Restoration Log,

Katarina

Page 4

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One day a bad thing happened.  Seventy mile per hour winds, a wooden hoop shed,  an open south-facing field spells bad mix.  It came down at 4 am as I watched from my bedroom window!  Bad thing.  Off to "Shelter King" I go.   Luck was with me,  a 40' X 14 X 18 hoop shed on sale!   I put it up solo.  Just in case you think no one wants to work with me, its just not so,  I guess all my friend were very "busy those days." even when I changed the days I needed help.  Here is a suggestion: do not put up a 40ft hoop shed by yourself if you value your back, arms, head, and abdomen (odd bulges after lifting cover) ---five more days of "vacation."  Shed is very stable and has taken winds of similar velocity since with little worries!!

During March and April, I dropped the ballast keel to replace the keel bolts.  This was a serious project to do alone.  It took me seven straight ten-hour days to drop it.  By hammering with a 12 lbs. sledge and wedging between the keel and ballast, I opened a gap large enough to saws-all the bolts off (each bolt was wrought iron and took 30 - 40 mins to cut and two blades).  Finally I dropped it and pulled it out from under the boat with a UMIMOG 4x4 truck.  The ballast was more than 6000lbs of rust encrusted steel.  I  began to scrape the rust off.  Clearly no fun at all, however I did notice how much rust can off the ballast when I pulled it from under the boat and across the driveway.  With this in mind  I hooked it to my UNIMOG again and pulled it up and down the gravel driveway for a few hours!!!  This got off more than 60% of the rust and the rest I attached with a needle hammer rented from a rent-all place.  So this rust thing took 5 more days and countless after work beers (funny thing, my friends would show up just about this time).  All told I put in more than 120 hours, ten gallons diesel fuel and 32 beers into the effort (AH VACATIONS!).  Still I spent three additional days painting the ballast with Interlux etching primmer, primmer, sealer and primmer, etc.  Then I fared out the missing chunks, etc with epoxy, primed, and painted again.  I know, your asking yourself why I did not just cast a new lead keel?  Not knowing the sailing qualities of the boat and never having seen her in the water, I though it "not a good idea."  I did have a sneaky suspicion she would be weatherly on the helm due to a very short bowsprit (4.5 feet) on a 34-foot boat with a 30-foot main boom and Gaff Cutter to boot.  Without careful consideration, her handling could be changed drastically and I want to do that little by little when she is in the water.
I took the old keel bolts to Deep River Machining in Deep River CT and ordered new ones in Aquamet Stainless steel (1 ½ diameter) on a suggestion from Walt Ansel.  He had just put in new keel bolt into an Atkin's Eric that month.  Always great to have someone who knows what they are doing do the research just  before you need it!