Steelin's Preps
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Finally I've got the old boats done and can get to work on the interior of Steelin Time.
First I've got to make a home for the milling machine/lathe in the engine room and get it moved. This addition to the boat might make it the only 45 foot sailboat in the world with this type of equipment.  As if a  welder and 8KW generator weren't enough to put it in a class by itself.  If you ever hear of another I want to know about it and meet the owner, I'm sure we'd have lots in common.

Milling machine hanging from ship to shore "breeches buoy" pulley line. I had intended to not need the dinghy. Tested the line with my weight. I guess the anchor out the other side to the mast top was needed. Live and learn.

Transfer to the main boom block and tackle for the lift and lower into the engine room and the real wrestling match of getting it under the deck and bolted down to the custom platform welded up the day before.

Lifting free of the dinghy. The boat is a mess, all the extra stuff from all three boats. Next project, the belt drive for the 8kw generator and install the small handstart diesel. Then the underfloor tanks. That done, I can start to find nooks and crannies to find permanent homes for some of this stuff and eliminate the excess.

Firmly bolted down in it's new home. I need to figure out a large zip lock bag type of protection for this, any ideas? I do have a canoeing bag that closes with a plastic slit tube and rod arrangement, so probably draw on that technology.

I'll probably add some sort of tray work table under it to catch and hold stuff. That'll probably also connect into the bagging solution.

An interior picture of the main cabin from the ebay ad. The wood work is beautiful.

The rear cabin radio and electronics panel.

Main cabin.

A microwave/convection oven/ breadmaker all in one. I wanted all three but not devote the space for them. I had to build it myself.

Christmas 2007, I don't have the woodstove chimney installed yet. Santa didn't find me :(

The masts are varnished and the spreaders painted. Notice the drum up the mast, it filled with water comes down as I go up in the bosuns chair. I have built the steel companionway door and hinged cover, I plan to make steel waterproof access doors from the main and rear cabins to the engine room. A hard dodger is mostly built. A wind generator is built, mounted on the frame for the fiberglass dock box now a propane locker between the dingy davits.

The Simpson Lawrence anchor windlass is painted, I had a little paint in the can leftover from the spreaders, and this needed it. I aslo found a good working mate to this windlass at a flea market and mounted it on the stern with anchor chain and anchor roller, ready for bow and stern river anchorage. Also notice the staysail roller furler is installed next to the stay so I can still use hank on sail easily. Flexibility is very important to me.

This is a wooden Aztec Calendar, I bought it at a yardsale. It took the Yucatan builder over a year and is made with over 1000 pieces. I'll add an Ipe (Brazilian hardwood) grab rail combined with a 2.5 inch trough around the edge, cover it with clear bartop resin and install it as my table. It will move (rotate off center) and serve as a booth for 4 or table for 7 using setees on both sides of the main isle.

This started as a PVC pipe, add heat and the mold shown in the pic and its is a water channel for the Lazaratte hatch. 4 of these with miterd corners and drain pipe glued into the corner and it's done. I build a lot of stuff from heated and bent or molded PVC pipe. I also had to build the teak decking cover for the hatch, it was lost before I got the boat. The cover from the companioway provided the material for that.

The propane locker with boat name painted ready to fit in the rectangular frame added between the davits behind it. The letters in the name are designed to look like they are 3D and built out of steel I beam sections.

This is a hard dodger built up from fiberglass panels cut from a powerboat hull, and alluminum windshield parts from a couple different boats. It took about a month but I'm sure it will be appreciated when I get to high lattitudes and in storms.

I still need to finish the interior, but that can probably wait till after I start the trip. I plan to add some sort of a cockpit roof and modify some side curtains I bought a while back. It is bolted down to stainless nuts welded to the cabin top

This is the Aries lift up sef steering wind vane gear. I had to modify the top to get it above the propane locker and solar panel. You can also see the 2 piece dinghy hanging on the davits. It's tilted back to allow rain to run out.