RV Storage and Project Space

This month has been split between working on sails, for my Ulu Sail Project when I could get the Sailrite sewing machine working correctly and other tasks.  Some days were spent on a scaffold wet sanding and buffing out the gel coat on the big Foretravel coach, my next home.

Finally had to ship the sewing machine back to the factory in Indiana for repairs or adjustments; whatever was needed.  I expect it back by late this week and with luck, can finish sewing up the last of the sails.  I have already started the packing process for Maritime Shipping on a pallet.  10 -12 of them will be physically compressed and vacuum packed in each 18" x 24" bundle so they can be boxed and then fit on a standard pallet.

Not yet complete, but the prototype basic 'press' has been built.

An agreement was made with Betty, the garage owner, for storage and future projects.  What I had not totally anticipated was the amount of work necessary to transform the interior building and systems to a safe and workable space.  Joe has been a tremendous help with the process.  We found poor undersized and often poor or incorrect wiring and plumbing problems which were never noticed until I decided to begin by checking for safety issues.

Next, after much thought on options, We realized that the past owner's inclusion of an unnecessary and quite large full bathroom in the back corner of the building actually was going to prevent me from storing the 40' Foretravel inside the building.

 The space was about 1' short minimally and ideally, I needed 2-2.5' space that the bathroom took up.  OK... took out the measuring tape and thought on the problem for a week or so.  Solution was to open up the bathroom like a clam.

 Split it down the middle/fully supported with some new timbers and rotate the outer end of the room around and back to the back wall of the building.

 This gave the space required, left all bathroom systems intact and added uprights then usable on the back of the garage that I can use for supports for sail cloth etc.  All this was done in a way, that makes a reversal of this clam bath back to the original boxed room if and when required.

All sail project material was shifted to one side of the room and now needs to be boxed for shipping.

                   I set up One,  Ulu Main Sail and One Jib on the wall to keep me "focused"!

My uncles burial Flag( he steered a destroyer in the North Atlantic in WW1) has flown over my boat for a decade in various ports in this hemisphere while we cruised and this weekend is displayed over the front door for Memorial Day 2013.

Pete, my Rat Terrier spends much of his time watching TV when I'm inside.

 He will watch every minute of the Dog Whisperer or any other show that has animals of any kind....often even just humans that for some reason catch his interest.

Happy Birthday to me! ;)

"Happy birthday to me....Happy birthday to meeee...... Happy birthday dear ron...........happy birthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeee."  Ya'll can sing along now!  :)

A friend dropped off some balloons an LED flashlight present.  Guys love anything with an LED in it!!

He also dropped of a Birthday card...................

Now, 'he's pushing it!'    :)      I'm 39 today.     Yah.

Foretravel Entry Step Rebuild

Somewhat common on Foretravels a decade old, is the minor problem of the exterior fiberglass of the entry step, detaching itself from the inner metal frame. Mine was close to falling off.

It's caused by water rusting the interior metal frame and breaking the bond to the original adhesive caulk used to keep the fiberglass exterior and metal interior frame attached to one another.

                                                            Step Removed.
It's an easy fix.  I kept gently flexing the exterior fiberglass until, with a razor knife until I could work the last bond to releasing the parts.  Cleaned up both, then wire brushed and sanded the metal frame,  treating it and the frame of the motor home in the area of the hinge with Ospho ( an acid that cleans and preps the metal for paint.)  Next day, painted the metal.

               The framework was cleaned on all surfaces, acid prepped and then painted.
The three 1/8" drain holes in the bottom edge were enlarged to 3/16" and increased to five.

 Also added one drain hole forward and aft at the outer edge, so the step could drain if ever necessary, while the step is down. (that is, if it ever did leak, which it won't!  ;)

            Upper/red is fiberglass portion.    Lower/black is metal section. Ready for re-bonding.

At Lowes, I found non skid material almost the perfect size to resurface the step for safety.

A bit of trimming and fitting produced a nice final project.

The Price of Freedom, Memorial Day 2013

The Price of Freedom   (copied from an email I just rec'd)

Wishing you all a great Memorial Day Weekend.  As you watch this video, take time to reflect on how blessed we are to live in a free country, and without vigilance how easily it could be lost.  Freedom does not come without cost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKqT0-3JV5E&feature=youtube_gdata_player

the Golden Key

Following a You Tube path sent to me by an old High School and Vietnam buddy, Mike out it Oregon, I came across another video I thought worth putting a link to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=KohD6EtWdfo&feature=fvwp

Engine Compartment, Foretravel 2001 U320

I bought what looked like a nice clean coach but then took it further.

Scrubbed with degreaser Day One:










Day 2:    Carefully moved or taped off items to be protected, then applied paint.

 Finished!  Engine in satin and gloss on the rest.

Foretravel Gelcoat Renewal

Exhausted from months of work on my Ulu Sail Project, I was getting depressed too, that I was neglecting the things I needed in my life for future progress.  Luckily for me, I had met a very handy guy Joe, a friend of a friend, who had time on his hands, lots of skills and liked working on vehicles.  Wow, a win/win!  I haven't made him rich but while I've been trying to move forward with the sail project, he is now working on projects I have not had time for.  Again, a win/win.

The glitch was, I did have to spend a LOT of time doing things within projects I handed him, that I felt needed 'my' touch( had many years of custom paint work under my belt).  So, I spent nearly 2 weeks working on the 2001 Foretravel coach augmenting what I had Joe doing.  We had fun, worked hard and accomplished much.  Also a few beers were consumed after work here and there... gosh....   but work continued the next morning/always!  Joe did many things on his own that were done extremely well and of a skill set i did not have.

#1.  I was not happy with the Gel Coat finish(the white within the color scheme of my coach-the darker colors of green and gold were painted on and clear coated-needing very little effort to make gorgeous again.)  Gel Coat can last for a half century or more...if protected.  The finish on mine had been taken care of to normal levels, which means 12 years old, it was looking OK, but not sharp.  I like sharp.  I also know how to make it so!!

And so began the exterior finish restoration of Memory Roads ll ( the big guy).

I knew when I bought the coach out in the state of Washington, that an amateur, lazy person or unskilled or under paid person had buffed and then applied wax to my coach.  It was evident by the very patchy shiny/dull Hodge- podge of reflections common to the effects given from work using the Walmart type of cheapo buffers.

 Set up scaffolding with 2 ladders and a thick Oak Plank.  Areas above horizontal blue tape was wet sanded/compounded several times, polished, then waxed with 4 coats of McGuire's paste wax.

OK, I saw it and knew immediately, that there was good material under the top layers, that could be 'worked' to make this coach look like new.  It would take elbow grease and time.  It is all about details.

 I had to 'remove' ALL wax that had been applied over the years, by compounding very....aggressively, or even wet sanding the white gel coat to get the surface down to GOOD gel coat material.

You cannot get the best shine if you do not get down to good material...that is the bottom line.

  Gel Coat is normally applied thick 20/25 mils or more in the layup of panels or boat hulls, and since this was supposed to be the final finish on 2001 or Earlier... I chose to go after the finish with  600-800 grit paper and soapy water. Cut deap and fast.. then use 1000 grit/orange compound(heavy) then white(light), then a polish or polymer, then mucho wax.

 I knew I could get down to good gel coat. But... I only found finer abrasive 1000 grit locally, so used it with a bit more elbow grease.  Bought the heavy 3m compound and light stuff online and had it shipped to me.

The DULL area/center of photo, has been wet sanded after Several...attempts for a good finish with only use of polish...  THAT did not work, so I tore thru that aggessively with wet sanding, hd compound, light compound, polish then wax.  

Having payed a detail shop back in Texas to do this job, I got them to do some of it pretty well, but in many different light situations, I could still see that poor gel coat had been waxed over by them or previous attempts.
 I understood. they worked on an hourly basis but I knew what could be the final finish on my coach and wanted it.  Nuttin' less.   my mind wanted: Great,   or the effort is not worth while....  I'm not into half ass work but do understand the limits imposed by quick and dirty caused by labor rates..  that is why I took the time, NOW....to take the finishon 'my' coach, right now... back to Factory New...IF I can.

This was a personal choice.

OK. I got serious.  Went online and ordered a Makita

9227 buffer/pads,  heavy duty 3M compound, marine, 3M compound(white) and McGuire's Compound and Polish(7 bottles)  Along with this was micro fiber cloths, 4 cans of McGuire's Paste Wax and numerous other things, including daily washing of rags for nearly 2 weeks!

The final effect has me smiling!  I might later on, go back and 'tweak' 5% of the areas, but I've learned to look at these finishes in changing light conditions from morning to full to setting sunlight....before making any major changes in approach.  Taking my time and the result, looks good.

Food and Atmosphere on the St. John's River of N. Florida

 So if you LOVE Prime Rib.... they serve 3 lb. King and 2 lb. Queen portions! ( my Dad )

                           This 'entry' to the restaurant is the best I have seen in my life.

..............and the back deck?  I cannot say more, except totally unique and it hit all our points on a wish list if we had one...  The place is a 'must do'.

(These photos were at a time when I grasped my father from St. Pete (shown above with my gal) and rescued him, I thought, from hurricane Charlie in '04, and took him with me to North Florida  for safety.)  We lucked out and ended up having a wonderful time and a bit of adventure traveling locally in the Jacksonville and St. Augustine area.

Sunday Morning, 10:30 a.m. Hwy 90 Suwannee County, Florida

click to enlarge............

Cheap fuel for our autos.

Ok, I'm up to my butt in alligators right now, doing a project.. but a cruising friend/ Mega-yacht Captain of bygone days, has sent me this link.

 I think it is a bit long,  but probably because the initiators of it did NOT WANT TO MISS ANYTHING IMPORTANT.

 Are you patient?  ( this is not stuff you find on Prime Time TV, so if you have interest in cheap fuel, or ?, then enjoy the video.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjqkHhWUKOU

Ulu Sail Project: color prevails

Having been given the option of sail cloth with color, I immediately said YES!  I believe this COLOR option will be so 'welcomed' by the Kuna people.

 Dave sewing the center seam on a dark pink/fuchsia colored new sail.

 Mixing up the colors!  Kuna's love color, so I thought these sails could have a mixed up kaleidoscope of colors, offering individuality for many of their ulus.

From these sails to the new ones will be like putting in a turbo charged engine!

making them in Solid Colors too.

 Solid Orange, with contrasting corner patches.

 Use what ya got!  Jibs got a bit of  "this and that"....they will look sharp, with any of the Main Sails.

Solid color and solid construction too.  "nothing to strong, ever broke!"

A tad of color was added to the 'last of the greys'.  35 of the  solid Greys were built and this one is special to me.   It's been a long week or so getting thru the glitches of this project... but now, I think I'm on a "ROLL!"  yay!  After many adjustments, to the sewing machine, it is Finally working well, and I'm feeling ok too.

Fish and Chips

I bet this little food stand in Portland Oregon had a long line for it's fish and chips, since today is St. Patty's day!  My Dad would have loved this boat.  His name was John W.

Ulu Sail Project, finally sewing.

It took nearly 7 weeks of daily cutting cloth to finally get to the sewing stage.  Luckily for me, a friend that helped out with sewing sails with me last year, joined in again.  Dave Barker, of Navarre Beach Kayaks, had some free time on his hands, as winter in N. Florida is a slow time in his business, so he drove 4 hrs. to get here and join the project.

I was still cutting cloth when he arrived,  so put him to work, attaching the cut pieces to the sail panels as prep work.  We wrapped up that portion and got into sewing during the 2 weeks that he spent here and made good progress.

 The table was modified to allow the machine to sit down into it, making the surface flush.

He brought another Sailrite LZS-1 sewing machine with him that was loaned to the project by Debbie, a cruiser friend.  With 2 machines set up, we made good progress.

Tables were modified to support the differing sized panels so we each could work a different part of the assembly at the same time.

The building's floor space is now covered with many stacks of cut sail cloth that will be a very large stack of completed sails in another month or two.
 
Dave is back home now dealing with Spring Break kayak rentals.

Thanks Dave!

While here, we had numerous problems trying to get a 2" Binder Attachment bought from Sailrite, to work properly adding the 2" material I had cut to fold properly over the edge of the sail while sewing.  Later on, I took the Binder apart and used it's throat, shown on right(shiney stainless) to guide the 2" material strips under a modified towing extension from my small motorhome.  It now helps guide the material so folded strips are created perfectly, making the process simple and fast!       Yay!!  Another time saver! :)

                   Cruising friends, the Midence family: Jack and Nicole, Marietta and waving Benjamin 

Next day, friends we cruised with in Honduras, U.S. and Panama, stopped by for a visit.  Twas a good time to relax for the evening.

Ulu Sails, cutting cloth

Still at it!

A few days ago, I set up both the little Tioga RV and the Foretravel big guy, outside the RV building.  Then plumbed the drainage together into the available septic tank drain.  Nice to have inexpensive PVC plumbing parts available everywhere!

 A friend, Dave Barker, who helped with sewing the sails together for last years project, has offered to drive over to Live Oak from Navarre, Florida to help with this batch. So,  I set up the Tioga (24') so he can have some private space when he wished it, and created more work space in the building.  Double plus; 2 living spaces and more workspace!

          The ' Forward' cardboard pattern (1of 2) for the Main Sail, is layed out for marking the cloth.
    4 layers at a time can be cut: fuscia on top, then yellow, orange and silver cloth underneath!

The cutting of the 2 pieces required for the main sails has proceeded well, as has the single Jib cloth, by using a hot knife bought from Sailrite.  Much better than last years use of a soldering iron attachement.
The procedure cutting 4 layers is a bit slow because of the thickness, but  4 layers?  In the end, much faster production.  Not fast, but faster.....

                                      The 3 cardboard patterns:  (Main left(2) and Jib right(1).
Next, I've been cutting the 2" strips that will overlap all the external edges of the sail for required  reinforcement.  To do that, I set up a wooden jig and have been using a 10' long aluminum rectangular  box tube I found in Lowes building department.  It is the perfect straight edge and is exactly 2" so is the perfect size.  Lot's and lot's of marking and cutting though.  I've estimated that each sail takes just under 40' of edging, so that is (4)  10 foot strips...

10 sails = 400 feet
100 sails = 4000 feet
225 sails = 9,000 feet!  Yikes!

For the moment,  I'm stopping at 200 Main Sails and 60 jibs (260 total)  The reason is, much of this is trial and error.   I am a near amatuer at sail making- just 'handy'.  No need to waste any cloth, so have brought the numbers up to 260 for and then...will see what I have left in cloth and time, when these are done!.  With luck, I can make 265 sails total, out of the 1100 yards purchased.

Well, so far..............I have cut over 7700 feet of the 2" strips ... in just over a week.  That is 1.5 miles of marking lines on the cloth and cutting the stips!  I'm tired of cutting strips-back hurts- so moving on to another stage..  Before done, I will return to every stage to use ALL the cloth.  This reminds me of my days of running marathons.....  it seems I gravitate towards things that required 'endurance'. 

So, now into cutting out the corner reinforcement triangles.  It takes 2 for each corner, one larger/one smaller.....so 8 per Main sail and then 6 per Jib   2180 triangles or 1' squares!

 Just as I did for the larger patterns for the sail itself, I have cut out cardboard patterns for these corner pieces.  Everything that can be done to speed up.. or ease the effort.. on each step is being done.
 So far so good.
Wish the weather was a bit warmer though; this unheated garage can get pretty cold in the mornings and late afternoon as the temps have been ranging from 26 - 40 degrees in the mornings.

Pete is happy to run around inside the building while I work. He has a chew rope that he runs around with, throwing it into the air, then grabbing it and running some more.  When he's tired of  that, and pestering me for more petting, he goes to his bed and chews on his other toys.  When he gets bored, I put him back in the heated motorcoach.

Life in the fast lane!  Well, I plan on it in a few months from now................!