Skookum Maru

[cstevens]

You do amazing restoration work. I have messed around with old motorcycles and cars but not to the extent that you have! Is that the Mercedes 250C in the background?

I had a 1980 Mercedes 300CD for a while. The coupe was an interesting car, built like a tank with a 5 cyl diesel engine. I finally sold it after getting tired of chasing down vacuum leaks.

Thanks! And yes that's the Mercedes 250c in the background. I would definitely describe it as a tank. A tank in evening dress perhaps. It was very elegant in silver with a dark red interior. Here's a better shot of it.



I enjoyed driving it a lot but the twin Zenith carburetors on the inline six were always problematic and after the second carb rebuild (not a cheap project) I gave up and sold it to a guy in Florida. I did fantasize briefly about dropping in a fuel injected motor from the 280sl. That would have been a neat project but sanity prevailed!

OH MAN! That brings back some fonds I had a 550 SS that was my favorite bike. The 400 was more nimble, but the 550 was super stable at speed...and I was inclined to use it.

I never had a 550 but by all accounts I think it was a better bike for the US market than the 400F. But the 400F was always my favorite. There is a story to that as well. When I was at the University of Maryland in the late 80s there was a woman who rode a red CB400F with café bars. She wore a black leather jacket and a black helmet and I thought she was the coolest person on earth. At the time I had just bought a ratty Honda CB500T as my first bike, which is possibly the worst motorcycle Honda ever made. And mine was possibly the worst ever example of the worst ever Honda. Bad electric blue paint, nearly bald tires, rust holes in the exhaust... and the timing chain tensioner was utterly shot so it rattled like a coffee can full of bolts. In comparison that red 400F was the most exotic machine I could imagine. Early imprinting is everything and eventually I went on to own several 400s, in various conditions from flat-black-rat-bike to immaculate original. They are lovely bikes if you don't care over much about power.

I think I've owned something like thirty or forty motorcycles in my life, some great some terrible, but there are a few that stand out. The CB400F is right at the top of that list, along with the Moto Guzzi Le Mans, BMW K75s, Yamaha RZ350 (in Kenny Roberts yellow and black of course) and the Yamaha SRX600 - which is a hugely underrated machine. I could tell so many car and motorcycle stories. How I came to own a 1966 Maserati Sebring for pennies (relatively speaking), riding to Eastern Washington in the middle of an apocalyptic wild fire to race mini bikes on a kart track, the formative experience of riding in my grandfather's Maserati 200si racing car as a boy, the challenges of racing a Honda 125GP bike on a credit card budget, and many more... but I suspect that they would be better fodder for the bilge, which is a place I don't go very often.

[coelcanth]

i rate mine very highly !


this one was nice too, for a brief time..

[cstevens]

Ah, coelcanth now that SRX photo brings back memories! Yours looks very well kept - I'm envious.

After the awful CB500T finally died I bought a new SRX600 from a dealer in Baltimore. It's still the only new car or motorcycle I have ever purchased. I rode it to school at UMD for a few years, then rode it across the country when I moved to Seattle. A couple of years after that I turned it into a race bike and raced it for a year before I bought another one that had been upgraded with big Keihin CR carbs, a 640cc overbore and a Rob Muzzy exhaust. I added FZR600 brakes, wheels and forks to that one and raced it for a couple of years before switching to a Honda RS125. SRX600s are great bikes. I still have a new headlight and gauge cluster that came off the second race bike sitting in a box somewhere. I should put the parts on eBay at some point.

[cstevens]

Made some progress on the Whirlwind today. I took Tim's advice and covered the paint stripper with plastic for the next pass...





...and let it sit for a few hours before scraping it off.



That did seem to work well. Most of the paint layers came off with the stripper. What's left will come off with a little sanding. Just need to do the rest of the interior the same way. However at this rate I figure I'll be done sometime in 2025. Might need to step up the pace if I'm going to get the boat back in the water this summer!

[cstevens]

Slowly making progress on stripping the paint and varnish off of the runabout...







It's coming along but this morning my wife brought up the topic of cruising this summer, the list of things that need to be accomplished before then, and our various travel plans, and suggested that perhaps I need a plan for getting it all done. Thus...

1. By 7/9-10: Replace the refrigerator

2. By 7/16-17: Overhaul ground tackle, misc. galley repairs

3. By 7/27-24: Finish and launch the runabout

4. By 7/30-31: Complete mechanical tasks (change oil, impeller)

That's a long list so I expect I'll be spending some late evenings on the boat to get it all done. Refinishing the runabout aside, the biggest project is to replace the refrigerator, which died over the winter. So in preparation I spent some time today looking at how the current one is installed:



It looks like the fiddle that runs above the refrigerator will need to come off in order to get the old one out. And looking closely at it, I can see that the varnish over the plugs was removed and repaired at some point, likely when the current refrigerator was installed. So that's the first task in that project then. More varnish to scrape...

[_QB_]

... my wife brought up the topic of cruising this summer, the list of things that need to be accomplished before then, and our various travel plans, and suggested that perhaps I need a plan for getting it all done.

A supervisor can be a useful addition to a boat project .

1. By 7/9-10: Replace the refrigerator

Do you have its replacement picked out? Whatever you go with, better insulation around it would probably help a lot too.

--Paul

[cstevens]

A supervisor can be a useful addition to a boat project .



Do you have its replacement picked out? Whatever you go with, better insulation around it would probably help a lot too.

--Paul

Yes, Tory regularly saves me from myself. My tendency is to just start all the projects in the vague anticipation that the time will just materialize. Which it never does… Planning is a good thing.

This Vitrifrigo refrigerator is an updated version of the one that is in there now, and should be a drop in replacement:

https://www.fisheriessupply.com/vitr...t/c130rxd4-f-1

An upgrade would be nice but I think the boat budget and the available time may limit my options here. I’d be happy with just something that keeps the half and half cold at this point. My challenge now is to find one. They are out of stock at Fisheries and I’ve been trying to reach someone to ask when they might be back in stock but have not been able to so far. Might need to just go there and ask.

[Bobcat]

A tip I got when installing my replacement fridge: put a computer fan near the coils that runs continuously

[Garret]

Maybe you get a good discount at Fisheries Chris, but $500 less: https://www.tradeinn.com/waveinn/en/...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Google had others

[cstevens]

A tip I got when installing my replacement fridge: put a computer fan near the coils that runs continuously

Good thought! There is plenty of space for the compressor unit so airflow isn't a huge issue, but a fan would definitely help.

Maybe you get a good discount at Fisheries Chris, but $500 less: https://www.tradeinn.com/waveinn/en/...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Google had others

That is a little less than what I would pay for the equivalent unit at Fisheries Garret, but the main difference is that that one is the black version and I want the stainless version, which is a little spendier. It will match the stove though, so I'm ok with the extra cost. But I have to see if they can get one first. From their website it looks like Vitrifrigo has redesigned the C130 so I don't know if this one is still available, or it it isn't what the lead time is for the updated version. More research needed...

[cstevens]

Well, as usual, the only thing I can count on going to plan around here it that nothing will ever go according to plan. And that work will always intervene when I would rather be messing about with boats. So I have not gotten nearly as much done as I had hoped over the last few weeks. However progress is being made.

After removing some covering pieces and with a certain amount of convincing I did get the old refrigerator out, leaving an ugly hole in the galley cabinetry:



If only I could leave the old refrigerator under my pillow for the boat fairy, and find a new one there in the morning. But sadly not. Instead I parted with a certain number of boat dollars and the new one is (I hope) on it's way. Soon. Maybe? After much deliberation we settled on this unit:

https://www.fisheriessupply.com/isot...s-steel-fridge

It's a refrigerator only, with no freezer. I've always found the freezers in boat refrigerators to be just about useless. Not one has ever reliably kept a pint of ice cream cold for me, and really what other use is there for a freezer aboard? (Other than ice cubes for an evening gin & tonic I suppose). But we decided that more refrigerator space was worth the risk of a warm G&T (shudder). We do have a portable freezer that will provide three times the space so we are not without some options there. But Fisheries didn't have any of the units in stock. A phone call to them revealed that they have had them on back order for months and did not expect any until next... year sometime.

Ok then, someone must have one! West Marine? Defender? Nope - turns out that I could find only one in the entire country, from Marine Parts Source. They claimed that they could get it out here this week at the cost of another substantial fraction of a boat dollar so I decided to live in hope and gave them my credit card. However since then I have yet to see any confirmation that the refrigerator has made it onto a truck so I think it's going to be six to five and pick 'em whether it will show up in time.

On other fronts, some time ago it became apparent that there was no chance that the runabout would be done in time for us to use it this year. I will have to come back to it later but in the meantime we really do need a tender that will carry two adults, a rapidly growing boy and two not-so-small dogs. The little lapstrake fiberglass dinghy was pretty enough but just a bit on the small side. What I wanted was a nine-foot pram to get the most carrying capacity in the available space. Something like the 9'6" Nutshell perhaps? Maybe the boat fairy was listening after all, as the perfect thing just showed up on craigslist.



And it's even better that it's a sailing dinghy. Dash is learning to sail El Toros a the Center for Wooden Boats this week and has just started asking when we can get a sailboat. The only question was whether we could get it aboard. The Nutshell is nominally the same length as the dinghy it would replace but in reality it's several inches longer and wider. And the pram bow means that it would be a tight fit to slide it in next to the deck box on the aft deck. But the seller was very accommodating and let us borrow the boat to see if it would fit. So yesterday we shuffled boats around until we could hoist the Nutshell aboard annnnd...



It fits! Barely.





I need to reshape the chocks and tweak some other things, but it will work fine. I think the Nutshell is the absolute largest possible dinghy that would fit on deck. And it passes the eye test nicely as well.



So that's that. Except that I need to figure out how to install lifting rings in it. Which will be a topic for a dedicated post I think.

Oh, and I did manage to change the raw water impeller too, so that's done. I'm slowly going through the list...

[Bobcat]

So how will you carry the mast for the sailing dinghy?

I have a Sabot and am scratching my head about how to carry the spars

[cstevens]

So how will you carry the mast for the sailing dinghy?

I have a Sabot and am scratching my head about how to carry the spars

I think we will be able to carry all the spars on top of the pilothouse. They might hang over the aft end a bit but that shouldn't be a problem. But I can see the challenge on your Roughwater as there isn't a decent surface long enough. I think the only option would be to carry them on the hard top and live with the overhang. Maybe add a temporary crutch for support on top of the salon?

The rig for the Nutshell is going to be the next thing to sort out. It comes with a bunch of parts - rudder, daggerboard, spars, sail - but they have never actually been rigged on the boat. And the bits go together to make a sprit rig rather than the lug rig that Joel White intended, with a mast, boom, sprit and a generic Neil Pryde sail from Duckworks. I expect we will be able to figure it out but it's a bit of a puzzle at the moment.

[Bobcat]

I came to the same conclusion, but not sure I want to have the overhangs. I have been enjoying rowing the Sabot

[Yeadon]

Could the Sabot sailing dinghy's mast be cut in half (or even higher up a bit the spar) and connected via a longish ferrule? Then I bet everything could go into a Sunbrella bag and stowed.

[Bobcat]

I will look into making the mast two part

[jsjpd1]

Nice score on the dinghy Chris.

[cstevens]

Nice score on the dinghy Chris.

Thanks! I don’t think it will carry a much as the one you built but we have a smaller crew so I expect it will work just fine.

[Andrew Donald]

That dinghy looks as though it s made to fit Chris, great score.

[StevenBauer]

That dinghy looks as though it s made to fit Chris, great score.

This. Looks perfect.

[cstevens]

Back to some actual Building/Repair work. The new refrigerator actually showed up yesterday after being delayed in shipment several times. It's very shiny.



It's nominally the same size as the one we are replacing but of course nothing could be that easy so some adjustments were needed before it would fit. The biggest change is that the new unit requires a wider cutout. So the vertical framing on the inside of the cutout needed to move over and the opening widened.



I first removed the plugs and screws securing the frame piece and repositioned it.



Then I routed the door opening back to the new edge using a router and a flush trim bit. I also cut a vent hole for better air flow over the compressor.



And it fits!



It needs to come up a bit so that the flange covers the gap at the top so I made a couple of shims. Tomorrow I'll get those in place and finish wiring it up. I'm slowly checking projects off the list so we might actually get to go cruising soon.

[cstevens]

More progress. Installed the shims for the refrigerator this morning.





Much better. Except...



I measured twice and then twice again and checked my math besides, but I still managed to put one of the screws for the upright directly under a mounting hole for the refrigerator. Argh! I'll have to relocate the screw and plug the hole at some point but that's going to be a project for another time.

With the refrigerator in place I quickly hooked up the wires and...



It lives!

Now on to the next thing. Dinghy lifting rings, harness and chocks.

[cstevens]

Well hm. So with the refrigerator done I started working on the reshaping the dinghy chocks for the Nutshell. In shifting the pram around to block it up in the right place I pressed my knee against the cabin side and felt it give a little.



I don't know what's going on there but it cannot be good. I'm reluctant to start poking away at it too much for fear that I will open up a huge hole just when we are trying to head out. What are the chances that I just happened to push on the one little soft spot? Not likely, is it. The decks and cabin sides are the next area on the list to refinish so I expect I'll find out the extent of the problem soon enough.

[hawkeye54]

(Post # 1493 ) I've heard of 'eggshell paint', but not eggshell cabin sides . . . possibly a previously undetected void in the material, was there (to your knowledge ) any repair done to that area ? will be following this chapter with interest.




Rick

[cstevens]

(Post # 1493 ) I've heard of 'eggshell paint', but not eggshell cabin sides . . . possibly a previously undetected void in the material, was there (to your knowledge ) any repair done to that area ? will be following this chapter with interest.

Rick

Eggshell is exactly what it felt like when I pressed on it Rick. Didn't even seem like a soft spot. Just like there was nothing at all under the paint. I'm hoping that it's just an old repair or something but I haven't explored it yet. According to the construction drawings the cabin side is made up of 3/8" plywood on the outside and 1/4" plywood on the inside. I assume there is also some framing in between but it's not shown in the drawings I have. Guess I'll be finding out!

[jsjpd1]

On the pus side, the new fridge looks great! I’d say go cruising, that little dimple will keep til later.

[Hugh MacD]

At least with the refrigerator in you'll be able to have cold beer while you're working on the cabin side (wry grin).

[cstevens]

On the pus side, the new fridge looks great! I’d say go cruising, that little dimple will keep til later.

Thanks Jim. Yes, that's the plan. Go cruising now. Fix stuff later. But not too much later!

At least with the refrigerator in you'll be able to have cold beer while you're working on the cabin side (wry grin).

Great minds Hugh. I had that exact thought while I was staring at the dent. Along with a few other thoughts that I will not repeat for fear of getting the hook from Scot!

[Slacko]

I would put tape over that to seal it until you have plenty of time to rectify.
I've had something that looked like that become a hole I could stand in.

[Garret]

On the pus side, the new fridge looks great! I’d say go cruising, that little dimple will keep til later.

Jim nails it!

Slacko's idea of same tape isn't bad one - unless you don't have time for the lengthy install...

[_QB_]

One can see how a single boat project expands...

Maybe spatulate (if that's a verb) in a dollop of thickened epoxy and in a couple days brush over with a little paint. Full plywood repair as a winter project.

Did you think about surrounding the new fridge with some slabs of closed-foam insulation? It looks like there is room for it. Every bit of efficiency helps when on solar power. Anyway, you now know how to get good access there, something I never managed to figure out.

[hawkeye54]

Chris, if you look at the photo referenced in #1501 - just to the right of the 'pipe and cable' appears to be a paint sag, or bit of filler. Also, at the '5 o'clock ' position from the new dent appears to be a puncture into the side of the cabin - is this area prone to splash / spray while underway ?



Rick

[cstevens]

One can see how a single boat project expands...

Maybe spatulate (if that's a verb) in a dollop of thickened epoxy and in a couple days brush over with a little paint. Full plywood repair as a winter project.

Did you think about surrounding the new fridge with some slabs of closed-foam insulation? It looks like there is room for it. Every bit of efficiency helps when on solar power. Anyway, you now know how to get good access there, something I never managed to figure out.

I think I'm just going to stick some tape on it as Slacko suggested. The plan is to haul out in September and tackle a bunch of work in any case. This spot will just get added to the list.

As for the refrigerator, I do think some additional insulation will get added in the future, when I'm not rushing to get all the projects done before a cruise. And it turned out that the secret to getting the old refrigerator out was to remove the bottom fascia panel. That's what was holding the entire thing in place. Although of course I still had to wrestle with the remote compressor. I set up the new one so that it's much easier to get in and out if needed. It has a built-in compressor so it only take a couple of minutes to undo the mounting screws, disconnect the wiring and slide it out.

Chris, if you look at the photo referenced in #1501 - just to the right of the 'pipe and cable' appears to be a paint sag, or bit of filler. Also, at the '5 o'clock ' position from the new dent appears to be a puncture into the side of the cabin - is this area prone to splash / spray while underway ?

Rick

That's a sharp eye Rick. But it's hard to tell what is going on with the structure based on the finish. It's a ten foot paint job for sure, and there are various sags and dents everywhere. I tapped around the spot a bit and it seems to be a palm-sized soft area. Hopefully it is no more than that but I'm prepared to be realistic.

[cstevens]

We made it out of the slip on Wednesday morning, after our usual last minute rush of boat projects, boat cleaning after the boat projects, laundry, house cleaning, shopping, packing, forgetting things, extra shopping to pick up the things we forgot, and then finding that someone (ahem) forgot to bring the butter after we were well underway and it was much too late to go back for it. There is always a moment before a cruise when I wonder if we will ever be ready to leave but then somehow everything is done, or as done as it ever will be. The stores are aboard, if not yet perfectly stowed. The crew is ready, the engine is started, the lines are cast off and we leave the dock. This time into a gray Seattle day, with accompaniment by a brief squall and thunderstorm.



But we timed our departure perfectly, and arrived at the locks to find only one other boat there waiting to head out. Happily anticipating a quick passage through, we idled around the bay until we got the green light to enter. And we idled some more. And more. And the boats started stacking up behind us into Salmon Bay. After an hour or so of this the guy on the boat in front of us yelled back to tell us that the lock attendant had told him they were short staffed and could only run one lock at a time (there are two - a large lock usually used by commercial traffic, and a smaller one that is faster and is generally where they put the recreational boats). Commercial traffic has priority so we had to wait for a tug and barge to go through but then they would send us down. So we waited some more. The tug went through. But no green light. They brought up the small lock and two boats came out inbound to the lake. Surely we would get the green light now? But no, they closed the small locks again without letting us through - likely for another commercial boat.

Finally, after two and a half hours or maneuvering in place, we got the green light to go into the large locks as enough traffic had backed up that they needed more room.





We had debated the choice of routes between Admiralty Inlet to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and San Juan Channel (faster and in my view more enjoyable, but more exposed and weather-dependent) or going up Saratoga Passage on the west side of Whidbey Island and through Deception Pass to avoid the crossing. But the marine forecast promised light winds for the Strait so we headed for Port Townsend, our usual stopover for that route.



The trip up Puget Sound was uneventful until we got to Pt. No Point, where we had to fight through the tide rips.



It was a little bouncy but not that bad and it was over quickly enough. We ended our day tied up at Point Hudson Marina in Port Townsend, home of many lovely vessels including the schooner Martha and the Gartside yawl La Vie En Rose



to be continued...

[cstevens]

We woke up on Thursday to a heavy morning fog, just starting to clear.



By the time we finished our coffee and walked the dog the fog was gone and a perfect day for a Strait crossing revealed itself. Clear skies, light winds and a handsome boat - what could be finer than this?





Dash took a brief stint on the helm...



...but mostly spent the day in the time-honored tradition of reading while underway.



That could have been me as a boy on any cruise. And Tory and Scout watched the water go by, on the lookout for pirates or marauding sea birds.



We left our older dog, Addie behind for this trip. Our first cruise without her. She is being well cared-for at home by my sister and her girlfriend, and at fifteen we decided that cruising would be too hard on her, but it's not the same without the full family.

to be continued...