There were several things that needed to be fixed on Sea Puppy and this last week has been fairly quiet work wise so I have dedicated a couple of full days to working on her.1. the corner post of the head compartment had seperated from the aft bulhead on the head compartment.. I muscled it back into place and used gorrilla glue and slightly longer and bigger screws to put it back together. It looks nice.. also the floor boards for under the table now fit as the post is back where it is supposed to be at the floor. It had been keeping the two floor boards from sitting beside each other by about a 1/8th of an inch.
2. The battery has spilled acid for the second time. 🙁 Out goes the old battery and after a thourgh wash of the area with about a gallon of water mixed with a box of baking soda to neutralize the acid.. i could still hear acid fizzing with the baking soda under the battery compartment.. I finally figured out that the small area under the battery compartment is totally non accessable.. I went and got a 6″ inch inspection port and cut a hole in the floor of the compartement and installed the inspection hatch.. also dumped two more boxes of baking soda in till fizzing stopped then got all the water out and dried compartment with sponge. Then installed new Gel battery.. eventually I will move battery to port side of boat under the sette just forward of the galley area.. this should better balance the weight distribution in the boat.
3. Installed contest 101 compass.
4. While I was working on battery I also took out the battery switch and replaced it with a 2 battery switch. with settings for Off/1/2/both. This is so if I get a electric trolling motor I will already be set up to handle two batterys to power it.
5. Installed electrical fitting on deck just forward of mast for masthead lights.. The old fitting was just a pass the wires through a supposedly waterproof seal… it wasn’t.. new fitting is a two piece deal that can be unscrewed for when mast is taken down.. old fitting you had to cut the wires everytime you took mast down.
6. serviced both cabin top winches.. the starboard one had gotten to where it did not want to turn… they ended up being very simple devices.. cleaned them with wd40 and papper towels. they now spin like a champ… this should fix the sticky feeling that we were getting raising the main the last foot or so. I have since been told not to use wd40 but to re-lube the cleaned winches with a silicone based lubricant. I will do that soon.
7. I spent a while with a razor blade getting up old varnish that had spilled on the jellcoat in the cockpit from someone painting the wood rails there and beside the hatch.
8. cleaned up the inside of the boat and wiped it down.. got most of the tools out and filled the stove with alcohol.
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