Stern Ladder Project

Rail seats and ladder mounted

draggin a rail in Kaneohe Bay

Painted aluminum awlgrip gray

Finished, painted, assembled ladder and rail seats with 3M nonskid.

Awlgrip gray on ladder steps and rail seats

sanded and etched ready for paint

Dry fit after cut and sanding ends

Old ladder and new aluminum rods next to it.

I just like building stuff. Even If it isn't that cost effective, there is satisfaction in knowing "I did That". This project is my stern ladder. My old one was hollow stainless tubing. It bent under the weight of heavy guests. I decided to rebuild it better with solid aluminum rod. I ordered two 6 foot long aluminum rods from Mc Master -Carr. They are 7068 aluminum alloy. They are the strongest grade of aluminum you can buy. Which validates the $101 a piece price. With shipping $244. http://www.mcmaster.com/#9047k136/=34sojq I went to the hardware store and bought a 1/4" tap, (2 )#7 drill bits and stainless 1/4" pan head screws for assembly. I'm using left over G10 for the steps. They will be painted gray Awlgrip and have non-skid tread on them to help when you climb in and out of the water. The old one hurt your feet due to the narrow rungs. The new ladder will be 8 inchs longer. The old one was a touch too short when in the water. I'm also fabricating "legs" to protect the fiberglass and keep it oriented sraight up and down. I'm using my toolshop to cut and drill and tap and sand everything. Without it, I would've never been able to drill and tap the ends of the rungs correctly. Can't wait till its done.

LED Navigation lights

I ordered Hella 1NM LED navigation lights to replace my old shitty ones. Unfortunetly they were on back oreder everywhere on the web. I finally recieved them and put them on the bow last night. They look clean and are bright! Worth the $60 a piece price.



I am now going to replace the old mildued trim in the cabin with blue LED rope light I bought from somewhere. It plugs into my cigarette lighter and looks cooler then the old white lights.

Orcas Cleat, G10 reinforced sliding hatch track

Rub rail for anchor rode

316 Orcas cleat. $425

It is a 10" pop-up cleat

316 SS handrails.

G10 epoxied to top of track for strength. I'll paint them later.

Lifelines, Handrails, Stern seats

Current look before the hull is painted

G10 stern rail seat not painted yet. I will also make cushions for them.

Parking sail is complete. I made those lifeline cushions out of sunbrella.

Lifelines are amsteel blue, Stanchion base plates G10

HERE IS WHAT ONE OF THE MANY HOLES IN MY DECK LOOK LIKE. FILLED AND DRILLED WITH THICKENED EPOXY.

The handrails are on. The stanchions are made from solid G10 rod, and they are mounted. The bases have G10 backing plates above and below deck. The stern rail seats are made from G10(overkill) and are a great addition. I mounted my Spin pole chocks, my new cam cleats for the twings, and I reenforced the companionway sliding hatch rails by epoxying G10 over them. More pics to follow. I am getting ready to race the summer circuit here at Kaneohe Bay Yacht Club.

Making an Anchor or "parking" sail

Materials consist of old sail, bungie cord and hooks to hold sail taught down and forward, jiffy grommets to reinforce sail where halyard and hooks attach, and finally four ronstan snap shackles to hold sail to backstay. I will sew black sunbrella around trim since I have some left over from lifeline cushions. I ordered everything from Sailrite.

I have all my materials except for the sewing machine. I got a singer on ebay for $40. Should be here in a year since they shipped it to hawaii via boat. Thanks for that.

rebuilding sliding hatch

Finished

old and new comparison

Shiny, awlgripped, light gray, G10 base plates for my pulpits and stanchions. I'll shape and bevel them later. Small squares will be round and rectangles will be rounded rectangles for the stanchion bases.

Back of hatch

Front of hatch Painted. Couple of bubbles but not a bad job for the hatch.

Faired, ready for primer

filet mix with west system and micro ballons

glassed over filet for reinforcement

Putting old traveler back on

I reinstalled everything and added two big offshore camcleats spread a little wider than their original positions on the deck. I also added new jamcleats near the primaries. I still need new jamcleats near secondaries, Both pulpits and all stanchions and bases reinstalled, however I need to make backing plates first so it might be awhile. Here's some more pics.

More hardware on

Alot of holes to mark, over-drill, tape, fill, remark, chamfer, re-drill, re-tape, clean, seal, and mount. This is a time consuming process and it sucks. In order to do it right, it takes a lot of time and patience. It's no wonder people cut corners when re-bedding hardware. I'm also doing it myself so I'm constantly running topsides and then down below decks to tighten each bolt with the help of vicegrips wedged against something, to hold the nut while I tighten it.I've got both Genoa tracks, clutches, deck organizers, backstay adjustment eye pad, foreguy eye pad and bullet fairleads, and the port side spin block eyepad properly re-mounted. I still need to mount the camcleats (3) for double-ended foreguy, and topping lift, the starboard eyepad for spin block, and a stand-up block that I originally bought to replace a blown halyard mast block that I decided to not mount, instead I will mount it up close to the Bow for a tack line to fly an asymmetrical spinnaker. Overall I'm pleased with my new deck layout. I have new cordage en route. I plan to eventually run a reefing line to the cockpit via the port organizer( i bought two (4) sheave models so I have an unused sheave). I also plan to rig a lazy jack system that I can control from the cockpit as well.

I also bought a trick throttle cable and mounting brackets to replace my choke/kill cable for the Yanmar. My old one required two hands and a lot of strength to pull. I remounted it in a new location as you can see in the picture. I also used an unused Spinlock bulls-eye fairlead as a handle for the cable and when my new cordage comes in I'll tie a monkey fist knot to it, and it will look sweet. Pics to follow. Mango out.

Transom work

I removed the chainplates, swim ladder, from the back of the boat. The transom is thicker than I thought (about 2 inches). The chainplate holes were mostly dry. The fasteners for everything were rusting.

I overdrilled every hole and sealed with very thick epoxy. I will redrill and remount the chainplates/backstay this evening. The ladder needs to be cleaned up or replaced.
I'm mostly concerned with waterproofing the core with the epoxy fill method.

I may also add backing plates to the chainplates at that time.

Winches and Jib tracks finally on.

I properly mounted the primaries and secondaries so I got clean, rebuilt winches finally. I mounted the jib tracks and I'm getting ready to drill/fill the genny track holes. I plan on going sailing on both sat and sun. I'm also going to fly my spinnaker if I can mount my blocks by the weekend.

Mounting Primary

Measured and marked holes with base of winch. Masked whole area with 3M tape to contain mess. Drilled holes oversize with 3/4 inch forstner bit. Mixed west system and pre-filled holes with unthickened epoxy. Went below and drained each hole back into mixing cup. Mixed in colloidal silica thickener until mayo consistency. Injected thickened epoxy into holes with syringe. Only filled up to 1/8 inch below surface due to the fact that the epoxy rises a bit. Here's the hardened result. Spent all night cleaning/re greasing, and building primary winch.
Ground the hardened epoxy down to the surface. Acetoned, then put base of other winch down and centered the holes over the enlarged, filled holes, and marked with a marker. Removed winch base and predrilled a pilot hole with a small bit on low at a slow speed in order to prevent the epoxy from cracking. I then drilled a 3/8 inch hole through the pilot hole in order to facilitate the 5/16 bolt of the primary. I recessed the holes with a 3/4 inch recess bit(chamfer). This will allow more sealant to collect around each bolt and form an o-ring of sealant. I then acetoned the holes, the base of the primary, and the bolts. I put down a generous amount of 3M 4000UV sealant around each hole and the perimeter of the base. I then installed the base of the winch. I went below and installed the fender washers and lock nuts. I tightened everything down with an impact driver. I went topsides and cleaned the excess sealant from the edge of the base. Removed the tape surrounding the base. Acetoned everything until satisfied. and then put the winch drum back on the base.
Here is the final result and I only have three more to go. (I'm not reinstalling my halyard winches, I'm only mounting my secondaries which will double as halyard winches. I'll just need to buy locking snatch blocks in order to free up my secondaries for raising the spin halyard, and just change the genny sheet on my primaries to spin sheet, and vice versa.

After pics

Notice the flattened nonskid has more contrast with the shiny coat, due to flattening agent mixed with the paint.
It's good... now on to mounting hardware. Primaries first. I'm not in a hurry to remount stanchions and pulpits because I still need to fabricate backing plates and epoxy them to the underside of the deck. I'm going to take my time and do it right. Besides ,I'm not going open water at the present time and the lack of lifelines is more convienient.

Another coat of non-skid (before pics)

Taped but not trimmed.
Notice the uneven brush/roller marks in the unflattened first coat picture of the deck below.

rolled.

I already have so much time invested in this deck rebuild, whats another two days worth of work. I scrubbed the deck with TSP on tuesday, Taped the non skid areas on wednesday, Sanded the bow and deck on thursday, AndI got up at 530 and started sanding the nonskid on last time with a longboard and small block for the tape line. I awlprepped it, alcohol wiped it, and put one last coat of flattened awlgrip with a conservative amount of course griptex particles. (I guess thats more than two days). I mixed up too much. I was worried about running out so I didn't plan on recoating the cockpit. I wish I had, I had about a quart of mix left over. I'm glad i bought so much paint but I probably only needed half. Overall I'm happier with the result. I kept a wet edge and went more carefully this time, we'll see if it looks good once its dry. It might take me a while to remount everything cause I'm out of cash and I need roughly $1300 for all my new things I want. I'm getting a harken windward sheeting traveller system, new t-tracks for my blocks, new fasteners for everything, and a new halyard block and clutch for my main halyard, and G10 frp for backing plates. Then if I win the lottery which might be difficult since I don't play, I'm getting a harken MKIV roller furling for the front, that'll be another $3300 with a sail. I'll stop rambling now.