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Week 5 – October 21-26, 2013

 Below is some of what we accomplished this week:

 Dana Lebo and Bill Kennedy, owners of All Points Marine (APM), along with their crew made good progress on the glassing of the top deck extension.

 The top deck form that Randy and I built was PVA primed, waxed and then gel coated.

The gel-coated mold

 A layer of 1-1/2 oz matt went down followed by 2 more layers of 2408 biaxial matt.

 We are using a 50 gal. drum of vinyl ester resin.  If you want to know more detail about resins you can read this:

http://composite.about.com/od/Resins/a/Vinyl-Ester-Vs-Polyester-Resins.htm

  The second layer of 2408 biaxial cloth

 Paul Fredrickson, our consultant, was onboard Starr helping to detail the fiberglass connections.

 Paul Fredrickson, Randy Madison, and Dana Lebo solving problems.

 Paul has been a yacht designer and fiberglass yacht construction expert for many large vessels in the Pacific Northwest, and is a great help with our refit.

 Paul detailing connections

 We progressed in our work on the Deck drains with the inset of 1 1/2 in green thread FRP pipe.

 Randy gluing together the green thread FRP

 1-1/2 inch FRP deck drain inset on the port side

 
We reused the original back rail cap. This involved trimming in some areas and building up in other areas.

 Chris from APM prepping port rail cap.

 We re-attached the rail caps using Pro-Set ADV-276 & ADV-176 adhesive.
http://www.prosetepoxy.com

 One of the workers said that he thought the adhesive was strong enough that we would be able to lift Starr from her railing.

 Setting the rail cap

Randy made up templates for the new stern bulkheads.

 Randy making the bulkhead pattern

The stern is ready for our mold to do the 24 inch extension.

 The transom is ready for the extension

 Dana Lebo is a hard working business owner who works with his guys; Dana takes on the more difficult tasks. While Dana was doing the glassing, others on his crew were either grinding out old cracks or doing masking in preparation for priming and painting.

An Update:

Steve D’Antonio sent me his 20-page report, accompanied by over 500 photos. There are many valuable observations that I will be addressing, and I will be sharing them with you at a later date.

 Sharry and I are off to Ft Lauderdale on Wednesday to attend the boat show.

 Don

Week 5 – October 21-26, 2013
 Below is some of what we accomplished this week:
 Dana Lebo and Bill Kennedy, owners of All Points Marine (APM), along with their crew made good progress on the glassing of the top deck extension.
 The top deck form th…

Week 5 – October 21-26, 2013
 Below is some of what we accomplished this week:
 Dana Lebo and Bill Kennedy, owners of All Points Marine (APM), along with their crew made good progress on the glassing of the top deck extension.
 The top deck form th…

Week 5 – October 21-26, 2013

 Below is some of what we accomplished this week:

 Dana Lebo and Bill Kennedy, owners of All Points Marine (APM), along with their crew made good progress on the glassing of the top deck extension.

 The top deck form that Randy and I built was PVA primed, waxed and then gel coated.

The gel-coated mold

 A layer of 1-1/2 oz matt went down followed by 2 more layers of 2408 biaxial matt.

 We are using a 50 gal. drum of vinyl ester resin.  If you want to know more detail about resins you can read this:

http://composite.about.com/od/Resins/a/Vinyl-Ester-Vs-Polyester-Resins.htm

  The second layer of 2408 biaxial cloth

 Paul Fredrickson, our consultant, was onboard Starr helping to detail the fiberglass connections.

 Paul Fredrickson, Randy Madison, and Dana Lebo solving problems.

 Paul has been a yacht designer and fiberglass yacht construction expert for many large vessels in the Pacific Northwest, and is a great help with our refit.

 Paul detailing connections

 We progressed in our work on the Deck drains with the inset of 1 1/2 in green thread FRP pipe.

 Randy gluing together the green thread FRP

 1-1/2 inch FRP deck drain inset on the port side

 
We reused the original back rail cap. This involved trimming in some areas and building up in other areas.

 Chris from APM prepping port rail cap.

 We re-attached the rail caps using Pro-Set ADV-276 & ADV-176 adhesive.
http://www.prosetepoxy.com

 One of the workers said that he thought the adhesive was strong enough that we would be able to lift Starr from her railing.

 Setting the rail cap

Randy made up templates for the new stern bulkheads.

 Randy making the bulkhead pattern

The stern is ready for our mold to do the 24 inch extension.

 The transom is ready for the extension

 Dana Lebo is a hard working business owner who works with his guys; Dana takes on the more difficult tasks. While Dana was doing the glassing, others on his crew were either grinding out old cracks or doing masking in preparation for priming and painting.

An Update:

Steve D’Antonio sent me his 20-page report, accompanied by over 500 photos. There are many valuable observations that I will be addressing, and I will be sharing them with you at a later date.

 Sharry and I are off to Ft Lauderdale on Wednesday to attend the boat show.

 Don

Commuting to work on StarrOctober 25, 2013
 Ballard is, in my completely biased opinion, the Center Of The Maritime Universe.
 I’ve been commuting to work across the 550 ft. wide Ballard Ship Canal. The canal isnamed the Lake Washington Ship Canal …

Starr Refit Blog #5 – Commuting to work on StarrOctober 25, 2013
 Ballard is, in my completely biased opinion, the Center of the Maritime Universe.
 I’ve been commuting to work across the 550 ft. wide Ballard Ship Canal. The canal is named the Lak…

Starr Refit Blog #5 – Commuting to work on StarrOctober 25, 2013
 Ballard is, in my completely biased opinion, the Center of the Maritime Universe.
 I’ve been commuting to work across the 550 ft. wide Ballard Ship Canal. The canal is named the Lak…

Starr Refit Blog #5 – Commuting to work on Starr
October 25, 2013

 
Ballard is, in my completely biased opinion, the Center of the Maritime Universe.

 I’ve been commuting to work across the 550 ft. wide Ballard Ship Canal. The canal is named the Lake Washington Ship Canal on the NOAH charts, but what do they know?
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=1444

 My commute from SBMC to PacFish is a distance of 1,965 feet.

Welcome to our neighborhood of Ballard
Go to Google Earth and type in the addresss SBMC, Seattle

Home for Sharry and I is at SBMC, on the top floor of a small 3 story building which is 15ft from the edge of the Ballard Ship Canal. We watch every boat or ship that comes and goes from Puget Sound into the Seattle’s inner waterways. 

http://www.SBMC.com

 Starr in front of our home at SBMC

 Leaving home

Tied up at PacFish

This is what I walk past on my way to work on Starr.

 Guys welding on American Eagle

  Starlite ready to head back to Dutch Harbor

 A foggy morning

 Starr is in shed right behind St. Zita

 One of our boats at SBMC is a little tug boat which we call “Tuggy Toot:” Steve Seaton re-designed Tuggy for us about 20 years ago and we got special permission to paint him in the “official” colors of Foss Maritime, green and white, whose towing fleet homeports a mile East of us on the ship canal. If I have heavy or dirty gear to transfer across the canal I use Tuggy. I either load up the tug or load a small barge and push it across.

 Tuggy ready for work

Tuggy is a converted Log Bronc, used in the Logging Industry. It has a Z drive located just below where I stand when running it. The steering is hydraulic with a jog stick, and Tuggy can thrust full power anywhere in a 360 degree radius. It is 14 ft long, with a 7ft beam and 6ft draft. Powered by a Detroit Diesel 3-71, it turns a 24in- 4 blade prop , using a modified Kort nozzle, which gives it a bollard pull of around 3000 pounds. “Little” Tuggy weighs 16,000 LBS.

 Tuggy hauling lumber for top deck extention

 Tuggy with barge

 Tuggy’s GM 3-71 in its stand up engine room

The alternate boat that I use for my commute is a 26 ft Bertram Launch called Westwater; this is commuting with “Class”.

 Westwater

 Before moving to SBMC, we lived in a waterfront home in Medina, a beautiful waterfront community on the edge of Lake Washington 30 minutes from SBMC; Medina is most famous as the location of Bill and Melinda Gates home.  We wouldn’t trade our home here on the ship canal even if Bill Gates offered us his home in Media!

Life is Good in Ballard!

Don

It’s Been a Very Good Week!
Week of October 13-18, 2013
 Last Sunday I brought Starr back across the Ballard Ship Canal to SBMC, from the boathouse where we started our work in preparation to hauling out at Pacific Fishermen Shipyard (PacFish). Oct…

It’s Been a Very Good Week!

Week of October 13-18, 2013

 Last Sunday I brought Starr back across the Ballard Ship Canal to SBMC, from the boathouse where we started our work in preparation to hauling out at Pacific Fishermen Shipyard (PacFish).

 Oct. 12 – We moved from the boathouse at Ballard Mill Marina to SBMC,  all of 500 feet across the canal!

Starr at dock at SBMC

 The back deck “part” (the formwork for the top deck extension)

 
 Oct. 14– We moved to PacFish, another 1000 foot voyage!

 At PacFish, Starr is ready to haul out.

 
Oct. 15 – Starr is hauled out at PacFish

Al Brands, our PacFish Dockmaster

Pacific Fisherman Shipyard is a fishermen owned co-op.  It has a colorful history and a very experienced team, primarily doing wood and steel boat repair.  The Norwester and most of the other “Deadliest Catch” fleet have their work done at PacFish. http://www.pacificfishermen.com

There are 400 shares of ownership in the yard.  If you look on their website at the “Lost Shareholders” names, you would think we were in Norway; that’s why some call Ballard “Little Norway”.

 Starr Blocked up

 Starr’s new home for the next few months

 Oct. 16 – We set up a16 ft high scaffold, pulled the twin rudders, trimmed back the lower deck rail flanges, and cut back top deck core to the lower FRP skin.

 The scaffolding is completed

 The rudders are off

 Dave Schmidt pulling prop

 We have had numerous conversations over the last couple of weeks with Steve Seaton, Starr’s original designer, going over the various design options.  Steve has a great eye for the right lines, which is what we have always loved about Starr.

 Steve Seaton at his office in Florida

Oct. 17 – We are emptying the lazerett of the furnace, rudder assembly, and shore power transformers in preparation to cutting out the transom.

Removing Shorepower Transformers and Steering Gear

 I met with Neil Gibbons from Teak Decking Systems in Florida, who was measuring for new teak decks. 

 Neil Gibbons, Teak Decking Systems

 Al Brands, our dock master at PacFish, checking on some details.

 Al Brands

Oct. 18 – Dan Lebo and Bill Kennedy, owners of All Points Marine, are doing the fiberglass work and painting. 

Randy and Dana cut a new top deck drain path into bulwarks.  The new cutout will give us 10 sq. in. of downspout, as compared to our previous 1 sq. in.

 Top deck drain running down Bulwarks

Dana Lebo cutting off the Transom

 We cut off the Transom in preparation for the 2 ft swim step extension. The transom fiberglass measured from ¾ inch to 2 inches in thickness….It is built “hell for stout”.

 Transom sections

Don