It's 21 degrees F outside.....!!

As this is being written at 1 pm on Tuesday afternoon on January 28, it is now 21 degrees F. outside with 20+ MPH winds, rainy sleet, and snow in some parts of Houston......down at the marina the temp with the wind chill is 18 degrees F. .......so no boat work today. The last coat of non-skid was applied to the cockpit yesterday, temps were in high 60's and low 70's, and the paint went off before this front rolled in. So now that portion of ZOSHA'S  new non-skid job is finally finished and ready. Next up is the Port sidedeck .... when ?, you might be wondering? My plan is for this Thursday January 30th.....the weather forecast is for temps in the mid 70's F., sun shining, no rain, light winds.....! That's Houston weather folks...!
Until next time......peace to you all.........

Don't Tread on Me.....Part 6 Update

Today was another perfect day for boat work entailing temperature and humidity sensitive paint......the weather was like San Diego. We only get about 60 or so days a year like this down here.....most of the time its too hot, too cold, too rainy, too humid, or too windy....that said..today is perfect so another coat of non-skid was applied to ZOSHAS cockpit.......this makes 2 coats out of 3 total. The directions from the company say two coats is enough for normal use areas or three coats for areas that suffer abuse.....well, to me, dropping winch handles and full beer cans every  now a then constitutes abuse .....so three coats it is......rain predicted for the next few days, 40-60 %.....so you know its gonna get wet.....Saturday looks good weather wise.....so this weekend the cockpit will be done.....Here's a couple pics from today.........

Bridgedeck

Port side cockpit seat

I've always used the BLUE Painter's Tape to mask off paint jobs and was going to do the same with this project....BUT the guy at Sherwin Williams told me about some new painters tape that, according to him, is much better than the old standard BLUE Tape. Evidently it  has some kind of chemical in the edges that reacts to the wet paint and creates a molecular seal that stops any bleed through under the edge of the tape.....never being resistant to new technology, I bought it...and as you can see from the photos it works great.....I have had bleed thru with the Blue Tape.... 

You ought ta give this stuff a shot in your next painting project.....

Take care and my best wishes to you all........

Don't Tread On Me....Part 6

Today wasn't the ideal boat work day like yesterday. We had good temp, humidity, and no rain but the wind was blowing in the high 20's......but a promise is a promise. In yesterday's blog I promised to finally show you NEW non-skid on ZOSHAS deck. Being a man of my word and never breaking a promise......cast thy peepers below........

This is the first of three coats.....that's why you can still see the primed deck coming thru...you can't put this stuff on thick !

Lazzarette hatch .....

Bridgedeck.....

Looking good.....

Take care my friend Peace to you all..............

Greenish looking stuff ..... Got it covered.......

A month or two ago,  the Westsail Owners Association sponsored a Gulf Coast rendezvous in Clear Lake Shores, Texas for owners and owner wannabe's and any other parties who have an interest in the Westsail line of cruising sailboats.  Owners from all over the Gulf Coast got together for fun, food, libations, boat tours, and endless rounds of talking Westsail stuff. The Westsail Corporation went out of business back in the 1980's after manufacturing a total of about 1100 boats. The most prolific of their production run was the W 32 with about 825 boats manufactured. Depending on who you talk to, there were about 60-70 W 28's.  The remainder of the production run was comprised of  W 39's, 42's and 43's.
Today, Westsails are just about as popular and in demand as they were in the 1970's and 1980's. A 35 year old boat in good shape is selling today for not much less than the purchase price when new. Some sell for more. Part of this success is due to a guy named Bud Taplin. Bud was the production manager for the Westsail Corporation for many years and was responsible for the manufacturing output of the factory. When the corporation went out of business, Bud started a company supplying Westsail owners with technical manuals and advice, new and replacement parts that are manufactured to original or better specifications, and a clearing house for brokering boats.
Westsail's are probably the favorite boat that Forum A-holes like to pick on. That aside. No one who is familiar with these boats can ever criticize the factory for skimping on either construction scantlings  or the quality of the component parts that finished out the boat. For instance, lets examine the ports found on the boats that I have personal experience with, theW28 and W32. They are massive bronze opening ports available with screens for bug control and if memory serves me right were sold by the ABI Company out on the west coast in California. Sadly, this company is no longer in business.

These ports are 35 years old and are better than the day they were new.........why, you ask ? .....because of the patina, the greenish looking stuff on the bronze.....the first thing that most newbies want to do is polish these ports up and get them all shiny and new looking, My GF Tana, sometimes referred to as Tanababy (TB),  wanted to do exactly this until I explained that it is this greenish looking stuff that protects the metal and allows it to last forever. 

Look at the bronze statues in Rome that are 2000 years old.....all covered with the same greenish looking stuff.....and still looking good! Because of their simple design and robust construction these ports will function perfectly......... indefinitely. If they have an inherent weakness and this is not because of the port itself but because of an un-knowledgeable  user, now don't get me wrong here....I'm not becoming another Forum A-Hole pundit.....we are ALL ignorant!!! yes all of us!!! we are just ignorant about different things! OK back to the weakness in these ports.....What is it ? You ponder. ...It's the gasket that seals the two have together when closed....they have a tendency to leak.......NO, you say! ..Yes, I retort! ..Why? you query .... "because current and past owners have dogged them down too tight and over the years these gaskets become compressed and don't seal well any longer and we keep dogging harder and harder  to stop the drip until we've ruined the gasket"   Finger Tight is the Rule.....don't dog these down as tight as you can get them.....certainly it will keep them from leaking but so will  keeping to the FT Rule and you won't ruin the seal!  BTW, Bud Taplin has new gasket material in stock. That said, another issue with these ports is heat and glare radiating into the cabin. These ports are large for light and airflow and they do a terrific job but sometimes for whatever reason you don't want alot of bright! The light bouncing off the white bulwarks through the thick glass of the port sometimes creates a glare that is, to us,  uncomfortable and unnerving. Another issue is magnified heat broiling through the port glass that can heat up poor ZOSHA'S interior to the point of simmering your vital fluids! .....you don't want that to happen ...Do you?  Some people might, I guess....Mmmmm...wonder if you get all tingly when this happens? Hmmm.....Never mind...back to the point.....

TB to the rescue......she made up some fabric port covers that have a fabric of your choice on the inboard and reflective heat retardant material is sewn on the outboard side. These things are awesome. Keep out unwanted light and heat.  

Interior, cabin, side......Looks like a beret.....doesn't it ?

Outboard side..notice the white heat reflecting material and the simple elastic edge....just stretch it on !

The port cover in place.....pretty neat ...wouldn't you say ?

Take care my friends..........

Don't Tread On Me......Part 5......

On January 20, 2014 all of the confluences that affect my boat project life fell into harmony.....perfect temp, ideal humidity, terrific sunshine, no rain, little wind, not working for a couple days, and motivated to get a boat project done......"Lets go....we're burning daylight" I muttered to Tana's cat Tawny in my best John Wayne impression......and out the door flew I. 
The removal of ZOSHAS teak decks and applying new non-skid has almost become my life's work! I've been screwing around with this project for a year. Well, this is 2014, a new year, and my new year's resolutions are ......well, well.....Resolute!       #1- finish the decks and #2- drink more beer. That's it.....I'm a simple man. 
If any of you are interested or want to reminisce on past blog entries.....all of the teak deck project blogs are titled..
 Don't Tread On Me.....with an episode number. This is #5.

Today went well.....the entire cockpit has been stripped, cleaned, all the screw holes have been probed with a dental tool and filled with epoxy putty.............and the primer applied.....tomorrow the non-skid goes on....."come hell or high water, pilgrim".....that's John Wayne again in case some of you didn't recognize the syncopation......

Ok.....let's talk about PRIMER......the non-skid paint that I'm using requires a primer.....ok no problem.....me and Tawny make a trip over to our favorite West Marine and find the primer we need....$49 a quart!!!!! "AAH crap!", here we go again.... the short of it is about two hours later after hitting a bunch of places, Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, a couple of local hardware stores, we couldn't find what I needed. Then I pulled into the Kroger parking lot to go buy Tawny some treats and right in front of me was a Sherwin Williams Paint store......so I went in.....immediately the salesman came up and said " whatcha need Ace?" so I told him and he showed me his perfect primer......"lookit here Ace....this primer is not only good for fiberglass.....you can use it to prime ceramic tile, PVC pipe, metal, glass, and any other bad ass paint jobs....I'm tellin ya Ace you can't go wrong with this stuff."  I bought it.....$27.95 per gallon......it comes in white but they will tint it any color for you......The guy checked me out and said...."lookee here Ace...if you have any problems with this stuff, just bring it in and we'll giveya yur money back......but I'm tellin ya Ace...this stuff is fantastic. It's exactly what ya need."  I thanked the man and went out and got into my truck and headed to the marina.
The stuff went on easy, no clumping, no ultra fast flashing....it filled in small glazing cracks and tiny imperfections, had a long pot life if kept out of the sun.....it looks pretty good. 

Cleaned up with epoxy in the screwholes

Got to wash this first....

OK lets PRIME!!!

The epoxy filled screw holes show thru the primer...

the non-skid paint will take care of that....

Port side bridgedeck..............

A real non-descript label for such a killer product.....

These kids are the future for keeping sailing alive and well..

 For tomorrow, 
DTOM #6, you will see a brand spankin new NONSKID job in the cockpit of ZOSHA............until then....you guys take care....

Regards
Ace

ZOSHAS WAKE is adapting............

A couple of years ago when this blog first started, our plan was to immediately get ZOSHA ready and head out for Florida, the Bahamas, and points south and east of that. 

Those of you that read my blog of December 20, 2013, Fluidity ....and the Captain, might recall that the  message of that little piece was that in an effort to continue with one's own personal productive, successful, and meaningful life we must be able to adapt to changes, interruptions, disappointments and maturation of our personal philosophies. That said. Yes, we are still going sailing but no longer is this our single focus. We're going to try and do a bunch of other stuff too and take ZOSHAS WAKE down some unexpected paths........hope you guys come along.

"The best laid schemes of mice and men oft go awry"

              Robert Burns 1786 from the poem To A Mouse

Take care my friends. Peace and Prosperity to you in 2014......

Goodbye Phil......

Don't know where the heck I've been to miss the media notices of the passing of one of the greatest Rock and Roll Legends of all time..............PHIL EVERLY who unfortunately passed away January 3, 2014. The Everly Brothers helped define Rock and Roll  were included in the group of the first ten artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Just about every major R&R Icon has made public statements as to how Don and Phil Everly were pioneers of Rock Music and set the standards for Rock Music excellence and how they positively influenced the creativity of generations of musicians.. None of us will ever forget when our parents and teachers and, in my case the sweet nuns , warned us of the demonic innuendos in the evil lyrics of .......the naughtiest song of the time...............

"Wake Up Little Susie" .....

  

PHIL on left......Don on right

Thank you and Rest In Peace Phil....we'll never forget ya!!!

Take Care My Friends...............