Getting Closer......

I'm down to about 5 weeks or so until BeBop goes back into the water assuming I can come up with enough money. There are still lots of things that need to be done, unfortunately most of which involve purchasing things. If I cut a corner I can reuse the old bumpers and dock lines and save about a hundred bucks for now. She also isn't wired for any shore power at the moment, so installing that is nearly mandatory to even run a fan onboard while at the dock. I'll pick up a small deep cycle battery so I can at least go out day sailing and use the running lights. A bimini of some sorts is needed too or you'll just burn up in the sun here in Florida. I need to sell my other car, the white Honda that's not running, on eBay and that will help a little bit. I can't rule out putting her in the water in September but man, I'm just not sure I can wait that long. I wanna go sailing!! All in all it's pretty stressful when it should be something to look forward to because of my shoe string budget.

I still don't have the digital camera back yet so I picked up a el cheapo disposable one for 3 bucks and got a couple of really bad pictures for all you guys/gals to see. Let's start with the curtains. I really was racking my brain about how to put some inside. Ideas varied from curtain rods to velcro but I wanted something very simplistic to work with and fix if need be. What I did was buy a couple of wooden drawer pulls or closet pulls if you will, and bonded three of them on each side above the ports. Then I used shock cord to hold the curtain up with a loop at both ends so they can be taken on and off as needed. To create the loop at the ends I simply used black nylon zip ties and cut off the tails. Here are the pics, both port and starboard.


Sorry again for the quality, I know the disposable take bad pictures. Rich had a black cargo net that we used for the cord. If your patient and willing to take all the hog rings off you can get a surprising amount of shock cord for a very low price vs buying it by the foot. The wooden pulls cost about 6 bucks at walmart and the curtain fabric and thread ran about 15 bucks from Jo-Ann Fabrics. (yeah, I got a few strange looks in the store) Only probably was I needed to teach myself how to sew first lol. I have a nice sewing machine that was donated by a family member too. So picture this now.....there I was in the living room with a sewing machine, a manuel and a bunch of fabric with zero training. I open up the manuel and read page one. How to turn it on....HAHA!! Isn't that neat, it even has a little light!! Page two....how to put a needle in....cool!!..how to change a foot..wow, my feet don't come off etc.....until I got to page 21 of the manuel where you get to the sewing part. Rich who took home economics in high school like 25 years ago showed me how to cut the corners on the fabric so they came out nice. After practicing on a few pieces, away I went into the wild sport of sewing stuff for your boat. All in all, I think they came out really well. I completed the entire project in under 30 hours and I didn't know how to sew when I started. Oh nearly forgot, I made them out of two pieces, gray on one side to act as UV protection for the inner piece which has the pretty pattern on it.

Moving on to something I know a lot more about....Lexan!! Yes, after 6 months of dealing with the old beat up, worn out and leaking washboards I fabricated the new ones using a single sheet of bronze tinted .500" 24x48" polycarbonate. There were other options, resin coated plywood, varnished teak boards etc, but I wanted a low maintenance solution that looked nice. Cost wise, it was the middle solution and ran a total of $260 for the polycarbonate sheet, vents, screen, and stainless steel hardware.

I started by measuring the width of my companionway and cutting the sheet to fit with a circular saw. Since I don't own a table saw the t-square acted as a guide with Rich's help. We then hauled the whole thing onboard and test fitted it. A 30 degree angle was cut on the bottom that would become the first washboard. This was about equal to what the bottom of the companionway had. Originally there were 4 boards but I decided to go with 3 bigger ones. The bottom two boards are about equal in size and were cut at a 45 degree angle to keep water out. The top board was slighty smaller and since the top was rounded, I cut the curve (very) carefully using my jigsaw. At $225 for the sheet I really didn't want to screw up so everything was triple measured before being cut. All the practice I had cutting out lexan windows for computer cases paid off big time here.

Once all the pieces were cut out I still had to use a hole saw for the vents and drill the holes for the mounting hardware. It's important to keep in mind you want to use a bit that's one size too large or the lexan which expands and contracts up to 10% could crack. I put screens behind the vents to keep the critters out. The last thing I did was sand the cut sides by hand with some 220 grit sandpaper. Once that was done, off came the protective covering and everything that needed to installed was put on. Here are some pictures of the new ones...I've come to call them the Darth Vader Washboards (D.V.W.B's) or just Vader Boards for short. (V.B;s)


They are very reflective from the outside and it's hard to see in, but it's possible at the right angle. What's cool about them, is while your underway you can see into the cockpit very easily to see what's going on like in this picture. That little hook in the middle between the vents is for a bunge cord. It will keep the boards in place in the event of a knockdown.


From the inside the tint doesn't appear to be nearly as dark and it really makes the inside feel bigger. Lexan may be bulletproof, but it does scratch easily so it's best to handle them with a cotton towel or shirt to prevent them from getting damaged. That's my greatest worry. Other than that, these babies should last a long time. It's been raining everyday recently and have already proven themselves to be very watertight too.

Here's one last wide angle shot that shows all the new stuff that's been done. The engine mounted, rear boarding ladder, dodger on the frame with the new V.B's in place.


I'd like to add a special thanks to my new friend Hawkeye down in Cortez, FL who patched up the small rip in my dodger on Saturday. He's probably forgotten more about boats than I know. ^_^ If anybody needs any canvas work done, drop me a line and I'll contact him to see if he can fix you up at a good price.

Yawn!!! ok, I'm getting' tired here after another fun filled weekend so I'm going to sign off now. I expect next weekend to be a bit slower as all I really have to do is mount the companionway curtain and work on rebuilding the rear cockpit locker. Until next time....Fair Winds...