Vira - Sailboat rebuild, Irwin Citation 34

Navigation electronics. Working on navpod for OpenPlotter dashboard.  Idea to make pedestal guard mounted  dashboard in navpod looking form. Dashboard will work under OpenPlotter, I am planning to  make button controls (without touch). In my perspective buttons are much more easy to use in cockpit. Script will control applications Steat/foreground/background control. Also it will be mouse simulation   with arrows buttons IF i will need to do do something "non standard", but i expect to use this display as dashboard only. there will be several modes: Map screen (preset OCPN) VNC ( show main navigation screen copy) Sailing dashboard - big wind instrument, speedometer with SOG, STW, day log, DEPTH, Position, COG Engine dashboard - small wind instrument, Tachometer, engine coolant out temperature, oil pressure , aditional temperature gauges (coolant in, exhaust, transmission, drive shaft packing, raw water after exchanger)  and sure  SOG, STW, day log, DEP...

Engine Installed heat exchanger. Decided to mount it above the wet muffler keep it as close to engine as i can and mount it leveled and keep it high enough to make air naturally run out of engine. To install it there I made a  mount and screw it to the engine compartment wall. 2 hours to put it tight, but stand off of exhaust.I have about 2 inches clearance from wet exhaust hose. Little straggle to find place for coolant expansion tank. For now I put it to the wall little bit right from picture view area. Connected transmission control and engine stop cable. adjusted idle RPM and accelerator cable to do not interfere with idle speed screw.  Temporary installed engine monitoring controller.  Controller designed to collect engine data and transfer to SignalK server. Then I will be able to indicate all on the cockpit display. For now it is very important to monitor engine temperature to confirm the engine is working without overheating and thermostat works correctly. I plan ...

Cabin sole (day 178)   Sanded floor patches was done weekend before  To make clear cut on floor panels I made  plywood (actually laminated MDF) templates based on paper templates I had made week ago. Then fit them to place using jigsaw and orbital sander to meet all curves of the recesses on the FG floor.  Easy to say, not easy to do. it was about 10-15 try-cut-sand-try-cut-send cycles per each of four pieces. Templates after they was fit to places. Based on my pretty short experience I found several areas on the cabin sole are uncomfortably slippery due to they are just glossy gelcoat.  I decided to put no-skid paint in these ares. All is ready to be painted with no-skid. Under cabin table.    Sloped floor part in the galley. Area under navigation desk. Sloped floor next to cabinet in front cabin.  Floor in the shower Cockpit  Pedestal guard, finally installed. Cabin sole (Day 179) Final flooring (wood areas) will be STAINMASTER London Sky...

 Interior Cabin sole gelcoat (Floor ) cleaning. Still thinking about to keep original gelcoat on cabin sole and built in cabin "furniture".  During 40 years and and my and not only my repair activity  "white" floor was used actively and had was weathered pretty much. Fortunately gelcoat  layer is pretty descent, so I decided to sand it to clean polish and wax it. Easy to say, but it is a lot of work. about 10 hours work on the floor with 3 types of sanders and manual sand blocks.  sanding order 120 grit, 240, 320, 400, 600. After 600 plastic still have satin look, but it is really smooth.  There several places where gelcoat was too thin and I sanded th the glass. Yes, it is some imperfection , but I would rather left them as is. I processed all "white" parts on the floor in the cabin. Wood covered areas (as you remember we removed all rotted plywood) does not require so clean sanding and cleaning, just 80 grit sand to remove old glue and make surface prepa...

Interior Removing old Teak and holly plywood from the floor. It was mostly de-laminated and rotted in about 50% of surface. Galley floor in process Younger son provided great help today Whole floor cleaned up from wood. Windlass. Windlass battery strapped down. Pulled out chain and marked 40, 60 and 80 feet points with pieces of webbing to make length tabs Engine room.  Glassing "the shelf" over the opening originally left by builders. This area was just a hole opened directly from engine room to cabin. Result engine room wall was just "in air" and any water splashed in this area will be ended pilot berth really wet.. Another thing which had to be addressed - the bulkhead to deck connection. it was very weak and bulkhead traveled about an inch side to side when any load applied to steering. I am not sure the stiffening this joint this way is right thing to do, but i hope it will provide some support to bulkhead. it si to side direction.excessive glass should be cut...

   Galley  Countertop Pre-work at home: Sink and storage compartments openings routed on CNC. Cut in exact dimensions of sink, 12x12" for storage and 12x16" for refrigerator box lid.   Lids will need gluing frames around to make them "slide fit" on the holes. Need to be done later. Both parts installed and fitted. It is strange but all openings on right places :-)    Biggest worry was the sink may collide with new drawers module. Nope, all good. Routed grooves to set "wall cabinets" sit tight and do good connection to countertop without trim, but looks like trim around door and in connection to next panel will be necessary at any case. Glassing area of exposed foam in aft "wall" cabinet bottom to protect it from water in case if some leakage will  happen.     Yes, it is red, i have very rare red epoxy :-))))) actually it is colored by fast  hardener sit in can for a while. West Systems is calming that color is coming from metal can ov...