A little more progress towards a Memorial Day re-launch!

So progress has been a little slow the past few weekends, but I am getting some stuff accomplished. Last weekend I worked in the cave and got the old onboard charger pulled out, one battery tray installed with the first battery in it, and the charger wired into the shore power. This weekend I started straightening the bent tabernacle. It's pretty much straight enough to satisfy me, but I think I can do a little better. I also started building a cradle system for the mast during trailering. The previous owner just lashed the mast to the pulpit rails, but I think I can do something more convenient for a one person mast stepping. This is the rear cradle. My plan was to put a bow roller at the stern so I put the base of the mast at the bow and the top of the mast at the stern and use the forestay, a gin pole and the trailed winch for stepping the mast, but I realized tonight that because of the proximity of the tabernacle to the companionway hatch, I think I'll need to step it the other direction. That means the roller goes at the bow as does the top of the mast. The problem that I now face is that I don't know how to winch the mast from the stern of the boat. I'm not worried, I'll figure something out.

Baby steps

Well it seemed like I worked all day on the boat on Sunday, but it doesn't seem like I accomplished that much. I cleaned a bunch of crud out of the bilges and installed a new bilge pump. Once that was done I dragged in the garden hose and washed the floor down between the settee and the aft berth. I broke a side window trying to measure the thickness of the Plexiglas, and that was about it. When I get home next weekend I should have battery trays and I can pull out the old battery charger and install the battery trays, secure the charger, and wire in the battery selector switch. 

Here is the access cover for the forward bilge. You can see the before cleaning and oiling on the right, after cleaning and oiling on the left.

 

 

Sorry the picture is out of focus. This is shortly after I stared cleaning the floor. The difference is amazing, especially if you go to an earlier post and see the before picture where you can see the whole floor. I'll get better pictures of the whole, clean floor this weekend.

 

We have power!

Today I picked up a battery and a Cabela's Pro 20 amp 2 bank charger. I was a little nervous about hooking power to the system since a previous owner had done some questionable wiring and I didn't know when the last time it had been powered up was. I hesitantly hooked up the battery expecting sparks to fly when I hooked up the negative battery cable, but there wasn't a single spark. This actually made me nervous because I thought there would be some sort of drain some where. I climbed out of the utility cave, went into the cabin and saw a reassuring green light on the electrical control panel next to the 12v master switch. I turned on the cabin lights and they came on,  I turned on the nav lights and the bow lights worked, the stern light didn't. I switched the bilge pump on and it came on. I'm pretty excited right now. I'm not done, it was just a trial run since I need a second battery, I need to secure the batteries and charger, wire the charger into the 120v shorepower system, and test the 120v side. Overall tonight is going down as a success!

A little progress

Ashley did some serious cleaning and got about 1/2 through the cabin and it's cleaning up nicely so far. I pressure washed the stern and the cockpit and it cleaned up pretty well. One thing is apparent though, the fiberglass of the deck and cockpit is stained. The prior owner had the boat parked under a tree for the last 13 years. Leaves and dirt had built up over the years and leached into the deck. I don't think any amount of scrubbing and pressure washing is going to bring the bad spots back to any shade of white.

Starting with a rough boat.

This is how the boat looked when we brought her home on 4/4/15

From the transom looking forward.

 

 Another view of the cockpit. Ashley is standing on one of the hatches for the utility space/ stern anchor locker. There is another hatch in the same place on the starboard side.

Aft berth.

Electrical panel. It has been removed and there are some loose wires behind there.

This is where the old radio was. You can see some water damage to the teak veneer from leaking windows.

The bottom of the companionway steps. Years of dirt and leaves have collected here. It appears that there were teak strips on the floor here, but they have all but disintegrated.

Cracked companionway hatch. Also, you can't see it, but one of the previous owners modified the hatch so there was a skylight with a solar panel underneath. I'm pretty sure that has been leaking too.

Looking forward from the cockpit to the bow. The tabernacle is bent and needs to be replaced, as well as the vent fan behind it, which is broken and leaking water into the cabin.

The display for the Signet depth finder is cracked and I'm guessing the whole unit is damaged by water. I could replace it with a cheaper unit, but it has a unique mounting size and a nicely flush mounted transducer on the bottom of the hull, so I'll probably spend the extra money and replace it with another Signet. Next to it is probably where the old ignition switch was mounted. The opening had wasp nests and leaves in there. Not sure what I'm going to do to repair this yet.

No compass. That's probably the easiest fix on the boat!

In the stern of the boat between the transom and the aft berth, underneath the cockpit is this sort of utility room where the batteries were, the fuel tanks is, and part of the steering mechanism. You can see some sort of battery isolator and what I believe is either a power inverter or something to do with the shore power system. I haven't actually been down there yet to inspect it. It's also where the stern anchor is stored.

Transom. It appears that there was a plate here between the old outboard and the hull. The bottom two holes are above the water line, but pass through the hull into the utility room.

Looking down the companion way into the cabin. Lots of dirt from years of not cleaning it or being used.

 

Looking down into the utility room / stern anchor locker. You can see the fuel tank below my feet.

We certainly have our work cut out for us, but a lot of what it needs is pretty minor. I got a new Honda 9.9 outboard which I will be installing. The hardest part is going to be the mast and figuring out the rigging for it. I've never seen another Lancer, and there are aren't a lot of pictures online to help me figure it out. The tabernacle is bent up and needs to be replaced. The bottom of the mast has been cut at a 45 degree angle on the front edge, probably to facilitate stepping the mast by laying it forward. I want to fold aft though so that I can use the trailer winch and a gin pole to step the mast singlehandedly. I think I am going to replace the tabernacle with a hinge plate, but I'm not sure how I'm going to attach the mast to the plate since it's already been cut and modified.

  This blog is to document our journey with our 1984 Lancer 25 motorsailer sailboat which we purchased on April 4th 2015. We purchased her in a state of disrepair, no motor on her, electrical system in unknown condition, several leaks on the topside including the 4 acrylic cabin windows in settee/ galley area, the vent fan in the roof, a fitting of unknown usage on the roof, and cracked companion way hatch. At first look the upholstery seemed serviceable, but we quickly discovered that the materials for the settee cushions were brittle and disintegrating.

  The owner had indicated that he purchased the boat "a few years ago" with the intentions of fixing her up and using her as a live aboard. He got sick with Leukemia however and had to abandon his dream. Upon getting the paperwork I discovered that it had been more than a few years, he had in fact bought her in 2001, 14 years before. The latest permit sticker on it was 2002, but he sounded like he had never had it on the water. If we go by the sticker then the last time the boat was used was 13 years before. If he never had it on the water, who knows when it was used last.

 

Bringing it home!

The boat makes the Subarban look small!