Disassembly And Refit Plans

by John October 12, 2004
Phyllis in the storage room where we stored all the stuff we took off aluminum expedition sailboat Morgan's Cloud during the refit.

It all started with six weeks of intense work last June stripping the deck for painting.  Every cleat, every track, every fitting and every hatch came off and slowly a 10’x20’ storage unit filled with boat bits.

Reassembly

by Phyllis February 27, 2005
Aluminum expedition sailboat Morgan's Cloud exits the spray shop in the travellift at Billings Diesel & Marine with a new coat of white Awlgrip.

I am writing this while looking out the window of our rental house in Maine, admiring another gorgeous sunset over the beautiful waters of Penobscot Bay. There is about two inches of snow on the ground and on as much of the rocks as stick up above the water at high tide. The window I [...]

McMaster-Carr

by Phyllis May 18, 2007
Some hard-to-find bits that we found at McMaster-Carr.

During this last refit, we had custom wood bezels with embedded helicoils built to fit permanently around the cabin ports (we’ll discuss these further in our Refit Series). During cold weather, we screw Plexiglas covers to the bezels and voila…no condensation! However, after installing them we realized that the little chains with small bars at [...]

Death By A Thousand Details

by John May 18, 2007

Over the last 35 years of offshore boat ownership (there were dinghies before that) I have done four major refits and a complete rebuild—I’m beginning to think that this may be seriously sick behavior. But, be that as it may, at this point in the process, with the launch date looming large, we have entered [...]

It Takes Guts To Own A Wooden Boat

by John May 19, 2007
Replacing the horn timber on a wooden sailboat.

Our neighbour here in Down East Maine, where we have been refitting Morgan’s Cloud for the last three winters, is Jeff: lobsterman, talented photographer, Persian carpet dealer and, for the last two years, wooden sailboat owner.

Tops In Quality

by Phyllis November 1, 2007

Over the years that we have owned Morgan’s Cloud, there have been many custom stainless steel items that we have had fabricated by Tops in Quality: cabintop handrails, liferaft cradle, lifeline stanchions, etc.

Loctite

by Phyllis January 1, 2008

Vibration and movement are always present on a boat at sea and can easily loosen screws. To avert the substantial problems that even a single backed-out screw can cause, we use Loctite thread lock fluid. Use Blue if you want to undo it easily, Red if you want to work at it and Green if [...]

Plexus

by John February 1, 2008
The manufacturer provides several automatic mixing dispensers.

It used to be that when we wanted to attach something to our aluminum hull we had it welded. This requires special equipment and a skilled operator, not to speak of all the attendant mess and paint damage. Not anymore, we now use Plexus.

Tef-Gel

by Phyllis March 1, 2008

Maintaining an aluminum boat has made us especially paranoid about making sure we use an anti-corrosive agent whenever we screw anything to anything else. We have found that Tef-Gel, a teflon product, does the best job. Stainless steel screws back easily out of aluminum even after several years if they’ve been applied with a liberal [...]

Tef-Gel Versus Never-Seez

by John August 1, 2008

Question: I am intrigued by your high praise for Tef-Gel. I have not heard of it before, and in the past I have used ‘anti-seize’ for mooring shackles and installing stainless steel fasteners in aluminum. I am curious about your experience with ‘anti-seize’ versus Tef-Gel. In addition, I have had good luck using BP Blaster [...]

Boat Refit Overview

by John November 18, 2008
Winching in a mast-stored carbon spinnaker pole on aluminum sailboat Morgan's Cloud.

So, what did we do to our beloved Morgan’s Cloud that could possible take four winters of hard labour?

A Top Ten List

by John December 1, 2008
Technicians fitting the spreaders to our new mast during a test rigging at Hall Spars. The clamp is used to apply pressure to slightly compress the mast so that the spreaders can be pinned to a bar that passes through the mast with absolutely no play; which gives you an idea of the precise tolerances this spar is built to.

Here is a top ten list of what we did during the refit that we really like:

Bock Marine Soothes Boatyard Hell

by John June 18, 2009
I was at the top of the mast because we decided that before transiting under the charted 86-foot clearance high voltage cable with our 74-foot mast, it might be a really good idea to remove the 3-foot lightning conductor.

“Boat Yard Hell” is our term of endearment for Morgan’s Cloud’s annual date with a boat lift. There just isn’t much fun to it: living at the top of a 15’ ladder, peeing in a bucket, the morning dash to the toilet building, and of course day after day of boat chores as we try [...]

Laying-Up, A Break From Vigilence

by John November 18, 2009
Aluminum expedition sailboat Morgan's Cloud without her mast, lying alongside at Billings Diesel and Marine, waiting to be hauled.

Phyllis and I just finished laying-up Morgan’s Cloud for the winter at Billings Diesel and Marine in Maine, where we will be replacing the engine. As always, we are sad to move off the boat, which, over the last 18 years, has become more our home than any place else.

We Can’t Do It All

by Phyllis May 15, 2010
Engine room of aluminum expedition sailboat Morgan's Cloud showing new engine blocks and bulkhead.

Part of the engine installation project on Morgan’s Cloud was the fitting of new engine mounts—which meant welding, which meant sparks flew, which meant the paint in the engine room got speckled. (Morgan’s Cloud’s builder did a wonderful job of most things, but painting the bilge in the engine room was not one of his [...]

Priorities In Preparation—Part 1

by John March 24, 2011
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Phyllis and I are in the throes of preparing Morgan’s Cloud for a voyage to the high latitudes this summer. As usual, we are splitting the many tasks—I call this stage of voyage preparation “death by a thousand details”—between us, based on our individual skills. I was once, in the dim and distant past, a [...]

Priorities In Preparation—Part 2

by John March 30, 2011
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In Part 1 I asked the question: “who contributed more to a safe and seamanlike voyage over three days recently, Phyllis who rebuilt the mast winches and went through our medical kit, or me who installed a new AIS transponder and nearly lost his mind doing it?”.

A Great Resource

by John April 4, 2011
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Practical Sailor is the only magazine we still subscribe to. We have been getting their great information on all things boating gear for over 25 years. In that time the magazine has saved us untold amounts of money, not to speak of frustration and wasted time, by helping us to source the best gear available [...]

It’s Painting Time Again

by Colin May 1, 2011
It's hard work keeping a boat looking good

As the old saying goes, you pay for your pleasures, and that’s certainly true when it comes round to the annual re-fit. The many little jobs that were just too awkward afloat, added to the big ones like antifouling, can all back up and lead to a formidable worklist. And to top it all, there’s [...]

Experts Worth Their Weight In Gold

by Colin May 18, 2011
In the slings to antifoul the centreboard

Back afloat at last, and it’s so good to feel Pèlerin swing to the wind and tide at anchor once more, after what seemed an endless winter. The last few weeks in the boatyard have been exhausting, as we’ve slogged through the work getting her ready for the long haul after a series of false [...]