Your not alone in the realm of boat projects.
We started stripping the Armada finish on Shamrock, don't know what happened, applied it by the book and it failed in 6 months. We started stripping back on Memorial Day, thus far, only managed to get a sealer coat on a week ago.
While working on the varnish, I looked up and remembered the Windex(wind indicator) had one broken arm, thought it would hurt to take a little time to replace it? The following week, I went up the mast to replace the windex, on the way down I accidentaly grabbed the mast head tri-color and heard a slight crunch...I looked up and noticed the lens on the anchor light (clear) portion of the tri-color was cracked and crazed, so I put that on my do list.
Continuing down the mast I brushed my rump on the Blipper (radar reflector) and heard another crunch, seems it had major UV damage, list item number 2. In talking to a friend, he said he had a new spare Blipper he didn't want, you can have it, problem solved. Not so, they made the new Blipper, same model, 1-1/2" longer, no problem, I'll just move the lower mount, right? While reinstalling the Blipper mount stand-off snapped off two screws, time to go on vacation....
Back from vacation.
Back up the mast I go, thank God for folding mast steps. Turns out only the lens was bad on the tri-color, replaced it and all works well. Oops!, grabbed the Windex mount by mistake and it snaps off (corrosion), luckly, I cought the new Windex in mid flight, back to the store for a new mount.
Ok, the Windex is repaired and the new tri-color is working fine, removed the broken screws in the Blipper mount, drilled and tapped new mount holes, in go the new screws and we are done.
Ok, let's do a mast lighting check, let's see, tri-color works fine, steaming light and spreader light don't work, what's the problem? Back up the mast we go, no power to the steaming light, better yet no internal parts in the spreader lights, not to mention no bulbs (new boat to us), just 2 wires hanging.
Forespar mast lights are original, ok, let's replace them, naturally, the new Forespar light don't have the same foot print and the old steaming light with 2 wired is now a steaming and foredeck light 3 wires. We ran a new 3 conductor wire to the steaming light, drilled, tapped and mounted all new lights.
Beginning to feel like a pegion standing on a telephone pole wire.
Opened the hatches around the mast, Ahhh! Seems two owners back, got salt water into this area, all wires including the VHF connector sat in salt water. Cut all wires back to clean bare wire, connect all and sealed. It's now midnight, time for a lighting check, all work great. Between the steaming/foredeck light and the two spreader lights, 60 watts, we should be able to midagate some repair costs by renting Shamrock out as a light boat for quid fishermen...
The VHF cable connector was shocking, we just did a radio check last week, came in clear as bell. However, the connector at the base of the mast was corroded nearly in two. Next weeks project.
Varnish, we don't need no stinking varnish...
Boat ownership is certainly a tong and cheek afair.
Best wishes,
Marty & Linda Chin
BCC Shamrock - Alameda, CA.
Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish.