Sun Jan 25 0:00:00 EST 2009, San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina
There are a number of jobs going on at once on Issuma, and the pilothouse is now a mass of disarray.
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Comments [2]
The new GPS is a Furuno. The manual indicates there are data averaging settings that will will allow it to display believable courses and speeds like the old one did (unlike Garmins which never seem to do so correctly).
Sun Jan 25 0:00:00 EST 2009, San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The pulleys that are used by the winch to raise and lower the keel were badly corroded. The wire kept slipping off one of them, and two others were seized up and would not turn. All were replaced with new stainless steel pulleys with more grease nipples to make maintaining them easier.
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Mon Jan 19 0:00:00 EST 2009, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The boatwork continues to progress on Issuma. The other night we went to see a really good band from northern Argentina, La Bomba del Tiempo. The band played outside on a hot summer night, and the crowd loved the band. The girl in the picture is one of several people who were being passed around through the crowd.
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Sun Jan 18 0:00:00 EST 2009, San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The old antifouling (paint that is put on the bottom of a boat to discourage barnacles from attaching themselves to the hull) was sanded off, the underlying paint inspected, and epoxy paint then put on. The purpose of the epoxy paint is to electrically insulate the steel hull (which is actually coated with zinc in this case) from the copper that is in the antifouling paint.
The first attempt at putting the epoxy on didn't go well, as it was not mixed well enough (it comes in two components, that must be mixed together correctly) before painting. Epoxy that is mixed incompletely or incorrectly results in paint that will never "dry" (cure). The following day, the incorrectly mixed paint was laboriously removed so the painting could be started again.
The first coat of epoxy is on. The zebra look is from running out of white and substituting black (the next coat will be entirely black).
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Sat Jan 10 0:00:00 EST 2009, San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Metal boats have pieces of zinc alloy (anodes) attached to them to protect different metals from electrochemically reacting (corroding) to each other when in water. The zinc anodes wear away (the zinc slowly migrates to other metals, such as the bronze propeller) and eventually need to be replaced. All the zinc anodes are being replaced on Issuma while she is hauled out.
In the picture, the new zinc anode is being welded to the hull. Unfortunately the welding of some of the zincs was done too quickly and the heat that built up burned off the paint inside the boat, which we now need to scrape off and repaint (steel boats rust if they are not painted, and rust inside, where you don't see it, must be avoided). But the hull will be well-protected now, and shouldn't need the zincs replaced again for several years.
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Fri Jan 9 0:00:00 EST 2009, San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina
To sand the hull and put new bottom paint on, the blocks that keep the boat upright need to be moved. Here, Senor Martinez, the yard foreman is hammering in a wedge after moving the block.
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Thu Jan 8 0:00:00 EST 2009, San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina
A new main rudder was built of stainless steel. It has been painted with primer (epoxy paint), and will later be painted over (with antifouling paint) and be the same color as the rest of the bottom of the hull. In the picture, the new rudder is about to be raised into place.
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Wed Jan 7 0:00:00 EST 2009, San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina
After removal, we were able to have a good look at the main rudder. It was built of plywood, covered by aluminum, attached to a stainless steel shaft, with an aluminum bearing fitted over it. The plywood is visible at the top of the rudder blade.
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Tue Jan 6 0:00:00 EST 2009, San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The main rudder was seeming suspicious, and I was unsure of its condition, so had it removed. In the picture, the rudder shaft is being heated to force it to expand and break free of the bearing it is seized into, so the rudder can be removed.
The main rudder was built of aluminum over a plywood core (see picture in next entry). Aluminum and steel don't tend to work so well underwater on the same boat (different metals cause electrical currents to flow between them, causing one of the metals to corrode), and the combination is generally avoided.
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Mon Jan 5 0:00:00 EST 2009, San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Late last month I arranged to have the boat hauled out of the water for maintenance and modifications. Yacht Club Argentino was very kind in letting me use their member's haulout facilities. In this picture, the keel has been lifted most of the way up, so the hull is not far off the ground. The use of old barrels and pieces of wood to support the boat out of the water (instead of adjustable jackstands chained together) is how things are done here (there are a lot of boats here, so it must be adequate).
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