Berkeley Marine Center Wrap Up
5-8
This week past saw the wrap up of my time out of the water at the Berkeley Marine Center. The project was brought in on budget, but took a little longer than anticipated. My expectations were based on everything going to plan and the best laid plans.....Regardless, I am pleased.
To summarize, my original plan was to have the yard pull the boat for a bottom job. I had this done on a Friday so I could have the weekend to change out the keel bolts and replace any bad hoses connected to thru - hulls like the original factory installed head and the cockpit drain hoses. Also, had to address the rudder play, properly seal and re-drill any cabin top penetrations and install some jib tracks up there as well. Then, starting Monday, they would be able to move forward with painting the bottom.
It didn't work out this way, of course. After the first bolt was removed it became apparent the keel would have to be dropped. This set everything back and started new logistical calculations in my head. I still figured that I would be doing the cleaning of the keel-hull flange and applying the caulk etc. As noted in the previous post, I had already removed the old keel bolts (please see note in lessons learned below), so figured a big part of the work was done. It was dealing with how and when to get the boat lifted off the keel and lowered back on as well as having someone available to help me when it came time to torque on the nuts from inside the boat that found me calling Carl to ask how best to schedule everything. He asked if I would be having to take off work to do this and after a bit of question and answer he suggested they take over the reattachment. We came up with a number to keep costs under and I turned it over to them. This allowed me some extra solo work time on the boat, which allowed the head removal etc. that I went ahead with.
BMC was pretty desperate for space and my job, I suspect as well as many others, actually took maybe 3 times as long as anticipated. They had boats everywhere. Mine was out of the water there for almost two and a half weeks, but they didn't charge extra for lay days (though it would have been fair for them too). My bill was twice what I had hoped, but fell into my acceptable range. It feels good to have this all sorted and to know the I won't find myself scrambling around trying to plug holes in the bottom of the boat because of the keel letting loose mid sail.
Lessons Learned:
#1,Santana 22 keel bolts need to be replaced if kept in salt water if they haven't been already. I am a believer, my bolts were totally shot.
#2, If you choose to cut off the nut like I did, using a cutting blade and a grinder, make sure you vacuum up all the dust, grindings immediately. I didn't and all those filings got wet because of some rain we had while the boat was out of the water. All that dust rusted and now I have tiny rust spots all over, including the cockpit sole because of us tracking the filings out of the cabin.
#3, When working in a marine yard that is an hours drive away, take all the tools you can carry. I hadn't expected to have to drop the keel, nor have to construct a cradle for it. The boat owner population I met at BMC were universally helpful and they all seem to love talking about boats and the challenges of their own projects. I met one guy who was the original owner of his sailboat that he had boat in 71. This boat was immaculate and he obviously had his maintenance schedule well rehearsed. He hauls his boat every year, gives it a light sand and paints. It looked great and looked relatively painless. People lent me tools and were happy to share any expertise they could. Curt, the owner of a Ranger (40 foot I think) called "Rebel" next door to me, helped me out several times as did a couple of others.
Back in the water
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