Hmm....

Sometimes things work out better than you think.  The work I had thought would take 3 days to do ended up taking 1!  I put on first and second coats of varnish on all the woodwork except the rub rail that goes around the perimeter of the boat, I put on the first coat of anti-fouling paint, and I slapped some primer in the bottom of the cockpit.  Things are shaping up quickly. 
She looks a lot classier with red below the waterline; it adds a nice contrast to the green.  At the rate things are going I may be ready by the 9th without any extra work.  We'll see, I still don't want to rush things, but if I can sail her at all in May I will. 
Rain was a threat throughout the day.  Just as I was about to finish with the varnish I felt a drop on my forehead.  Luckily it held off.  As I was part way done with the anti-fouling paint I felt another two drops on my arm.  Again fate was on my side; it waited right up until I left for the day to start raining, and by then it had all dried pretty well.
I'll put up some pictures of my progress.  My worry is that everyone that sees the boat in real life will only see the "after" shots, and I will be the only one who truly appreciates the amount of work put into her and how much better the boat is now.  But I guess that's the way it is.  I'll let everyone see her at her best.

Sticking to the schedule

Alright after thinking about it I've decided to launch on June 6th.  My goal was to have her ready by the 24th, and that shouldn't be a problem.  I just figured I should take as much time as I can making sure everything is ship-shape.  Also since I don't get paid till the 10th, I wouldn't be able to pay the boat haulers till later anyway.  Besides, what would be the point of putting the boat in the water if I don't have the sails yet, or turnbuckles for the rig.  I just think it would be irresponsible to rush to get her in the water before it's all ready, and this way I'll be able to sail almost immediately after launching. 
I am still really excited, and even though it'll be 2 weeks after my birthday, that still gives me 18 weeks of sailing this year.

Crunch time

I just got off the phone with the hauling company that's going to be launching my boat.  Apparently it's going to be $250 which is a bit lame since they're only moving it a couple of blocks and I got the same price quote to move the boat about 20 miles before.  Oh well, not much I can do about it.  Also they only have two dates that they're going to be in town rigged to move sail boats: May 9th or June 6th.  My goal was to have her in the water by my birthday, so I don't really want to wait two weeks after that, but the 9th is only two weeks away.  I feel like I could do it if the weather lets up and I take off of work for a week.  I don't want to delay and wait too long, but I don't want to rush into it either. 
I was just down there the other day putting on the first coat of varnish on some of the woodwork.  I need to coat the rest of it, and do another 2-3 coats (with sanding in between coats and 6 hours of dry time).  Right now there's no more dripping or leaking, it's just the soggy decks because while she's on the hard the water pools up.  When she's floating it should drain off in the slots that are cut for that.  All I need to do is patch the drain holes with some epoxy and then paint the undersides with anti-fouling paint.  I'd like to wax the hull and finish varnishing the bright work as well.  If I had 3-4 days of solid work and nice weather on it I'd be good to go. 
I did find a place that has OEM sails in stock for my rig.  They run about $500 a piece.  Less than the $900 per new custom sail, but more than the mismatched ill fitting used sails.  I'll probably go that route since it looks to be a pretty prosperous month for the car business.
So do I ask off of work for a week, or do I wait till June?

Progress shots





These are the "custom" sawhorses I built to keep the mast off the ground.  It's the little things like this that make me feel better about my boat. 

You can see the frog tape and paint slopped all over the waterline here.  Also my sloppy first attempt at putting the stickers on the side.

This is the better side where the stickers are actually lined up.  (My brother's OCD is gonna go overtime on the other stickers).  And this is after I repainted the waterline.

The view from the cabnin after all the woodwork has been sanded, and the sides have a fresh coat of paint.  Much better than it looked before.  (Still need to do the floor though).

These are the 8 or 9 holes that I drilled in the port side of the keel to let the moisture drain out.  Hopefully nothing too bad going on in there.  From what I've read in the forums, it's nothing to worry about if there are no cracks, and it's prertty common.

And this is all the gear I bought to get her back into Bristol Condition.

A brief ray of sunshine

It's my day off.  And it was tolerable weather.  Sound unlikely for me......yeah.  OK although the afore mentioned statements are true, it wasn't exactly perfect.  Despite being my day off I had to go in to work (twice) in order to keep appointments with clients.  (If in the future after I am an amazingly successful cruising sailor and I have to get a job on land I hope that they will read this and see my awesome work ethic).  I only stayed at work a total of 3 1/2 hours, but I sold 2 cars, so it's ok.  As for the weather, it's been kinda depressing.  A couple Sundays ago it was up in the 70's, and then this last weekend we got 3 inches of snow!  It just came out of nowhere, and covered everything in slush.  I had hoped that I would be able to start varnishing, but with all the changing weather and moisture in the air I've decided to hold off for a bit.

I completed a few tasks on the boat though.  I taped off and repainted the waterline, I put on the boat registration stickers, and finished sanding the woodwork. I took pictures of all this today, but forgot to bring it over here so I could upload them.  I'll do that tomorrow.

I checked out the slot that had been cut to drain any excess water in the keel, it was pretty much dry.  I decided it'd be a good idea to make sure there was no water next to the ballast on the other side of the keel. So although when you think of boat maintenance you usually think of patching holes, not drilling new ones, that's exactly what I had to do.
I drilled into the side of the keel and a bit of gritty black goop came out followed by some water.  I drilled 8 other holes along the keel to drain any moisture I could.  I'm still a bit worried about all this water that has been in there for who knows how long, but I'm pretty confident in the structural integrity of the Bristol.

I found out that the rig I have (from a Columbia 26) has a roller reefing boom, so I don't need to add reefing point to the sail if I need to make the sail smaller in a storm.  It's gonna be nice to just wrap it around the boom and not have to worry about folding it.  I've heard that the roller reefing systems weren't that good, and that's why no one does it anymore.....I guess we'll see.

After sunset I went to Home Depot to get some Frog Tape (way better than the blue painter's tape most people get), some more sanding blocks, some gloves so I don't ruin my skin with the anti-fouling paint, and some tack cloth so I can varnish properly.  Then I bought some rubbing compound and wax to make the boat's hull all slippery and shiny.

It's gratifying to see things coming together over the last couple of weeks.  I've had a list of things to buy, and things to do which wasn't changing at all over the winter months.  I had to get insurance, pay for the slip, get anti-fouling paint ($126/gallon).  Now all I have to do is buy some sails.

An old guy came up to me today and told me about some sailing stuff he was selling.  He had a new sail that didn't fit his boat he was gonna sell for $400, and a roller furling unit for the Jib.  It might not fit, but I'll see how cheap I can buy it off him.

I've recently joined a www.cruisersforum.com which has been great!  The combined knowledge of hundreds of sailors from all over the world helping me trouble shoot my way has been invaluable.  It's also nice to see that I'm not the only one who's starting small and trying to make due with as little as possible.  I know I seem naive to many, but I feel like I could get to Europe just on will power at this point.

Sanding away....

We had gorgeous weather on Sunday, so my family and I went for a nice hike up in the woods.  By Thursday the weather had dropped from 71 degrees to 35!  Of course my day off would fall on a Thursday.  Anyway I went down to the boat to sand down the woodwork so that soon I can start varnishing it.  It was a tough job and I'm still not quite done, but she is looking a lot nicer now.  I have to sand off all the sun bleached gray of about 5 years of neglect.  I've gotten a lot of it back down to the bare wood, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get everything perfectly even.  Maybe it'll give it a nice weathered look.  We'll see.

You can see the wood on the starboard side is a fair bit lighter than that on the port side. I still need to put down a coat or two of paint in the bottom of the cockpit, but she's looking a lot better than when I bought her.
I clambered back into the engine compartment (which was little cramped by the way) so I could remove the muffler and see about sealing the propeller shaft so it won't fill up with water and sink as soon as I put her in the water.  There were a few wasp nests that I had to clear out.  I got startled and hit my head when my phone decided to vibrate as soon as I touched one of the hives.  Stupid text messages.

Yes, I crammed myself under those stairs. 
After a few hours of sanding I was getting legitimately tired and so I curled up on the starboard aft quarter birth for a nap.  I almost drifted off when I got another phone call.  No rest for me I guess.
I found a small section of deck that's leaking; I always knew it was, but now I know where it is, so that's good.  And for being a 40 year-old boat, I'd say she's holding up very well.
I still need to measure the rig and see for certain what kind of sails I should buy, and how I'm going to match the mast and boom to this boat.

Almost sanded.
Also, today marks the official first day of the sailing season here in Sheboygan.  As soon as I get my paycheck today I'm going to go down to the harbor and pay off the rest of my slip for the summer.

A fisheye view of my Bristol 24

Impatient or just excited?

Another short day of working on my lovely little sloop.  I couldn't get down to see her till around 4:00 in the afternoon, but I recruited the help of my little brother, Liam, to help with some sanding.  We scrubbed out the bilge a bit, and I painted some scuzzy looking parts of the cabin top and the cockpit while Liam ran around sanding some of the woodwork.  I hadn't really added up how much varnish it's going to take to get her in Bristol condition, but I'm sure it will be well worth the effort of doing it properly.  The weather here in Wisconsin is warming up a bit, but that is bringing in more moisture than I'd like, so it's been foggy and rainy.  Tomorrow is supposed to be up to 71 degrees, but it's also supposed to have crazy thunderstorms and almost tornado conditions.  I've been reading up a bit on what I can do to forestall my decision on what to do about the engine.  My Bristol 24 had a small diesel engine that is meant to be mounted inboard just under the cockpit.  This is a nice setup because while it's running it can also charge the batteries, and since the propeller is lower down in the water, it is more likely to stay under water in the event of rough seas.  It would be simple to mount an outboard motor onto the transom, but that would look ugly, and I'd have to raise it and lower it every time I want to use it..... and it would cost more money that I don't have.
I finally bought insurance for my boat, so now at least if I crash into anyone I'll be covered.  Now the only main expenses I have are paying off the rest of the boat slip ($691) and buying a set of sails; I figure I can pick up a used set for about $500.  When I think about how quickly the boat is coming together I get really excited for the summer.  I get the feeling that it will be more and more difficult to bring myself into work each day when I have the prospect of taking off and cruising whenever I want.  The one thing I know that will keep me grounded is knowing that my cruising range is limited by my funds, and in order to do my big cruise next summer I'm going to have to work hard and save a lot.
I recently watched a couple of sailing movies.  I had heard Abby Sunderland recommend Deep Water, a documentary about one ill-fated sailor and his attempt in the first solo, non-stop round the world race.  It was insightful, but I don't think I should let my Mom watch it; she might worry.  I also watched Morning Light, a documentary made by Disney about their crew of young rookie sailors and their first TransPac Race.  I'd love to do something like that, but those high powered race machines make the trip from California to Hawaii in 10 days.  A 70 foot boat making 20 knots is a little bit more intense than my 24 foot boat making 5.....probably 4 knots average.
I know I really need to get some pictures up, but I just ran over here from my apartment and forgot to bring my camera along with me.  Keep your fingers crossed for next time.
Thanks for reading!

Springtime at last

My day off at work was switched from Thursday to Friday to coincide with the last day of the month.  It was busy at work, but as the weather gets progressively warmer my thoughts turn more and more to sailing.  The forecast called for a snowy rainy mix which luckily didn't come.  I was able to spend most of the day working on my boat getting her ready for her first season of sailing in a long time.  There was a small amount of water that had trickled down into the bilge (the lowest part of the boat) and had frozen over winter.  I had thought that after the 40+ degree weather that it would all melt and I'd be able to scoop it out.  It took days before I could break up the chunks of ice and throw them overboard since the 3,000 pound solid lead ballast in the keel didn't want to warm up as fast as the rest of the boat.
Rather than worrying about buying or renting a generator I decided to just get some useful cordless tools.  I bought a drill and a circular saw.  I used the saw to cut a few boards up for a makeshift floor, and used the drill in conjunction with a wire paint stripper to do most of the other work.  It was amazing how quickly and easily I was able to get the random spills from the previous owner cleaned up when I had electricity on my side.  I had been trying to scrape this stuff out of the cockpit by hand, but it would have taken days; I accomplished the same task in about an hour.  It's so gratifying to see things start to come together.  After a long cold winter of worrying if she'll be ready in time, of being restless, of magnifying problems in my mind, I was finally getting stuff done.  I scrubbed and taped and began to paint.  I organized and analyzed. Now I know the ins and outs of the boat just a little bit better.  The part that I thought had been leaking I sealed up so that no moisture could make it through.  On Sunday when I swung by to check it out in the rain I found out what the real problem had been all along.  The cockpit is like a big bath tub with two drains close to the forward edge.  These drains go through two hoses and out the bottom of the boat.  One of these hoses was not only clogged at them bottom, but it wasn't properly aligned where the drain meets the hose, so any rain water was just filling up inside the hose and draining out inside the boat.  I tightened down the hose clamps inside the boat, and then went to see about clearing the clog out.  It was pretty easy actually; I found a long bolt, and poked it up in the drain once and a hole bunch of water splashed out on my arm.  Now when it stops raining I can go back and paint the engine bay, finish painting the cockpit, and begin varnishing the woodwork.  Varnishing will probably take a long time, but I'm hopeful that it'll look all pretty when I'm done.
The official sailing season starts here on the 15th of April.  My goal is to have her in the water by my birthday on the 24th of May.  These dates are getting closer and closer.  I do feel confident that I'll have everything done on schedule, and then I can move in and enjoy the summer aboard.  She may not be the newest, prettiest, or most high-tech boat out there, but at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing that I brought her back to life and helped her be out where she belongs: on the water.
     -I'll put pictures up next time-   Feel free to leave comments or ask questions.  Otherwise you can find me on Facebook.