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If you've gotten this far then you've probably read The Boat Page and are wondering why anyone would knowingly buy a boat with blisters on the bottom. Well, after looking at all 4 of the available Kadey Krogen Manatees on the Right hand side of the country, this one was by far the nicest, even though it was 2 years older than the others on the market. Only one of the others had had a bottom peel by Osprey Marine but that owner had trashed the rest of his boat and actually had one of the highest asking prices. The other two manatees were ruled out because of various reasons. One owner applied hull paint (horribly done) that needed stripping and that owner did not seem to know anything about the boat's bottom or it's condition. The other Manatee had a home? fixed? and West System treated bottom job. NO Thanks!
At least, by getting the boat at a reasonable price because of the blisters and getting Osprey to do the blister repair job, I'll be assured that the bottom is stronger and more waterproof than when it left the Kadey Krogen factory.
6/15/09 - I took the boat
straight to Osprey Marine Composites a week after buying the boat.
Osprey did a in-depth
(literally!)
laminate profile, after which we knew how much of the old
glass had to be removed and whether the coring (Airex) had been affected
by any moisture penetration or not (fortunately not!).
Next. I wanted to remove the thru-hulls to see if they had been installed properly and to make the peeling and laminating easier for Osprey. The seacocks had all passed the survey, but because the hull is cored, I wanted to make sure that the holes drilled through the hull had the perimeter coring removed and replaced with epoxy putty before the seacocks were installed. By doing that, if a through hull leaks around the outside any time in the future, it won't leak into the coring.
Gary (the owner of Osprey) helped
me removed all of
the thru-hulls and we were happy to see that all of the Factory holes
had been done right so that no water could seep around the outside of the
thru-hulls and bleed around the laminate into the coring space. Unfortunately (or fortunately
since we found them...) the 2 holes
drilled for the depth and speed transducers, that the former owner
had installed in 2005, were not done properly and could have very easily led
to water intrusion between the laminate. I routed out the coring
from the perimeter of one of the holes and faired it with epoxy putty
for the speed transducer and glassed in the other hole since I prefer to
mount my depth transducer inside the hull in an uncored area. With
this done, once the hull has been peeled, dried and structurally
re-laminated, the hull shouldn't be a worry for the next 50 or so
years... well somthin' like that anyway!
6/25/09 - The bottom has since been peeled and the moisture levels have been dropping daily. The boat will be going inside so that residual moisture can be eliminated before the new layers of Knytex 1808dbm structural fabric is applied, using the best resin Dow has to offer (Vinyl Ester Resin Dow Chemical 8084). All in all, a four to six week process from start to finish.
7/08/09 - The bottom is
dry and all is progressing well. While grinding to fair out the
peeler's ridges the guys found a couple of minor areas of delamination
which were ground completely out and relaminated before the start of the
whole hull laminating process. I'm busy buying Groco thru-hulls
and seacocks, speed and depth transducers, Spurs line cutters (these
worked GREAT on my last trawler, Gecko) and all of the implements needed
to install all of these items once the laminating process is done and
the final 8 or so barrier coats have been applied and prepped for bottom
painting.
I have to mention that while I was at the yard last time, I had a chance to inspect and destroy a single layer of leftover cured resin and cloth. Man... I've worked with all sorts of resins and fiberglass on numerous boats, trucks and in all sorts of construction applications over the years and I can honestly say that I have never seen a combination as tough as the fiberglass and resin being used by Osprey. I am VERY impressed!
7/29/09 - The bottom was
completed on time by Osprey! I installed all new thru - hulls,
several new hoses as well as a
new speed transducer and internal depth
transducer for the Raymarine Tridata. I cleaned the bow thruster,
primed and tin anti-fouled it and replaced its zincs. Speaking of
zincs, all zincs were replaced elsewhere on the boat plus I added a prop
nut zinc and a large bonding system hull zinc. I installed a new
Spurs line cutter having had such good luck with the one installed on a
former trawler. All the while that this was going on, a primer
coat of hard (Pettit) epoxie bottom paint was applied to the hull to act
as a primer (epoxie bottom paints stick way better to sanded vinyl ester
resin than do ablative type paints). Then two coats of ablative
bottom paints went over the epoxie bottom paint once it had dried.
Since the boat was about 300' from Canvas Connection for the 5 weeks
that Osprey did the blister peel, I
had Christine do a full Isenglas/screen
enclosure for the back porch. Her crew installed it the day before
Fat Chance got splashed and it looks and works great.
Last but not least, I had Central Marine Diesels do a thorough maintenance/inspection/evaluation on the Volvo power plant. Even though it has less than 1000 hours on it, all but a hundred of which were put on in the last year, they pronounced her in excellent shape! They familiarized me with the Volvos' unique attributes and made me a list of spares to carry for extended cruising. We then brought Fat Chance home.
Good thing! I did all of the seacock installs, the Spurs line cutter install, the zincs, the vinyl name application and the bottom painting myself... of course my time and labor doesn't count for anything... At least I saved about 3K or so in labor. Between the bottom peel, new seacocks, hoses, shaft line cutter, engine checkup, the canvas work, and all of the other ancillary parts and pieces, we dropped $30K into the boat in the 5 weeks that we were in Deale.
2. Updating the galley, head and salon...
Now that Fat Chance is back home it's time to get busy upgrading her systems and cosmetics. The good news is that the interior teak is all in exceptional shape and the fridge is new. The bad news is the white Formica laminate on the walls have a plethora of unnecessary holes and a few cracks; the countertops look old, used and cracked; the stove looks dated and doesn't work well; the sink, while deep, is narrow and divided; the head has a cheap electric toilet that leaks and is hooked to an Electo-San; and the shower fixture is cheap and dated.
The plan for the next few weeks is to
remove all of the old wall laminate and install all new Formica in it's
place using full sized sheets to eliminate extra seams and teak battens (don't try this if you're not experienced. I've done this
kind of work professionally and it's still the hardest thing that I'll
have to do in upgrading this boat). Then we'll make up new
countertops using Samsungs' Staron (100% Acrylic solid countertop like Corian),
install new sinks, faucets and shower, a new stove and a new Groco model K head with just
the holding tank and no ElectroSan.
08/23/09 - I've got the new Formica on the
walls and will be cutting up and installing the Staron counters
this coming week. After that I can put in the cove molding where
it's needed and install the new stove and head to finally finish up this
part of the project. A note on installing Formica wall coverings.
If you decide to do this yourselves, don't use laminate contact adhesive
to glue the Formica to the roughened up wood walls. Use a premium
grade of urethane construction adhesive applied with a notched trowel.
Way easier to position a large panel of Formica this way when there's no
way to easily use battens or wax paper.
09/11/09 - Whewww... I've been SO busy trying
to get the big projects on the boat finished and I still have a full load of
"must do's" at home. Needless to say I haven't had much time for
updating this site. I have pictures but no time to install them.
I'm writing this update sitting in my car waiting for the 3rd coat of Varathane to dry on the teak parquet floors and floor hatches
so that I
can apply the final coat. All of the above projects are done
except for the installation of the cove molding. The Staron solid
counters are finished and look great. Sinks and
plumbing are done. The Groco head is way nice, especially with the
longer stainless steel handle with the white pool cue ball (think pool table, nice
smooth action when pumping the head) attached at the top of the handle.
Natural roman shades have been installed over the windows throughout,
but these will need some tweaking in order to work the way that I want
them too. I should start having a bit more free time in a couple of weeks and
will then do a major update of this site. Thanks for your
patience!
09/21/09 - Couldn't sleep thinking about possibly ending up in jail tomorrow... "but your honor, I thought jury duty was next week!" So I figured that I'd finally do a bit of updating on the page here. If you've read this far then you know that things are moving along reasonably well. I only mention the big projects though, trying not to bore you too much with the hundreds of little things that I'm doing like replacing the forward hatch, installing a stronger water pump to compliment the new shower. Stanchions have been rebedded as has some of the exterior teak trim. I'll start working on the bow sprit/windlass/anchors here in the next week or two while finishing of the rest of the interior projects. Hope all is well with all of my friends to whom I've become a total stranger... but as you can see I really HAVE been working hard. My life's not all margaritas and hors d'oeuvres you know...
10/16/09
We
spent the last couple of weeks working on some small interior projects
while fitting in the larger project of rebuilding the bowsprit and
installing the new anchor windlass. The small projects are always
fun, quick and give us that bit of instant gratification that is
so important in keeping us focused and motivated. These small
projects included things like installing some new lights and Hella fans,
refinishing the aft "veranda" and the install of a Balmar
120Amp alternator coupled with a external smart regulator.
3. Exterior projects... it's about time!
I have to make a note here, once again, on Lewmar's
excellent customer service. I made note of Lewmar's excellent customer service back in my
2006 and 2008 writings in my last two Web blogs (Cat's
Away and
Felix). This time Fat Chance came equipped with the earliest
version of the Pro 1000 series windlass that had a known factory defect.
I took the unit up to
Lewmar's service center in Annapolis MD,
Merke Marine.
John Levelle, the owner of Merke Marine, told me that these units
were not being fixed by Lewmar but just being replaced with a new ones.
My problem though was that my unit was not under warrantee because
the warrantee only applies to the original, registered owner. Not
only that but the
unit was almost old enough to be out of the original owners warrantee. "BUT"
John says, "you never know, let me contact Lewmar and see what
they say." At this point I told John that even though the Pro
Series windlass
was appropriately sized for the anchoring gear on Fat Chance, I would
REALLY feel better going up to the next size windlass
because the Manatee is such a large, heavy, high windage
36 footer. John
said that he would forward that info to Lewmar and let me know what they
decided. He called me back a couple days later and told me that Lewmar
was willing to sell me their H2 worm gear drive windlass at a discounted
price. Once again, instead of pointing to the fine
print of their warrantee as most companies would have, Lewmar went above and beyond what
I could rightfully expect. For this I have to
say thanks to them and to John Levelle for caring enough to treat me as
a valued customer and not just as one of many. Thanks guys!
You're at the top of my list!
The
actual H2 windlass was a breeze to install because unlike the smaller
Pro series windlasses, the solenoid is built right into the unit on the
H2. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy
putting a heavy duty, ~50lb windlass on a hollow fiberglass bowsprit.
The bowsprit is quite strong and made of heavy fiberglass but I felt
that if I cored it with wood, that it would better support the windlass
and be easier to properly seal all of the through the deck holes to
prevent water leaks. With all of the rain that we've had,
it's been tough to do the fiberglass work but I finally got it finished this week. Deb helped me with the actual install of the Lewmar
unit. I was going to paint the bowsprit
before I bolted on the cleats and windlass but the Interlux Interdeck
one part urethane paint takes so long to dry hard , where it
wouldn't scar, that I figured that I would
have a much nicer job if I painted it after the parts and pieces were
all bedded and installed. I'll get some paint on it next week when the sun comes
out and then nobody will know that it didn't leave the factory looking just like that...
11-16-09 The windlass install was finished, it seems like, a long time ago. I've been busy and have moved on to installing the long range Wifi system. The Wifi system really doesn't classify as one of the larger projects but is worth discussing because having access is so important to most cruisers. My buddy Tom on Dream Catcher put this reasonably priced and simple to install system together and it works quite well. The main components are the Alfa USB Wifi receiver/amplifier, the antenna and the low loss cable. Of course I bought the 500mW Alfa a month before they came out with their 1000mW unit. No big deal, in the past I've hooked up to Wifi access points over a couple miles away with the 500mW unit. For my install, I like the Digital Antennas' brand of marine Wifi antenna. It comes in 3 different sizes depending on your individual requirements and is made to mount on a standard 1" thread marine mount and is a 10dB gain omni directional.
Fat Chance didn't come with the mast rig for mounting electronics or hoisting
the dinghy up on
to the upper deck. So after determining the
specifications of the masts that Kadey Krogen originally put on most of
the Manatees I ordered a slightly larger (not taller just stronger) mast
and boom section along with stays and assorted hardware from Dwyer
Masts. While I was waiting for that to arrive I had my friend Leo,
at Advanced metals, do a mast step out of a very high grade of 3/8"
aluminum plate and do solid welds all of the way around. This step
turned out very nicely, is bomb proof and will most likely outlast the boat! Once the
mast came it was a fairly straight forward project to assemble the mast
and boom, mount the all of the gear such as the all around white nav.
light, the HD radar antenna and the TV antenna, raise the mast and
attach the 3 stays. What really sucked
was running all of the wires from the base of the mast to the helm. That alone took
up the best part of a day but the install looks factory and that's
always my aim, so the cussing and grumbling was worth it. The
running rigging consists of 2 sets of 6part block and tackle. One to act
as a topping lift and raise the boom and one to pull up the dinghy. I got a deal on
a Spinlock dual rope clutch but had to make a
curved base mounting plate out of starboard to fit it to the boom.
Nothing is ever easy!
Everything works very smoothly and the dinghy can now either be lifted
up onto the upper deck with the boom or swing from the davits. Options ARE good!
As you may
have guessed from my mounting the High Def. Radar antenna on the mast, I
upgraded the electronics when I redid the helm. I went with Garmin
on this boat
because I really liked their touch screen GPSmap 5212 when I used one piloting a
friends boat through the Bahamas in the spring of 08. I bought and
installed a 5212 along with Garmins high def radar, XM weather reciever and the Garmin
GHP10 autopilot with shadow drive. The installs were not
complicated with Garmins well written installation guides and customer
help lines that are answered by real live people, but it did take a bit
of time to do a neat and clean job of it. I went ahead and
installed a new helm breaker panel and spent about 5 days going through
the whole boat doing a complete check/repair/upgrade of all of the wiring.
All connections, all crimps were tested, pull on, cleaned or replaced.
All of the phantom wires were removed, all suspect wiring was replaced
and everything was properly fused. This was not a
pleasant job but definately a very necessary one on a boat of this age.
To finish the helm I
made a new dash panel out of Dolphin grey Starboard and teak. The
finished helm is simple, uncluttered and attractive.
Finally,
yesterday I recaulked the pilothouse windows and painted them using
Interlux
Brightside Hatteras White (1990). Almost a perfect match
to the existing gelcoat.
Deb just informed me that she's buying a Spectra watermaker to put on the boat. So my final projects before leaving on the cruise will be the watermaker install, 3 new cabinets for the saloon and a multitude of small items that weren't necessary for the safety of ship or crew. Then Bahamas, here we come!!!! Oh, lest I forget, I want to give a big THANKS to my 2 friends, Jeff M* and A* Joe for their generosity in allowing me total access to their shops and tools without which this project could never have been finished in time nor at this level of quality. Thanks guys!