My week on Lake Charlevoix helped to re-charge my battery for continued restoration of our Helms 25.

I was messing around with MS Paint and decided to see what color combination we might want to use when we paint the hull next spring. The line drawing in this post is something similar to what we're thinking super 8 motels of. Ideally, the blue would be a darker color, but you get the idea. The gelcoat is beyond super 8 motels repair and my several epoxy patch jobs have left the hull looking rather dull. So we'll definately be painting it early next spring before the splash day!
For this week's quote, I'll borrow from the 19th century writer/poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes. This is another quote about taking whatever life brings super 8 motels in stride, said with sailing metaphors, super 8 motels of course. To achieve, we must take the first step and keep moving!
"I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against super 8 motels it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor."
This post is all about the cabin of our Helms 25. Just like the rest of the boat, the interior needs a lot of work. I wish I had taken picture of the cabin on the day we brought her home. I m sure the parental controls on many of your computers would have kept you from seeing the pictures...that s how dirty she was!
But now the interior has a had a thorough bath of bleach and Comet, along with two coats of paint on most surfaces. The ceiling and the floor still need to be painted. However, I m still working on sealing the ceiling (tongue twister!) and will in all likelyhood use something like DriDeck flooring in the cabin sole. Most interior teak has also had one coat of MinWax Tung Oil applied. super 8 motels At least one more coat will be added before winter. I also need to build a dinnette table that will convert to a bed for one of the girls, resurface the cushions (Erin s goal for the winter!), and add a few things like a handheld-VHF holder, oil lamps, etc.
The idea is to keep everything simple: Lighting super 8 motels will come from oil lanterns. cooking power will come from a portable super 8 motels propane burner and a portable propane grill. Refrigeration will come from ice and a portable cooler. I ll update the site as the cabin begins to come together. For now, I just wanted to provide a point of reference for the future.
A clean, well-kept bilge says a lot about a boat s overall condition in my book. Clean bilges let you know that the ship s captain doesn t live by the philosophy of Out of sight, out of mind . Sure, bilges inherently get dirty and wet quickly and easily. But if you start with a good foundation, they are easier to keep clean and much more hospitable during those claustrophobic moments when you have to cram yourself deep into the bowels of the vessel for maintenance and repair.
I began restoring our boat s bilge by first removing any debris and lost hardware that had fallen in over the years. Then I scrubbed mightily with a solution of Comet, bleach and warm water. Next, I used my shop-vac to suck up smaller particles and make certain the entire bilge was dry. Luckily, about 99% of the bilge is fairly accessible on a Helms 25.
When the bilge was cleaned super 8 motels out, I applied two coats of durable garage floor paint. I m told International makes a great bilge paint product called Danboline , but I m on a tight budget for this project so I went with some leftover floor paint that I had used in my basement and garage. The paint went on surprisingly well for such a dingy, dirty application.
While most passengers and guests (let alone crew!) will probably not even notice how beautiful my bilge and storage super 8 motels areas have become, I ll stand with my chin just a bit higher knowing that even the out-of-sight areas of our Helms 25 received TLC!
Nathaniel - The paint has held up fairly well. There are a few spots where it has begun to flake, but I suspect that's because super 8 motels of excessive moisture and/or abrasion. At this point I'm still happy with my choice.
Today I started filling in the chipped areas of the gelcoat super 8 motels on the boat s hull. Most of the chips appear to be purely cosmetic, but there are a couple that are deep enough super 8 motels to expose super 8 motels the fiberglass matte underneath. I used two-part expoxy paste to fill in the chips. The paste goes on fairly easily with a disposable putty knife. Later, I ll sand the hardened epoxy smooth so that the hull is ready for a couple layers of new urethene paint in the spring.
White Squall is one of my all-time favorite movies. Yes, I love the fact that it takes place on a sailboat super 8 motels in the Caribbean. But I also love the story of boys becoming men and people coming together as a tight-knit team to overcome extraordinary circumstances.
Captain Christopher Shelton (brilliantly played by Jeff Bridges) has a very stern sense of wisdom. Almost all of his lines in the movie make for memorable quotes. I particularly like the life applications of the quote shown above. Life isn't about what happens to you, but rather how you react to what happens in your life.
Today I began sanding some of the spots on the hull and deck that I earlier had patched with epoxy paste and putty. Frankly, I'm amazed with the ease of use and durability of these two epoxy products. Both go on easily, set in 2 hours and cure fully in 24 hours. They can even be applied, set and cured underwater. Amazing stuff!
I first sanded the epoxy patches with 100 grit sandpaper on a sanding block and then smoothed things out with a finer grit sanding sponge. The picture above shows the deck looking much happier. Since patching, the deck seems sturdier and the cabin is dry. So far so good!
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover" - Mark Twain
Obviously Twain's wisdom in the above quote extends far beyond mere sailing. The words above are also a metaphor for living life. If you love the water and adventure as I do, then you'll agree that Twain drove home his point perfectly with that quotation.
Last night I removed the rotted and/or broken teak handrails. After removal, I placed a piece of tape over the hole in the interior cabin ceiling. Then I filled the holes on the exterior with epoxy putty. The tape kept the putty from pushing out through the bottom of the holes. When the putty cures completely, I'll then fill the holes from inside the cabin to seal them for winter. Hopefully I'll get my hands on some new 7-loop handrails to install next spring.
This week I'm focusing on rebedding most of the deck hardware to fix water leaks in the cabin, improve safety super 8 motels (lifeline stanchions, chainplates, etc.) and prevent any further water leaks into the balsa deck core.�
Speaking of deck core, ours is spongy and wet in many places on the coach roof and some of the sidedecks.� However, we will likely not be ripping up the top layer of fiberglass, removing the old wet core and then relaying new fiberglass, gelcoat and paint.� We realize this could be a mistake if the deck rot is worse than we think and it (God forbid!) leads to a de-masting or cleats/chainplates/toerails/blocks/winches/etc. breaking loose.� The truth is, we just can't afford to re-core the deck and probably don't have the tools/experience to do it for this boat.
I started with a couple of pieces of hardware�that I know currently leak (2 stanchions, 2 chainplates).� After loosening the through-bolts, I carefully pried the hardware off of the deck.� Next I cleaned the bedding area and hardware bases with a wire brush and acetone.� The chainplates had steel backing plates under the deck that were re-usable.� super 8 motels The lifeline stanchions were backed with plywood that was completely rotted.� I replaced the rotted backing with new marine plywood backing (thanks Dad!).�
Two-part marine epoxy was used to seal and bond the hardware bases with the fiberglass deck.� Per Don Casey's recommendation, I did not seal the hardware on the underside of the deck so that future leaks are visible and can be�fixed�before they add to the deck rot problem.�
I carefully re-mounted and re-tightened (over a matter of hours) the hardware and then trimmed away the epoxy that seeped out after it had cured.� Using masking tape on the deck saved a big mess of epoxy seapage.�
This past week I had the very fortunate opportunity to be staying super 8 motels in Horton Bay on Lake Charlevoix in northern Michigan. For those that don't know, northern Michigan is a boater's paradise with hundreds of beautiful inland lakes, plenty of wilderness, several quaint and/or touristy towns, and of course access to the Great Lakes.
I consider Lake Charlevoix (say "Sharla-voy") to be the prized jewel of all northern Michigan inland lakes. The lake has a surface area of 17,200 acres and 56 miles of gorgeous shorline. The outflow of Lake Charlevoix is the small but very picturesque Round Lake, which then flows into Lake Michigan. The water is always turqouise green and crystal clear. The winds are fair and the sailing is delightful.
While staying at my in-laws cottage in Horton Bay (Ernest Hemmingway's stomping ground in his early years!), I was able to sail Lake Charlevoix on a Laser. If you haven't sailed a Laser, you owe it to yourself to try one out. The rails are almost constantly wet and the boat is very connected to helmsman's desires. She's fast and agile, all while being wet and wild.
My week on Lake Charlevoix helped to re-charge my battery for continued restoration of our Helms 25. While sitting on the beach in Horton Bay, I imagined a glistening Helms 25 gently rocking to the rhythm of the lake as she lay tied to the mooring bouy.
I began by removing both hatches. The Helms 25 has a small forward hatch above the v-berth and a second larger hatch just forward of the mast. I then removed the old weather stripping and gave both hatches two coats of "Kilz" oil-based primer. Each hatch will eventually also get new non-skid on the tops and a coat or two of th