Deck – the deck is definitely moving along with several more rows of teak being laid down. The cabintop is also starting to be lined with 12 mm teak strips. We can start to visualize the completed deck with the teak outlines of the
Steering Wheel – I’ve been wanting to replace the steering wheel leather wrap for 12 months. I purchased the replacement wrap from HR parts December 2021. I have to say that I have been dreading this project for a couple of reasons; one, I’m not the best sewer, and two, someone installed the original leather with the glue/tape strip on the inside circumference of the wheel where the stitches are. What an enormous pain it has been to remove the old leather and glue/tape! I found the best process was to rip off as much leather material as possible, then heat a 6″ section with my trusty Ace Hardware heat gun, then spray 3M Adhesive Remover (Citrus) while it is hot. The combination of spray and heat seems to break down the glue and leather remnants quite well. Once I removed the leather from the outer rim, I also tortured myself by removing the leather from the spokes.
So we began the leather application process by wrapping the double-sided tape on the CORRECT side of the outer rim. That was the moment I realized something was amiss because the tape that came inside the HR parts kit was not long enough to cover the entire circumference.
Then, I marked the inside of the pre-sewn leather wheel cover with a white fabric pen to help my eyes see the holes while sewing. I stretched the cover over the wheel which had the double-sided tape on it. The tape was stuck to the wheel but I left the protective layer on the outside. The cover was a very tight fit.
Then, with help from my Admiral, we carefully pulled back the outer protective later of the double-sided tape and tried to stretch the leather cover sideways
Something just did not feel right, because once I started the sewing process, it became very clear that this leather cover from HR parts was for the wrong size wheel. The perpendicular circumference of the rim was clearly much larger than the width of the leather cover…by at least 1/2″.
Not more than a few seconds after taking this picture, we literally ripped off the leather cover and carefully peeled the double-sided tape off the outer rim. The last thing I wanted to do is let the double-sided tape really adhere and then have to repeat that removal process with the spray.
We are back to the drawing board on this project. Next call will be with boatleather.com which came highly recommended on the HR forum.
Anchor Chain – This one is simple. Our chain is completely corroded and formed in the shape of a large ball all stuck together in our anchor locker. It was curled up like our dog on the couch; not wanting to move. I picked up another 250 ft of 3/8″ ACCO G-4 HT chain to match our gypsy. We picked this up from Bacon Sails. My first time working with those guys; very cool place.
Generator maintenance – It seems I spend a lot of time with the generator. This time I am doing a little maintenance on the raw water heat exchanger. I flushed it with some Barnacle Blaster using a drill pump. I heated the fluid by running hot water on the outside of the heat exchanger in my kitchen sink while keeping the fluid flowing through my temporary lines. That brough the temperature up a bit and once that happened, there was a lot of corrosion that was removed; the water turned a dark brown.
Windlass maintenance – Having the Windlass off the boat, I decided to kick up more of a mess in the garage by partially disassemblig this unit. It is a Lofrans Project 1500; 24V. It has worked flawlessly, but once it was removed for the teak deck project my curiosity was heightened. I also wanted to know how to remove the gypsy, so off we go!
Still more disassembly to go on this one. Oh well, I just got distracted by all of the winches that still need to be cleaned. Back to work!
The Loxodograph 