Vira - Sailboat rebuild, Irwin Citation 34

Sailing Lazy sail. Only about 110% Genoa, no main hoisted. 15 knots with 20 gusts, mostly Board reach to Beam reach sail up river, then weather get to steady 20 knots with up to 28 gusts, "crew" was not ready to to sail upwind, so we motored back.   No pictures on way back ;-)  

 Engine Check oil, Run engine  for 30 min on mid RPM. Made sure all warks. All looks good, little white "oil" smoke visible, smells like burned oil ;-)  Packing is not dripping, what me little bit nervous, however an hour ride next day did not heat packing box any. Cleaned contacts on engine to control connector. Oil pressure switch contact was lost. Interior.  temporary toilet. Made plywood plate to install porta-poty and installed holders to prevent it running around.  Cut extensive piece of sanitary hose.    Facet and sink Installed facet and sink, so we can use water here. Head cabinet . Built head cabinet back, panels made outstanding "countertop" for 0.5" to prevent plywood absorb water if something will be spilled on it. Glassed right wall to the hull and deck with one layer of 1708. Autopilot drive project  progress A lot of calculations and chasing ideas. So, final plan is to make design close to wheel drive, but "on steroids". Irwin 34 s...

Interior Head walls painting.   Side by side - new and old. Little history Prep-work is done, ready to go. A lot of work, nothing to show ;-) Mostly it was a practice to use roll and tip technique and I think we had only 4 of 5 result. Looking back on job - we would need to put more brush thinner. But so far it is white! My wife maria greatestly helped with prep work and painting. I did just tapping. And all imperfections are on my hands. Masking tape left for coupe days to to let paint make good film. And final view Just me ;)   Other Just boat back view, it is hard to realize how beamy she is. I like beamy girls ;-)

Foggy morning...  Interior Head walls  Adding piece of teak to add bulkhead support and close hole in between main cabin and head. Glassing and filling was done in one cycle. Looks not perfect but filler will be sanded later. From the main cabin just glassing. Looks not superb, but functional. Walls priming. This day Maria helped me a lot in sanding and priming the head interior. Just finished priming. And after masking tape removal... Locker next to battery compartment. As i wrote earlier, I found pretty big completely enclosed compartment next to battery box on port side. I have made storage locker there. Main concern - I would like to have as much as i can access to internal side of the hull (just in case), as well storage volume always is handy.  Some work is left there - close bottom to prevent thing go under battery box. Structural I found the longitudinal bulkhead dividing starboard side to locker and engine "room" tabbing completely de-laminated. Likely happened ...

Interior Head (toilet room) 1. Left "wall" primed (1-st layer) 2. all links between walls and flour primed as well. 3. Hole I made during piping patched and filled.  4. I made teak wood insert to cover "hole in a wall" and make additional compression support for bulkhead.  [No picture for now] Primer is not self-leveling well, however looks not bad on the picture. ;) Right side was not planned to be primed, but I had primer leftovers, so i used them. There was little to no prep work, will test adhesion next time.  PS: Interlux prime-cote smell literally "smoked" me out of boat. It was short day.

 Interior Sanded over glass to surface transition. Patch edge between surface and joint Replaced screws mounting forward wall to in-liner with countersink bolts. Slightly opened all holes and patched them. Sanded (scarfed) left wall to be able to prime it.     Systems Dry bilge pump POC testing Box with sponge and membrane pump, works perfect.   Manual pump  testing I was able to pump it out within about minute or two. It was hard to prime, but doable.

 Interior, Head, Shower One more thing to do before final makeup. One more thing made to fail in time. By design head walls   mounted the way where the plywood edge sits in shower pan.  What it means? In means main bulkhead and Head walls will rot in time if you use shower frequent. To prevent it you have to use a shower but not put a drip on walls and prevent any level of water on the head floor. Is it possible? Sore not. Then you have nice smell, rotted plywood e.t.c. So, I decided to glass all walls to shower pan and painted walls with topside two part Interlux paint. It will be good training to learn how to paint topside and deck. How do I do it?  Step 0. Dig out rotted wood. 😉 All bottom part of the main port-side bulkhead appeared rotted to trash. My plan - put 4 5/16 bolts to secure bulkhead to internal-liner structure, cut out all trash and then, make several teak wood blocks in size and make couple support plates to take vertical load from bulkhead...