Part 5
Getting the boat ready to work on...

In this segment I will be discussing:

Settling in the boat. (Includes jacking tips and tricks.)

Cleaning the boat up to work on.

The first step to the project boat.

Settling in the boat:

Once the boat&trailer were positioned just right between and under the trees I set about getting it off my truck hitch. Turns out it was like trying to get my away from a Chinese buffet. Remember when I said the truck was sitting very low? Well, the trailer jack stand did not have a long enough cylinder to get the trailer high enough to clear the hitch ball. As much as I cranked the trailer up, the truck came right up with it.

Here is a good tip - When setting your trailer in place where it will sit for more than just a week or two and you are not setting on concrete, set a good piece of heavy plywood under the tires. It will help prevent the tires from sinking into the ground and if you would have to change a tire on the trailer, it will make it much easier with the plywood to work on vs. grass, mud, or sand. Remember, pressure treated wood will last longer, heavy means 3/4", and your local lumber store will cut the plywood for free if you ask.

When jacking up your trailer and can not clear the trailer hitch try this:

1. Get a good quality jack with more capacity than is on the tongue of the trailer. Make sure you have lots of safety margin here, you don't want to injure the boat, trailer, your vehicle, or yourself.
2. Find some good blocking material such as 4"x4" or larger wood blocks. A nice wide piece of heavy plywood for the base is good if you have it. I personally don't care much for the lightweight jack stands that you can buy.
3. Now carefully jack your trailer up to its safest possible height, block it up as you go. Don't wait until you get it all the way up to block it, block it as you go!
4. I like to place the blocking material across the width of the trailer about a foot to the rear of the jack cylinder. You would have an "A" looking thing, with the cross piece being the blocking. Make sure the blocking extends several inches or more outside of the trailer frame.
5. With the trailer up as high as it will safely go, make sure it is soundly blocked, and let the jack back down until it rests on the blocks. Run the jack up to its most retracted position.
6. Place solid blocking under the jack stand and starting jacking the trailer up again until it clears the vehicle trailer hitch ball.
7. ! Make sure you do not jack the trailer higher than is safe. Be particularly care of the balance point of the trailer so you don't go tipping everything backwards and causing serious damage and/or injury.
8. Once the trailer has cleared the vehicle hitch ball, move the vehicle well out of the way. It is a good idea to have someone watch the trailer while the vehicle is pulled away. Just a real good safety precaution.

When the trailer is completely clear of the vehicle and you are ready to settle the trailer down into its storage position try these tips:

1. Read the trailer instructions and see if it will give you specific pointers for the trailer model. Lacking that, get the trailer to the safest leveled and balanced position for your boat&trailer combination.
2. I am not crazy about leaving a trailer jacked up by its own jacking system. They look far to lightweight for my comfort. It is my boat and my safety at stake here and I like things solid.
3. Block up the tongue of the trailer in the "A" position. Get your blocking positioned so as to not interfere with the trailer jack stand. I like it about one foot to the rear of the trailer jack cylinder. Make sure the blocking material goes from one side of the "A" frame to the other, extending out at least several inches beyond the frame on both sides. (Note: Find some good blocking material such as 4"x4" or larger wood blocks. A nice wide piece of heavy plywood for the base is good if you have it. I personally don't care much for the lightweight jack stands that you can buy.)
4. Jack up the trailer just enough to get your blocking material postioned for the correct trailer height as determined earlier. Make sure it has a good solid base.
5. Now slowly lower the trailer jack until the trailer's "A" frame tongue fully rests on the blocking material. Let the blocking carry the weight but leave the trailer jack stand down but bearing little, if any, weight.

NOTE: If you are going to be working a lot (especially over a period of time that measured in months) in consider jacking up the trailer a little bit, place blocking halfway between the rear most tires and the back end of the trailer. Take only about 10% - 25% or the weight off the tires for the blocking to hold but the result is a much more stable boat&trailer while climbing around it.

Cleaning the boat up to work on.

As I mentioned in Part 2, the boat was in horrendous shape from a cleanliness view when I bought the boat. I don't mean messy, I mean completely trashed like a hurricane experience. Filthy was not the word, this boat had been lived in and I honestly don't think it was ever cleaned. Not that I am a neatness freak but clean is important to me.

My wife and step-daughter got to the insides before I did. While I was assembling the tools and the initial cleaning materials they began hauling out the trash. Without exaggerating one bit, we hauled out 1-1/2 pickup loads of trash from this 27' boat. But let me go over the correct method.

1. If it is green and fuzzy bag it for disposal.
2. If it moves and is unidentifiable, kill it and follow #1.
3. If it doesn't move and is identifiable, follow #1.
4. If it is not identifiable but could be useful, bag it and store it in a safe location for later. We managed to throw out several useful items that could have been serviceable had they been washed.
5. If it is partially identifiable and could be a nautical item, follow #4.
6. If it talks to you and is not mechanical, call 911.
7. Take out any cushions or mattresses. Evaluate them for serviceability. If all the cushions need is a cleaning try this:

• Take the covers off. If they are cloth, wash them according to directions supplied or in Woolite several times. This material tends to be heavy so make sure you get it dry within 12 hours or they could start to smell.
• Take the cushions outside in the bright clear sun and lay them out.
• If they are foam, one at a time; spray them lightly with a pleasant smelling ammonia, quickly sprinkle them a carpet smell fresh product, and lightly spray them again with the ammonia. Let them dry like this in the full sun for as long as possible. Flip them over and do the underside when done on the first side. Don't forget to do the edges. Let them dry in the sun, do this a couple times as needed. Once done don't put them back out side or anywhere else where they are subject to humid conditions.

1. Double bag any heavy trash. The throw or carry to the waiting vehicle below and subsequent handling is sure to find any weakness in the bag and exploit it.
2. Get all the trash out at once, don't do a single section at a time over days, do it once and get it over with.
3. Now everything that is not trash start some groups, galley items, electronics, lines, spare parts, etc.
4. Take everything out of the boat and stack it according to the group it belongs to. I mean batteries, radios, compasses, everything.
5. Find a place to store the items in each group, preferably dry and secure.

Now the boat is trash and clutter free ready to be worked on.

And, Yes, this is how I did my boat.

The first step to the project boat:

You may not be like me but I don't like working on boats that are dirty. I don't mean cluttered, I mean filthy. So the first step for me was cleaning the inside of the boat.

As I stood there in the main cabin and looked around, I still couldn't believe how filthy it was. The overhead, bulkheads, decks, and every possible storage compartment you can think of was covered in a film of saltwater, grease, slime, mold, and sometimes all of the above. So I had to get it clean in large quantities.

In the navy we used to wash everything down with fresh water whenever we pulled a boat out of the water so why not now?

Down to K-Mart I went. First stop was the garden department to find a fertilizer sprayer. You know the type, they screw on to the end of your garden hose with the reservoir underneath. Then to households for soap. You can guess that I got a pleasant smelling, strong grease cutting, anti-bacterial soap.

Back at the boat I got my hose in place, screwed the applicator on the end of the hose, filled the reservoir with soap, turned the faucet on and WHAM! I had me a cleaning machine.

Now would be a good time to make sure you have any drain holes wide open.

I sprayed down every nook and cranny of that boat. You could see the dirt flowing out of everywhere down into the bilges. About 20 minutes of this and I felt much better about my boat. Kinda fun as well, but you will get wet.

Then I scrubbed her clean with a long handled nylon medium bristled brush with a bucket of hot soapy water. Next came the mildew remover and more scrub brushing.  (Use the mildew remover with good eye protection and only when well ventilated.)  A good clean rinsing and she was looking better already.

Then came the not-so-fun part, pumping the bilges. But I had a good hand pump and Linda worked placing the suction part of the hose and in about 15 minutes the water was mostly pumped out.

This was a good exercise because I saw how water moved around the cabin and where the bilges need some flow holes.

Enough of cleaning for now, we let her dry out opened up for a week.

Next, deconstruction.