Moving Day

Arctic Fjord in her new home at the Alaska Fish House Marina

Moving a boat that has been in its stall for 5 or more years is a little nerve wracking, even after running the engines and checking everything twice. Plus it was blowing a stiff 25-30 knots from the southeast. Greg and Pat waited for a lull in the gale, threw off the lines and held their breaths as they pulled out of the Bar Harbor dock past one of Ketchikan's beautiful yachts, Sum-Dum ( fondly remembered for the crew having brought me an icepack and a beer, many years ago, when I broke my nose on the Punchbowl trail in the Misty Fjords), which was berthed next door.  For once, everything went to plan and the Arctic Fjord turned out of Bar Harbor and chuffed happily down the Tongass Narrows towards Thomas Basin where she was tied up for the night with a big thank you to Pat for crewing on our maiden journey.

How do you get a 58x13 boat though a 20 foot gap? Very carefully and with a lot of help from our friends. We had some practice at getting things through the gap (seen above) when we pulled our dock through last December but the Arctic Fjord is longer and has propellers to worry about. We had a 16.9 foot high tide which gave us plenty of water in the gap but also lots of current both from the tide and the Ketchikan Creek. With a big crew of friends standing by to help, Greg drove the Arctic fjord bow first into the gap and up against the fenders that he had tied into place. Lines were thrown to the helpers on the dock and they muscled the boat around and into position. Big Thanks to Chuck, Micah, Pat, Bill, Lars and Dale for their much appreciated help. We think that she looks good in her new home and you can now check out the Arctic Fjord anytime on Ketchikan Web Cam number 6 at  http://www.alaskafishhousewebcam.com/.

Stage 2, Part 2: A Great Day for FRPing

Beautiful day looking out at Bar Harbor through the wheelhouse.

The frp arrived on the barge from Juneau in a relatively timely fashion, which, for us means that it only took about two weeks to get here. All the sheets arrived undamaged  - which is also important and it looks very white and sparkly. For those of you wondering what frp looks like, ours is exactly the same as the frp on the walls of the Pioneer Pantry here in Ketchikan: check it out next time you're there. If you have not been to the Pioneer, imagine something white and shiny with a raised pattern that looks kind of like it belongs in a shower. We choose frp because it will not absorb water and cleans easily, which is important in a boat in a damp environment.

A pile of frp

Clancy demonstrates how to use the circular saw.

It was a lovely sunny day at Bar Harbor and, of course, a super low tide. We carried the frp two sheets at a time down to the Arctic Fjord and made a big pile of it on the floor. Greg used a jigsaw to cut the frp, with a fine, 32tpi blade and also aviator tin snips for the curves. The frp is flexible, so in theory, it follows the curve of the walls nicely and needs only to be glued on. Unfortunately, the bucket of glue was frozen, so we had to warm it up.

The port side frp is almost finished. Declan is also "helping."

Once we had the glue thawed out, frping was a breeze. Well, almost. The frp was cut and glued to the wall with liquid nails frp glue. We used a white flexible plastic strip to cover the seams between sheets of frp and screwed the window trim back on to help hold the frp in place. This worked fairly well, except in a few curvy places where we had to use panel pins to hold the frp in place while it was drying.

The frp on the starboard side is coming along.

We are more than halfway through the frp part of the project now and the end of February is creeping up. We have to move the boat out of Bar Harbor by the 29th so the next adventure will be... moving the boat

Stage 2, Part One: The Walls

Now that it's stripped back to the fiberglass walls it is time to put on new walls. We wanted to update from the faux wood look so the new walls will be fiberglass re-enforced plastic, or as we like to call it: frp. Before we can put the frp on though, we need new to make new plywood backing. Greg used 3/8" plywood varnished with Spar varnish to help keep the water our and prevent rot. To create the bend in the plywood that was needed to follow the curve of the walls, Greg made jigs and bent the plywood for the lower sections.

The bend in the walls

The old plywood had been screwed into the fiberglass but, now much older, the fiberglass would not hold screws well. This meant that Greg got to enjoy a few days of being high on contact adhesive  fumes as we had to glue and screw the plywood to the fiberglass.

Port side walls

Plywood is done

The plywood is on and it looks great, although it is making the roof carpet look even worse. Now we have to wait for the frp to arrive on the barge from Home Depot in Juneau. In the meantime, Greg is fixing the soft spots in the floor and recovering from the glue fume exposure.

Stage 1: Ripping Things Out

In the dead of winter, when most people are trying to get off the island, Mark arrived from Minnesota to enjoy a week of Ketchikan drizzle and consult on the Arctic Fjord project. The plan was to begin with the floor which was covered with marine carpet which I suspect of contributing to the strange mildewy smell in the boat. Smell or no, carpet is not great flooring for kayak outfitting in the rainforest so, it had to go. Greg had already pulled out the tables and booths in preparation for pulling up the carpet which was glued to the plywood floorboards. The carpet was ripped up with brute strength (according to Greg) at which point we discovered several soft spots in the plywood floor that would have to be repaired and it became clear that the walls would also have to go. You can see from the picture below how water had seeped into the plywood and rotted the walls.

Greg and Mark set about ripping off the walls which were classic seventies wood panelling laminate on plywood sheets. The plywood walls had been screwed to the fiberglass of the cabin.  Several thousand screws (thanks Mark!) and about ten trips to the Ketchikan Landfill later the walls and floor were bare.  At which point it became clear that the carpet on the roof would also have to go, but more on that later.

Next job - replace the walls.