Fuel Tank Update

When I got the tank home I ground all the rust off the outside. There was a pin sized hole in the lowest corner. Thankfully it was very gummed up with rust and gunk and probably leaked very little. Anyways it is good to know I have isolated a potentially disastrous leak. Now on to designing and making a new tank.

Removing the fuel tank

Today with the help of Glenn and George, I pumped out the fuel tank and removed it from the boat. I would say this job was long overdue. It was fairly easy to remove once the fuel was pumped out and filtered.
Maybe about half an hour to get everything disconnected it and another half an hour for three people to heave it out.

I wasn't able to get a good picture of the portion of the bilge where it was sitting. It is a mess of rust sludge and chipped paint. Next trip I will clean things out and start figuring out how to cut out the bulkheads.
It feels good to have this ticking time bomb out of my bilge and start working towards a new tank.

Roller Furler Fixed

Along with Ken and Glenn, I took down the forestay with furler attached and hammered out the kink in the connector. I had bought a new connector but was unable to use it because of the way the stay and furler had been assembled. Anyways we got the old one apart and we were able to hammer it straight and reassemble things. It is a little sticky in that joint but things work.
Now on to deal with various electrical issues.

Refinishing Outside Teak

Yammy and I went down to Skagway for five days. We started the gargantuan task of refinishing the outside wood.

This is inside the cockpit well. We brightened the weathered wood and applied an oil sealer.

We refinished the cap rail with Cetol Marine Light.

Here are the cabin sides with multi layers of cetol removed. We started off using a paint remover then discovered that using a heat gun worked better.After the heat gun we would use paint remover if necessary do a little sanding and then apply a one part brigtener.

This is what the old wood looked like.

The old cabin sides.

Here it is stripped and covered with one coat of Cetol Marine Light.

Some nice views of the cockpit.  We still haven't done the upper sides of the cockpit and of course the teak deck is crying out for some attention.

Anyways on Thursday it started raining so we gave it up for awhile.

Pictures of Ginger Lady Sailing near Haines

I asked Glenn and Kathy to take some pictures of the boat sailing. We were about 20 miles South of Haines. Here are the results.

After going to the trouble of sewing on luff tape to the old jib and drifter, so that I could hoist them on the furler,  I was hoping to try them out. Much to my dismay there was no halyard to the Genoa. It was tied to the top of the mast with a piece of 3 strand rope. Here I am at the top of the mast installing the halyard.
Pictures of the the boat sailing as a cutter rig and with the drifter will have to wait for the next time I can coerce someone into taking pictures.

Buying the Boat

When I headed to Vancouver I was set on buying a Saturna 33. The price was right and I thought I could live with some of the features that didn't fit into the criteria I had for buying a boat.

• It should fit in my berth in Skagway
• Be able to go on the grid 
• Be able to be hauled in Skagway
• Be a more seaworthy boat than my last boat, a Fortune 30
• Sail better

Anyways the Saturna 33 was a bust. The engine and everything back there called for replacement.

While we were in Blaine the broker showed us a beautifully maintained Cal 35. Very good value for the money but didn't really fit the above criteria.

On to Bremerton where we made an offer on Ginger Lady a Baba 30. Our offer reflected the duty and gst that we would have to pay when we moved it into Canada. Much to my surprise the offer was accepted. Next we hauled the boat and had it surveyed and then forked out the insurance and moorage for 5 months and promptly flew back to the Yukon.
It is not the best situation to have your boat 1200 miles away.

Anyways we will be back in Feb to get the boat ready and again around the second week of April to sail it North to Skagway.