Selene Trawler

I spent some quality time in the mid bilge on a very nice trawler this week.  Boat is probably in the $2M range but some of the work that I corrected was nickel and dime.  I.E. Auto crimp lugs in the bilge, mislabled bilge switches, etc.  Owner has not taken care of the boat (or hired anyone else to) so the list of fixes is pretty extensive!  Photos to follow.

I've been focusing on getting another reefer rebuild finished so have been busy templating insulation pieces and getting ready to do the jigsaw puzzle of getting everything in.  I had to remove the top on this job so that I could get the old holding plate stuff out so besides rebuilding the reefer I get to rebuild the top, new 3/4" ply, Formica, doors, fiddles etc!

PHUN!

Home Plan finalized

We've been working with our Architect and got our final completed design package today.  Front view of the home and garage attached.

The past few days we've been working on the site plan, electrical plan, gathering information on tankless water heaters, and multi zone HVAC systems.  We are both excited at the prospect of finally building "our" home!  Lewis is really excited about his new yard......

Chain Plates

I've been really busy this summer working on a variety of boats.  I started out doing a lot of work on an IP-38 and the owner wanted me to rebed the chainplates.  The caprail on the boat was in such bad condition that I could only guess what shape the stuff underneath was in so I recommended a Factory Refit.

I was right but did not know to what extent till I saw this!

Anyway, once the boat comes back later this year or early next I still have lots to do.

In the meantime we continue to work on transitioning to Texas and building our dream home.  Lesley continues with Agility training with Lewis and I continue to be untrainable!

New home plan is shaping up

We had a nice surprise yesterday when our Architect emailed us a front view of our newly planned home.

Another Lagoon 450!

Last year I worked on a Lagoon 450 and was able to make significant major changes to the AC and DC systems on board. 

This week I've been working on a DC system on another Lagoon 450 - this project is not nearly as involved but I am replacing an 840AH AGM battery bank (Exide bateries) with Massive Mastervolt 6V AGMs in a series/parallel configuration.  When I'm finished will have 1300AH of house battery capacity - still sorting out various charge options!

Photos later!  Time for a swim!

Hooking up with the past!

I grew up in the South West, Barstow, California to be exact, and my best friend and his sister lived 2 houses down the street.  I've been in and out (mostly out) of touch with them over the years but today I had the pleasure of hooking up on the phone with Joan.  I last saw Joan and her husband and kids in Costa Mesa, Ca probably in the late 70's or early 80's!  We talked for over an hour and exchanged some info and tried to catch up - long story but if I could have picked a dad it would have theirs - David (the dad).

Now I'm waiting to talk to my best friend David (the son).  I called and left my phone number but wasn't sure that I had the right David, but Joan confirmed that I did.  After all, his last name is Swink and he lives in Swink, Oklahoma!   Had to get in touch with Joan in Lincoln, CA to be sure!

Custom Home

We received a call from our architect yesterday afternoon!  He will have a new conceptual presentation of our estate home that we plan to build in Kerrville Texas available for us to review next week.  We took a long hard look at our plans for our dream home and decided that 2 stories just did not fit.  If/when I get old I don't want to deal with steps and so we totally redid our concept and are now going with a single floor layout.

We also did not want to deal with a crush of humanity anywhere near the I-95/I-75 corridors so we staked out our little piece of Paradise here. When we first returned to the US we lived in Northern Virginia.  We very quickly decided that this part of the county was not for us.  We enjoyed a lot of the things that the area had to offer but not the traffic and in some cases the attitude!  So, on one of our several road trips, we drove through the Texas Hill County and the rest is history. 

We've been fortunate to live all over the country, all over the world and have always had the dream of building a custom home.  That dream is nearing realization as Mickey will present his plan to us on Tuesday using gotopc.  This is interesting in itself since Mickey is about my age and is using state of the art CAD and current technology to design dream homes in the Hill Country.   We've seen many of the homes he has designed and they are awesome.  More later!

Factory Refit

I've been working on an IP-38 for several years and got to the point that some of the items needed required a major refit.  Shipped the boat up to Largo last week and will update periodically with photos and narrative once work is underway.

In the meantime time I'm still busy, Leopard 44, IP-380, Hunter 33, an Albin Trawler, and a kitchen rennovation!

Diamond Back

We received a frantic call from one of our neighbors yesterday late afternoon - she had seen a GIGANTIC snake slither by one of here sliding doors.  I went down expecting to see maybe a small python etc but was really shocked to see the BIGGEST Eastern Diamond Back I've ever seen.  Man was it big!

I tried zapping it with a shovel but was not willing to get close enough to be able to deal with it.  All I did at this point was piss it off.  Lots of rattling and then it moved to the side of a nearby home.  We tried calling 2 calling 2 different animal control offices - both open 9 - 5 only, then we call 2 different Sherriff Dept's - they referred us to the Cape Coral Police who then referred us to a private animal control guy.  He was busy so he referred us to another guy who was about 30 minutes away.

I did not want to risk loosing track of this snake so I asked Lesley to go down and get my gun (.177 cal air gun).  I was able to hit the snake with two shots to the head and that seemed to immobilize it but did not kill it, yikes what a monster.

The animal guy arrived and got his snake tool out and managed to lift the thing up away from the house.  It was not dead and started going with the rattles again.  He moved the snake out into the front yard and held it up for all to see. At least 6ft long and 3 - 4" in diameter - way big.

To Texas and Back!

We've spent the past 12 days on the road to Kerrville, in Kerrville, then on the road back to Punta Gorda.

We had a great time in our new hometown and had great success in dealing with our builder, architect, new banker, new insurance agent, etc.  A few interesting points of comparison to our home here and prospective home in Texas:

   Insurance - cost will be about the same but with the new place valued at 2.5 times our place here.  Except we no longer will have to purchase Flood Insurance or deal with significant windstorm deductible.

   Taxes - Property tax as above will be nearly the same but sales tax will be 8.25% vs 7 % (still no income tax to deal with).

   Driving distance - 7.2 miles from our house to the HEB grocery store.  We now drive approximately 10 miles for groceries.

   Home Owners Association - NO MORE!

We will be having a custom home build on our 3.12 acre lot just south of town sometime next spring or summer.  We visited our lot with architect Mickey Thompson and settled on location and some grading details.  We have also changed the design of our home significantly over the past few weeks since I posted a photo of a look alike home.  Once I have drawings and details of the new design I'll post them here.  Included in the new design is an outdoor kitchen and I've already picked out the charcoal powered grill/smoker that we are going to install.

We intentionally did not cook anything to east while we were in Kerrville as we wanted to try out all of the different places to eat.  The first thing that amazed us was that a town of this size (approximately 22,000) could have such a variety of good restaurants.  We had breakfast at 2 different donut shops and settled on the place that had the best egg/cheese/meat/croissants.  We had chicken fried steak twice at our favorite chicken fried steak place and that was the only time, other than breakfast, that we repeated in the restaurants.  We have 3 places that we did not try - next time will include Yeo Bo's (Korean).

We enjoyed being in town for the grand opening of the expanded River Trail. Having now walked the entire length and enjoyed the dog park with Lewis.

More to follow.

On the road again!

We left Punta Gorda Sunday morning heading for Kerrville with stops in Pensacola and then Columbus, TX before arriving here about noon today.  Trip was uneventful but my god there is a real problem with LEFT LANE LARRY'S on the Interstates....  Way to many people just don't either know how to drive or just plain are not paying attention to what's going on on the highway.

We plan to be here for 10 days taking care of new home building details and enjoying the area.

This afternoons fun involve Lewis playing with a black lab in the Guadeloupe River.  Lewis had a ball and the old black lab did to but must have though Lew was crazy with all the zooming around he did!  Probably his way of saying that he was glad to be out of the car!

Billy Gene's tonight for chicken fried steak. 

Gra'innes' Galley

We tried a Sicilian dish several weeks ago at a local restaurant and were disappointed.  The dish is Arancini which derives its name from their shape and color, which is reminiscent of an orange (the Italian word for orange is arancia, and arancina means "little orange"- stuffed rice balls).  Lesley made them at home last night using leftover risotto and they were awesome!

Dog Bed?

Lewis loves to lay in the sun on the Lanai and keep an eye out for critters.  Sometimes he has to move to stay in the sun!

Rigging

I spent a long hot day in the boat yard yesterday working on an IP-38 getting it ready to truck back to Largo for a refit.  Remove the Bimini and Dodger, reattach striker (fell off due to rotted caprail), drain water tank, remove boom, remove anchors, scrape hull, remove zincs, remove internal mast wiring, stow remaining excess gear.

Out -

And down -

Once down on the ground stripped the standing rigging, removed corroded fittings, removed old lines, and started looking at materials needed for rewiring (all internal mast wiring).  I'll post a few more photos of the interior after my next trip up to the yard next week.

While we were working on this boat another boat tied up near the lift well - this boat owner had just had a very bad day on the water!  I think I would trade his day for a day in the office.............

Complaint List

I received an email from Steve (new owner of Grainne) after a 30 day shakedown cruise out through Lake O and I think down through the Keys headed back here yesterday and the subject was:

"Complaint List"

His message: "I have none! The boat is everything you said and more. Used the inverter the 1st time tonight, (microwaved  cheese on broccoli). The only improvement I want is 100 HP 20" bowthruster. All is good. We will be back to the marina by tomorrow or Sunday."

Nice message to get from the new owner of your old boat!

Thanks Steve

Gra'inne no more

The new owners of Gra'inne changed the name so I guess we need to have some sort of special re christening ceremony.

If you run into the new owners out there say hello for us.  They are really nice folks who will enjoy and care for Packet Dream the way we did Gra'inne.

Things you see!

I went over to Gra'inne this morning, now Packet Dream, to replace the HF radio tuner cable and install a new WiFi Radio data cable.  Saw the strangest thing - another Island Packet getting ready to go to the "Bahamas".  This late in the season the trip won't last a month, if that long.

Four diesel jugs, four water jugs, one gas jug!  Lots of crap on the rail for no good reason.  Every time we've been in or traveling through the Bahamas we've been able to get fuel.  We bought fuel in the Abacos, Nassau, the Exumas, and the Turks and Caicos.  Oh well...... I asked the owner why the extra fuel and he said "I read it in .....'s Blog".  Lots of folks in the marina here travel to the Bahamas regularly, without the rail jugs, but guess he didn't want to ask anyone!

New Freezer on an IP-32

I've been building a new freezer and reefer on an IP-32 in Punta Gorda for the past several weeks.  Nearly finished with the interior portion of the upgrade with the new insulation and liner in places, new drains in, divider with spillover complete and final seam epoxy curing.  Plan to start wiring the unit tomorrow and then do some final touch up and begin fabricating the new rear hinged doors.

I'll post some photos in the next several days.

Plan to install the Keel Cooler this summer after the boat is hauled and in the yard and then will complete the system installation.

Making Plans

We've firmed up plans to travel to Kerrville this summer so that we can start planning in earnest.  We had thought of renting an RV but decided the cost was prohibitive and having an RV would also include the need to rent a car once we are in the area! So we will drive our car and stay at a cabin in the Guadeloupe River RV Park once in the Kerrville area.

We've firmed up a meeting with our Architect and awaiting a return call from our builder so we can talk about site survey and home placement.

Looking forward to our trip

Dinner Key Marina

I spent the better part of Wednesday on an IP-420 located at Dinner Key Marina, Miami.

The trip over was great but once I got onto I-95 that all changed and then when 95 turned into US-1 all bets were off......  Welcome to MEE AH MEE.

I was here to take a look at a freezer that had been causing the owner some difficulty.  A fellow from a local Refrigeration Company had worked on the unit earlier, told the owner that the compressor was bad, then added R134a.  When I climbed into the lazarette I was shocked - over 1" of ice on the copper tubing coming out of the freezer nearly all the way back to the compressor.  The system was SERIOUSLY overcharged.

I used a heat gun and melted the ice then slowly began reducing the charge in the system.  Finally got the charge corrected and the unit appears to be running properly but there may still be some issues.  One is that the compressor is fitted with a Danfoss AEO module (Adaptive Energy Optimizer) that is supposed to make the unit more efficient but this did not appear to be working.  There may also be an issue with the compressor but won't know till the owner reports back on the box temperature today. 
 

Planned Kerrville Home

This is a rough approximation of the exterior style we are planning for our new home.  Will have only 2 dormers (larger) instead of the 3 in this photo. 

No longer owners

We completed the sale of Grainne today and it was rougher than I had expected for Lesley.  We've really enjoyed our years aboard and that showed some today after closing.

The sale was made much easier as the new owners were great to deal with and are really, really, excited to be the new owners of "Our" boat. They are going to change the name and at least for the next month or two I'll be able to continue some maintenance work onboard, do the teak, and show them, quite literally, the ropes.

In the meantime we've hired an architect in Kerrville to help us come up with blue prints for our new home.

Lagoon 450

For a major part of this summer I worked on a Lagoon 450 here in the marina.  I'm not going to trash the boat - but let me say that the boat might be fine for a typical Caribbean "Charter Operation" but no way was it designed for all of the stuff that was installed on it this summer in prep for a trip around the world.  One major issue on the boat was that there was absolutely ZERO access for the installation of any additional cables, plumbing, etc. But we were still tasked with the installation of more stuff than I ever thought possible.  To the point that the owner was concerned with exceeding the boats design weight!

With that said - here is a post that the owner made in regard to a water maker problem:   


".......Once we cleared the marina, J... flipped the switch to start making fresh water. It wasn't working, which meant P.. and J... had to start troubleshooting what was wrong. P.. called the water maker installers and our contractor, S....., and started going through the steps of tracing down the problem. They saw water coming out and realized there was a leak. The only problem was that where the lines were run, it was a narrow opening and you couldn't see through it. Instead of running the lines through a bulkhead, the installers jammed the line through a narrow opening that was there, not knowing what was sharing that space. Instead of installing it properly, they took shortcuts and put us at risk. P.. and J... were able to pull enough line out to find the hose kinked. They patched a leak made by the kink and the water maker started working again."

I didn't install the water maker but was on the boat when it was installed and NO WAY WAS IT INSTALLED IMPROPERLY..................NOR WERE ANY SHORTCUTS TAKEN.   

PS:  The installer operated the watermaker for the owner here in the marina and it worked fine. 

Oh well...................

SOLD

The boat has been sold!  A very nice couple who live just up the road have made an offer and we plan to do some checkout stuff over the next few days and then go out for the sail and final shakedown on 10 Feb.

I tried to find someone local who would handle the paperwork for the sale but the local broker was unwilling to help.  I called Whiteacre Yacht Sales and spoke with Debbie Whiteacre who then referred me to the person that she uses. 

Now to get all of the incidental boat stuff out of the attic and get everything ready to transfer.

Selling our boat

After 4 years as full time live aboards cruising the East Coast from Maine to the Bahamas, then 8 winters as commuter cruisers in the Caribbean, and after 8 months back here in Florida, we've decided to sell Gra'inne.

Neither of us see any sense in keeping the boat here and not doing significant cruising.   Cruising grounds are limited, water is murky, Bahamas - been there, done that, lots of T shirts and beer snugglies and Florida is just not for us.  So I've listed her for sale on IPHOMEPORT for the time being and will see how that plays out. 

If she doesn't sell then I guess I'll have to contact my good buddy and see if he can sell her - maybe even sell his and move up!

We are both ready to move on and that means transitioning to Kerrville, Texas in the next several years.  Fix-up on our place here is underway and just started painting several rooms, replacing carpets, and new kitchen planned.  We have a Realtor coming by next week to take a look and give us some pointers.

I plan to keep the blog going and as I have time plan to modify our website and document some of the projects that I have worked on over the past several years, on Gra'inne as well as others that I've worked on.

For now I'm busy as can be - still need to finish our teak and also working on 4 other boats, including a stern tube/motor mount issue on an IP-32.

IP IceBox Drain

IP-35 co-owner Beth asked me several question on rebuilding the Icebox on an IP-35 to provide for a freezer with spillover cooling to the reefer and installation of a drain.  Thought that it would be easier to post an answer here on the blog than it would be to try and create an MS Word Documents etc.

First, I no longer try to connect new drains to the existing drain plumbing.  Way to much effort and it usually leaks.  This method works well and I've used it a number of times with great success.

The first step in the drain project is to cut a template for the floor of the icebox.  I use 1/2, 3/4, or 1" foam insulation as this is easy to cut and cheap.  Due to the size of the IP iceboxes you will not be able to get the bottom template in in one piece so I start with 2 pieces, each oversized, then trim to fit the contour of the bottom.

When I rebuild a freezer I usually use 2 - 3" polyiso roofing insulation Roof Insulation as the base then cover that with another piece of roofing insulation - normally 1 - 2" thich but using the product that is sloped - Tapered Roof Insulation, slope of 1/2" per foot works well for the bottom of the box.  Assume, for the purposes of this document, that the piece of foam here is actually 2 pieces cut to fit the box floor layed side by side with the seam of the two pieces between the two drain pipes shown later.  The first step in the process is to decide where you want the drains in the floor and also the direct location to the lazarette (IP-32,35, 37, 350 directly aft into the Stbd Lazarette).

Cut out the first layer of foam to match the drain locations.  The foam is cut with a long blade snap  knife and should be deep enough to bury the 3/4" PVC pipe and fittings.  In a 3" thick piece of foam I like to go down about 2" so that I can get the drains down far enough for the vertical risers to be added later.

Once the first layer of foam is cut glue the 3/4" PVC fittings to the pipe.  A  SxT ell is user here on the left (Freezer Side on the IP-35) and then a SxTxS tee for the fridge.



For the vertical drain pieces I use a 6" FRP coupling which is threaded on both ends with 3/4FPT threads which I cut in half initially. This is the FRP coupling before it is cut in half.

75007-206 6" coupling









Make the PVC pipe long enough to go through the existing box aft wall with enough extra on the end so that it can be trimmed and a SxT coupling glued to the end for the hose barb fitting that will be needed to connect the drain to a sump pump. 

In this image the pipes and fittings are glued together and set into the foam base.  The FRP risers are threaded into the PVC fittings using 3/4" plastic close nipples and Teflon sealer tape. 









Next the top layer of foam is cut using a 2" hole saw so that the FRP risers are centered in the holes.  This piece of foam would also be in two pieces so that you can get it into the box and in this case I would make the fore/aft seam roughly centered where the 3" spillover divider would be placed.








Once the dry fit is made mark the FRP risers about 1/4" below the level of this piece of foam and FRP liner material and cut.  I use Teflon thread  tape on the close nipples to seal the threads.


After all of the pieces have been dry fitted into the box I glue the first layer of foam into the box and use great stuff and fill the voids around the pipe and fittings in this first layer of foam.  Make sure to fill the vertical risers with stoppers so you don't drop something in them as installation continues.  These same stoppers will be used later to seal the risers to prevent cold are from running out the drain! After the foam is cured trim the excess and then glue the top piece of foam (already covered with the FRP liner) to the lower pice and again fill the voids around the sides of the foam with spray foam.

The SxT coupling glued to the end of the PVC pipe once everything is in place.  This is for the hose barb fitting that will be used to connect the drain to the sump pump.

After the floor is solidly in place continue installing the remaining installation in this sequence - top next which will be screwed in place w 4 - 6 screws and then held in place by the rear, front and side insulation. 

Next you have to bend the flat plate evaporator and install in the freezer then install the spillover divider.  I assemble and dry fit the divider in several pieces as well.  In the case of the IP's mentioned above I slide in a 1/2" FRP lined plywood divider followed by 2 pieces of 2" foam (2 pieces because you usually can't get a single pice into the top opening and in place) and then the final 1/2" lined divider.

I may add additional info as this project progresses.  Like a long distance puzzle project!  Hope this is some help - any questions feel free to ask.