On Saturday, I arrived at the boat with a long list of things to do. The first would be easy: bolt down the swim platform and install the refinished boarding ladder that attaches to the swim platform. I felt that could be accomplished in 30 minutes, tops. I had forgotten that this is a boat and as such, it will resist anything you try to do to improve it.
The swim platform is supported by four stainless brackets and each one has three mounting holes. Should be easy to line up the first one and the rest will fall into place, right? Not quite. The first one lined up but the new stainless bolts I had were too short. How could that be? The swim platform is 1-1/4 inches thick and I was using 1-1/2-inch stainless bolts. It seems that I forgot that the aft-most mounting hole in the bracket has the support welded to it. Luckily, the marina store has a great supply of good quality stainless hardware and $1.20 later, I had four new 1-1/2-inch bolts. It took the better part of two hours to finally get the swim platform lined up and bolted in place. Nice and solid and it looks great, too.
Then it was time to re-mount the boarding ladder that is screwed to the transom at the top and bolted to the swim platform at the bottom. Our guess is that this ladder was whacked some time in the past because it was difficult to take off and really fun (not) to put back on. The transom mount was fairly easy. Just four 1-1/4-inch stainless sheet metal screws that go through the transom and into some plywood that is glassed into the inside of the transom. Luckily, the marina had those in stock too. I was determined not to use any of the old mounting hardware.
But down on the swim platform, things didn't line up. I had three old mounting holes to work with and a ladder that didn't match up. I found that if I backed out the Allen screws that held the steps in place, I could twist the sides of the step assembly enough to get them to line up with the old mounting holes. This isn't a factory-original swim platform and the holes that mount the ladder are really close to the edge of the teak swim platform. You can see how close it is here.
Here's how it all looked, once everything was bolted back into place.
The photos also show the Weaver Extended Davits that went back without argument. The whole thing looks good and will probably serve us well. I danced around on the swim platform since Frances was away but I soon got control of myself and covered the swim platform with a sheet. If you'd like to know what I was listening to as I danced around the swim platform, just ask.
Our trusty inflatable is in the cockpit and even though it's only 9-feet, 6-inches long it is definitely the elephant in the room. I pushed it around so that I could a get access the bridge.
We've always had issues starting the starboard engine from the bridge. We tested the ignition switch and sure enough, it was intermittent in the "start" position.
We installed a new Cole Hersee heavy-duty marine approved switch and the old engine cranked right over. We'll do the port side next weekend.
On our cruise-from-hell back to Portland last fall, we also had an intermittent failure on all of the starboard bridge instruments. Found the cause of that, too. Whoever installed the new gauges on the bridge didn't tighten one nut on the back of the voltmeter, where current is supplied to everything else on that side. Tightened that down and everything works fine.
Of course, I installed those new gauges. Stupid mistake and I should have known better.
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