ILENE Floats Again!

Happiest day of the year: the day the boat is launched! May 1, 2013. Here she is in the slings, being moved to the ways. The empty slot above the blond head in the lower left, was her home this winter:

During the period March 27 -- May 1, I worked on the boat 19 days. Two of them were with my personal trainer and friend, Nicholas. He is afraid of sailing because he does not swim, though he did accompany me for a day sail with two lovely young Iranian women in 2010. But he likes to help with compounding and waxing and I welcome his strong support. Two other days, later, were with Ilene, the lady, who assisted on jobs that require two people. So with their help we spent 23 man days, though only 93 work hours (only 4 hours of work per day), on average. No longer do I put in ten hour work days.

What was done?
+Removal, folding and storage of the heavy dark blue canvas protective cover;
+ Using the Dremel tool to recess hinges to door so it fits;
+Re-installing the stanchions and lifelines and returning the materials used to frame the canvas cover to their normal positions;
+Washing down the lower portion of the free board with "On and Off", a nasty acid that eats off algae and other organic growth which stain the hull brown and green;
+Removing rust from most of the places where it has shown up and waxing the cleaned stainless steel;
+Lubricating and replacing three sacrificial zinc pieces on or near the propeller, "Etching," barrier coat priming and bottom painting of the metal propeller and its shaft and strut (all three zincs show in this picture -- the barrel on the shaft to the left, the small one protecting the weed cutter next and the tail cone at the end. They will erode this summer instead of the propeller and shaft. The three prop blades are in "feathered" position, dragging most easily through the water, rather than in forward or reverse to push the boat) ;

+Scraping and sanding away those portions of the bottom paint that are chipped or loose, washing the sanded areas with acetone and covering with two coats of (anti barnacle) bottom paint. (This year, for the first time,  I did not cover the whole bottom with paint at $200/gallon. The paint is ablative" - it very gradually washes away, but not fast enough -- so it builds up to a very thick coating.);
+Compounding the freeboard;
+Rigger Jeff Lazar visited and replaced the inside barrel of the Genoa's roller furling unit which had corroded so it no longer swiveled properly (the new design has a hole to permit fresh water flushing to prevent recurrence of this problem);
+Waxing the freeboard.

At this point, on April 19, ILENE was ready, for launch. The Club, gives everyone an April 1 deadline: "Be ready for launch of pay a daily penalty and as on April 15 you will lose your $500 winter deposit!" But the Club suffered damage in Hurricane Sandy and was not ready to launch ILENE until April 30. So work continued:

+Lots of compounding rust off the stainless and waxing same to deter the speed with which it regrows; +Put up dodger, bimini and main sail (Folks at the Huguenot told me to stop before the reefing lines were put in: "Take down that sail: If there is a gust of wind the boat will tip over off the stands and damage the neighboring boats!" Well if this did happen it would likely also kill or maim Ilene and I. But there was a zero probability of this catastrophe with very gentle air and it coming from the boat's bow.);
+ Install new gas tank vents (the old having corroded away), reconnect hoses from the tanks to these vents, and put the interior of the boat which had to be disassembled to get to the vents.
+Start interior cleaning

A perfectionist would not be happy with the job. I know this because I used to be one. The boat does not pass the "one foot test" -- with one's eyes a foot away from her surfaces, the imperfections are glaringly obvious. But she is "good enough" to pass the "ten foot test".

In fact, the free board had not been done since the Fall of 2011 -- two and a half years ago, with lots of miles under her keel since then! So ILENE was overdue for a beauty treatment.

 Still a lot of work to do:
+More cleaning of the interior;
+Bending on the head sails;
+Cleaning and waxing the deck, coach roof and cockpit;
+Cleaning out the water tanks, filling them, recommissioning the water maker and provisioning the boat.

Some guys like working on their boats, as much (or more than) sailing them; I am not in that camp. For me the work is a necessary evil, like paying taxes -- a price one pays for the pleasure of sailing. There is one disadvantage to having been launched: from now on there is a strong disincentive to continued work -- we can sail instead.

During the launch I discovered a very stupid mistake I had made: not reconnecting the hose from the thru hull to the engine, through which sea water flows to cool the engine while running. "Where is that gurgling sound coming from??!!"  I tore off the ladder connecting the cockpit to the cabin to search for the gurgle and it was not hard to find: raw sea water was shooting into the boat. through the seacock (valve) . I could hare turned the seacock to "off" but instead I simply pushed the rubber hose into place over the metal pipe and tightened the two hose clamps that were waiting there to hold it on securely. (Which is what I should have done last fall after the removal of the hose to permit winterization.) Water only flowed in for less than a minute. If undetected, the boat would have sunk, for sure. Beneficial side effect: the bilge pump was given its spring test: it works. The only other problem was my failure to turn on the switch for the starting battery. No wonder the engine wouldn't start! But again, it took only two seconds to realize why. Over the long winter (the six month anniversary of Hurricane Sandy was noted here recently) one forgets. Not to worry, soon ILENE and I will be in back in mid-season form.

Wow! Only about 40 days until our scheduled departure for the  three months Maine cruise!