My Tanks can't hold water to yours

After removing the galley and dinette furniture, I was finally able to verify what I actually had for tankage on Harmony.  I knew from the design specs of the Westsail 42 that the boat could have 200 gallons of water tankage and 200 gallons of fuel tankage.  However, the survey I had indicated something a bit different.

Since the deck in the galley/dinette area was suffering from both dry rot and weakening from multiple access holes, I needed to remove it entirely.  Fortunately, the decking was originally installed in pieces that could be taken apart.  However, this meant dealing with more stripped screw heads and splintering plywood.

Port Side Aft of Dinette Area Decking

I attacked the aft area of the decking first and that exposed an interesting find.  The much maligned black steel fuel tank was a no show!  Apparently, the prior owner had it the original tank or tanks removed.  Now, if you remember, my survey made mention of a black steel tank.  Hmmm, I was beginning to have grave doubts about both the validity of the survey and the integrity of the surveyor.

Anyway, I was able to chat with Peter, the skilled mechanic from Bardens' Boat Yard who had done a lot of the work on Harmony over the years.  Beth and I had also benefited from Peter's skill on Poetry.  Peter said that Harmony originally had 3 steel or cast iron tanks with a total capacity of 200 gallons.  Sadly these tanks leaked like sieves and the prior owner replace them with a 105 gallon polyethylene tank.

Polyethylene Fuel Tank on Left, Port Water Tank Bay on Right

While I would like to have the 200 gallon fuel capacity, I was happy to be able to avoid the task of cutting out some monstrous steel tank with messy diesel residue.  Given our intended cruising plans and prospective new engine, the 105 gallons should gives us a motoring range between 500 and 600 miles.  This should get us between critical ports.  Besides, Harmony is a sailing vessel and the sails are there for more than decoration, right!?

Now that the diesel tank mystery was solved, I could focus on the water tanks.  These were housed in the forward section of the galley/dinette area.  After ripping up the decking, I found 3 stainless steel tanks secured in 3 bays.  The port and starboard tanks were about 50 gallons and the center tank had 100 gallon capacity.

Forward area of Galley/Dinette - 3 Water Tank Bays - 200 Gallons

However, on closer inspection I discovered that the each of the water tanks had evolved into air tanks!  Each tank had become perforated at the weld points for the baffles.  That was not a good thing!  How did this happen?  Well, I soon found that one of the tanks had not been winterized, meaning that it was full of water!

What happens when water freezes?  Well, it becomes ice and it expands.  Stick a full bottle of water into your freezer and see what happens.  Anyway, the continual freeze/thaw cycles wrecked havoc on the interior baffles and the weld points on the tanks. Damn!  I now needed to remove and replace all three water tanks, and this was not in the original restoration plan.


Center Water Tank - 100 Gallons - ready to lift out of boat

After the efforts to expose the tanks, I ended with a mixed result.  On one hand, I save a heck of lot of work and money by having the fuel tank situation resolved.  But, the removal and replacement of the water tanks added time and cost to our project. Yeah, but its only boat dollars, right?  The silver lining is that we'll have beautiful, strong, and clean NEW water tanks for our voyages with Harmony.  Drink it up!!!

Fair winds and Following Seas!

Hard to Stomach this "Gut-Job"

Well, now that the holding tanks and their associated hoses had been removed without major incident, the next task was to begin the removal of damaged interior.  The main purpose here was to (1) repair the dry rot and other age related damage; and (2) open up the area under the galley/dinette sole to evaluate the condition of the water and fuel tanks.

The Galley on the Starboard Side

The Dinette on the Port Side

The survey had mentioned that the bilge area included a black steel diesel tank that was leaking.  Black steel tanks are similar to the tanks used for domestic heating oil storage.  Certainly not suited for long-term marine use, but usually used for diesel storage because the material was relatively cheap.  I had been told that the tank was "down" in the bilge, and when I poked around with a flash light, I couldn't see any evidence of any tank, which caused me to fear I had to rip our the entire center of the boat!  While I said crap a few times during the removal of the holding tanks, this was a resounding crap!

I knew there was very visible evidence of dry rot in the galley by the refrigerator/freezer.  Why?  Well, when I stepped on the teak an holly sole in that area I fell through the floor onto a water tank.  Damn!  OK, its only TEAK at $32 per board foot:  no problem - nothing a few boat dollar couldn't fix.

Complete Rotten Sole near Reefer/Freezer on Starboard

So, armed with a few delicate pry bars, screw drills, and other surgical implements I went about removing the interior screw by screw.  You see, I am a frugal New Englander!  I had figured out that I could save a ton of boat dollars by carefully removing every piece, labeling it, and refinishing it.  Brilliant!

That mindset worked until I met the third screw I needed to remove.  Yep, you guessed it:  stripped.  No problem, one eats an elephant one bite at a time.  After the 25th stripped screw, that tasty elephant meat tasted a lot like lima beans to me.  No I didn't say Yak, because that what I do after eating lima beans!!!

My plan to carefully remove the interior and repurpose it disintegrated in buckets of stripped screws, splintered teak, and rotted wood powder.  I was able to save a few pieces to serve as either patterns for new milled components or as blanks out of which to cut wooden plugs.  However disappointed I was about the destruction of the interior, I was getting a great tour of how Harmony was put together.

Galley / Dinette Material after Demolition - Ouch!

This view into the structure of Harmony and a Westsail 42 would be extremely valuable as the plan for rebuilding the interior took shape.  Additionally, I realized how well designed and stoutly built the Westsail 42 had been.  Beyond that, the very logical design would make the rebuilding more straight forward.

Starboard Side Galley sole and what's left of the Navigation Station

So after several hours, days, and weeks, I was finally able to get through the removal of all damaged interior.  I discovered that the dry rot extended into the starboard side of the salon.  This discovery forced me to remove most of the starboard side of the salon and rebuild it.  Furthermore, I needed to gut the navigation station because it, too, had suffered the damage of leaking rainwater.

The demolition involved removing over 1000 screws, the filling of two small dumpsters of rotted teak and plywood, and the stripping of yards of fiberglass tabbing used to secure the cabinets to the hull.  The end result was a very open cabin and relatively easy access to the tanks under the galley/dinette deck.  Getting to them will be covered in another posting.

Port Side with all furniture and fiberglass tabs removed

The biggest thing I noticed once I had removed all of the rotted wood was that the boat no longer had that "old boat" smell.  Yes, one could definitely smell the lingering aroma of diesel oil and antifreeze, but that not so quaint fetid smell of rot had vanished.  Yep, its a wonderful thing!

Fair winds and Following Seas!

Let's "dump" the Holding Tanks!

The boat had been shrink-wrapped for the winter and it was now cold, very cold.  Ah, a perfect time to remove Harmony's holding tanks.  It should be so cold that anything foul should not smell and should not MOVE!  The assumption was correct, except I forgot about antifreeze:  whoops!

Harmony has two heads:  one forward and one aft.  The P.O. (prior owner) had installed holding tanks to service these heads.  Each tank had about a 35 gallon capacity.  Unfortunately, the original design of the boat did not easily accommodate holding tanks and the tanks had to be placed in locations over 10 feet from the heads.  Well, perhaps they were out of the way, but the hoses from the heads were over 10 feet long and wound their way under berths and through other spaces.

"Rat's Nest" of Forward Head Hoses

After living with a holding tank on our last boat, Poetry, we supported the environmental responsibility, even though we know that the majority of estuarine pollution comes from run-off and malfunctioning municipal sewage systems.  None-the-less, it is the law and it does help.  However, we neither liked carrying sewage on the boat nor the loss of valuable storage space.  So, we looked into different ways to handle the necessary black water waste handling issue.

After much research, we realized that abstinence relative to this issue was not an option.  Now, some would suggest that I have been practicing this for most of my life and, as a result, I am full of you know what!  Whatever!  So, we were very impressed with the newer concept of composting toilets for the marine application:  concept is to separate the liquids from the solids and thereby eliminate odors.  Two notable companies make these composting heads, Nature's Head and Air-Head.  The units are relatively aesthetic, easy to operate, and, by all reviews, are really effective.  So, our decision was to install composting heads, and we'll discuss that decision in a later post.

However, I now needed to remove the existing holding tanks.  First I needed to locate them.  OK, the forward head tank was found under the salon sole in a compartment labeled, "Wine Cellar".  Nice, and I'll bet the wine stored there had a smooth finish!  The aft head tank was a mystery, but I found it within the aft seat of the dinette:  I thought this was a fuel tank.

What a lovely space for a holding tank or a wine cellar

Removing these tanks was not as straight forward as one would expect.  The forward tank was very large, had some contents, and needed to be lifted up into the cockpit.  The aft tank was also large, seemingly full of stuff, and encased in the dinette furniture.  Since it was cold, I could wear a protective Tyvec suit, gloves, and respirator.  Ghost busters this was not, but sliming was a real possibility.

Well, I could hear sloshing in the hoses, so I realized I needed to cut them with care.  This I did, but did get a bit of leakage.  I realized with great appreciation that Barden's Boat Yard had done a super job of winterizing these tanks so many years ago, because the leakage was basically antifreeze.

The forward tank was relatively empty, thank God, and relatively easy to lift up into the cockpit.  The hoses came out in pieces and the head unbolted cleanly, as well.  However, the aft tank wouldn't budge.  So, I removed all of the hoses and head cleanly.  I figured I needed to have the yard come in with a pump to remove all of the yuck.

Well, Barden's examined the tank and told me that the tank was, in fact, empty!  It wouldn't move because it was bolted down from underneath.  Well, after removing the furniture, I could finally get it into the cockpit.  However, I found an unexpected surprise!  Now, I had silently dreamed of finding a hidden treasure in the boat, but I was thinking of something like gold bullion or a million dollars.  Well I guess treasure is a relative term, as I found a third holding tank within the dinette furniture.  This tank, although small, was not sealed, but was thankfully empty.  Hmmm, I wonder what that thing call eBay is all about?!

Holding Tanks Removed to the Cockpit - ugggh!

I was able to get this done while it was cold enough to avoid unpleasant odors, and to allow me to wear protective clothing.  I was very glad to have that done, for sure.

Fair Winds and Following Seas!

The fun begins!

Now that all the pleasantries and introductions had been done, we needed to begin the process of restoring Harmony.  We could see in our mind's eye what she would become, but we had a bunch of stuff to fix, which means all sorts of implements of destruction!

During the Fall of 2011, we concentrated on cleaning out Harmony of all the loose material.  It was important to catalog what we had and what we were missing.  We had a beautiful teak wheel, but not much more.  Sadly, we discovered that the classic compass that was on the binnacle when we did our walk through had mysteriously disappeared.  Sad, not because it was irreplaceable, but disappointing because someone who knew the boat was being sold climbed up on Harmony and selectively stole that compass.

Oh well.  Disappointment aside, we'll rationalize it by saying it was probably broken anyway!  And its only a "boat dollar" and that's not much right?  Well, every $1,000 adds up.

Anyway, our plan was to clean out the boat of all loose stuff, take basic interior measurements, catalog areas of concern, and then formulate the plan of restoration.  This initial work took us about a month, after which we began demolition.  Since we needed to rebuild Harmony system by system from the keel up, this demolition promised to be extensive.  However, we would find out that extensive was more extensive than thought.

Our summary plan included (1) a completely new wiring and electrical system including solar and wind power; (2) complete new freshwater plumbing including a water maker; (3) New Heads and sanitation systems; (4) a new diesel and raw water systems; (5) new lights, navigation instruments, and radios; (6) new galley and refrigeration; (7) remodeled furniture; (8) new and improved deck hardware and sail controls; and (9) restored bright work.  Phew, not too much!  Right, the only thing we're not doing is building a new hull and deck!!

Our initial demolition was focused on the galley and dinette area, as we needed to verify the condition of the water and fuel tanks which were housed under this area.  This was also the area in which the dry rot damage was concentrated.  This work took us from late October until early December 2011.  At that point, we had the boat covered with shrink wrap for the winter.

During the winter when it was cold, I planned on removing the boat's two 35 gallon holding tanks and their assorted miles and miles of hoses.  This effort included removing two well used marine heads.  All I can say is that I am glad it was cold so nothing really smelled.  I am also glad that Barden's Boat Yard had done a super job winterizing the boat because all I found in the hoses was antifreeze. Holy Crap, Batman!

However, the holding tanks were another matter!  I even found a third holding tank!  More on that later!

Fair winds and Following Seas!

Harmony - What on Earth did we get ourselves into?

Now that we have begun our blog voyage, it's a good time to introduce the vessel that will be our seaborne home and transport us on our adventures.  Harmony, is a Westsail 42 Ketch that was built in 1976 in Costa Mesa, CA.  The Westsail 42 joins its legendary sister the Westsail 32 as the stuff of dreams and legends when it comes to cruising on a sailboat.


The Westsail 42 was designed by W.I.B. Crealock to be a comfortable world cruising vessel easily handled by 2 people.  There is a bit of Colin Archer in the full keel double ended hull which adds to her nautical beauty and seaworthiness.  The Westsail 42 is a center cockpit vessel offered as either a cutter, cutter ketch, or a cutter yawl.  One of Walter Cronkite's boats was a Westsail 42 yawl.  Harmony is a cutter ketch which offers an easily handled sailplan with an abundance of sail combinations for any cruising situation.  She is a BIG boat weighing in at 31,500 pounds, but she will be stable and strong for us to sail anywhere.

However, our Harmony comes to us through as much coincidence as plan.  In August, 2011, when the opportunity to purchase Harmony appeared we were definitely not considering another boat project.  In fact, the day we looked at Harmony, I had told Beth that I have no idea how I managed our restoration of Poetry, our Pearson Vanguard, and I didn't think I could muster enough energy to do another boat restoration.

Well, someone had other ideas!  Beth met with Fred from Barden's Boatyard in Marion while walking boatswain, Annabelle, and he let her know that Harmony was for sale.  Now, for historical perspective, Beth has loved Harmony since we first saw her in Marion Harbor over 20 years ago.  So it didn't take long for Fred's subtle hook to get set.  Once she told me, I initially said "No Way", but relented and agreed to ONLY a look-see!




Our first look at Harmony

 

Ha! What was I thinking?!  It took all of 5 minutes for Harmony to take me under her spell and I proclaimed, "Yeah, we can do this!".  So, a month later after an extensive survey and valuation, we were the excited owners of Harmony! 

However, we now needed to let go of and sell our beloved Poetry, which is a story for another post.  In the meantime, we developed the restoration plan which we expected to take about 2 years and a several "boat dollars".  The old boat work energy came roaring back.  Fred, ever the friend he has always been to us, counseled me repeatedly to take my time and not get overwhelmed.  He has been so right on that issue, but we'll get to that later.

Water Damage & Dry Rot in the Galley Sole

The survey found that Harmony had a very sound deck and hull with the all important moisture content being very, very, low.  However, the interior of the boat had been significantly damaged by years of rain water intrusion and the galley and salon showed signs of dry rot.  Prior to our entering the scene, the boat had been sold and the buyer had reneged of payments, but not after removing a lot of equipment and furniture:  no engine, radios, or cushions.  However, he did leave the holding tanks!  Again a story for later.

Nav Station looking Forward into Starboard Side Galley

 

Regardless of what we saw, we were glad that the hull and deck were sound, and we considered the rest of the issues to be cosmetic.  Besides, we now owned Harmony, and we knew what she could be!

BUT, as I considered what I had to do, I kept hearing my inner voice saying "What on Earth did we get ourselves into"!

Fair Winds and Following Seas!

A Brave New Beginning

Today starts a another transitional phase for the crew of Harmony.  I have made an important decision to leave a successful career at a fine company in order to achieve the goals we have set, as well to create a better balance in our lives.  As I look for that capstone opportunity, it will be important to remember that the "fun is in the striving not the arriving."

While there is a little bit of trepidation in these first steps, I am none-the-less excited about the adventure that will undoubtedly unfold!  Hmmm, not much different than what we'll experience when we are finally point Harmony's bow seaward.

So, here we are with a new beginning to what we have been striving towards for a long time.  This blog will attempt to document, describe, and share our experiences with Harmony, our Westsail 42 Ketch.  These experiences, which I'll call "voyages" will include accounts of our efforts to restore Harmony into ocean cruising condition, discussions of our considerations and preparations for potential sailing trips, and descriptions of our actual voyages.

Thanks for reading!

Fairwinds and Following Seas!