S/V Air Ops

The Adventures of the Sailing Vessel Air Ops, and Her Crew

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Boat Projects

The wonderful thing about Air Ops, is that she has been extremely well-cared for, by her owners of many years. Not only are Dave and Merry great people, they were both very conscientious in her upkeep. Therefore, she has relatively few things she requires, before heading offshore. Off course, she is a boat, and has a new owner….

Internal Lighting

Side project, as I continue Head renovations.

The internal lighting is a mixed bag. However, upon exploration, many of the DC powered lights are from Alpenglow lights out of Eureka, Montana. Alpenglow has an RV heritage, but with an owner who was also a sailor. www.alpenglowlights.com

When these lights fade, it is often because the compact flourescent bulbs (CFL) are nearing their end. Alpenglow has recently changed to LED’s. Of course these are much more energy efficient and will, undoubtedly, outlast me.

But the real impact is …. omg. These quality fixtures, with the new LED’s, kick out so much light!. I can finally see my nav station!

A huge shout out to Christine, at aspenglow, for their amazing product.

Aft Head Renovations

Having basically completed the Forward Head (see below; awaiting lights and medicine cabinet, a bit of trim / sealing left to do, …) I decided to see about the aft head.

I decided to take the sink out, since it was easier to install shut off valves without the sink in the way…. then….
See? This is all I wanted to do – for safety and ease of working on the renovations, BUT….
After the sink, came the fresh water filter system…
Started ripping out the walls.
Discovered good news / bad news..

The material behind the bamboo was, first of all, the 40 year old fabric. However, to my surprise, behind that was NOT solid mahogany (as had been on both forward and aft walls of the forward head), but instead, a 1/8 or 1/16 inch plywood which had areas of wetness and rot. I was able to pick some of it off with my fingers. But not all, of course. Some required the prybar. And behind that — solid fibreglass / resin! This is going to cut down on sanding, aid in waterproofing and overall form a great backing material for the tiles!

Behind the 40 year old fabric — wood, as expected — BUT….
Nasty, hand, crumbling very thin plywood.
However, behind the aft wall material — the expected solid mahogany. Awesome!
Finger slice from rotten plywood
Forward wall with most of the old plywood removed
Aft wall before angle grinder
Note to self — yes, an air nailer is fun and easy, but some poor schmuck is likely to need to remove them at some point, so use restraint (this is 1/10 of the nails removed)
Aft wall half done with angle grinder and metal brush
Ceiling yet to be ground
The Captain needs a shower…..
Aft wall done

For those interested, here is the electric toilet with macerator that will ultimately be installed (laying on the aft bed right now – JF?) … https://www.raritaneng.com/en_US/products/marine-elegance

Aft wall sanded
Tearing out old shelving
Removing old carpeting from inside shelves
More Carpet removal
More shelves to come out
Most things stripped out
Creating spaces for new panel / drawers and shelves
Removing solar powered fan – great idea for the tropics – not so much for open ocean and the rain forest areas – unless you like drips down your neck while using the head….
Back of the carpets
In case you wondered what the aft deck below the mizzen was — 1 inch of balsa sandwhiched between fibreglass
Now this was a really shitty job…
Close up of balsa core
Toilet and Lectra San waste system removed
Yes, that is what it looks like. It smells worse.
Cleaned up, Sanded
Ready for paint
Heat ducts – I have a plan!
New shelf location – i shall put a fold down door above, aft, and a solid mahogany piece forward, for the head heat duct and the remote control for the new electric toilet
Floor / shower base ground down and sanded
First coat on
When the angle grinder with the wire brush decides to debride your hand — fought back. I think I won. 🙂
Bluetooth flushing! And (apparently) toilet paper is allowed
Added a raw water filter before the electric pump
Aft wall tiling – just the edges left to trim
Forward wall tiling – some trim left
The whole area is soooo much brighter, cleaner and neater
Starboard wall – trim left to do
Complete new toilet. Had to replace the polycarbonate base, as this Marine Elegance toilet is slightly longer than the old Raritan model.

Drawer making for the aft head — of course everything must be custom built to fit.

Boards cut on table saw
Kreg jig and drill to make hidden screws
Kreg jib clamped in place and fully drilled
Resulting hole
More claming and drilling
All 4 drilled
Drawer built
Corner right-angle clamps before screwing
Glued and screwed
Top fold down door with hidden European hinges
Closed door. Put a solid block in to mount the heater hose and Bluetooth controlled toilet flush system
Drawers in and most of the bottom fold out wall built
Drawers in action
Almost done.

Painting drawers on deck
New water filter system for redundancy
New taps, filtered water tap and soap dispenser
Drawers work
Fold down euro hinges work
front drawer is bigger
Fold out door to cover bottom systems
Managed to get most leaks stopped
Sanded down teak floor
Added ledge with sealed back stop
Custom ledge needed to provide room for accessories
Diesel heater and A/C now can open properly into the head
Raritan lectrasan sanitation system works again
Raritan bluetooth toilet control
Tiles finishe
Detailed raritan control
New faucet controls, fresh drinking water and soap dispenser
Door cleaned up and re-installed



More to come, as renovations continue….

Forward Head Renovations

We decided to start small. Or relatively so. It was still big. Here is the forward head, pre-renovation:

Forward Head, Before Renovations Started

It was a good head. The Raritan toilet worked well, but needed a rebuild. The bamboo wall panelling was seperating in some locations. The ceiling material was sagging. The plastic sliding doors sometimes popped out. The sink was feeling it’s age.

So the demolition began:

Sink removed
Bamboo paneling came out
Ceiling liner came down
Ceiling coming down
More ceiling
Wall liner behind the bamboo
Original wall liner
Hair dryer went
1984 shelf material
Original carpet-lined shelves had to go
Front wall liner and cabinet face gone
A very small part of the mess

Then the big guns had to come out — angle grinder to remove the mold and old glue from the walls, multi-tool , circular saw, jigsaw, etc. to remove shelves:

Removed shelves around holding tank
Shelves were VERY well glassed in
Aft mahogany wall back behind
More shelf removal
Really came to value the suit, respirator and safety glasses
A bit dusty…
Much measuring was done

After grinding, random orbital sanding, creation of dust, mess and more dust…

Ceiling paint going on
Back wall painted and tile going up, new cabinet framing going up

Of course it is a boat, so there are no straight edges. And the top shelf needed to be closed in and the boat had to be modified to match the new shelves. So we cut backing material, then used fibreglass, then bondo, then fine material to fill in…

Garry helping with fibreglass
And more fibreglass
Top left is the area we needed to bring out flush with the top cabinet shelf
Messy job
Fibreglass done
Bondo over fibreglass to smooth it out
Sanded bondo
More smoothing required
Final fine material going on

Buy mahogany, prep, prep more, prep again….

Matching the new mahogany to the original vent mahogany
Custom made bottom planks to accommodate wiring and plumbing
Bare wood before urethane
3 coats with 220 grit sanding in between
LOVE these tools – hinge jig from Kreg
Door fronts coming together

And now you can start to see the master plan coming together (of course the master plan changed 5 times as we had to adapt….)

Base installed
Framing done
Door access to plumbing
Doors installed
Drawer building at home
Some drawers in
Drawer work
Handles on
Almost finished
Top shelf door in, cleaned out. DONE with cupboards
Trim finished and installed
Toilet out, floor repainted
New shelf, with towel rack, protecting toilet paper.
New TP holder
Medicine cabinet / mirror added, side shelf fastened down
Grab bar / towel rack added
Forward head is completed

This is just a list, for so I don’t forget what we did.

AIS

Iridium Go / Predict Wind

Main Halyard

Radar Repair

Watermaker Repair

Engine Overheating / Losing Coolant / Hot Water System

Refrigeration System Issues

Belts

Galley Table

Captain’s Chair

Main sail guide

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Closing DayDecember 8, 2020
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