My Alibi: April 2019

A very intense project to say the least! Alibi turns 30 years old this year. It was time for her chainplates to be inspected and replaced. Planning this began around the first of the year when we contacted Garhauer to see how much lead time was necessary for manufacturing new stainless chainplates for an Island Packet 35. They said four to six weeks and that was exactly what it took.

When we learned that they were about to be shipped, we began to clean out all the storage on the boat. Everything above the seating area of the settee had to be removed. We rented a storage unit for our belongings and the parts of Alibi that had to be removed. It was a good time to “clean house” of things that had accumulated over 10 years of living aboard.

It is very difficult to hear and see your home torn apart. I joked with a friend that there was not enough beer to soften the stress of this project. The sound of hammers and grinders on your beautiful boat is enough to make you climb the walls!! Imagine taking your house down to the bare studs for a remodel job. We persevered and learned exactly how WELL MADE these boats truly are!

Demolition began on what we thought was the “easy” side. The starboard side doesn’t have plumbing and the head. The fellow at Garhauer said he didn’t think there was an easy side. Pretty much everything teak had to come out. There are literally hundreds of stainless steel screws in those cabinets! We started the project with a jar but quickly determined that the length and size was important so they were sorted into a clear plastic divided box.

Once the cabinets are removed, there is a facade wall that covers the hull. This is held in place with screws at the bottom and some small blocks epoxied to the hull up top. Electrical wiring runs just under the headliner along the hull and is held in place with metal straps hooked over the top of that board.

Eventually we figured out which screws had to be removed and which ones could stay in the cabinets. We knew that all those teak plugs were going to have to be removed and then replaced. Darrell was so careful with the veneer pieces since he knew that matching the teak would be really difficult. Probably the walls covering the propane locker gave us the most problems.

And yes, getting the propane hooked back up after removal of the cabinets was a priority. After all, we live aboard full time and we had to have plenty of coffee to get through this project! We were able to stay on the boat for the entire time, thanks to the ingenuity and expertise of Darrell.

With everything removed, you can finally see the chainplates. The next step involves removal of the fiberglass covering them. We tented off the work area with a tarp and set up a shop vacuum to apply negative pressure. This is in addition to having dustless attachments for the power tools used to remove the fiberglass. So begins the noisy and messy part!

The 30 year-old chainplates didn’t want to come out. It took a lot of “persuasion” on Darrell’s part to coax them out. And when they did come out, some of them broke. I guess it was about time they were replaced. Several that didn’t break had cracks and a lot of rust. The holes in the cap rail had to be enlarged a little for the new ones to fit. We used halyards in place of the shrouds to keep tension on the mast.

After grinding the old fiberglass for good adhesion of the new, it was time to suit up in our Tyvek suits. The strands we used were approximately 6 feet in length with 20 strands per bundle and six bundles per chainplate. We used West System epoxy with the slow hardener. Actually, this part was easier than the prep work. In the heat of the Florida Keys, we had almost an hour before the epoxy began to get hard.

Now, with the starboard side installed, caulked and retightened it was time to put that side back together. If you label the pieces and parts as they come out, it’s not too hard to put the cabinets back together. It takes about 45-3/8 inch teak plugs to fill the holes in each half of the project.

We thought that we started on the “easy” side because of the bulkhead and the head being on the port side. We weren’t sure how much we were going to be able to remove in the head. The salon cabinets were relatively straightforward except for the electrical/radio cabinet. We decided to cut the shelf at that juncture instead of removing all that electrical work. We finally decided that the workers at Island Packet wanted that cabinet in the head not to be removed. We were able to get to what we needed by leaving it in place. We just shortened the strands in that area.

The port side plates were in slightly better condition but not much. They also had cracks and broke apart on removal. Once again, we tented off as much of the area as we could and applied negative pressure to minimize dust from grinding fiberglass. I guess some would say I’m a good sport for being able to stand the mess and continue living on the boat the entire time. We did have to go out to eat a lot because most of my galley was shut down for the six weeks.

The aft plates for the back stays are easier to keep the mess at bay but harder to access. These were not in quite as bad shape. After all the strands are looped around the chainplates, a piece of fiberglass cloth is fitted over them. This helps them adhere to the hull. We left an area in the middle of each one to provide drainage for any water intrusion. This seemed to be the problem with the old ones and in a few spots on removal, water drained from the fiberglass.

During this process, we also did some upgrades on aging systems. We installed all new LED lights for the interior. We replaced the faucets and decided that Grohe makes such good quality fixtures that we would use them again. We installed a new solenoid for the propane system. We put in a new hot water heater. We had Garhauer manufacture a new staysail bracket and below deck supporting structures. We intend to check all the bolts and the forestay bracket soon since we’ve seen pictures of a sheared off bolt on another IP.

We lightly sanded the cabin sole and varnished the old flooring. It is time for it to be replaced but we know that the water tank or fuel tank will need replaced as soon as we put in a new teak and holly veneer floor. We plan to go to a boatyard and do bottom paint and pull the mast. The electrical chase in the mast has slipped down and has been unusable since we’ve had the boat. We also want to replace the sheaves at the top of the mast.

As the above paragraphs imply, the list of projects is never ending. When we owned the dive boats, I was happy to report to our seasoned captain and main maintenance guy that we had almost completed our “to-do” list. He said: “Oh no, leave something on the list, otherwise something will break!”