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GRAMPIAN LOG

Camping and Working on our Grampian Ketch,

Saturday April 23,

After making a pit stop at Home Depot for hardware to install our frameless windows on our 34 Grampian ketch project boat, Mike and I arrived at Blue Springs Marina around 1800. Our first stop was the marinas restaurant" Crows Nest" where we enjoyed one of their famous burgers and a pitcher of Blue Moon while we discussed the plan for Sunday...

With our hunger and Thirst greatly reduced, we hiked back out to the truck for our gear then out the dock to our project boat where we plan to camp over night and hope to get some things on our repair list done on Sunday.

This is the short list.

1. Install new main cabin windows/dead lights,

2. Install new Trex hatch boards,

3, Install boat numbers,

4, Pressure wash exterior of boat,

After making a quick inspection of the boat and With our gear on board we soon started hunting a place to crash for the night. Mike found a comfortable place in the main cabin and I unrolled my sleeping bag forward in the v-birth.

With both ports and the v-birth hatch open and a cool breeze blowing from the port side, I climbed into my warm sleeping bag and slept like a log.

Sunday, April 24,

My Sunday started around 0700.

I climbed from my sleeping bag then closed all ports and hatches and to knock back the chill of the morning, turned on the little boat heater then made a pot of strong Columbian coffee. By the time the coffee was done Mike was waking up and I handed him a hot steaming cup then we leisurely sat around for a while sipping Java and simply enjoying the beauty and unique joy of waking up on a little yacht on the water.

Fortified by coffee, we soon decided to hike back to the marina restaurant for breakfast Where we --along with our food --enjoyed the early morning cheerful sights, sounds and aromas of a busy
restaurant staff and customers starting their day. We had sausage, bacon, biscuits coffee and juice then back on the boat, we attacked our number one item at the top of our priority list which is
instillation of the new Plexiglass main cabin windows. The old windows were already removed. We first started pairing away the plastic and duck tape that we had over the window to keep out the rain then with a putty knife began to scrape off the old caulking from the port side that was built up inside and out around the window opening.

With that done, we next sanded the area then cleaned then placed a material called "Taco Flexible Trim" around the cut to make the inside look finished.

Next we positioned the brainless Plexiglass in the desired area . The six 1/2 holes were already cut in the Plexiglass. Using the 1/2 holes for a guide we started 1/4 holes for the stainless 1/4 one
inch bolts . While Mike drilled the holes and shoved the bolt in from the outside I placed the washer and nut on the bolt from the inside.

With all the bolts and washers in place Mike stepped back to have a look and commented that the instillation was looking much better than he had imagined. With his phone camera he took photos which I will be sharing.

With the port side finished we jumped on the starboard and repeated the process. In the middle of the starboard instillation a couple of friends Gary and Tommy dropped by for a visit to check on our progress Gary is an electrician and wanted to have a look at our battery charger that we suspect may not be charging.

To test our theory , we attempted to fire the little Volvo. It turned over a couple times and that was all we got out of the batteries. Gary said he would drop by later in the week with a portable charger and see if he could determine the problem with the on board unit. We think it is just a blown fuse. After our friends headed out Mike and I switched our focus back to the window instillation and finished the project around 14:18 which means, minus the thirty minute visit of our friends meant the window installation project took us approximately three and a half hr's.

We have not yet glued everything together. We ran into a small problem with the plan. The hull around the windows is 1/4 in thick . We perches 1/4 in Taco Flexible Trim and there are places on the boat where the fiberglass is thicker than others making the Taco Trim not fit to our liking. We are buying a role of 3/8 Taco Trim so we can see if that will work better. If the 3/8 trim does not work, Plan B is to router a 1/16 groove around the window for the outer lip of the 1/4 Taco trim to fit in.

With the windows bolted in we next turned our attention to the new Trex hatch boards The stern boards fit perfectly but the forward cabin boards need to bee tweaked. We left the stern cabin boards in and because of time restraints decided to do the forward cabin boards later and move on to installing new numbers on the boat. When the boat hull was painted the marina removed the numbers and TWRA has informed us that any boat floating in water must have identifying numbers so we decided replacing the boat numbers had to be a priority. With the new numbers installed, and the hour getting later, we decided to call it a day and began packing up for the trip home. We rolled up our sleeping bags, packed up the duffel bags , locked everything down then tossed everything in a marina cart and headed out the dock and home.

We never seem to get as much done on these trips as we hope to but we got some things on our list done and the project is definitely moving forward. Our thanks to the Gods for another safe , fun and interesting trip to Blue Springs and our great little Grampian Ketch.

Below is the trim we used for the cut.

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Flex Trim - White 3/8" opening 338320 V30-1312W25-1

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We are using Sikaflewx295 to glue the windows in.

Thanks to Ron Breeden