Into the water

It took some time after before the boat went into the water , I had the impression that most of the planks were closed and minimum gaps were left in the boat by June.
The hot summer after June did not help as planks below and above the water line were opening again.

Another issue was to find a suitable name for the boat, since the boat originates from Sweden we came up with the name Lycka, which means luck and still sounds like a ladies name for us Dutch.







































Eventually I waited till the end of August till the boat was put into the water.
The height of the tent which served me over the last few years of restoration was just high enough that the boat could be moved out with a boat lift without taking the whole construction down.

It is always a kind of scary moment when the boat hits the water after being so long on land and have been totally dried out.

But the good news was that it floated directly with a minimum of water ingress between some planks.
This was the first day.

The first 24 hours about 7 liters of water entered the boat and actually I would have more expected if I did not seal some of the hairline openings between some of the planks, where water was coming through, on places where one would not expect this.
Did a test run with the boat the next day to make sure that there were no issues with the engines steering etc. before the boat would be sailed over from the wharf to the Marina and the good news was that boat sailed as expected and no extra water did enter.

Few days later the boat was sailed from the wharf to the Marina where the boat will be for the summer and winter season.
The Marina is at the big lake in the middle of Holland and the wharf is at one of the canals so we needed to go through locks with a height difference of about 18 feet.

From there over the lake to the marina.

After sailing over all did look good with minimum extra leaking of water into the boat, but I think that due to the sailing and movement some settlement of the boat structure took place and the next day we had far more water in the boat even up to almost 30 liters in one day.
Most of this water came through the blocks, Port and starboard, where the propeller shafts supports are mounted onto.
These gaps were closed with the Ettan grease and this stopped the large ingress of the water.
After about two weeks the water ingress is decreased to around 2 liters per 24 hours , which shows that it takes longer then one hopes that a wooden boat will get water tight, all gaps between planks 100% closed.

Below some pictures of the boat at the Marina.

Since the sea trial was done without major issues we decided to make it official and the boat was christened with some champagne which was pored over the bow for good luck. The rest of course consumed by us, my neighbors and my wife and myself.

In a later stage I will follow up with additional blogs with regards to work performed on the boat as well as with pictures of the finished inside.
Not only the inside was restored but also new beds new sitting cushions as well as a new tent was made.
The tent and cushion where made by my neighbor Jan who can do miracles with a sawing machine.

Getting Wet

                                                       Getting Wet

The goal for 2018 is to get the boat in the water.
This might always looks simpler then it actually is, lots of loose ends to be completed which normally always takes longer then one expect.
All wood needs to be sanded from the deck housing and treated again with Owatrol D-2 and in some placed D-1 and D-2.
Deck needs to be washed and checked for any spots which ended-onto the deck by completing other tasks as well as the caulking needs to be checked for agian.
But the biggest challenge is of course when the boat get's wet.
The complete hull has been cleaned inside and protected again with linseed oil and the bilge has been painted.
The planks have dried out over the years and there are big gaps between them, enough to get concerned when the boat get's into the water and how do I keep it afloat.
When the boat does get in this condition in the water it will fill up rather quickly with water resulting that a reasonable pump is required to prevent the boat from sinking.
The risk is that there will be a power outage, pump failure and resulting that the boat still might sink .
Not a pleasant though after all these years of getting it ready.
Thinking outside the box, I decided to fill up the boat with water before I will put it into the water, this way I was hoping that the planks would close again.
Well I was partly successful lots of water poured into the boat which ran out overnight again.
Did this a few times but the gaps would hardly close.
I was then informed about a product called Ettan Grease used by wooden boat builders, it claims that it sticks to anything, indeed it did, difficult to remove from your hands, product is water resistant.

It is  a greasy product which smells like tar , old wooden boat smell, not unpleasant.

The good thing of this product that it can be rather easy pushed between the planks, if the weather is not to cold .
Well after putting this Ettan Grease  between the planks I filled up the boat again, and to my pleasant surprise only some drips of water came out which could be easily closed with some additional Ettan Grease.
Over the time a week to several weeks I could see that the gaps between the planks were closing.

The Ettan grease was pushed out between the planks and could be scraped off the bottom.
It total took around 4 months till all gaps were closed and no water came out of the bottom anymore.
It took the longest time for the hull shaft penetrations to close which can be expected due to the way this penetration is build up from different types of wood in different layers.

Chain Locker

                                                               Chain Locker

This is a fancy word for a box, anchor bin, where the anchor chain and rope will be stored in.
The Storebro is not outfitted with a anchor bin for storing the anchor chain.
When I cleaned the the bottom of the boat out I found a lot of sand and dirt which could potentially block the bilge pumps.
Originally the anchor chain just was dropped in the forward part of the forward cabin ending in the bilge of the boat.
Since I did not think this was a good idea and also to keep the bilge clean  I decided to build a anchor bin which can hold the anchor chain .
The box was made from water resistant multiplex and inside coated with two component epoxy paint , several layers.

The anchor bin was build in such a way that it had sloped walls to guide the chain to the bottom as well as a hatch was made to be able to check and clean the anchor bin.

Two drains were added to be able to drain the water which might enter the anchor bin.

The Anchor bin had to be installed before the forward bulkhead could be fitted , the unit would not fit through the doors. The Anchor bin is connected to the deck beams with special wood thread bolts.

Although not seen on this picture some additional supports have been added to the bottom of the Anchor bin.

The forward bulkhead was temporarily installed to check if the anchor bin could be reached from the forward cabin for cleaning and inspection.

After installation of the anchor bin the position was decided where the anchor chain could go through the deck. Although originally this entrance is slightly to starboard side from the center line I decided to place the entrance in the center line,

To protect the wood of the deck and sub deck from water ingress the hole for the anchor chain was protected with glass-fiber cloth and epoxy 

When finished the deck was de-greased and the wood support for the hawse pipe.

I decided not to place the hawse pipe directly on deck as original but to place it on a wooden support to bring the hawse pipe slightly above the deck this way preventing water entering the anchor bin during a normal rain storm. Further it has now the same installation as the escape hatch on the forward deck 

As usual the wood was screwed temporarily in place and then the deck and wood were taped to prevent that caulking would go over the wood which would result in extra cleaning.

Wooden support was removed and the holes for the screws filled with caulking to prevent water ingress which could result in starting to rot the deck while one will not notice this.

Excess of caulking was removed when the wood was screwed in place and at the same time all tape was removed as well.

The next step was to install the Hawse pipe, which is original and has been re-chromed.

The screws seen in the pictures will be shortened when I will install a stainless steel chain to keep the cap of the Hawse pipe near the deck penetration.

 

Propeller Polishing

                                                    Propeller polishing.

Although a lot of stories from individuals can be found on the internet is not touch the propellers
and especially do not clean or polish them.
One of the explanations is that the propeller can get in unbalance and that it will create damage
to the bearings.
Well in case of the Storebro there are no bearings involved in the propeller shaft except the outer bearing which is lubricated by the surrounding water further it is a free shaft which is connected
by a semi flexible coupling to the engine.
Important is of course that the propeller shaft is in line with the outgoing engine shaft.
A smooth and polished propeller can reduce your fuel cost with 3 to 5 %, and with the
old engines I have every liter/gallon is one.
Further a propeller with oxidation creates a rough surface, which not only can create cavitation
 but also extra noise.
Therefore the decision was taken to clean and polish the propellers.

Although difficult to see from attached picture the surface of the propeller is very rough.

The tools I used for cleaning and polishing the blades is not a metal wire brush or sand paper since I do not want to remove any of the metal of the propeller just the oxidation.

I used for this cleaning nylon brushes which do remove very slowly the oxidation, this is a slow process and takes time but it does remove what needs to be removed in my opinion..

As can be seen from the below picture the propeller is cleaned but still a discoloring can be seen which indicates that I have not polished till the bear metal but just removed the oxidation.

The below picture shows in better detail that the blades are clean and smooth but still some surface roughness can be seen, to remove this one needs to use sand paper or another mechanical means to remove this , which will result in removing metal, what I do not want to do.

At the same time I cleaned the rudders from oxidation no specific reason 

but it looks nice for the picture.

Finished product of two cleaned propellers and rudders.