Maintenance and upgrades, 2011

Jan 11-16 - Took Alizee to the Sevens Seas Marina, Port Orange, where John Marrocco, Mobile Marine Repairs, did a bottom job with Trinidad 75 antifouling paint.  Did a nice job, including cleaning, sanding and painting the prop as well and install a new collar zinc on the shaft and a DP2 plate zinc on the port stern hull.  I also had him replace a damaged area of the 1" stainless hollow back rub rail on the starboard side.   Could have gotten the boat back on Saturday afternoon except that the tides were too low to launch her, so went over early Sunday and helped the crew launched her.  We had to disconnect the forestay roller furler to get her on the travel lift, and we had a bit of a time getting it back in place.  Highly recommend the yard and the staff, and Morrocco is a really careful and thorough sailboat mechanic ... and a surveyor as well.

Feb 16-Mar 3 - Preparing Alizee for a month-long cruise to Tampa Bay.  I hired our boat neighbor Jon Amsden in December to clean and polish the hull and topsides, and he's continued helping me by stripping the old Cetak finish off the teak eyebrows and cap rails and giving them a sanding.  We're going to leave them unfinished for now, perhaps varnishing them once we're in St. Petersburg.
    Meantime, we've cleaned the interior, inspected and checked out the winches, rigging, windlass and other tackle topside, launched the dinghy and made sure the dinghy motor runs properly, shopped for provisions and stowed them properly on board, and done other numerous little things to get Alizee ready to depart.
    Feb 16 - Had J.R. Gassett at Cutter Doc Mobile Marine Service in New Smyna Beach do a full service on Alizee's Yanmar diesel - valve adjustment, new impeller, fuel and oil filters.  I usually do the oil and filter changes, but I believe it's a good idea to have someone who really knows the engine tune it up annually. They usually do a better job on valve adjustments and such than I can accomplish, and often find little things I'd miss.  J.R., for example, found some potential clogging in the air filter that I certainly didn't see until it was pointed out.
    Feb 26-28 - Wes Malone of Pro-Boat pulled out macerator, took it into the shop and replaced the impeller.  Reinstalled it and it worked fine ... for a couple of minutes, then stopped pumping.  Took it out again and into the shop, thinking perhaps the impeller was faulty.  The impeller was faulty and a second new one was installed. It appears to be working fine on installation.
    Mar 1 - Bottom cleaning by Pro-Boat and fuel polished by Cutter Doc Mobile Marine.

Mar 22 - Repaired roller furling forestay with new pinion at foot.  The cotter pin had failed and the pinion fell out while crossing from Key West to Fort Meyers Beach.  No serious damage appears to have been done to the furler.  Work completed by Olsen Marine Services, Fort Meyers Beach, in just about one hour.

6 Apr - Bottom cleaning by Sunfish Marine.

20 Apr - Rob Mundell, True North Sails, inspected the forestay connections at the mast top and the roller furling system.  No problems observed.

21 Apr - Cleaned out and remounted exterior fixture on head vent, which had become so corroded it did not vent anything.  Replaced a leaking half inch fresh water hose under the galley sink.  Changed the oil and filter on the engine at 114.1 hours of service.  Total engine hours: 2397.7.

28-29 Apr - General work days on Alizee, drying out and flaking sails and covering them, a thorough cleaning below decks, replacing a couple of dock lines, repairing some bad cracks on the Bottomsiders and cleaning all the stainless steel with a new brush-on, wash-off product called Spotless Stainless.  This is an excellent product and it works exactly as advertised!

29 Apr - Replaced the coaxial cable running from the antenna to the Sirius Weather system unit.  A nick in the cable probably caused by a fish holder cutting the cable covering, caused a permanent signal failure.  It was a bit of a job pulling a replacement cable, but working together Ron of Everafter Marine and I managed to get it done.  He also made some adjustments to my ST6000 autopilot.

31 May-1 Jun - Washed down and generally cleaned boat after five days sailing and on the hook. Repaired SSB antenna with a new splice in the antenna line and replaced the antenna tie-down cleat with a new one.
    Arranged with Jeff Grant, Ohana Sailing Services, to complete stripping the old Cetol off the exterior teak and finish preparing the teak for varnishing.  Also talked with him and with Ron Bruhn, Sunfish Sailing, about a waxing and washing maintenance program.  Finally, drove over to Salt Creek boatyard and talked with Jim Bradford about repairing the 1/2" round stainless along the starboard caprail and repairing a serious dent in the boom.  Will arrange to take Alizee to a slip at the yard later this month.  Flushed out water maker.

27 Jun-28 Jun - Removed Genoa and staysail and delivered to Keith Donaldson at Advanced Sails to replace sunbrella along the sail leach of each.  Took the dinghy down from the davits and took it round into Salt Creek and put it in dry storage for the next three or four months of hurricane season.  Finalized deal with Jeff Grant to work on the teak and wax and polish Alizee over the next month or so.  Flushed out water maker.

22-23 Jul - Jeff Grant completed full wash down, waxing and polishing.  Flushed water-maker.

22-23 Aug - Hurricane preparation for possibility of Hurricane Irene.  Doubled all lines, added lines on port side, supported topping lift with mainsail halyard, added two fenders to starboard side, put Jacob's Ladder on mainsail, opened up dodger window and cleaned and took in seat cushions.  Flushed water-maker.

14-17 Oct - Picked up sails from Advanced sails and put them up.  Removed storm lines, picked up dinghy from storage and raised on davits, cleaned lockers fore and aft, filled forward water tank, cleaned out food lockers (bugs in dry locker), picked up CP for head at West Marine, filled spare propane tank, cleaned and vacuumed interior, defrosted refrigerator/freezer, cleaned BBQ, had new zipper installed on binnacle canvas cover at Lippincott Canvas in St. Pete, washed down topsides.

3-13 Oct - Took hatch cover screens home to strip old varnish on side exposed to the sun and apply four coats Epifanes satin varnish.  Returned them to boat for cruise on 14 Oct.


24-28 Oct - Jeff Grant worked on stripping old Cetol off exterior teak.

7 Nov - End of ten-day cruise.  Replaced filter element on Seagull IV fresh water filter, added quart of oil to engine (total hours = 2423.2; hours since last oil change = 43.6), thoroughly washed down boat. 

8-19 Nov - Took hatch cover screens home and applied three more coats of varnish.  Cut, sanded, glued and varnished cockpit table support pieces.

26-27 Nov - Cleaned the AC sea strainer.  Rebuilt PHRKIIC Raritan head.  Choker valve and flapper valve completely gone and clogged with lime.  In process lime residue was sucked through shower sump line, clogging both the strainer and the line.  Next day spent a couple of hours disassembling, cleaning and reassembling the shower sump line and strainer.

28 Nov - Met with Erik Hausch, Sailor's Wharf boat yard manager, and went of list of items needing repair and inspection on Alizee and arranged to take boat in on 14 Dec.  I'm thinking of this as the 90,000 mile maintenance, and items on the list include:
  1. Repair boom or replace.  The existing spar is 15.75 feet long.
  2. Locate and repair leaks on starboard chainplate(s).  Focus on the forward chainplate which probably needs resetting and sealing.
  3. Replace 1/2" SS 1/2-round guard on forward portion of caprail from chainplate to bow.  Also, as part of this, extract screws in caprail with heads broken off.  Patch the teak cap rail if possible.
  4. Replace the damaged chainplate aluminum caps (2 on the starboard side; 1 on the port)
  5. Service all winches.
  6. Replace sanitation hoses (as needed) and vent hose and vent hardware if needed.
  7. Repair macerator, repositioning if necessary.
  8. Replace fresh water hoses.  Replace outside shower head.
  9. Repair fresh water pump and/or accumulator.
10. Repair inverter.
11. Touch up hull on starboard side and port stern with Awlgrip G 5002 (Flag Blue).
12. Inspect standing rigging and running rigging, and recommend needed replacements.
13. Put new bearings in KISS wind generator.
14. Repair/replace SS cage around bow navigation lights.
15. Tidy up the mast seal.
16. Inspect and lubricate steering cables.
17. Inspect engine shaft and adjust stuffing box.

18. Do a general survey of mechanical parts, thru-hulls, etc. and recommend any needed repairs or replacements.

19. Have Advanced Sails inspect and make any minor repairs to main sail while the boom's being repaired.

29-30 Nov - Jeff Grant finished stripping old Cetol off exterior teak.  After Alizee is out of the boat yard, we'll sand and varnish ... sometime in early 2012.

1 Dec - Removed cockpit table and cup holder and took home to renew varnish and install table support pieces.

14 Dec - Jeff Grant and I took Alizee into Sailor's Wharf boat yard.  See 2012 maintenance record for work completed.