Boat Jobs You Don't want to do Again

[Beelzebub]

I could have used one of them, but I haven't got one, and all my (30-40 or so) kids are %0+ miles away.

You have 30-40 kids????

Are you the Prime Minister? ?

Edit: I have done all the cramped locker stuff and it isn't fun. I've also done it in fishing boat engine rooms and that's worse.

 

[mrming]

I have a long list of these, but the worst ever was:

• Bought a small swing keel Beneteau to race
• Bottom was hard to access and had layers of old antifouling
• A contractor was coming to our club to do blasting so thought it would be a great chance to get back to gelcoat
• The blaster encountered a layer of old epoxy / gel shield type stuff, half of which fell off, and the other half was so stuck on he was scared to remove it for fear of taking the gelcoat with it
• I then spent 3 weekends underneath it with a random orbital sander and a mask, pushing it as hard as I could into the hull to get it off
• Finally I filled and re-faired the entire bottom before dropping the keel out and building a sturdy frame to hang the boat from so it could be copper coated underneath with minimal props
• Got a great finish but by the time I got the keel faired and back in 8 weekends later, I never wanted to see a job like that again!

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

Digging a hole in the ground to drop my rudder with its very long stock.

 

[PetiteFleur]

Cleaning off the rust on the keel - just started, done 1/3 approximately, then rust proofed - took 4 hrs and I was knackered and ached all over. Best tool for the job is the Tercoo Blaster, not cheap, got filthy but does it well.

 

[Poignard]

I suppose it would be fitting a new cylinder liner to a BUKH engine, without lifting the engine out, in mid-winter, whilst living on board in a boatyard, and having a bad dose of diarrhea, with the nearest heads being 100 yards away, accessible through a gate and a door, both having combination locks.

I won't be doing that again.

 

[ChromeDome]

I suppose it would be fitting a new cylinder liner to a BUKH engine, without lifting the engine out, in mid-winter, whilst living on board in a boatyard, and having a bad dose of diarrhea, with the nearest heads being 100 yards away, accessible through a gate and a door, both having combination locks.

I won't be doing that again.

Oh, sh!t..

 

[steveeasy]

How about not having to varnish ever again. not because the brushing bit is hard but the sanding bit is hell.

Steveeasy

 

[Blueboatman]

TWO combis to the loo access ooer!
4321 ooops

 

[Poignard]

How about not having to varnish ever again. not because the brushing bit is hard but the sanding bit is hell.

Steveeasy

Try Epifanes RapidCoat or ClearCoat. The lazy man's friend!

 

[Daydream believer]

Working for years to save the cash to pay for the new boat. The rest is comparatively easy.

 

[jamie N]

Old engine with port side throttle and gearchange out, newer& bigger old engine, with stbd side throttle and gearchange in, onshore in the highlands, during winter.

 

[geem]

The most recent nasty job was stripping out the stator and rotor on the diesel genset so we could get it to a repair shop. The rotor is heavy but the stator is very heavy. Just moving the stator a few yards is a real effort when it's 28degC. We loaded them in the dinghy in a pair of heavyweight bucket bags then took them on the bus. Fortunately the bus goes past the rewind shop. We got them back a few days later by doing the reverse trip on the bus. We refitted the rotor and stator but the fault wasn't fixed. We had to strip it all again and get back on the bus. Turns out they had shorted one of the new varistors they had fitted. Their fault. Back on the bloody bus. Now all working but stripped out and refitted twice!

 

[BobnLesley]

Yesterday's one was refitting the windlass on my own.

It's a vertical shaft job, with the motor and gearbox below the deck, so I had to align the shaft and persuade it that it really does want to go in, then lift it further...

Next time get yourself a copy of Gulliver's Travels.
When doing similar I eventually cut two timbers to span the anchor locker, sat a bit of ply on top of those and lifted the motor onto that. Phase two was to get a heap of books and lifting each end of the motor in turn, I slotted those in one by one beneath the motor until it reached almost the right level, then tweaked it exactly with some smaller/slim volumes; it was a copy of G's Travels that proved perfect to finalise the positioning

 

[Snoopy463]

Complete antifoul removal.

Last time was 6 years ago and I swore never ever to do it again.

Hence, to change to a different antifoul regime 2 years ago, I had it dry-ice blasted ?

+1 for that. Took all of the antifoul off a 40 year old boat with a mixture of chemical stripper (home made and commercial), wet sanding and a 1” chisel - the chisel was the best, in preparation for Coppercoating. Keel was easy with a Tercco. A year later someone at the Club found a cheap local sandblaster. Damn! Digging the hole for rudder renovation was an experience too.

 

[bobgarrett]

Yesterday's one was refitting the windlass on my own.

It's a vertical shaft job, with the motor and gearbox below the deck, so I had to align the shaft and persuade it that it really does want to go in, then lift it further to get the nuts on the bolts, This involved reaching into the chain locker (cat, so it's shallow - no chance of climbing in) and lifting with one hand. while I fiddle with the other. Not going to happen - the motor assembly is around 15kg, and I'm not going to win World's Strongest Man any day soon. I eventually managed to do it with wood blocks and a lever, but what I nightmare. Hindsight's a wonderful thing - I should have cleaned up the threads on the studs with a die; it would have meant I could wind the nuts on by hand instead of having to use a spanner 1/6-1/3 of a turn at a time.

Too knackered to do the wiring afterwards, but that'll be simple by comparison.

What's your nightmare job?

But could you get one off again? If so, come on down!

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Try Epifanes RapidCoat or ClearCoat. The lazy man's friend!

Does that work for diarrhoea

 

[BobnLesley]

Removing the Monitor windvane blade and coupling mid-Pacific is the one job I wouldn't repeat at any price. A bent/twisted coupling catch required me to launch the dinghy and release the connection pin from there. We waited three days for 'flat' weather but even then I found myself rolling in >3m seas. Immediately gashing a hand on the broken connection tube wasn't helpful, the forehead gash bled more and left the bigger scar but I was almost finished by then; fortunate as that meant that the concussion which came with it didn't really kick in until I was back in the cockpit. Being Glasgow kissed by a windvane that has seven tonnes of boat attached to it is not to be recommended. Lesley pretty much single handed with the dinghy dragging off the stern for the next 30 hours and it was a further twenty four before I was fit enough to reattach the blade; that fortunately could be done over the transom, I wouldn't have got into the dinghy again.

 

[BobnLesley]

...unable to reach to start the threads when fitting the new one... I asked the parents who sent the ten year old over who was able to get in the space and start the nuts!

Back when we sailed in the Med we had a good friend who was very popular around the anchorages: A lady who was very competent mechanically, surprisingly strong, a one time climber and pot-holer who was about 5' 2" tall and weighed <8 stone; she saved an awful lot of people the cost of a haul outs and/or engine removals

 

[LittleSister]

Try Epifanes RapidCoat or ClearCoat. The lazy man's friend!

Presumably you mean Epiphanes RapidCoat and RapidClear?

 

[Poignard]

Presumably you mean Epiphanes RapidCoat and RapidClear?

Sorry, yes. That's what I meant.