Part 2 - Columbia 29 refit, in the Rocky Mountains

[406Columbia]

Hello,

Ended up putting in a piece of teak to add some more support to our floor toward the galley area. The would is sound but as we cut two large access doors we removed some structure. Had originally built a few little legs that sat in the bilge and it works great. HOWEVER, it does cut down on access to that space so while I was glassing the bilge in I had to remove the legs.

Instead of re installing the legs, I went for a cleaner solution. Tapered pieces of teak, large rectangular pieces glued into place on the back side of the deck. Way cleaner, nicer looking and stops the excess flex.

Almost done with fairing then we will almost immediately lay on some barrier coat to protect it. I was a bit tired of looking at raw plywood edges in a few areas so I added some thin peaces of teak we had to make it look good and further protect the marine ply just wood glue and screw.

Replacing the track our boom slides on that's on the mast. What a nightmare, stuck hardware, heat, penetrating oil, etc. Plus drilling more thick 316 stainless (not my favorite thing).

[406Columbia]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Yeah it's really true and a salty interior just never seems to dry out. You have to wash with fresh water before it will dry out. I don't have my dodger yet, but mine is still (knock on wood) dry and I have new cushions with vinyl covers and also water absorbing bed pads for any place that might get wet. No more damp, musty smelly cushions.

Thanks for the input everyone. A dodger and sea hood are on our list for sure.

[406Columbia]

Hello,

Got the Tides Marine Strong Track installed tonight. Very easy to install but make sure to round off the corners of your existing sail track, otherwise it can cause trouble. Much easier with the mast off the boat I imagine but still not bad up according to our rigger. Use a bit of water with a little soap if its tight.

Very nice quality hardware comes with the track from the looks of it. Hoping to pick up the spreaders tomorrow, mast step, mast support arch and a few other pieces we took in for anodizing. It will be great to get all those pieces put back on the boat and bolted in with new hardware.

[406Columbia]

Hello,

Got out anodizing batch back, here are the spreaders. We mounted those and are going to get a few pieces of correct length hardware and mount the lights to them.


That first shot is a Columbia 26 we saw on out walk, wish we could cut away dome material and tilt like that.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by 406Columbia

Hello,

Got out anodizing batch back, here are the spreaders. We mounted those and are going to get a few pieces of correct length hardware and mount the lights to them.


That first shot is a Columbia 26 we saw on out walk, wish we could cut away dome material and tilt like that.

you can cut away like a that as long as it is properly reinforced but do you have clearance to the forward lazzerette bulkhead to do it .
The 26 tilts into the cockpit .

[Don C L]

That's exactly how I had my old 24 but there just is no room in our 29s for it, unless we wanted to add a foot or so to the aft of the boat. I have a shot of a Cal 28 in my album that had that done. Came out beautiful. But I don't want to suggest any more work for you!

[406Columbia]

Originally Posted by Don C L

That's exactly how I had my old 24 but there just is no room in our 29s for it, unless we wanted to add a foot or so to the aft of the boat. I have a shot of a Cal 28 in my album that had that done. Came out beautiful. But I don't want to suggest any more work for you!

That does sound nice, but not yet ha-ha. Need to get this in the water again before we loose our minds. On another note, we found something called an outboard jack plate. TH Marine makes one called the Mini Jacker and we were able to locate one here on Craigslist for a great price and it was new/unmounted.

I allows us to mount the outboard five inches higher on our Rib 310 with folding transom. So we can now run the long shaft and achieve proper depth of the prop on the tender/dinghy. Very nice product, photos to follow.

https://thmarinesupplies.com/product...ker-jack-plate

[406Columbia]

A few pictures of the outboard bracket, feels and looks like excellent heavy duty quality cast aluminum.

[406Columbia]

Hello,

Been working on the stainless fitting for the mast head. It will beef up the supports for the fore and back stays, as well as building in a robust mount for the spinnaker halyard. Building in a mount for the VHF antenna, the wind instrument and tri-color as well.

Obviously I used 316 on everything.

Didn't intend to do this before but figured since I need to weld it all up making it a single stainless structure is better than several pieces cobbled together which are dissimilar materials.

Also completed the low profile vent bases on the cabin trunk. This project has taken an obscene amount of time as I laminated five or so layers of .5'' AIREX marine foam. Finished up with fairing and then some heavy bi-axial glass on top. Plan to sometime this week glass the sides and sand and fair again. It's not a structural item so perhaps its a bit overkill.

I purchased a few cobalt bits for use in the hand drill instead of HSS and found that to be very nice in cutting the medium to thin stainless. In the drill press I still prefer the carbide though. If your are reading this and staring your refit, I strongly suggest self centering bits and a set of transfer punches from harbor freight. Makes life a little easier.

[406Columbia]

Got some more work done on the mast head piece. Welded the top wings, antenna mount. Still need to add a few things but its coming along.....slowly.

[newhaul]

Looking good

[406Columbia]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Looking good

Thanks Rob,


Slowly getting there. Now we are hoping to layout a little epoxy barrier coat, which in the past has been a bit ahhhh difficult. So if anyone has used this in the past with success please let us know how and if you thinned it? Directions are to mix and wait for a period of time, I think it was like 15 minutes then use but I have found out here in California its so thick by that point its difficult to get rolled on with any amount of smoothness. Making more work as a result of sanding.

[406Columbia]

Hello,

Have been working on the masthead fitting, bending the stainless rod that the block will attach onto. Then adding a spot for the wind instrument from Raymarine as well as adding some reinforcements at various places. Takes a bit to get the material in since its all 316, I have been using onlinemetals.com and am very impressed with the customer service and pricing is fair.

Done fairing on the boat, at least I hope so. Lots of pictures of the spider web cracks we are addressing on the combing. I had two different opinions on it, one was to sand a bit then skin it with chopped strand mat. The other idea which I heard more was to grind out every crack, fill with thickened epoxy.

After looking at the work of various folks and considering the long term results we want. I decided to grind out all the cracking with the dremil tool and fill with thickened epoxy. My hope is this is indeed the best long term fix. I will also be adding supports inside the combings by adding gussets. Hopefully this will add some strength and stop stress cracking. I may also lay some chopped strand on top of my repair for even more peace of mind, what do you all think?

Picked up a twenty six foot mast today for $20 on craigslist! I thought it might be good material for a solar arch or something like that. It was hard to pass up that much aluminum for so cheap. If not on the sailboat I will use it on the Whaler as I plan to build something for that to provide both shade and a small solar set up and place to store the surf and paddle boards.

Last thing is I finally got the arch done to cover the boat and the steaming and deck light. The cover will keep the sun off while working and hopefully protect the glass and paint. We had initially purchased a marine beam steaming light combo with the wings on the side. However I found it to be FAR to wide for our slender mast and honestly it felt very flimsy.

Ended up finding an American made solution by a company I have never heard of until recently called Signal Mate. Its about three times or so more expensive than the marine beam version but its slim and the product is quality as far as I can tell. The light is sealed and machined from all aluminum and beautifully anodized. The body is machined high density plastic of some sort and looks and feels great. So drilled and tapped for it and am very pleased. Link below to what we put on specifically.

https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?id=2715938

I may end up getting their mast head tri-color if time and money allow as well.

[406Columbia]

Hello,

Got more fairing done, just when I thought I was done. Spent hours working on the mast arch and the glass repair underneath it. Had to dry fit about ten times and go slow to get it right. Then bolted it all together and applied tef-gel.

Glassed in the air vent bases and a few other small spots but not much else to report. Should have a shipment of electrical cable in soon so I can wire up the mast and complete at least one piece of this three year project.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by 406Columbia

Hello,

Got more fairing done, just when I thought I was done. Spent hours working on the mast arch and the glass repair underneath it. Had to dry fit about ten times and go slow to get it right. Then bolted it all together and applied tef-gel.

Glassed in the air vent bases and a few other small spots but not much else to report. Should have a shipment of electrical cable in soon so I can wire up the mast and complete at least one piece of this three year project.

looking good .
Wonder just how much you have added to the boat . I say at least half a ton . Will be great to see her finished and sailing where we all want to be .