The trailer is ready – May 26, 2013 – The trailer is ready so we can flip the boat over as soon as I we return from our little trip.  (We are going to look at the route my great great grandparents used to reach Washington Territory in 1881.)

·         What we did. 

·         Unbolted every part down to the springs using nut splitters but mostly grinders.

·         Scraped brushed or sanded every surface.

·         Fabricated a few pieces that were too rusted to reuse.

·         Painted everything with a coat of Hammerite paint.

·         Replaced every nut, bolt ( and U bolt), and washer with hot dipped galvanized, and put new nylon bushings in the springs.

·         Replaced the winch that was so rusted, the back plate was less than 1/8 inch thick.

·         Replaced the wheels with galvanized and replaced the tires so the size matched on both sides.

What’s left on the trailer?  Make up a wiring harness that clamps to the boat when on the road and fasten the license plate.  We will need some clamp on mirrors. The final cost will be tallied later, but it had to be more than the cost of a new cheap trailer and less than the cost of a new galvanized trailer.

What’s left on the boat?  Rub out and wax the topsides, flip it over and put it on the trailer, add registration numbers, re-rig the standing rigging, go sailing and see if I still like it—hope so!

 

 

It does look rather nice for an old beater trailer.

 

No Number has New Number Now  --  May 23, 2013 – As of today the No Number C-Lark has a number, 1219, selected from family suggestions.  My son thought it would be nice to use Grandma’s birthday.  But of course it is still the orphan boat that doesn’t know its birth number.  Naturally I screwed up and put the port number higher than the starboard number—maybe I planned it that way to recognize the loss of the original designation—sure that’s it! 

 

While working on the sail I remembered what I had noticed and then forgotten.  Whoever ordered this sail had included reef points and a leech line adjustment. I have never seen reef points on a dinghy before--have no idea if it is common.  Given these alterations and the retro-fit traveler, and the extra leads for jibs and spinnakers, I think some previous owner must have been into speed.  The other interesting thing is the way the main and jib are rolled up (instead of folded) and pushed into an 18-foot long sail bag.  Never saw that before either--but it does mean that there are no creases on the fold lines. After we spend a year getting to know the boat, maybe we'll install some kind of a spinnaker launching system and get a real purdy blue and white spinnaker.

Screw a bunch of instructions –May 20, 2013 – Normally I am a big believer in following instructions.  I figure the manufacturer wants you to have success with their product so they give you good advice.  But today I just couldn’t do it.  The morning was cool, but dry—less than 50% humidity.  No wind.  It should warm up later.

The paint instructions indicate that Perfection (2-part polyurethane) should be brushed or rolled. Spraying is contraindicated.  Screw it, I sprayed it anyway.  There would never be a better day and I have a super repiratator.  It turned out pretty well. 

If you stand in exactly the right place, the paint job looks perfect.  If you stand in exactly the wrong place, the paint job looks like a really good coat of paint on the only wooden C-Lark ever built. 
I don’t love it, or even like it, but I can live with it.  The topsides look not so swell, but that didn’t happen on my watch.  So we will rub it out and get on with getting this little guy back in the water.  

The progression:  Barnacle glue all over the bottom.  Somebody applied bottom paint and left the boat in the water for a very long time.  Sanding off the glue, most of the bottom paint and some of the gel coat.  Then primer.  The first blotchy coat of finish applied with a brush.  Then a lot of sanding and the sprayed final coat with flattening agent.




Getting close on the trailer—Sunday, May 19, 2013 – I kept my word to myself and took off half a day on Thursday.  (The trouble with retirement is that many people think you are sitting at home with your hand poised over the phone hoping they will call so you can have a project.  Wives have trouble with pronouns: "We" means "You.")  Even with just four hours work, and a few minutes here and there some progress was made; the trailer is almost back together.  Spent a fortune on bolts.  It will be interesting to see how much this trailer cost when it is complete. 

Some new tires and wheels this week, put the fenders back on—then just the new lights and it will be a trailer.  Hope to finish sanding the first coat on the bottom and then paint this coming week too—really depends on the weather.  Maybe we’ll get this puppy back in the water this summer.



All of the parts have been painted with Hammerite and there are new bolts everywhere.

Trailer Reassembly – Monday May 13, 2013—Today the first pieces of the trailer went back together.  I don’t really know much about trailers, but it seemed that the carriage frame that attaches to the springs should be square so I used a square and measured the diagonals.  Some of the metal must be bent, because it is almost, but not quite, square.  (Off by 3/32".) 

Of course, after four bolts were in, I discovered that a different size is needed to continue—plus waiting for some nylon inserts to go back into the springs.  So glad there were plenty of pictures for reference.  There are four shackle brackets, two lateral pieces, two longitudinal pieces, all of which could go together 2 – 6 different ways. 

I have a lot of tools, but none is as useful as a large table to layout the work.

Some pictures barely showed what I needed to know.  Sometimes you know what things you don’t know, but when you start disassembly you don’t know what you will need to know later.  I think I know now—maybe!

Busy week – Sunday May 12, 2013 -- This is the amount of progress I have made on the boat in the last 10 days.

So many parts--so little time, but our granddaughter loved it.

Looks better from a distance--even better from a greater distance.

Stand back farther – Thursday, May 02, 2013 –First finish coat on bottom.  After two coats of primer, a light sanding, blowing it off with air, wiping with tack cloth—brushed on the first finish coat.  Not so swell!  However, I have hopes.  With some 320 wet sanding and some flattening agent in the final coats, it should look better.  My brushing technique improved on the second side—but not a whole bunch. Turns out it is important to brush into the wet edge.    Doesn’t look too bad as long stand across a medium size parking lot.

Really wish I could have sprayed it, but you need a respirator just to brush it. Hope it looks better after a second coat.

Primer – Wednesday, May 01, 2013 – got back from vacation late last night, and today we were blessed with a nice day.  Finally the bottom is primed.  Received advice from Fred that the two-part poly urethane needed to be as thin as milk—he was not exaggerating.  You really can’t get it thin enough.  It was a hot day so more thinner had to be mixed in before the small batch was completely used. 

What we started with at 11:00 am.

What we had at 2:30.

I really wanted to spray, but you can smell the toluene from 50 feet away when you are just mixing the paint.  Toluene is a particularly nasty solvent—causes birth defects in solar systems.  You would probably want a real spray booth and protective gear if you were going to spray it.  Turns out that it brushes pretty well, but you have to get the hang of it.  Carry a lot of paint on the brush.  Brush only from the wet edge.  Work fast, it dries almost instantly.  I’m not completely happy, but it is at least as smooth as the bottom paint was, and there aren’t any barnacle marks.  Looks good from 8 feet—less if you wear thick glasses.  It isn’t going to look new no matter what.  Hoping to get chores done early tomorrow, the first coat finish might go on.  Temperature should be in 70’s.  Who knows, might even finish mowing the lawn.