Kincora Spring jobs

May is here and time to launch Kincora. Well at least on the calendar it is May and time to launch.  I am sure the New England weather will change quickly and, before we know it we will be in shorts.  So I am finishing the final few projects this week.

Last two years my thru hull for speed, depth, and temp had a slight leak. I could see who ever put it in did the job in a hurry. There was glass over old non-sanded gel coat. Ugh, why do people do that? I would get about two cups of water a week when she sat on the mooring.

I peeled off the old glass. No grinder needed just a flat head screwdriver and light pull. Then I took the area down to glass and could see filler for two side by side thru hulls. The hull in this area is solid glass. Not sure if the builders did that for thru hulls here or not?

Then I corrected another problem, the nut/washer on the thru hull was not sitting flush on inside of the hull. There is a slight vee here, so I bonded in a small piece of G-10 (compressed glass) to create a nice flat surface for the nut and washer.

Next I went to the outside of the hull and prepped the area so I could 98% recess the thru hull. Too thin to go all the way and I do not like grinding back the plastic Airmar flange.  Then I added two coats of gel coat to the inside and while doing this I did all the frames in the bilge that were looking a little thin. Of course I sanded them first. One had tabbing peeling so I rebounded/clamped it with thickened resin. Always seems we start one job and three others come up from it, you have to love boats.

The new thru hull fits great and I used fast dry 4200 to bed it. A couple of days later I put four coats of interprotect 2000 on the glass outside. And two days later five coats of Baltplate bottom paint.

While this was going on I also took out the sink, which I never use and filled the thru hull. I will put a garbage container in the sink hole. To fill the thru hull I shaped a piece of foam bonded in then glass on both sides using my vacuum pump. Inside took two coats of gel coat and outside more Interprotect 2000 then bottom paint.

At this point both repairs are ready for wet sanding once outside the shop.

Also while this was going on I added another Raymarine i70 display. Last two years I had my P70 (autopilot control), and i70 (wind, speed, temp control) both on the starboard side one above the other. On the port side I have my analog compass. In the companionway I swing my Raymarine a75 chartplotter. All instruments are networked. This was great until I was on the port side steering. I could not see the readouts except the chartplotter. So I added another i70 on the port side and move the starboard one out further on the starboard side. This will be great on all points of sail.

Currently I am finishing up rewiring the boat from instruments on the house all the way through the new Oasis battery, panel, negative buss, and adding a third solar panel.  I will post on this next week when the job is finished.