Working on the Goes around, Comes around

I finally feel as if I’m getting there with Goes Around Comes Around
the 21 ft Shock Santana sailboat I bought ($1300 for boat, trailer and
4hp longshaft outboard) in the end of July.So far I have varnished all
outside wood on it, including the tiller and rudder. I have painted the
top decks with a good oil based floor/deck paint. Glidden $16 a
gallon stuff. It seems to have worked very well. (it even specified on the label that it was suitablefor painting boat decks) I got a light tan/sand
color for the no skid areas and a gloss white for the rest of it. It
was white decks and dark blue on the no skid before. It was very hot in
the sun on the blue, you couldn’t walk bare foot on it during the day.
Now it is very cool even in the hot noon sun.

Removed the Plexiglas sheet that Hans the previous owner had screwed
over the front hatch opening after the original hatch blew off on
Interstate 95 when he was trailering it back from Florida. I bought a
new hatch $60 and installed it. Talk about a comedy of errors. The new
hatch was about 8 inches longer than the old one so I used the rotozip
to cut out the hatch opening to the new hatch. What I didn’t take into
account was that the forward deck is not flat but has a definite arch to
it. when i put the hatch in the new opening the outside ends of the
hatch were about 3/4 inch above the level of the deck. No sealing that.
I ended up taking some half inch Plexiglas that I had sitting around and
creating contoured shims in the gaps and using 5200 sealant/caulk/glue
to affix everything in place. It works and doesn’t look bad either. Was
definitely fun though cutting the wedged shaped shims out of Plexiglas
on the table saw.

I also made a new companionway hatch cover out of a piece of two layer
polycarbonate. It is much lighter than the two pieces of plywood that
were in there and also lets in lots of light to the cabin area. cost $0

A couple weekends ago I went out and raised the mast ( by myself ) It
was doable singlehanded. I think that if I make a line to hold onto
raising and lowering it that it will even be fairly easy to do. Anyway I
hooked up all the rigging on the boat that I had and found that I was
missing a few things after hooking the sails up. (the sails look like
they are new. I know I should have pulled them all the way out of the
sailbags before buying the boat but we just pulled them a quarter of
the way out and what we could see looked excellent. all the way out they
look even better) The stainless clip to hook the clew and foot of the
mainsail to the boom were missing and also the fitting to attach the
foot of the jib to the front of the boat. I think im remembering which
is the foot of the sail and the clew. lol I knew that day as I was
sitting out there with a book looking at the rigging in the book and
comparing it to my boat.

I got a new gas tank $24 and the fuel line $19 to go to the engine from
it but haven’t tried it out yet.. that is still a big question as to
will the engine work. Hans told me that it worked fine the last time he
used it but that has been a while.

A couple days ago I picked up a few stainless fittings at Home Depot for
the boat. Boaters world was 3 times as expensive and I think the
fittings were made by the same manufacture. I also purchase several
lines to replace the halyards(lines that raise and lower the sails) one
is missing and the other is very old and faded. $25 for all told

I am going sailing soon. I don’t care if it is freezing cold… lol I
want to get it in the water. I had thought that I was going to get it
all together and sailing within a week or so of purchasing the boat but
ran into title and registration issues. I sent off the paperwork and DNR
sent it back saying that there was a lien against the title. I got hold
of Han’s and he had gone thru bankruptcy in the mid 90’s and sold the
boat to his brother. Later he got it back and paid back his brother but
never got the lien signed off after paying. He sent the paperwork to his
brother in Mississippi and it got back to me in a couple weeks signed
off. DNR sent me a new title and registration in my name a week or so
after I sent it back in again. Hurray!!!!. cost $90 for title and
registration and misc fee’s to them. By then it was late September early
October. Since then I have been spending a few hours every weekend doing
this or that on the boat fixing little things up. Every time I turn
around I see something else that needs a little work.

Todo list includes
1. Sandblasting trailer and repainting.
2. Giving the hull a good scrubbing.
3. Sandblasting and repainting the keel (keel is 500lb cast iron
centerboard. It is 12 inches deep with keel up and swings down to 5 ft
deep in down position. This setup is nice for cabin space as it does not
intrude at all into the cabin. I guess we will see how it does for
sailing.
4. Hook up the running lights to the battery
5. One of the steel angle iron guides on the trailer that guide the boat
keel into the keel slot on the trailer is missing. Weld new one on.

I will update more later.
Scott