The Back Story

July 31, 2005


Evan has been off work for 32 days to work on the boat. Before that he worked 10-30+ hrs a week in the three months leading up to our haul out. I decided to compile a list of random stats so you can see how our month looked.

  • Evan took 3 of the 32 days off.
  • We averaged 3.5 people at the boat each day
  • The largest one day work party was 6 people
  • Except for the day we hauled, Evan never worked alone
  • 12 different people came to the boat to help us out - most worked more than 4 days
  • Leighton was at the work site the most frequently, working around 20 days
  • We removed approximately 500 lbs when we took off the old structure
  • We added back about 1200 lbs including the diesel
  • We went through a 55 gallon drum of epoxy
  • We used up 250 yards of fibreglass and 16 sheets of 4X8" foam core
  • It rained on 5 days out of the 32
  • Evan bought 30 icecream bars for our helpers
  • We drank 14 cases of beer and cider and 3 bottles of tequila
  • I made meals for 6 or more 14 times
  • I made meals for 10 or more 4 times
  • Dousing your body liberally with baby powder before grinding fibreglass, then showering with cold water is the best way to combat the itch
  • Three other methods were tried first
  • I did 10 loads of fibreglass dust covered laundry
  • Washing each load twice is the trick
  • We put 20x our normal monthly mileage on the car
  • We used 2 grinders, 3 sanders, 2 drills, 1 jigsaw, 2 skillsaws, 1 reciprocating saw and 1 chainsaw
  • We went through 4 chainsaw blades, dozens of jigsaw blades, 8 grinding discs and 50 sanding discs
  • The only paid professional help we had was the crane operator for lowering and lifting the mast and a machinist who machined our prop coupling
  • Many of our helpers are computer geeks, who needed the business end of a power tool pointed out
  • We have taken 4 rolls of slide film and a few hundred digital pictures
  • Evan had 3-4 demoralizing days and only 2-3 minor setbacks
  • Between us we averaged 8 hours less sleep a night than normal
  • Maia gave up her bed to guests for 10 nights
  • Evan and I are still talking

3 comments:

  1. Now THIS is the kind of information a cruisin', rehabin', beer drinkin' sailor can appreciate.

    Dennis (and crew or "Heidi Lynn"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Dennis,
    I'm also doing a series of technical articles, so I need to be careful about not infringing their copyright. You'll have to buy the magazine for the rest of the nitty gritty.
    D

    ReplyDelete
  3. Diane,

    what is the name of magazine? I'll get a copy.

    Good to watch your work progress!

    dennis (and crew of "Heidi Lynn")

    ReplyDelete