Vira - Sailboat rebuild, Irwin Citation 34

  Deck Companionway hatch. Original hatch is heavy UV damaged and it is 27x29" 1/2 inch plexiglass.  Problem to find supplier who ready to cut you this size and let you pay for what you get. 99.9% of suppliers try to charge only 48x96" , 48x48, 48x24, 24x24 and problem is our catch is little bit bigger than 24x24" in both directions and suppliers pushing me to buy 48x48" and overpay almost x4 times. Difference between $150 I paid  and $450 they want because they want. I found  www.tapplastics.com who was ready to cut me what i need and do not overpay. . Chemcast Transparent Colored Acrylic Plexiglass bronze 47% Dry fit of new piece of Plexi. Drawing of the hatch handle to rebuild original one. Deck  This day my wife came to help me sand the fairing on the deck with random orbital sander and i did hand sanding in tight quarters, then repatriated some places for second time. Next day spent another two hour to sand to smooth. Second patching cycle after sandin...

  Autopilot Autopilot drive mount built.   Dry fit testing. Run drive on power . Linear drive moves rudder end to end in 4 sec. Motor seems not feel load at all. Need to make spacer for the top corner due to motor compartment wall is not flat. Bottom part mounted on cored area, top side is just 1/8 in-liner wall and it is not vertical. Converting autohelm 6000 drive to smart drive Decided to use Sean's mid power motor controller instead of re-engineering it. Two reasons - 1) support great work from amazing person, 2) save time for other projects.  When controller arrived, i found the conformal coating is really bad quality, so i had to re-coat the board. But is is OK.   After some play with drive I found the controller board  perfectly fits inside drive enclosure and let me make much cleaner installation. Only modification was 5 holes in the aluminum cover. Four 4mm holes for screws holding the board and one 15mm for round connector to connect end switches and ...

 Deck Cockpit  finishing sanding   Still several spots to patch, but it is 90% done. Next part -  main deck but bow area around chain locker. Sanding all imperfections   Port side several spots was sanded years ago and taped by some very aggressive adhesive tape.   It is very hard to tale adhesive material off, as well as plastic film left overs   Companionway hatch cover is removed, almost all screw holes stripped. Tapered area around and injected west system epoxy with 404  filler on the holes and patched them with it. Later will drill new pilot holes and put screws back. A lot of small voids on gelcoat. Starboard side, corner of companionway hatch box. Stress crack, sanded to live FRP and glassed back with 3 layers of 1708, kind of buildup area back from small patch to big. Opened stress crack around mast base. Likely will do full rebuild there when will move boat to the Gulf coast. But for now, opened gelcoat crack and filet area around...