Rudder Layers

I have spent this past week scraping down the layers of paint on the rudder.  It is sort of like going back in time realizing that each layer of bottom paint represented maybe a race season victory with perhaps a couple of summer vacations bouncing around the islands near Ketchikan Alaska.  What I can tell is she has been protected well.

The colors have been many, Black, Blue, Maroon, Blue Barrier coat?, and Silver with sparkles.

The paint is coming off easy and the rudder underneath it all is in great condition.  Hopefully I'm getting an idea of what the bottom is like and I'm hoping for no surprises there.

I need to figure out the haul out plan.  I'm new at this.

Outboard Ready

The outboard cleaned up well.  I removed all of the corrosion and primed with a zinc chromate primer.  Next I painted the primed areas with a match of the outboard paint.  I replaced the spark plugs, the cavitation plate zinc, and the charging fuse which was blown.  I changed the gear oil and lubed all zerk fittings.  I have not started the outboard yet.  I need to buy a fuel tank and some 2 stroke oil and I think I'll be good to go.

The outboard looks new now and the teak mount is close as well.  I hope it runs good.

Power plant, check.

Another post coming soon.

Yamaha Outboard

Since the weather is too cold I'm focusing on work that I can complete in the garage.  I have stripped down the outboard and there is a little corrosion I'm dealing with.  The paint is bubbled up in a few areas and I'm removing the white rust.  I have bought zinc chromate primer and the factory paint to touch it up.  I have not started the outboard yet but it should run great it looks to be in good condition.  The plan is to replace the spark plugs and replace the gear oil, grease all zerks and then paint.  The rest will be left for the spring time.

I'm excited to try this outboard out.  It has a charging output and at eight horses it should push the boat well.
The snow fell this weekend so it was snow angels this morning with Emily.

Emily truly enjoyed the snow this morning.  We ran around the back yard with our two Golden Retrievers Dory and Cutter.  Above a snow angel landed on our deck.

Wednesday this week we enjoyed the parade of the Seahawks through downtown with about 700,000 other fans.  We were able to work our way to the front and get close to all of the players.  Thank you Seahawks for a great season.

-Andrew

Super Bowl Sunday

Go Seahawks!  Today is a day of rest and celebration for the Seahawks!  This has been a great season.  It hasn't lent itself to productive progress on Blizzard on game day but it has been a perfect intermission.

Below is the sill step before and the new teak sill step after.  It appears like this trim piece had been in water for some time.  The old one has made a nice template for the new.  The old shows heavy signs of damage and it's fun replacing the old with new.  The bronze cap rail polished up nice.  I would like to keep most of the original where possible.

Right now the weather is a bit too cold to paint or do any glass work so the projects are limited to what I can do in the garage. I'm using a space heater to heat up the boat but the surface temperature is a bit too cold to do anything but prepwork. This week I hope to work on the outboard.