Time seems to just slip on by. I have made some decisions regarding my structural repairs after consulting with the shipwright I mentioned previously and my friend and fellow wooden boat liveaboard (who I've known for going on 50 + years).
The shipwright gave 2 pieces of advice.
1) repair her so as to get her sailing, not necessarily for the next hundred years (use stainless steel bolts instead of silicon bronze) and
2) my initial designed repairs (sister rather than replace) will work for me.
Then, with this in mind, my buddy also suggested that rather than sister the frames, after I remove the rotten wood and fill with marine epoxy putty as I had originally intended, I also add a "gusset" of 3/4" marine plywood on the opposite side of the frame from the floor timbers in the same shape and size as the floor timber, then run my new floor timber to frame to gusset bolts through all three.
Some of these I can repair while in the water and then in October/November 2021 I can haul out, sand the hull, replace the timbers that need the hull screws below the water line removed / replaced, caulk, paint and relaunch. So that's the plan. In the mean time I have plenty to do.
My wind vane at the top of the mast was very old and, I thought needed new sealed bearings, so I went up the mast to remove it. In doing so, I also found that I had an Aqua Signal double bulb light, Anchor on the bottom and Navigation trio on top. It was covered with bird crap and was a mess so I removed it and intended to replace incandescent bulbs with LEDs. When I got down the mast with the wind vane and bulbs replaced, the bulbs didn't light. LEDs can be polarized and with one common ground, I can't rotate them so am going to go back to (new) incandescent bulbs (when I go up to remount the wind vane).
The light lens was terribly scratched/weathered so I cleaned it up with acetone, painted it with West System clear glass resin, and covered the top with carpet tacks set in JB marine Weld epoxy. Go ahead birds, try to crap on my light now! Looks new ( $125 for a new one saved).
I also drilled a hole in the mast at shoulder height (below decks), fished the light cable and wind vane cable through it (they were at ankle height at the mast step) and installed new busses to take all the wiring running down the inside of the mast.
I sent away my wind vane to Signet Marine in Long Beach California and the bad news was, it would have been over $500 to repair it. The good news is, a new one was only about $100 more than the repair so I got a new unit (wind direction vane and wind speed cups) and it is waiting to be installed along with changing out the bulbs again.
So we are in Phoenix, Arizona for a few weeks visiting and will be returning to our boats in California in another week or so in time for the 4th of July. It has been a busy visit with breakfast, lunch and/or dinner with old friends & family. I performed a few times and got to close the show at the Flagstaff Folk Festival patio stage with a 45 min set (instead of the 25 minute set I was allotted) because the performer scheduled before me didn't show. The sound guy was brilliant and I was really happy to have more time after the 2 hour drive to and from Phoenix/Scottsdale to Flagstaff.
