Bedding with Butyl Tape

Leaks.  They are, quite possibly, one of the more (if not the most) annoying malady to befall the cruising sailboat.  If they are below the waterline, they can prove catastrophic (as in; your boat can sink).  If they are above, they can be madness inducing, teak-tweaking and gear-ruining.  Lucky for us the leaks we have had have always been topside, and - even luckier - their origins have always been obvious.  There are plenty of accounts of leaky boats who's sources are nothing short of a mystery.  It is not unusual to see water coming into, say, an aft hanging locker - only to trace it all the way to a poorly bedded cleat up on the bow days, weeks or months later.  Water, being what it is, has a way of migrating before entering the interior of the boat and playing detective in this regard has been known to cause some cursing.

Speaking of bedding (and, no, I am not talking about the new queen set that you found on overstock.com), the majority of topside leaks will come from poorly bedded deck hardware.  For those who have no idea what I am talking about, the art of "bedding" deck hardware is mounting and installing it to the deck.  Cleats, portholes, chainplates, stanchions..etc.  Don't be fooled though.  This is no small task!  There are literally hundreds of holes drilled into our deck for various pieces of hardware which means there are hundreds places that water can potentially enter our boat, so the job must be done with painstaking care.  Nothing will make you curse the previous owner of your boat more than discovering what a crap job he/she did bedding deck hardware and, for better or worse, the attention they paid to this crucial job is pretty indicative of the way they maintained their boat.

So far, our only leaks have come from our portholes (aka 'windows') in our cabin.  We need to re-bed about six out of fifteen.  I have mentioned before that being a full-time boat mommy has pretty much nixed my ability to help with boat work (dang!) but one thing I am still very, very good at is research.  When investigating the best bedding compound, I discovered (and kind of fell in love with - in a deep respect sort of way) "Maine Sail" of Compass Marine.  He is all sorts of awesome and his site is full of how to do a litany of boat projects the right way.  It was through him I learned the beauty of Butyl Tape.

Scott got to work removing our old porthole, and discovered that it was bedded with the dreaded silicone.  Silicone SUCKS.  Say it with me people, "silicone sucks" and, in our opinion, has no place bedding deck hardware.  After spending a few hours painstakingly scraping away all the silicone remnants, he epoxied the inside of the window cavity (so that if any water gets in, it's not absorbed by the core) applied the butyl tape around the edge of the porthole, and wedged it in.  He then - for good measure - applied some 3M 4000 UV to the outside casing of the porthole and put the thing back together.  Between the epoxy, butyl tape and 4000, we are 100% leak-free (and yes, it has been put to the test!)

Since we're far from experts, that's about as step by step as I want to go, but if you are curious about using butyl tape to bed your deck hardware the proper way*, please check out this article.

*There's more than one way to skin a cat and I am sure plenty of you have leak-free boats that swear by other products, but for us butyl tape is the way to go for bedding deck stuff from now on.

The role of butyl tape

Scrapey McScraperton.  This is the most annoying part of the job for sure.

So it helps to have a very good friend around for moral support.   Ben Affleck and Jake Gyllenhal in the Hiz-OUSE!

Applying some butyl.

Peek-a-boo! Clamping the porthole into place.

The outer edge of the window was sealed with some UV400.

Tools of the trade.

Look, ma!! No leaks!

A Relatively Simple Fix

What a diference a stay makes!

I have so much to write about, but so little time.  These past few days have given me much food for thought and there many things I want to share, but time is of the essence so I'll stick to the basics for now and put the future blogs in my pocket for a rainy day.

First of all, the stays'l issue: turns out, the fix was simpler than we thought (don't you just love it when that happens?).  While I was in the anchor locker looking at the fitting just before Scott was about to rip it from the deck I noticed something special: a threaded hole in the middle of the fitting.  "Wait!" I yelled up to Scott.  The wheels turned quickly in my head. "That hole couldn't be there for nothing" I thought to myself.  After a little super sleuthing I connected the dots and realized that the threaded hole was for a mini-stay.  This little stay would then connect to a fitting glassed into the base of the hull (the strongest part, mind you) thus reinforcing our deck and making the stays'l strong.  Scott came down and took a look, gave me a high five for figuring it out ("I wondered what that hole was for") and we called the (very good) riggers who did our marine survey to make sure my hunch was legit.

That there hole in the middle is meant to house a mini stay!

The new fitting for the say, top of the anchor locker. 

The fitting for the mini-stay at the bottom of the anchor locker.

Not twenty-four hours later the problem was solved and the stays'l is now ready for action.  Krikey.  What a pain in the butt that "little project" turned out to be.  We're still very glad to have it though, because this small sail will be tremendously useful when the weather turns ugly.  We always longed for a stays'l on our first boat, Rasmus, and we're thrilled to have one now - even if it was a humongous pain in the boo-tay to get it.

In other news, it looks like our weather window for crossing the Gulf Steam is soon, very soon.  I don't want to jinx it, and I don't want to make any promises; but if the chips fall as we hope, we should be Bahamas bound by next Wednesday.  As such, things are a bit busy around here grabbing last minute spares, provisioning the boat, and doing small projects that we've put off.  If you have a spare "good vibe", we'd love for you to send it our way to ensure we can get off the dock with no major hiccups...

Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back...

Guess who is 10 mos today? No matter what setbacks we encounter, this happy little person makes it all okay*.

Sigh.  We're here again.  Yesterday morning we were dusting off our charts to the Bahamas and by yesterday afternoon, we were ripping apart the v-berth to discover the source of flexing on the foredeck.  What a difference a few hours makes. Such is life on a boat, I suppose.

Turns out our baby stay deck fitting doesn't have a backing plate and/or is not properly set up to withstand the loads of a full sail.  This is a very big deal and a huge oversight.  We could blame the rigger, we could question how on earth he would attach a stay to our deck without making sure the fitting was secure but blame doesn't get us anywhere.  The truth of the matter is we know better and we have no one to blame but ourselves.  We should have checked the fitting because (lesson time) assuming makes an ASS out of U and ME.

But here's the thing; we can choose to look at this relatively minor setback in one of two ways:

1) This is yet another problem that we have to fix and now we'll be delayed further, this sucks, boats suck,  wah, wah.

OR...

2) This is a blessing in disguise, thank God we found it now as opposed to later when we might have unfurled the sail and blown a hole in the deck, lucky us!

As one blog follower said on our Facebook page, "Two steps back now will save you 50 steps back in a gale.  The universe again conspires to help you succeed in your venture!" And he is exactly right.  If Scott hadn't been in the v-berth securing Isla's bed to the hull yesterday, he never would have heard our boat neighbor talking to a friend about our stays'l and mention that it probably had a "huge backing plate".  Overhearing that conversation caused Scott to take pause, question and check just to "make sure".  Lo and behold, our staysail was simply screwed into the deck and -upon further inspection - the deck was actually bowing under the pressure of the stay.  Our deck was literally one mast pump away from blowing a hole right over where Isla sleeps.

So, really, we are very lucky.  We'll make this right and hopefully it doesn't set us back too far.  Those Bahamas charts are still out, and we're eager to use them.

* Those are all natural veggie dog pieces Isla is eating amongst her veggies, not hot dogs.  I feel compelled to clarify that.

There are no Shortcuts on a Boat

Scott removing the leaking track and 5200 with Debond 2000, in order to re-bed it properly with UV4000 so it does not leak.

"There are no shortcuts on a boat, only quick ways to more problems" I wrote to our friend Willie, who, after reading Friday's post emailed to express his serious concern with the stays'l track solution I outlined.

It wasn't our rigger's fault.  He's a really good guy who's been at this for a long time and he and Scott had formulated the plan for the deck together.  But at the end of the day, Scott and I were uncomfortable.  Something didn't sit right.  We knew what we were doing was not right.  It was a half-baked solution and felt rushed.  On Rasmus, we didn't cut any corners.  This time, however, we were up against the clock, under a tremendous amount of stress, and hastily decided to go with the fastest, easiest solution.  We were taking a short cut, and we all knew it.  

After our friend emailed me with his concerns, I hit the internet and did some research.   It confirmed our fears: that our piece-meal solution was a one way ticket to Leaksville, USA.  I showed Scott what I found and we decided together to press stop and rewind.  We needed to do this project ourselves, a better way, even if it meant more time.  We needed ensure we would sleep well at night and never worry about our stays'l track leaking and rotting out the newly replaced deck coring underneath it.

It's scary, really, how much trust we put in people because of their titles.   This obviously doesn't only apply to boating, but to "normal" life as well.  Auto mechanics, contractors, doctors...etc.  We assume they know what is best and trust them implicitly with our cars, our homes, our lives.  Scott and I are by no means "experts" on boat maintenance, but we know enough to be dangerous.  We know enough to know when we see something that doesn't seem quite right, we know to ask questions and do our homework.  Such was the case with the stays'l track fiasco.  We were simply not comfortable with the work and how it was being done. 

There is a TON of subjectivity when it comes to all things "boat".  Some people swear by teak oil, some by Cetol, others by nothing (me by Honey Teak!).  Some people love their CQR anchor and others would using nothing other than a Rocna.  Some love catamarans, others love monohulls.  Some believe that a full keel is the only way to go on a blue water boat, whereas others believe a faster, fin keel is best.  Heck, the term "blue water boat" is up for grabs as well.  The list goes on and on and on... It's kind of like parenting, actually.  There is no right and wrong, just what's right for you and your child.  Same goes for your boat, no matter what your method or opinion, you'll find some out there who support it and some who do not, usually vehemently.  We're not a wishy-washy group, us cruisers.

For us, our first red flag with the stays'l project was the fact that it was being "bedded" with 5200.  Now I know there are those of you out there who believe firmly in this stuff, but Scott and I do not.  I'm sure it has a place somewhere on a boat, but in our opinion* it is NOT a bedding compound for deck hardware.  It is an adhesive.  A super strong, super permanent adhesive.  There is a ton of research online to support the notion that it really has no place on the deck of a sailboat.  I'm not going to go into it because this is besides the point.  What IS the point is this:  When it comes to hiring out boat work do your homework.  Don't simply trust an "expert" and assume he or she is doing things the way it should be done.  Remember, they don't care about your boat nearly as much as you do.  You need to question what they are doing, why they are doing it and how.  You also need to trust your gut.  As the old adage goes: if you want something done right - you'd better do it yourself.  We've hired help for many projects on this boat simply because we are short on time and man power (with me being more or less out of commission with the baby and all) - but we're always working alongside them to learn and observe as we go.  There is no doubt we're making mistakes and there almost certainly will be unforeseen surprises, but we're trying to limit them as best we know how.  At the end of the day, we can only do our best, right?

If you do decide to take that short cut, be prepared to deal with a potentially much bigger problem on the flip side because "if you take a short cut, you get cut short".

*Again, I'd like to point everyone to our DISCLAIMER.

Big Work Day

When it rains it pours.  Nothing like getting some major items crossed off your to-do list less than 24 hours before you leave.  Today we've got two fiberglass workers finishing off our anchor locker and the incredible folks from UMT Marine are here installing our beautiful davits (and yes, they are beautiful!).  Meanwhile, I'm zipping around getting parts, cleaning and prepping the boat for leaving, and making arrangements to finish a few projects while we're away.  The only downside of this fabulously productive and exciting day is the fact that I am running on fumes. I went out for a girl's night last night with my lovely Lauderdale lady friends and, of course, Isla decided to wake up at 5am as opposed to her usual 7am.  Typical.

Radar Arch or Instrument Pole?

Most cruising boats today have lots of gadgets; chart plotters, GPS units, radars, wifi boosters and more.  With these gadgets come antennae.  Unlike a house where you just stick them on the roof, a cruising boat needs a dedicated place to mount these things.  On Rasmus, we opted for an instrument arch.  Arches are great in that they are a one stop shop; they can house the dinghy davits, antennae, an outboard motor hoist and solar panels in one spot which can be very convenient.  The downsides are:  they are heavy (especially if made of stainless steel like ours was), are often very expensive and can affect the lines of the boat (some arches look downright ugly).

With this new boat, Scott and I decided to scratch the arch and go with a simple instrument pole.  Several factors played into this decision: 1) Use - our radar is already mounted on the mast 2) Need -we'll be using flexible solar panels zipped into our bimini top so don't need a framework* 3) Cost - a custom arch would have been 10K or more and 4) Look -we think the lines on this boat are so pretty and perfect, we'd like to keep them as streamlined and clean as we can.

Scott and Walt got to work running the wires and prepping the new pole for installation with some help from little miss Isla.  This new pole will hold our two GPS antennae, our Rogue Wave Pro antenna, our stern light, an aft deck light as well as our outboard motor hoist.  In addition we will have stainless davits custom made for us by UMT Marine.  We think it's going to look pretty slick.

How do you manage the antennae aboard your boat?  Do you have a preference for arch vs. pole?  We'd love to hear your thoughts!

*More on this when we get to that point.

Deck Work

Our deck is now filled with this good stuff!

When we got the marine survey for our new boat, we were a little unhappy to find out that the results showed some moisture in her deck.  This is not an uncommon phenomenon but it can be a real pain in the butt if it's not dealt with properly.  A fiberglass boat's deck is often put together like a sandwich.  The part you walk on is the top piece of "bread", the coring in the middle is the "meat", and what you see from the interior is the other piece of "bread".  This 'core' is made from any number of materials and when moisture penetrates it - usually through a poorly bedded deck item like a stanchion, cleat or windlass - it creates weak spots that might not be obvious until too late because coring is famous for hiding and misleading leaks.

You would never have known our deck had moisture in it when you looked at her.  In fact, her deck looks pristine.  Walking around, we didn't feel any bubbles or soft spots or anything to indicate any problems. There were no obvious signs of leaks from the interior either.  Like anything though, sometimes issues lurk below the surface where the naked eye cannot see.  Enter:  the Moisture Meter.  The moisture meter works like a stud finder, but instead of finding studs, it gives moisture readings.  If it wasn't for our survey, we would never have known we had a soggy deck.  Point for technology!

Because Scott and I are not interested in DIY'ing with this boat (if you are just joining, start at the beginning of this blog and you'll see we did PLENTY of DIYing with our first boat!) we were able to negotiate the price of the boat down to compensate for this hefty repair.  As with anything boat, there are probably a trillion ways to fix this issue depending how much time and money you have.  The man we hired to do our work suggested fixing our deck from the inside rather than the outside and chose to replace the coring (the stuff between the outside and inside) with Divyincell H60.  It's got to be better than the plywood tiles that were in there before!

See the moisture up there?  This kind of moisture was prevalent in the bow and both gangways.

Wet and rotten wood removed.

Re-cored and re-glassed.

The interior is a construction zone!

The deck work is complete, and the interior cabinetry is now being put back in the boat.  Now onto the next projects!!  Sure feels good to know things are getting done while we're not there...

Love,
Brittany, Scott & Isla