What did you do to your boat today

Willhound

Spent the last two days cleaning, some wet sanding and applying PoliGlow. Got one side done, arms and back are dead and raining all day, often pretty hard, so taking the day easy and will finish the other side tomorrow. Cleaned up my shore power cord but otherwise sitting in my garage with the door open, a heater on me and drinking beer while staring out at the rain and lurking on the forum. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!

LaRea

Livin' the dream, @Willhound, livin' the dream.

Willhound

Hah! @shawnmjr good one! Would use that on the wife (just going to clean the fridge dear" but she knows me too well!

aero3113

Finally used it! Was a great day with the family.

PickleRick

We may trailer to the lake on Saturday but 3 days on water is no longer in the plans

Ian

You’re optimistic in them knowing that far ahead. Half the time they can’t tell you this afternoon.

PickleRick

We have tropical storm/ depression skirting the south east coast. While im only a 45 min drive from the lake we will be playing it by ear.  The sailboat gave us a bigger covered cockpit and larger cabin where rainy and even stormy weekends on the water were comforable and lazy.  It was also more stable and slept well in choppy water, even when when winds peaked 70mph over valentines weekend about 4 winters ago.

A camper cover for my 235 would give much more usable space but still lacks the cabin space we would like for spending the entire trip onboard in foul weather. I also wouldn't trust a camper top in winds that exceeded 40 mph. Through the spring months  the fronts bring those often during storms.

I've been looking hard at the 2859 bayliner. Adding a camper enclosure should be easy on those and no need to stow a soft top when the thunder storms kick up.  There's a few for sale, I'm trying to get the admiral on board.  Sadly she points out that i already have 2 parts passats and 3 boats(23ft is the smallest) so its a hard sale.

Ian

Today - had a few hours o spare so went down, cleaned drives and painted. In theory she can go in now but the plan is Thursday with the afternoon tide high. Till then, more above rub rail buffing and readiness.

Can’t wait!

Willhound

Just about ready to splash. I've done everything I can do for now. Hull completely stripped/wet sanded, new PoliGlow applied, Admiral steam cleaned all the carpets inside.
Marina is installing new gimbal bearing and re-installing drive tomorrow and then splash tomorrow or day after. Since the drive was off I did a quick paint on the gimbal ring and trim cylinders. I'm pretty happy with this 20 year old, un-bottom painted hull. Plan to keep it that way for as long as I can.




On the way out I snapped a pic of the dredging outfit that is trying to get the mouth of the harbour done by the weekend. The barge with shovel and bin goes out and mucks out the bottom, then comes back in to the edge of the harbour to unload the bin into a small dump truck to be hauled to the back of the property. The last couple of seasons I was stirring up bottom at the mouth of the channel and several sailboats had to leave the marina because they couldn't get out late in the season. Should be about 6 feet of draft all the way around when done.

YYZRC

Looking good!!

LaRea

Six feet!  You're lucky.  Our channel out to the Potomac has six at a good high tide, and two feet at low tide.  We dredged the marina at least to the point where we can run our air conditioners at low tide, but most boats can't go out when it's low.  

Also the channel is uphill, both ways.  

aero3113

Yea, 6 feet is amazing to have!

Willhound

Some of the old sailboats we have are fixed keel.  

Aqua_Aura

Mine is 30' and doesn't get much shallower at the shoreline. Shallowest I have seen is about 8' at low tide at another marina we go to sometimes. I can't imagine being stuck in a marina at low tide. 

aero3113

30 feet! That’s crazy!

Aqua_Aura

Yeah I just kinda thought that was standard. When I first saw the 8-12 feet at another marina we went to I was a little worried. Can't imagine a few feet. 

GMSLITHO

I saw them dredging on the icw once it looked like a big vacuum hose sucking up the sludge and pumping it up on shore 

GMSLITHO

Launched tonight 

boatman37

We have a large barge dredge on the Ohio River year round right by us. It moves around from spot to spot and they have a small aluminum boat they take to shore to swap out workers and get supplies

LaRea

In the shallow parts of the Potomac, the bottom is mostly mud like chocolate pudding.  If your prop touches bottom, it's not going to damage anything.  I routinely go out in two feet of water.  I just pull up the outdrives and go slow until I get out to the channel, and then it's 40-80 feet deep.  

But I do envy marinas with deep water!

aero3113

My marina is the same way, very soft mud and hopefully won’t hurt anything except clog thins up if you suck it in!  Most of the Great South Bay is like this with some shells and pebbles.

Cableguy Greg

I launched my boat tonight. I still have some minor cleaning to do and get my dock box in place. Oh, I almost forgot, load the boat with booze. 

Aqua_Aura

Hey @Cableguy Greg could you possibly measure from the floor to the bottom of the seats in the aft seating area? I am considering buying a table base that would hopefully go low enough that it would be below the seat so I can make an aft cushion and set it on the table. Basically the same concept as the table in the v berth. I am away from my boat for a few weeks. 



Also I just noticed your swim deck light, where did you get it from. Mine has seen better days and LED would be nice as always. 

Cableguy Greg

Aqua_Aura said:

Hey @Cableguy Greg could you possibly measure from the floor to the bottom of the seats in the aft seating area? I am considering buying a table base that would hopefully go low enough that it would be below the seat so I can make an aft cushion and set it on the table. Basically the same concept as the table in the v berth. I am away from my boat for a few weeks. 



Also I just noticed your swim deck light, where did you get it from. Mine has seen better days and LED would be nice as always. 

I will get those measurements for you. The transom light is an Attwood LED model 6556-7. It worked with the same holes and is very bright. 

aero3113

I installed the same light, very nice light.

rasbury

afraid of low water? Don't come to FL! The ICW over here in parts at low tide you can see dry sand on both sides of you and birds standing on it...literally riding in a ditch sometimes....have a big boat coming at you? Hold on cause there is no where to go sometimes...

PickleRick

I don't mind the low waters in Florida, you can see them if you're paying attention. It's the shallows in the muddy/green water that gets me.  

Aqua_Aura

Wowza that's a 3 mile light. I think my anchor light is only 2. I need more like a 3 feet light. 

reneechris14

I also used the Atwood light very happy with it.

aero3113

Is it legal to run at night with the transom light on?