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Paint

Spring weather is here and its warm enough to paint. I cleaned the inside of the boat, painted the other half of the kitchen (half was painted last year). It takes a minimum of two coats of the fresh white to cover up the yellowed white from 13+ years ago. I then cleaned some more. This is it for the interior paint refresh but the bathroom looks like a likely target for the next time around.

Water Pump

I filled the water tanks and turned the water pump on. The pump sounded like it was working but it could not get a prime. The pump was old so I installed a new pump – still no prime. I began to think that there was a blockage but that seemed unlikely. I eventually found the problem. An elbow fitting (tucked away – of course) had become (just a bit) loose for some reason. I shoved the pipe into the fitting to reseal it and all was good.

Hull Paint

A friend was diving a couple of sail boats in the marina – to clean of bulk of recent fouling. He was kind enough to do the same for Merva – and replaced a zinc on the rudder as well. I thought that this would be sufficient for another year but I could see the green (inner most layer) paint in some areas so I scheduled boat to be pulled out for fresh hull paint (bottom and sides). This will happen June 16th at Jacks Boat Yard in Lund.

New canvas is on its way.

The inspiration for the new canvas is a traditional navy cap.

The colour will be changing from green to black. No zipper for adding panels to enclose the area. A 6″ panel will be added and it will be decorated with a ribbon.

Had to tighten the mast bolts. Work light made me realize that it was time to freshen up the paint.

Fortunately the wall cabinets were easily removed.

Warm weather is going to get harder to find as we head toward fall. So I have been getting varnish work done.

Circled back to the annual maintenance. I had to use vice-grips to crack the bolts on the impeller cover – but it came off ok. The impeller turned out to be like-new. I replaced it, and the O-ring, anyway.

I need to look at the Raycor fuel filter, grease a bunk bearing on the prop. shaft, and find out if I have zincs embedded in the raw water cooling system. I can call the ‘annual’ done at that point.

No haul-out this year.

I was pulling away from the dock at Chatter Box Falls when I noticed that one of my fenders was still out. I tried to pull it up but it was too difficult for me to get at it with the canoe strapped to the side. In my effort to do this I pulled off one of the hand rail posts and very nearly ended up in the ‘drink’.

I pulled the boat back to the dock and took care of the fender.

Now at home so I decided to do the repair. I scrounged up 4, slightly larger, screws. I decided that, in this case, a bit of PL adhesive was warranted.

The screws are a bit proud but it is worth it. I think if it gets yanked out again it will take a section of the roof with it.

As I contemplate the work to re-varnish Merva I come to the boat house and better protecting Merva from the sun. I have decided to start to ‘button up’ the boathouse. I started this with replacing some of the more deteriorated plywood on the sunny side.