Drained

I'm not drained yet (well, sort of), but the anchor locker is now watertight with a drain hose routed to the shower sump manifold.  This was a project I was thinking about for a long time, since the thought of muddy seawater draining free from the anchor locker to the bilge right underneath the v-berth never sat well with me.  Originally, I planned on doing an overboard drain straight from the locker, but I just didn't want to put another hole in the boat.  

The old anchor locker

I queried the Niagara 35 Facebook page to see what others had done, but didn't really find anything concrete.  It wasn't until I ran across a youtube video called HaveWindWillTravel (youtube) where I decided that I would put a floor in the anchor locker seal it up and route the drain to the shower sump manifold.  

The only problem was that if I installed a floor in the locker, the bobstay backing plate and bolts wouldn't be easily accessible anymore.  The folks at HaveWindWillTravel just sealed their floor with caulking and didn't glass it into place, so with some work they could cut their way to the bobstay backing plate.  I wanted something a bit more permanent.

I started with a chunk of cardboard and whittled it down until it fit nicely in the locker and sloped aft about 15 degrees.  I found a 6" watertight access port and a 1" flush drain while digging around in my sizable spare parts bins in the shop (After owning and building many boats over the years, the entire attic of my shop is dedicated to boat parts that I just might need some day).  The 6" port will allow for inspection and service of the bobstay backing plate and bolts.

Next, I found a suitable chunk of 3/8" balsa core that I had laying around from when I re-cored the decks on my Alberg 35 (more parts that I knew would eventually come in handy).  The balsa core is a 'sheet' of blocks glued to a scrim and the idea is that you fiberglass both sides to make a really strong, but very light 'board'.  I could have used plywood, but this would be much better as long as you keep the water out of the core.

For the layup, I glassed 1 layer of 1708 biaxial glass on the bottom side and 2 layers of 1708 on the top.  I put down a layer of plastic film on a flat surface followed by release fabric, then the bottom layer of 1708 glass.  Then I mixed up a batch of epoxy, wet out the glass as well as the scrim side of the balsa core and set the core on top of the wet out epoxy.  I mixed another, bigger batch of epoxy and took some time making sure the top part of the balsa core (including in between the blocks) was well saturated. Then I laid down a layer of 1708 glass, wet that out and laid down another layer of 1708 (and wet it out).  Finally, I put release fabric over all of it and more plastic film before placing a flat sheet of plywood and some weights to squish it all flat.  

The next day I came back to a nicely hardened, perfectly flat piece of light, strong, soon to be anchor locker floor.  I traced out the shape with the cardboard template I made and the cut it out with the bandsaw.  I took the new floor over to the boat and fit it in place. Of course it didn't quite fit so I did some rasp work on the piece before finally calling it good.  It didn't have to be that close, because it would be glassed into place.

My initial plan was to duplicate the pipe that HaveWindWillTravel used to seal up the deck wash hose that comes up through the locker on the port side, but after wasting a lot of time, I decided to make a rectangular cover out of the leftover balsa board I made.  There's a lot of angles in the locker and adding cylinders to the mix taxed my feeble brain a bit much and the rectangular tube was a much easier solution.  I ripped a 2.5x12" and a 1.5x12" piece of the board and epoxied them perpendicular to each other.  This didn't have to be particularly strong so once it hardened up, I rounded over the edge and covered it with 2 layers of 9oz glass and epoxied that up. 

I fit that (with a little help from my trusty rasp) and then cut out the holes for the drain and access port in the floor before coating all the exposed balsa edges with a layer of unthickened epoxy.  Once that kicked it was time to glass it all in place.  I mixed up a good sized batch of epoxy, then thickened it with 404 silica and shmooshed it all into a ziplock bag.  I cut off one of the corners to make a nice 'epoxy pastry bag'.  With both parts in place, I filled in all the edges with the thickened epoxy and then used a tongue dispenser to smooth all the edges out to a nice filet.

I let it set up overnight and the next day came back and laid in several layers of 9oz glass tabbing to really tie it into the bow of the boat.  Some minor sanding the next day (it's the floor of an anchor locker, so it doesn't have to be perfect) and it was time to paint.  

After 2 coats of epoxy bilge paint and the loss of countless brain cells (my respirator is getting a bit old), I installed the drain and access port with 3M 4200 and started snaking the 1" sanitation hose forward from the shower sump manifold located on the frame just forward of the mast step.

I needed to drill through 4 frames total with a 1-3/4" hole saw to get to the anchor locker drain.  Normally, I would have just snaked in around everything else along the centerline bilge of the boat, but it needed to have a continuous decline from the anchor locker with no sags where water would trap and get nasty.  To reduce any chafe that would inevitably happen when hoses pass through plywood bulkheads, I did a simple CAD design of a hose pass through 'grommet' and 3d printed a prototype using 95A durometer TPU (fairly hard, but still flexible and shock absorbing).  Amazingly, all my measurements were correct and it fit perfectly.  I printed 3 more and headed back to the boat for the final install.  

Once I snaked the hose up to the anchor locker, I secured it on the drain with a hose clamp and then cut the hose to its final length at the manifold and secured it there.  Because of the location of the manifold port in relation to the incoming hose, I had to do a horizontal loop (with a slight downslope toward the manifold) in order to connect it without any kinks, but it should do the trick.  I still have to secure the loop with zip ties so it doesn't flop around and rub on anything and re-install the divider that separates the anchor rodes from the 2 hawes pipes, but I'm going to call this job done.

The shower sump manifold

Hose and TPU gusset in action

The completed locker

 

It's a Wrap!

Velorum spent a good chunk of the summer without a cover so I could get things done on the hull/deck and most importantly, get the engine back in the boat.  It was actually pretty nice to have the cover off and I would often have my lunch in the cockpit while 'sailing' the local farmland.  Unfortunately, winters are tough in Central NH and I wanted to get the boat wrapped up before the weather turned.  Ideally, I would have had it done in late September, but the local mobile shrink wrapper (Scott Silva Shrink Wrapping) had an opening this past week, so I decided to get it done before his busy season started.  

I opted to pay for shrink wrapping for a number of reasons:

• The 25'x40' tarps and pipe frame cover was getting pretty beat up and I was worried it wouldn't last another year. 
• The metal pipe frame had a 2.5' flat spot on top and when heavy snow came, the frame would visibly sag.  I had a snow rake over at the boat, but if I was away for a weekend and we got snow, I risked having the frame collapse.
• The large frame was great for working since I had stand up headroom all the way forward on the boat, but it was a big target for the Northwest winds that whip through this area in the winter and I don't want the boat to fall over.
• It's a pain to tarp the boat, leave it to the pros.

Scott and his employee showed up at 9:30 and had the boat wrapped including a nice zippered door by lunchtime.  He did a fantastic job.  Hard on the wallet, but easy on me.  

I'm not done working on the boat for the season yet though.  While the weather is still warm, I'm focusing on glassing in an anchor locker floor and drain that tee's into the shower sump. Once that's completed, I'll get back to the task of installing the transmission and rough aligning the engine and shaft. 

Engine Mounted!

My son and I finally tackled getting the engine from the cabin sole onto it's mounts.  Unfortunately, I didn't really take any pictures during the process because my hands were literally full.  Even though this move was miniscule compared to the move from my shop to its resting place in the cabin, the engine compartment is a tight spot and I spent an inordinate amount of time overthinking the 2 foot move. 

Initially, I envisioned building a gantry similar to what some other Niagara 35 owners had done, but it would have involved quite a bit of setup time and cost for materials and it was all just more than I wanted to tackle.  I just wanted the engine in place.  In the end I opted to hang 2 chainfalls off a 6x6 chunk of timber spanning the companionway hatch.  

I attached the first chainfall with lifting straps as close to the centerline as possible.  Using the chain bridle that initially lifted the engine into the boat, we lifted the engine up off the cabin sole and then removed the 2x8 frame it was resting on.  Next we swung the engine aft as far as it would go (about 1/2 way onto the engine stringers) and lowered the aft 2 engine feet onto the mounts with a 1x1 wooden block under each mount to act as a 'sled'.  

Next, I attached a second chainfall to the 6x6 post and the forward part of the engine, tensioned it to hold the weight of the forward end of the engine and then freed up the first chainfall off the bridle.  At this point, the aft half of the weight of the engine was on the stringers and 'sleds' and the forward weight of the engine was still suspended by the second chainfall.  

Now it was time to slide and muscle the engine the rest of the way back onto the stringers for it's final resting place.  It took both of us to get it in position, but once we were close we took out the 'sleds' and it went into position nicely.  After a quick celebration, I got the rear stainless steel angle iron mounts bolted into place and we unrigged the chainfalls and called it a day.

The next day I drilled out the forward mounts (I had previously filled them with epoxy) and bolted the remaining angle iron mounts into place.  I installed the PSS shaft seal to prepare to get the transmission back on board (the transmission sits right on top of shaft seal so the PSS has to be installed first).  Then I can start aligning the engine to the shaft and install the exhaust, raw water intake, fuel lines, and engine controls, but that can wait for a few weeks.

  

Wire Bobstay

While I wait for a day when my son can help me hoist the engine from the cabin sole into the engine compartment, I finally received the StaLok part I needed to re-build the bobstay (050-07).  The original bobstay was NavTec rod and was beat up enough for me to think twice about reusing it since it is a really important piece that keeps the forestay and bowsprit from pulling up.  

Additionally, the backing plate to the bobstay was originally 3/16" aluminum flat bar and it was so corroded that it looked like swiss cheese.  So the first thing I did was make up a new backing plate from 1/8" 316 stainless steel and reproduce the bolt pattern from the original.  One would think that the bolts would be perfectly inline down the length of the backing plate, but that was not the case.  When the boat was built, whoever tapped the 4 holes for the bobstay fitting, drilled them a bit cockeyed so by the time they reached the interior of the boat, they were not inline.  Anyway, after carefully marking the hole pattern on the new backing plate, I put my drill press on low speed and drilled out the holes, going slow and lubricating the cut with WD-40.  

My wife and I went over the the boat with the outside bobstay fitting and the new backing plate and test fitted it before bedding it down with sealant.  Next we reattached the old bobstay to make it fit and then took the measurements back to the shop where I cut a 58" length of 7mm compact strand wire (the same wire as the rest of the rigging).  

At this point it was just a matter of installing the new StaLok fitting (050-07) on lower end and a StaLok turnbuckle stud on the upper end.  Once it was all together, I compared the length of the old and new before going over to the boat to install it.  I set the turnbuckle to about 2/3 max length so there is plenty of room to tension it (up to ~2").  Except for having to wiggle into the anchor locker to get the new backing plate on, this was a satisfying job because there was minimal fuss and boat yoga required and I was finally able to see the boat with a bobstay on it (the old one had been sitting in my shop for 2 years).

While I was spending some quality time up in the anchor locker, I started thinking about sealing the locker up so that water from the wet anchor rode doesn't drain directly to the bilge.  I'll be tacking this project soon, but the engine install is next in line.

New backing plate. Note the wonky bolt pattern.

New backing plate installed.

Bobstay fitting installed and bedded.

New vs old bobstays.

The long awaited StaLok 050-07 fitting

The finished product.

 

Engine Mounting Prepwork

A few weeks before the engine got dropped in I got started on the final prep for the engine compartment. I had previously painted the compartment with bilge paint, but at the last minute I decided to reinforce the engine mounts. It's not that they were in bad shape, but epoxying a few more layers of glass couldn't hurt.

I didn't want to interfere with any of the engine mounting brackets, so I opted to add the glass to the inside of the mounts.  I sanded the area down and cut out 2 layers of 1708 biaxial cloth for each side and trimmed them up for a good fit with a 2" overlap onto the hull.  I glassed those in place and let them setup overnight.  The next morning, I cut out 4 additional pieces of glass that extended further onto the hull right at the mounts and glassed those in.  

Once cured, I bored out the mounting holes on the aft engine mounts because once the engine is in place, I won't be able to get a drill in there to re-tap.  I left the forward engine mounts alone until the engine is installed because the access is better and I won't have to guess at their location. I followed up with another 2 coats of bilge paint.  

Meanwhile, I had ordered butyl sound deadening mat and 1/2" sound/heat proofing foam and got to work on that.  Once the engine was in place and connected to the cooling/exhaust systems soundproofing would be all but impossible.  It's still a cramped area, but other than that it was an easy job.  I just templated out the wall where the butyl and foam was to go and cut it into easy to manage pieces.  Both the butyl mat and the foam have adhesive backing, so as long as you are careful once you pull the backing off, there's nothing to it.  Once the engine is in and setup, I'll be adding more butyl mat and foam to the galley assembly that covers the engine compartment.

Finally, I installed the water lift muffler and the exhaust hose running to the aft port on the stern.  This involved a lot of boat yoga to wiggle into the compartment on the starboard side to access the stern but I somehow managed without getting stuck.  I'm hoping to get the engine on it's mounts this weekend followed by the transmission.  Once that's done, I can start the initial alignment process and get the shaft full installed.

First 2 layers glassed in 

Third layer in progress

Time for more paint

Complete. Note the butyl mat installed in this picture. Foam goes over the top.

Butyl mat and foam in place and seams mostly taped

Much boat yoga required to get in this compartment

Engine is Back in the Boat

The engine in 2023

Almost 2 years to the day after I bought Velorum and equipment, I finally dropped the engine back in after rebuilding it.  It's not installed yet, but it's sitting in the cabin waiting for me to figure out how to get it off its stand and back onto the engine mounts.  It was a big day because I was struggling to find someone in Central NH who had the equipment (and insurance) who was willing to do it.  I could have hired a mobile diesel mechanic from the seacoast to do all the install work but they require that they do the whole job and charge a small fortune.  I just needed someone with a crane to drop the engine in.

Fortunately, Reliable Crane Service came to my rescue and the owner agreed to do the job on a Saturday so it wouldn't tie up his equipment for more lucrative jobs during the week.  So, at 7AM Dennis showed up with a HUGE crane (he said it was his small boom truck and not actually a crane) and got to work setting up.  We connected his hook to my chainfall and he picked up the engine right out of my utility trailer (without the stand because that wouldn't fit into the opening) and hoisted it 30 feet above the boat before lowering it just above the companionway hatch with me giving hand signals. 

Once it was centered over the hatch, my wife started lowering the engine using the chainfall while I guided it into the cabin.  Down below, my son made sure it was clear of any furniture and we eventually lowered it enough to put the wooden stand back on and then lowered it the rest of the way onto the cabin sole (with a plywood cover).  

All told, the lift took about 20 minutes and the rest of the time was spent chatting with Dennis and Roy (the owner of the farm where I keep the boat).  Thankfully, it was extremely uneventful and as soon as the engine landed in the cabin, a huge relief swept over me.  I had been thinking and planning about this lift for a long time and was so happy that it was done.

This morning I went over to the bolt and put all the parts I had stripped off the engine and started trying to figure out the next big step, getting the engine back on the stringers that it will live on going forward.  I'm planning on installing the lift muffler before I get the engine back in because access will be infinitely better.  I also decided that I would epoxy a few more layers of 1708 biaxial glass to the inside of the stringers followed by another coat of paint to make sure the mounts are bombproof, but that shouldn't be too bad.  For now I'm just going to bask in the glow of an almost whole boat...

Prep for Engine Install

I finally found a crane company (Reliable Crane Services) through a friend that is willing to drop the engine in this upcoming Saturday and as a result, I am terrified.  I know this sort of thing is done all the time, but I've never done it so I started to worry about pretty much everything surrounding the event.  Would the engine even fit in? Of course it would because it used to be in the boat dummy.  However, as I reviewed some photos from the previous owner who removed the engine, I saw that he had stripped a lot of the parts off before removing.  I ran over to the boat and started taking measurements and found that theoretically, the fully built engine could slip through the companionway hatch, but just barely and it certainly wouldn't drop straight in.  

The companionway measures roughly 23.5" wide at the top, but tapers down to 17" at the bridge deck.  It is 23" long (fore and aft). The engine is about 20" wide, but 28" long fully built, so suffice to say, it wouldn't fit without some crazy maneuvers as it is lowered down.  I decided to strip it down to what the previous owner had done to make it about 50lbs lighter and a bit slimmed down.  I pulled the exhaust manifold, alternator, heat exchanger, air filter, and a bunch of cooling hoses.  Prior to that I drained all the oil and coolant as well so I don't make a huge mess.  

So even with the engine stripped down, it's still going to be a square peg in a round hole situation.  With so many dimensions in play between the companionway hatch and the engine itself I decided to make a cardboard mockup of the engine and figure out the best way to lower it in.  I taped together a bunch of cardboard into a big rectangle with the maximum engine dimensions and brought it over to the boat with a piece of wire to simulate the chain hoist.  I probably looked pretty ridiculous up on the boat with a big cardboard box lowering it up and down at various angles.  

I think I figured out the best angle of approach as the engine enters the companionway and once satisfied, I loaded the engine onto my utility trailer and brought it over to the boat along with my wife and son over (they will be helping me on lift day) to walk them through my sad choreography.  

Of course once the engine is lowered into the cabin, then I have to figure out how to get it into its final resting place, but that's a 'future me' problem.  One thing at a time.  I'll try and post a recap later this weekend, hopefully it will be good news and I'll have a few photos.

Barrier Coat

Since I have eaten an elephant and got the bottom sanded and fair over a few lunch breaks in the past few weeks, last week I decided to tackle the first epoxy barrier coat on the bottom.  Clearly the boat already had an epoxy bottom coat job at some point in the past, but I didn't think a few fresh coats could hurt.  Plus it makes the boat look a lot more like a boat that will be launched again soon.

I purchased a gallon kit of gray Total Boat Epoxy Barrier coat on Amazon and when it arrived last Monday, I got right to work.  The first step in the process is to spend some quality time with a drill and mixing paddle to fully emulsify the sludgy stuff at the bottom of the can.  When these cans sit, the solids very quickly settle to the bottom and I don't think any amount of stirring with a wooden mixing stick would work.  

Once I had the entire can of base uniform with no chunks, I wiped down the entire hull with acetone and then taped the waterline.  This particular barrier coat is a 3:1 ratio, and because I wasn't sure how much it would cover I started with a quart (mixed volume). I had some plastic graduated mixing buckets on hand and added 1 - 1/2 pint of curing agent to the bucket followed by 3 - 1/2 pints of the base and stirred it all together for a few minutes (this time with a wooden mixing stick).  

I poured the mixture into a paint tray and using a 9" foam roller with 3/16" nap.  I started on the keel and just rolled it on.  No drama at all, but very satisfying to see the mottled red, green, and white hull turn a uniform gray.  With the quart I was able to cover both sides of the keel and a foot or two above it.  I repeated the same process for the rest of the hull and the next day I came back and moved the jack stands so that I could get under the pads. 

Photos are better than words for something like this, so here they are:

Many years of old crusty bottom paint flaking off when the boat first arrived

Bottom paint removed and hull partially sanded

Hull sanded and ready for a new barrier coat

Barrier coat applied and looking snazzy

Frigging in the Rigging

The boat was originally rigged with Navtec rod rigging and even though it lasts longer than wire and is lighter and stronger than comparable wire (diameter), it was time to replace the almost 40 year old rig.  In a perfect world I would have replaced all of it with new rod rigging, but there are 4 problems with that:

• Very expensive
• Rod rigging needs specialized presses to 'head' the rod to length (more expense)
• Specialized fittings on the mast and deck that aren't easy to find (and expensive)
• Navtec is out of business so sourcing everything would be difficult (and expensive)

Fortunately for me, when I bought the boat the previous owner left me a big spool of 7mm compact strand wire, a box of all required Stalok fittings, and newly designed tangs to replace the old Navtec rod rigging fittings on the mast.  

All the parts are there, but some assembly required!

Of course, having all the parts doesn't mean that the rig is complete, the existing rod rigging needed to be carefully measured before I made the first cut on the new wire.  Ultimately, each fully built new shroud needed to be the same length as the old shrouds, so I know the final answer, but in order to get there, a bunch of measurements needed to be done.  

I put a bolt on the outside of my shop where I could hang one end of each piece of rod rigging and tension the other end with a come-along attached to the hitch of my car.  Once I tensioned up each shroud, I measured the length with the turnbuckles at their midpoint to get the total length of each one (center pin to center pin).  

I created a spreadsheet and entered the total lengths and then measured all the pin to pin lengths of the rod turnbuckle assemblies and subtracted that from the total length to get the rod length.  In theory, this should be the same as the wire length, but because the new shrouds have different fittings that connect to both the mast and chainplates, these had to be measured and subtracted from the total length as well.

The fittings in question that need to be added to the spreadsheet and subtracted are:

• Stalok Eye: 1-1/4"
• Stalok Turnbuckle: 10-5/8"
• Deck Island (completed May '24): 1/4"
• Correction Factor (Identified by previous owner on some shrouds): 1/2"
• Tangs (Engineered and beautifully machined by previous owner, see schematic below): 3.5"

So all told, this added up to quite a bit more than the original chainplates so the final wire length was several inches shorter than the original rod rigging.  The forestay will have to wait because I'm not sure if I'm going to replace the rod on the forestay yet because it may require me getting a new roller furler if I can't snake the new wire through the foil.  The backstay I'm going to save because I don't really know the length it should be.  The boat used to have a backstay adjuster which cut a few feet out of the total length, but I don't know the exact measurement.  The manual has a number 48' 7-3/4" but I don't know if that can be trusted.  I may wait until the mast is stepped to cut the tail for that one.

Final wire length calculations

With the spreadsheet completed with lots of measuring and re-measuring I measured out the first wire to cut and marked it with tape.  Armed with a brand new 32tpi hacksaw blade, I centered the wire in a piece of wood with a v-cut to hold it steady and made the first cut.  The hacksaw blade works great as long as the wire is held steady and is probably faster than a power tool (and makes less heat that could work harden the wire).

A quick cleanup with a metal file to get rid of any burrs and it was time to assemble the first Stalok fitting. I've used mechanical fittings in the past Stalok and Hayn HiMod and while slightly different, they use the same principal and are really nice to work with.  In a nutshell, these fittings split the wire with a wedge and then form the outer strands of wire around the wedge using compression from the screwing the 2 parts of the fitting together.  The mechanical connection is reportedly stronger than the wire itself.

The process is simple: take apart the fitting, remove the wedge and slide the socket over the wire (in the correct direction... ask me how I know).  Then using a sharp screwdriver or chisel, unwind the outer wires and expose the core.  The wire (especially compact strand wire) is pretty resistant to unwinding so expect to poke your fingers a few times with a sharp chisel before getting the hang of it.  Once you do though, it's kind of amazing stuff.  Because the wire has 'memory', it retains its shape even when unraveled.

Once the core is exposed, slide the wedge over the core and allow 1/8" of the core to poke out the top.  Then just twist the wires that have been unwound and the will collapse back over the core.  The one tricky part is that you need to lay the wires back down over the core so none of the wires fall into the tiny slit in the side of the wedge otherwise it won't be able to compress.  

Once you have them all lined up nice and even, slide the socket up as far as it will go over the wedge and screw the terminal fitting (contains the wire former) onto the socket.  When it's cranked down tight, unscrew it again and inspect the wires to make sure they wrapped around the wedge.  Put it back together with a tiny bit of locktite and the fitting is done.  Rinse and repeat for each shroud.  Unfortunately, I won't know if my measurements are correct until I actually step the mast next spring, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  Visual instructions along with videos are here: Stalok Fittings.

Wire cut to length and socket slid on.  Note the correct direction.

Outer strands unwound from core

Wedge slid onto core with 1/8" of the core protruding

Outer strands re-wound around wedge and core. Note the even distribution of strands at top

Socket slid back up against re-wound strands and wedge, effectively locking strands in place

Inspection of strands after compressing terminal fitting with former

Final product