For years Rich and I have talked about getting boats: fishing boats, sail boats, wooden boats, plastic boats; it really didn't matter, we talked about boats. The second person (after my father-in-law) that I called to tell that I'd bought a boat was Rich. Showing her off was great.
While he was here, I had him help me raise the mast and we lifted the pop-top and put the cover on for the first time. I'm pleased with how much space there is inside the boat when the pop-top is up, and also with the amount of light and air that you get. One of our concerns about spending the night on the boat is how closed it would feel with the hatch boards in place, but with the pop-top up and the cover on, it doesn't feel close at all.
Of course, nothing like this goes unpunished. In order to snap the pop-top cover on, we had to remove the galvanized handle that was staining the back of the pop-top. The previous owner put it on so he had a secure handhold while motoring in heavy weather, but I wanted it gone. Not only was it ugly, rusting and staining the fiberglass, but I usually managed to catch my toe on it when going up on deck. Rich made short work of the bolts once we had the proper tools (two 10-inch Crescent wrenches). The bolts broke, the handle came off, and the whole works went over the side into the garbage can.
That was the bright side. On the down side, we found that several of the cover snaps were missing or not working, and that the zipper was corroded shut on one side. A little bit of coaxing got the zipper working, but the snaps will need to be replaced.
The scorecard for today:
Existing maintenance tasks completed:
- Pop-top cover put on and tested.
- Handle removed from back of cover.
New maintenance tasks added to the list:
- New snaps needed for pop-top cover.
- Remove rust stains from pop-top.
- Find a lubricant for plastic zippers and use on pop-top cover zipper to keep it from corroding again.