Some P33 projects on Halcyon
Cherry sliding locker doors
The 1988+ models have nice wood sliding doors in lieu of the black formica ones std on our '86. I think the original brightwork is teak, but I made the replacement door panels of cherry veneer, which matched quite well. A pretty easy job.
Those @#$%^&*() Port Leaks
We went from 1 opening hatch and 1 port in our P30 to 9 opening ports and 4 hatches. WOW! what a great improvement in ventilation, but the ports all leaked, and were time consuming to open/close
I replaced all the gaskets (crushed) and, half the screens. I also replaced all the knobs with cam latches. The cam latches really make the Beckson ports work much easier. (a few seconds to open all the ports now) and look much newer. (See above)
Ports are now totally dry in even the heaviest rain/spray.
Best source seemed to be becksonmarine.com . Here is list
Adding Toe room in the Vee
At 6' 4" I barely fit into the vee. I gained a few inches of toe wiggle room by removing/reworking the trim bulkhead at the end of the vee. Pics to follow
Drying up the bilge
First step was replacing flax packing with Gore GFO "Nearly Dripless" packing. Rather hard to find locally, It is 3/16" and sourced it through e-marine at www.e-marine-inc.com/products/gfopacking/packing.html
The very shallow bilge seems best kept very dry, otherwise even a small amount of water seems to find its way on the floorboards.
Now we just need to vac the dust out of the bilge from time to time.
Re-finishing the Cabin Sole
The shallow bilge and unsealed backs of the 1/2" teak / holly cabin sole has caused some lifting of the original varnish, and some deterioration of the backs of the boards. After drying to <10%, I epoxied some woven glass to the backs of the boards spanning areas unsupported and after trying epoxy on the aft cabin sole, decided on satin fast drying minwax polyurethane for sealing the balance of the backs and re-finishing the tops.
Boarding Gates
The starboard gate braces have a very small surface at the deck to transfer load. I have noticed some decks with wet spots here (our Halcyon included).
I will be drying and sealing this area and possibly re-working the stb braces since I also want to to add braces to the port side gates
Re-Coring the SeaHood
The most wet readings of the moisture meter on Halcyon was the sea hood. Pearson did a great job bedding the hardware on these boats in general, but did not seal the core or bed the dorades (on any of the P31-2 or P33-2 ?)
I have read accounts of cutting the panel of glass out and peeling it off. Well the Pearson team certainly got a good bond of the balsa to glass, because I used about every chisel, prybar, hammer and swear word I had to remove the inner skin.
Re-coring was fairly simple, by cutting away about 2 sq ft of lower skin, removing wet core, replacing balsa core, and re-glassing in the removed skin. After 30 hours work the visible part looks just like before :-) I did lay in another 1/4" of glass under the traveler bridge and backed with 2" fender washers instead of the 1" wide fg strip, as I had some stress cracks radiating from some of the holes.
Here is a pics showing moisture readings and the core condition.
Looking at the resin around the rectangular core sections (scrim), I have to think the water saturating the cell of balsa swells / freezes breaking the adjoining wall of resin allowing water to intrude into the adjoining cell, saturate, swell, freeze and repeat the cycle. I can also see why trying to dry the core from the same hole that got it wet is pretty ineffective due to the lack of any air reaching the endgrain.
Re-bedding Chainplates
One of the few moist areas of the deck was around the port chainplate. the only evidence other than the moisture meter was some discoloration at the outer edges of the backing plate. I was able to remove about a 4" x 3" area of core and replace with thickened epoxy. This massive structure really gives me an appreciation of Bill Shaw's engineering of these Pearson boats.
Stanchion attack
By the time our boats are old enough to vote, I guess the stanchions are needing re-bedded with the associated overdrilling of holes, filling w/ epoxy, etc. Fortunately they are all easily accessible I was amazed in looking at boats this past year of how many from the mid 80's have severe wet decks and delamination, even rotted core. "A stitch in time?"
Sue wants a Reefer.
I would welcome some input on what, how & where others have added refrigeration. As you can guess, What Sue wants .........
Lavac Head
Well, after fighting the old Groco head,
we decided to replace it with a Lavac head.
So far, we are very pleased, - no odor at all!!
It does make for a clean installation. I used the original bulkhead hole for waste hose.
I had to fill the hole through the floor for orig. incoming water and leg screws.
(Pearson put 3/4"+ wood ply under the floor)
I cut angled hole in bulkhead for incoming water.
Hole saw for oval cut-out for pump.
Vented loops are in lazarette.
The new Lavac has 90 degree fitting for incoming water.
I bought the older model and had to make 90 degree fitting
from a thru-hull since the water heater is directly behind bulkhead.
Henderson V pump mounted on bulkhead in lazarette - inline with original vented loop.
Some advantages:
More info at:
http://www.southernseasmarine.com/lavac/LavacToilets.pdf
Brightwork
argghhh!!!!!
Replacing Roll-up dingy (WM RU260) slats w/ wood cored fiberglas / epoxy
