summer heat) before trying further coating.

Bottom paint removal, yuck

2009-08-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Whoever put the bottom paint on her failed to properly prepare the surfaces so it's flaking off badly in places. Unfortunately, he put it on really thick and it's an enormous pain to remove. I spent quite a bit of the weekend working on it, with a combination of stripper (some interlux stuff that actually works fairly well without eating the fiberglass) and sander. The paint is rusty red and the dust is nasty, sort of like being on Mars maybe. Still a long way to go but at least I'm making progress. That's the last really large thing to do (I think) but there are many small things left.

Catching Up

2009-07-26T18:53:00.001-07:00

Well, for various reasons I haven't really done anything with the boat for quite a while. However, I did finally spend some time on her today. I got the last of the rotten wood out from around the bailers, and replaced that with sound wood, and sealed it all in. I got the mast support pipe back in. I got the roller bunks installed on the "new" trailer. However, in the process I noticed that the crack around the perimeter of the cockpit has come back. I guess this means I will have to grind it down and glass it - I had hoped that opening the crack with a dremel and then using epoxy would work, but, it didn't. Oh well.

Decals

2008-12-07T20:17:00.000-08:00

Having finally gotten a coat of hull paint I was satisfied with a few weeks ago, I took advantage of a bit of warmer weather Friday to put the decals on. I used the official authorized reproduction decals from Magic Brush; they look really good although it was a bit of a challenge getting the stripes straight. Not looking forward to bottom paint but I have to do that eventually.

Miscellaneous Updates

2008-12-01T15:16:00.000-08:00

Over Thanksgiving week I got a few things done - repaired some gelcoat cracks in the bilge, sanded and cleaned the cabin floor, and got a coat of primer on it. Made a wood back for the stern light (it's supposed to sit on a disc of mahogany that's sort of wedge-shaped so as to angle the light properly) and installed that. And mainly, finished sanding and started finish coats on the anchor locker cover and the seats. I still need to find a piece of mahogany to replace the missing board, but I cut a temporary replacement out of a piece of cedar picket I had lying around; it'll do as a stop gap and when I find the real board it can then be used as a pattern. Also made a list of what else needs to be done, and it's still depressingly long. Oh well.

Seats, Revisited

2008-11-10T18:35:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I met up with Ben, down in Galveston, who used to be a 6.2 owner until Hurricane Ike crushed its hull. Amazingly, Ben was able to salvage a bunch of stuff from the boat, so I was able to get some needed pieces as well as some spares. The most amazing thing was that he still had the original mahogany seats, in good condition, because they'd been taken off and stored in his garage because he planned to refinish them. I was able to talk him into parting with those, which are a great deal nicer (although less thick) than the ones that came with my boat. Here's a side by side photo so you can get the idea. The one on the left is an original one - note the gaps between boards, and the more detailed shaping, especially of that inside board.

I've been working on putting the hardware back on; it's nearly done except for the gudgeons and rear stays; I want to replace those bolts so need to make it down to West Marine before doing those. I had to redo the transom because of some runs, so I sanded and repainted it, and it came out looking so much better that I'll probably do the same for the rest of the hull. This time I sanded fairly aggressively so got out all the paint brush marks from the first coat. The trick is that if you have any drag at all, it isn't thin enough, and I didn't know that for the first coat. I should do the topside again too, but since the hardware is all back on I won't - and anyway, I did a better job on it, and for the most part it looks really good. I also got all the wood on around the companionway, and it does look rather nice. I'll try to remember to post a photo of that sometime.

More Paint

2008-10-19T20:22:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I managed to get another coat of paint put on both topside and hull. That leaves just the non-skid areas to do, hopefully I can get a coat on them tomorrow. I did have a couple of bad runs on the transom that should be sanded and repainted, and I guess I really ought to put a second coat on the rudder sometime. The cockpit floor looks pretty good - I had drilled lots of little holes in it, then used a shop vacuum to pull out all the water that I could. After that I injected penetrating epoxy into the holes and then put a bunch of old car batteries on it to provide pressure while the epoxy cured. Finally, I closed the holes with Marine-Tex. The result isn't totally flat, but at least it feels solid! That was last week; today I primed and then painted it; it will get a coat of non-skid paint next. I should have stripped more of the old paint but it's really hard on that textured surface; probably by the time I get the coat of non-skid it won't matter anyway. Sorry about the photo - it was nearly dark by the time I thought to take one. Notice the elm leaf - dark spot top center of the photo. Hopefully that area of paint was cured by then. At least it's under the seat where it won't show.

Cockpit Floor

2008-10-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

The epoxy repair of the cracks and chips in the cockpit is done and looks solid. It also looks pretty good with paint on it; sanding all that was not that much fun. I still need to remove the cockpit drains and seal around those, but I think that's more easily done from below when I strip the bottom paint. I drilled a few holes in the cockpit floor (along the lines of what is described in the now-defunct bwharpoon.com site), and I'm still getting a wee bit of water out of them. I think I'll try once more in the morning to suck what I can out with the shop vac, and then will seal those with epoxy. I have some penetrating epoxy that I can inject thru the holes which hopefully will seal everything up - at least, once those holes are shut, no more water should get in since I've taken care of all the cracks and unsealed holes in the hull - just need to rebed the hardware. The cockpit floor is the only part not yet painted. Will use some non-skid on it.

Topside Painted, Finally

2008-10-12T19:34:00.001-07:00

We've had a beautiful weekend, which thankfully was free of other obligations, so I was able to finish paint prep, and get a coat of primer and one coat of topside paint on her. It came out looking pretty good so far, although I think I will probably try to put one more coat on. The weather was pleasant, but I had a few little black bugs commit suicide by landing on sticky paint. Will have a bit of touch-up to do from that. Also the elm tree next to the boat is just about to start shedding leaves. Forecast is for rain on Tuesday so probably I won't get another coat on just yet; we'll see what the weather brings next week.

Topside Paint Prep

2008-10-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

I've got all the hardware off, holes filled, and am ready for topside paint as soon as I finish dealing with the cracks in the cockpit area.

Cracks

2008-10-04T13:01:00.001-07:00

Remember my earlier post about cracks in the companionway storage well? Well, I finally got all that stripped off, and it appears that for whatever reason (bad layup?) there are two layers of gelcoat down there, that are not totally bonded to one another. The top layer is chipping off. Previous owner had the bright idea of repairing with bondo. Not a good idea; it isn't strong enough for this kind of repair, but fortunately Interlux Interstrip will remove bondo too, given time. I have gone ahead and chipped out the loose pieces, and will refill with Marine-tex mixed with some filler. There are also quite a few crack around the cockpit area - all just in the gelcoat but some rather big. These I've ground out a bit so that I can get epoxy down in them all. Should be close to ready to paint tomorrow depending on how the epoxy all looks, but may not be able to since it's supposed to rain Monday.

Paint Update

2008-09-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

I never did get that second coat of paint on the hull - we had a couple of weeks of high humidity and scattered showers and I didn't want to risk having to sand and start over. At this point that's going to have to wait another couple of weeks at least. Still, I should be able to give it a light sanding and then coat over it with no problems. The finish looks good as is, but I think will be even better and hopefully more durable with a second coat. I did receive the decals I ordered from Magic Brush - a pair of Whaler logo decals, a pair of Harpoon 6.2 decals, and I also had them cut me a set of state registration numbers to match the style of the Harpoon 6.2 decals. And I got a roll of black 1" striping tape to do the stripe. Since I just got my updated state registration decals, I have everything I need to finish off the hull exterior part of the project. Magic Brush is Whaler's authorized vendor for reproduction vintage Whaler decals, so these should be an exact match of the originals. I don't have any good way to check that (not that I doubt them), but the quality looks excellent and they were easy and pleasant to deal with.

Slow Going Again

2008-09-07T10:53:00.001-07:00

Well, not much is going to happen for a bit. I had hernia surgery last week and while I'm recovering on schedule, it'll be a few weeks before I should sand or climb the ladder up into the boat. Before the surgery I did manage a first pass on getting the holes filled where the seats mount in the cockpit; I shredded some fiberglass and used it as filler for epoxy for the larger holes; just used epoxy in the small ones. I was careful to pack it in pretty carefully and I think it'll work ok as long as I'm careful to seal the whole mess with silicone or something as an extra safety precaution when I put the seats back on. Before heading off to college, Cory removed all the companionway trim, and has sanded all of it plus the companionway boards; next step will be to spar urethane those and get them ready to reinstall - no big rush until I get that part of the boat painted. I also need to order up a bunch of screws to reinstall the seats - few if any of those should be reused. I'll need quite a few so hopefully I can manage a price break by ordering in bulk.

Cracks in the Companionway Storage Well

2008-08-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

This is the first serious crack I've found (it's in the well in front of the companionway where the companionway boards stow). This one may warrant a fiberglass patch after I finish cleaning it up (you can see some of the remains of the yucky partially peeling dirty white paint that I have to deal with in the cockpit too). Not sure why it'd crack here, it doesn't seem as though there would be any significant stress at this point, but I'm going to make sure it's well repaired anyway, if for no other reason to be sure water can't get to the foam. Thankfully this area won't show with the cover on there, so doesn't matter too much what I do. Oh yeah, the cover that came with it was partially rotted 1/2 inch plywood, have to make a new one of those too. Anyone know what the original looks like?

Seats

2008-08-17T17:39:00.000-07:00

This seat came out intact; we had to take the other one apart to get it out due to some badly stripped screws. These are in good shape; we'll clean up and refinish and then will reinstall after painting the cockpit.

Cockpit Cleanup

2008-08-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

I'd decided to just let this slide until later, but Cory got energetic and removed the seats from one site of the cockpit, so I guess now I'm committed to cleaning it all out and painting it too. This afternoon I got the other seat out - not easy since the previous owner had stripped many of the screw heads on the way in - and started patching holes. It's good that Cory got me started on this, because there are a lot more holes there than are needed to hold those boards down - I guess the previous owner didn't fill them when he put the new seats on. The good news is that he got some really nice mahogany boards, and they're still in good shape, so we'll just clean those up and refinish them. Meanwhile I have lots of holes to fill. I'll probably use some epoxy filled with some fiberglass fiber for the bigger ones.

Paint

2008-08-17T17:25:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I finally got all the dings and gouges patched, and the surface prepared enough to paint. I have one coat on, will put on another as soon as the current high humidity and threat of rain passes. The results came out pretty good; the challenge was that it was really hot and dry (105 degrees that day) and it was hard to keep the primer and then paint from drying too fast. Problem was worse with the primer, actually - the paint looks good with very minor brush texture visible. The off white color isn't too far from the original - as long as I don't tie up next to another similar vintage whaler, nobody will notice. I celebrated by ordering a set of correct officially authorized reproduction decals from Magic Brush.

Cabinets Done

2008-07-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

Put the last finishing touches on the cabinets yesterday. Other than connecting mast wiring when that's done, they are finished. They're similar to the originals mostly - about the same size, although an inch or two taller. Since I did not put a sink in, the port side cabinet is available for electronics and for storage. The top lifts off to access wiring or to put things in. There is just room for the two plastic boxes that contain tools and emergency gear, along with the two fenders I usually carry. The starboard side cabinet has an open front so the potty can slide in/out. I noticed that there was some dead space behind where the hull slopes away, so I put some cuphooks in there to store docklines out of the way. Since I normally trailer sail, I use fenders and docklines only occasionally so having an out of the way place for them is a win. I still have to figure out what to do about the headliner, if anything, so the wiring to the dome light and the fan (front of the v-berth) is pretty exposed for now. I'll worry about that after the mast wiring is done and connected inside the cabin, since it too needs to run along the ceiling. I put the stereo remote just under the compass - seems like a convenient spot, and hopefully not too likely to get banged up. It works great, by the way - I'm pretty happy with the stereo setup. At a reasonable volume level, it can run for at least 72 hours off the Optima battery without totally draining it.

Electrical

2008-07-14T11:59:00.001-07:00

So I finally had most of a weekend free to work on the boat. My focus right now is on rebuilding the cabinets (totally missing from this boat, removed and discarded by previous owner) and in the process doing an electrical makeover. This boat really only had running lights and a couple of interior lights originally - so there wasn't much electrical to start with. I want to add quite a few things - VHF radio and CD player especially, and also more navigation lights (steaming and anchor lights), so this is going to take some rework. I am going in the same general direction that is described at www.bwharpoon.com (which seems to be offline right now), in so far as using the cabinet to mount electronics, switch panel, etc. - in fact, my layout is pretty much the same as his, not that you have a whole lot of options in a boat this small. My boat's cabinets were removed long ago, and the through-hull for the sink drain was closed up. I decided it wasn't worth re-adding it, so the port cabinet will be just for storage in addition to the electronic stuff. Over the weekend I made all of the pieces of the cabinets except for the tops. Those are cut out, but for some reason it's really hard to find small pieces of formica - so far I haven't decided to spend the $45 on a 4x8 sheet when all I need is a pair of 2'x2' pieces. Once I find some or figure out what I want to do about that, I'll finish those. Meanwhile that doesn't interfere with electronic installation anyway. Once the spar urethane on the plywood pieces dries (hopefully by tonight), I'll start putting things together and will get some photos. I think it's going to work out pretty well. After I get all this done, I'll get back onto finishing up installing the new rudder - not much to do there other than cleaning up the rudder itself. At that point there's really no reason I can't sail her, other than the jib halyard needing replacement pretty badly. I have the line, just need to bribe Cory to eye-splice it for me after he gets home from camp next week. I'm debating whether I want to just remove all the hardware and paint her too, or to sail for a while and then do that this fall sometime. We'll see.

Slow Progress

2008-06-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend I got the essential companionway wood pieces finished; didn't get everything done, but at least those with damaged finish which were at risk of rotting are fixed. I'm still working on sealing cracks, took another pass at that too. I am struggling with whether to just finish minimal stuff and go sail her, or to pull off all the fittings, properly fill all the scratches and paint her. That needs done badly, but there would be no harm done by sailing her for a season first.

Leaks

2008-04-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

I think I've found the other place that's leaking when it rains. Some of it was coming in around the portlights - need new gaskets for those. This is made worse by the fact that the fiberglass rim to support the optional dodger funnels any heavy rain right onto the portlights. Once I figured that out, I reoriented the tarp that's over the boat to prevent it, but I was still getting some rain in. While pumping that out, the hose slipped and I noticed that water running down by the seat flowed right in. Turns out that the joint between the floor and the side of the companionway near the seats needed resealed. Did that today, we'll see if it makes any difference. I suppose that this thing was once watertight as far as rain but it isn't that close right now. Still, getting there one step at a time.

New Rudder!

2008-04-20T20:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, I got the new rudder I got on ebay out, measured it, and drilled for the replacement gudgeon. I'd already removed the old, wrong, gudgeon, and had filled the holes (drove pegs soaked in penetrating epoxy into them to fill the wood, then used marine-tex over the fiberglass part). The rudder that came on it wasn't performing all that well - easy to see why, it's just a plank. Here are both to compare, along with a shot of the "new" one on the boat. I still need to sand off the old bottom paint along with the remnants of a few barnacles, and then do some minor repairs, but it's in good shape and there's nothing major to deal with.

I also pulled off all the companionway wood panels and started sanding those - they all need a complete refinishing, and it was starting to get urgent as there was a trace of rot on the lowest one. To get started, I sanded that lowest one to remove all traces of previous finish, and then put a couple of coats of spar urethane on it. I'll follow with a couple more coats tomorrow, and will also sand and do the same for the rest of them. I'll need to find some sort of replacement for the foam gasket in between the top covers; probably I can get something at the auto supply store that'll suffice. Anything reasonably weatherproof should be ok.

I notice I failed to mention having deal with the stern nav light a few weeks ago. I got the replacement installed although I'll probably remount it with a ring of wood under it later - right now it's just flush against the hull which means it doesn't point straight back although it's not too far off. I still need to mount the switch panel to control them, but need to rebuild the interior for that.

Nav Lights!

2008-02-10T17:51:00.000-08:00

I managed a little time to work on the boat yesterday and today. Now that it's staying light a bit later I may be able to do a bit in the evenings too. Yesterday I was able to figure out the forward wiring and get the front navigation lights working, for the first time in many years no doubt. Still have to get the electrical panel installed so they're sort of hardwired right now. I was a bit skeptical about the coverage given the shape of the lights, but I should have known they wouldn't blow anything that basic - visibility is excellent everywhere it needs to be. It took some contact cleaning but they seem to be fine now. I still have to install the stern light - not sure if the wiring goes close enough to where it's supposed to be or not; the hole where it mounts was covered and I'll have to remove that.

Today I filled the holes where the bogus gudgeon was mounted, and also where the rear platform was mounted. Since the transom has a wooden core, I first squirted some penetrating epoxy into each hole to try to seal and strengthen what wood was there. I poked at it, it was a bit soft in a couple of places but no serious rot. Then I took a piece of hardwood dowel that was the right size for the hole, soaked it in penetrating epoxy, and then drove it into position - that should make for a decently strong wood repair. Then I sealed the fiberglass part of the hole with marine-tex. I'll need to sand it to clean it up, but that should be both strong enough and waterproof enough for now.

I also spent some time trying to figure out where rain is coming in. It almost has to be the front hatch, since that was about all that was uncovered, but there was a lot of water in there. Turns out that there's at least one unsealed hole from where he mounted the wood decorative cover on the hatch so that thing is going to have to go. I'll remove it, then see if I need to replace the lexan or if it can be saved. After that I'll get the hose and see if it still leaks!

A Bit of Progress

2007-12-31T07:26:00.000-08:00

This winter break has been too busy with Winter Scout Camp and other things to make a whole lot of progress, but we have gotten a few things done. I picked up a new jib halyard, need to eye splice it, but will get that on soon. The main halyard, sheets, etc. all have plenty of life left in them but the jib halyard is on its last legs. Cory pulled out the interior plywood panels to expose what's left of the wiring, and we've started cleaning up and debugging nav light wiring in preparation for mounting the new power panel. I removed the last of the grab handles, and sealed the holes with Marine Tex. We removed the old (wrong) lower gudgeon in prep for putting the proper one back on. Cory stripped and sanded the rudder and it's ready for paint or spar urethane (he wants to use the latter and I'll probably let him, it's a pretty piece of wood). I got a nice marine radio for Christmas that'll go in whenever we get around to running some antenna wire up the mast and dealing with that. We did take the mast off and lower it to the ground so we can work on it. I have to go back to work on Wednesday so probably we won't make much progress before then, but other than the rudder work it won't take much to get her back into the water if we feel the urge to sail!

Distractions!

2007-12-05T14:06:00.000-08:00

Wow, it doesn't seem that I've accomplished much here, does it? But I've been working up to the electrical rework project. I've accumulated a switch panel, a master battery switch, a proper stern light, an anchor light, a VHF antenna, a steaming/spreader combo light, an interior dome light and a couple of spots, and an assortment of wire, coax, and connectors. Hopefully I can find time over the holidays to get started on installing some of it!

Rudder

2007-10-15T07:34:00.001-07:00

As I think I mentioned earlier, one of the original gudgeons is missing and was replaced with one that fits closer to the hull, resulting in the rudder being angled wrong. Thanks to a pointer from Joel Santarone at idasailor.com, I found that the original appears to be a Harken part which was the same as used on an O'Day 25, and which is available from drmarine.com. I've ordered one of these so I can try to get that restored to normal. The rudder on this boat is a real thick board with no tapering on either edge - sturdy, but certainly it could be more efficient than it is. Joel says that they are now making a Harpoon 6.2 specific replacement rudder (see the photo which he provided) which should make a noticeable difference in performance, so I'm putting that on my list of things to do/replace - although I've got a few higher priority things to deal with, like rebedding all the deck hardware, filling holes, getting the nav lights working, and probably replacing the rub rail. Right now my main focus is on the trailer but that shouldn't take too much longer and then I can get back onto actual boat work!

Update on 17 October, the gudgeon came today (super fast service from DR Marine!) and it looks to be an exact match with the original one. I should be able to find time to replace that over the next week or two...

Real Wind

2007-10-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

Before hauling out yesterday we decided to sail around for a bit. Winds were quite strong and very gusty, so made for pretty challenging sailing. After we motored around looking for ramps, we headed out into the middle of the lake and hoisted the main. After a couple of tacks Cory got her zipping along rather nicely although with the variable winds it was pretty challenging. I think the hull speed is around 5.6 knots just because the motor won't push it any faster than that, but he got it up a bit above 6 knots, and actually hit 7 on the GPS for a moment just before water started gushing into the cockpit! We were both a bit spooked by that, but no harm done and we need to get used to pushing her close to that edge. After that we decided that maybe reefing the sail (this mainsail has plenty of reef points) would be a good idea. We motored up-lake around the bend behind Temple Lake Park thinking that the wind would be partially blocked there, but instead the cliff behind was funneling the wind and it wasn't much better. At this point it was heading toward mid afternoon and we didn't know how much hassle it would be to haul out so we decided to head for the ramp. The wind was enough that even motoring along into the wind we had waves breaking and spraying the cockpit. Luckily it was pretty warm so it felt good; a couple of months from now that sort of thing will be less pleasant.

Hauled Out!

2007-10-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

Finally the lake level is down enough to get a fixed-keel boat in or out. The two ramps we usually use are both out of commission - Belton Park is closed for repairs and the one on the other side of the dam is still too shallow - but we found one at Begonia that was perfect. Instead of the tongue extension we used the strap method and it worked great - quite easy to haul her out. I left Cory at the helm to motor to the ramp while Doug gave me a lift back to Frank's to retrieve the truck and trailer. I was able to get the trailer deep enough with no problem, and after one pass to figure out the wind, Cory hit the trailer dead on and the boat slipped right into position. So, she's back home, and I can now do the measurements I need to put the bunks on the other trailer and get it ready. Lake Georgtown is open now, and Cedar Breaks boat ramp is only about 2-3 miles from the house so when I'm ready we'll just drop the boat in there, and then switch it to the other trailer.

Trailer, Plan B

2007-10-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

I have been frustrated with the trailer - too narrow for this boat, resulting in extreme lean on corners, and generally over complicated. I have been trying to decide whether to try to re-engineer it or start over. I then ran across this trailer on Craig's List for $199 - it is a great deal wider, with nearly double the axle capacity, and if I unbolt all the rollers will make a simple frame that ought to work great. Here is what I have in mind - just a simple bunk system, with a keel support. I'll probably add a bow roller with winch too, but that's easy enough. So, I hauled it home last night. It has new tires, good wheels, and while it's got some surface rust, nothing too serious. Should work well. Worst case I can probably part it out for nearly what I paid for it! But hopefully, I'll be able to sell the other one for what it'll cost me to get this one into shape.

Still in the Lake

2007-10-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

For some reason they've halted draining Lake Belton for a bit, so I couldn't haul the boat out this weekend. All the boat ramps were closed because the level is such that it's right in the middle of the turnaround areas - not steep enough to launch or retrieve even a jon boat, much less a fixed keel sailboat. The good news is that the guys at the Marina don't need the space yet, because the guy wanting it has a bigger keel than mine and can't put his boat in. Guess I'll try again this weekend. My wife was kind enough to run by TPWD and process the title transfer on boat and outboard for me, so it really is my boat now!

Guess while it's sitting in the water rigged, I ought to go sail it some! Meanwhile, I'm thinking that when I get it home, I'll pull off all the fixtures, paint it, then reattach them. I've been reading up on rub rail replacement, and that's probably in order too - may as well do that prior to painting.

Sailing at Powderhorn

2007-09-25T05:49:00.000-07:00

Haven't done too much with the boat recently due to serving as course director for Powderhorn, a scouting adult leader high adventure course. One of the activities we featured is sailing, and as we needed 4 larger boats my Harpoon was used. Lake Belton is falling fast and right now, the water level is in the middle of the turnarounds in the boat ramps so it was a real challenge getting it in, with the fixed keel, and we couldn't figure out how to get it back out so she's stored at Frank's Marina for a few days until one of the ramps lowers enough to use. Launching is a real pain, and I'm going to have to figure a better way - telescoping tongue probably.

She did sail very nicely - out for the whole afternoon with around 7 people aboard at a time. In preparation for this I'd duct taped the bailers shut as I don't have gaskets for those yet, and that actually worked fairly well - kept the cockpit dry for the whole sail.

"Before" Photos

2007-09-10T09:34:00.001-07:00

In case anyone is interested, I've uploaded quite a few "before" photos of the boat to Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/twcook/sets/72157601908454311/. Hopefully before too long I can start an "after" set to go with them as I get things corrected.

Decals

2007-09-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

It looks like the offiical supplier of vintage Whaler decals is a place called Magic Brush - their web site is http://www.magicbrushsign.com/marine.htm - I contacted them and they have available a complete set (whaler logo plus the "Harpoon 6.2" for the back) for $50. I'll be ordering those shortly in preparation for painting this fall.

Electrical

2007-09-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

There's not much left of the electrical system on this boat. The battery cables and tie downs are there, as well as an old battery switch and a fuse block. The bow navigation lights are present but the stern one is missing. It looks like a Perko 645 is at least a close match to the original stern light so I've ordered one of those. I picked up an Optima battery and installed it - right now it's just hooked up to the original cable setup and is enough to power my GPS and a lighter plug that I added. Eventually I'll get the rest there. Doesn't look like there was ever any sort of mast lighting (either a steaming light or an anchor light) but that's easy to add so I'll do that as time permits. And I will eventually put in a stereo and VHF radio. No idea what shape the wiring to bow and stern are in, but I may as well replace the rub rail and that wiring along with it (rub rail generally isn't awful but there are some spots like the port aft end that are ragged - you can see this in the photo along with the missing stern light).

Removing Stuff

2007-09-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

Some of the additions really have to go. I was particularly annoyed by the table-thingy on the stern, so it is gone. Previous owner had also added some sort of stanchion based fittings that he used to rig a sunshade for working on the boat. It was actually pretty clever but I really don't need it given where I've got it, so I removed those (all but one, which I hope to use to mount the grill on someday). I also removed the two grab handles near the stern as they made it really uncomfortable to sit there and lean back. There was no sealer or bedding under either the grab handles and the table bolts, so that's probably contributing to both wood rot and waterlogging of the foam. I think I'll inject some penetrating epoxy into the holes before I fill them so as to try to strengthen and seal the underlying wood. It's clear that I need to pull and rebed every fitting on the boat anyway. Guess I'll do that as part of the painting process.

First Sail!

2007-09-03T14:41:00.000-07:00

I was anxious to get the boat into the water, so I could better understand what's needed, and obviously so I could go play! We rounded up the usual suspects and headed to Lake Belton. Due re-engineering! But anyway, we did get her launched. While I went to park the truck and trailer, Doug actually managed to get the outboard cranked, so we grabbed a couple of the boys to help to the flooding, what passes for a boat ramp is not really steep enough, so we had to rig the trailer tongue extension to be able to launch. What a pain, that's going to need some serious and caught a ride out to join him. We motored over to the marina and tied up to step the mast - figured for the first time, we'd better have a stable place to do it. I think that process will actually go pretty fast once we get the hang of it - using an extension on the jib halyard via the block mounted at the bow you can use a winch to hoist the mast (which doesn't weigh that much anyway). The forestay is the only one that needs to be detached, and there's a nifty tensioner in the aft that keeps you from having to mess with turnbuckles. That all went pretty well, actually although it's really hard to get the pin in for the forestay - there has to be a better way (no clearance to get the circlip in). Anyway, we brought up the mainsail and the jib - no surprises and they went on easily. Since it all looked good, we motored on out into the main part of the lake, and hoisted the sails. It was uneventful, thankfully. Not much wind at first, but we did pick up some after a bit. After some experimentation we did figure out what had to be the correct routing of the jib sheets (wish there was a rigging diagram for this boat!). With reasonable wind, we were able to get up to around 5.3 or 5.4 knots - I haven't done the math but I expect that's close to hull speed; she's a pretty short boat. Anyway, we rafted up with Donald and the skiiers for lunch, During the course of the lunch break, while the kids were swimming, we also tested the nap capability of the cockpit seats. These work quite well, actually; perhaps the claim of sleeping 4 by using them is actually plausible. Mid afternoon we headed back for the ramp and got in line for the ramp. With so few operational boat ramps on Lake Belton it is really congested; I was dreading dealing with the tongue extension as it takes so long. But, we did eventually manage to get her out of the water and head home.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with the boat. She sails easily, responds well, and can be single handed with no trouble. The only real problem is that she rides really low in the stern. I suspect that this means there's lots of water in with the foam back there and I'll have to figure out how to get it out. Doesn't seem too daunting after reading a couple of accounts of this on the 'net so that'll be a first priority. Not really surprising since previous owner added all kinds of extraneous stuff (grab handles etc.) without proper bedding so water has no doubt been getting in there for a while. When we got home I drilled a couple of 1/4 inch holes in the bottom and sure enough, some water started dripping out. Not a gusher, I'll probably have to pressurize to get that.

Clearly there is much to do, but she's in good enough shape to sail right now, and there isn't anything seriously wrong with her.

Inventory of Extra Stuff

2007-09-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

Got lots of stuff with this boat. Besides the boat (which appears complete, and includes the optional bow pulpit), got a trailer (mixed blessing, more on that later), a 6hp yamaha outboard in great condition, the original main and jib (good condition, one minor hole in the main, will sail tape for now), a genoa that appears little used, a swim ladder, a boat hook, a "magma" stainless steel grill, a small bimini (covers a bit less than 1/2 of the cockpit) with cover, some seat cushions which aren't custom for the cockpit seats but which work well, some clamp-on running lights, a small bilge pump (apparently used on short to clear rain out of the cabin and cockpit - wired with a long 12v cord and battery clips), a few fenders which have seen better days, assorted line, a canoe paddle, a never installed apparent wind indicator for the top of the mast, a fuel tank and line for the outboard, a spare 1 gallon gas can for the outboard, a bottle of boat wax, some sun screen, assorted old canvas painting drop cloths (used to protect wood from the sun), a pair of nice anchors with chain and line, a spare outboard motor bracket, and probably other stuff which I've forgotten. That doesn't include the stuff that's actually installed on the boat, which I'll cover in another post.

Hauling Home

2007-09-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

I'd gone by earlier to pick up all the various pieces - sails, outboard, etc. and had arranged to take a day off from work to go haul the boat home. It has been sitting on a trailer in a dry slip on Lake Travis, so one option was to give her a test sail there before hauling. However, as thunderstorms threatened and the sky looked pretty dark, we decided the better part of valour was to go ahead and drop the mast and haul her on home. The previous owner had given us a key he thought was to the hitch lock, but it wasn't. After drilling some we found that we could just pry it off. Of course, afterward we found the right key in the boat. Anyway, we got the mast down (not too difficult on this boat), tied the boat onto the trailer very well, generally stowed loose stuff, checked tires, greased hubs, and got ready to pull her home. Naturally with the fixed keel she sits pretty high. That wouldn't be a big deal but this is a really narrow trailer so it's a bit scary going around curves, and the road out of the marina is really, really windy. Luckily on a weekday afternoon there wasn't much traffic and we made it home ok by taking it very slow and easy. I wasn't too confident of the ropes tying it on so the first thing I bought was a pair of monster ratchet straps (25', 3300lbs rating) to keep her on securely during travel.

Getting Started

2007-09-03T06:48:00.000-07:00

I've been sailing for a brief time now as a Sea Scout leader, and decided that the time had come to find a boat of my own. I enjoy working on things, and given the realization that any used boat is a potentially substantial do-it-yourself project I am ok with that. What I wanted is a boat big comfortable enough to take the family on (so, fairly large cockpit, stable, easy to sail) but still trailerable as we've got lots of great lakes within weekend driving distance of here. After some research I decided that a Boston Whaler Harpoon 6.2 would be perfect. The cabin is minimal but enough for a couple of people to overnight in if needed, but the cockpit is huge. I liked the rigging design - everything clear of the cockpit, good quality stuff, easy to single hand if need be. However, Whaler only made 150 of them (in the 1980 timeframe) so they aren't all that easy to come by, especially here in Central Texas. However, I'd been watching Craig's list ads closely for Sea Scout gear, and I did eventually notice an ad for one locally. However, the price was out of my range, so I didn't call about it. A couple of months later, the ad reappeared with a slightly lower price, but still out of my range, so I still didn't call. However, after 2-3 weeks, curiosity got the best of me and I finally did call the guy. The boat sounded good, and the price was more flexible than I had expected. I went to look at it, and decided after discussing with my wife to go ahead with it. I didn't see any serious structural problems with the boat, and it did include a lot of useful extras (swim ladder, bbq grill, etc.) that made it seem like a better deal. So on Friday (August 31, 2007) Skipper Doug and I went to haul it home. My intent is to chronicle the adventure here as I go. Wish me luck!