Mayan's Progress

MAYAN, foreground

Mayan's Progress

For over two years MAYAN received the able ministrations of Wayne Ettel, master shipwright in his boatyard in Los Angeles. As a result, I've collected the various short bits of progress into one post to make it easy to avoid all this boat building stuff if you wish.

First, we wish to thank Paul Reck for building the model of MAYAN on the left. She's now on display at the St, Francis YC as a part of the club's collection. Paul did a wonderful job and we are thrilled to see her take her place amongst so many beautiful models.

Model building is a skill which amazes us. The patience and care that it takes to construct a tiny version of a boat or ship is significant and rare. The model Paul built was constructed the way MAYAN was, with a keel, stem, sternpost, horn timber, floor frames and frames. Then deck beams and deck planking. The hull was tight planked caravel fashion, as was MAYAN originally. The rig shown in the model is of MAYAN as a transitional schooner, with a gaff foresail and a marconi mainsail. This is the way she was built and the rig we are returning her to. More about Paul here.

While We're In Here.... 

To review, during our 2016 Master Mariner's Regatta we noticed that the cockpit floor was flexing quite a bit as our three 250+ pounders came aft to haul in the mainsheet; we do not have a winch on the mainsheet and it takes all three of them at a leeward mark or during a gybe to make progress hauling in the mainsheet. This prompted a reservation at the Wayne Ettel Boat Spa, which is anything but a "spa". But Wayne is the shipwright who rebuilt MAYAN's hull and deck in 2005 and re-built the interior for us in 2014.

We had known since our initial purchase survey that the cockpit was the only remaining piece of deck from MAYAN's original construction of oak frames, iron nails, and caulked decking. As a result, it had been suspect for some time. After removing the water maker and a few other bits, an exploration of the underside of the cockpit had Beau shaking his head and crawling out with a piece of frame in his hand. He had simply broken a large piece of the frame away; it was rotten. We sailed MAYAN carefully from Santa Cruz to LA, see the earlier post about winds steadily above 40 knots and significant seas, and after the StFYC Commodore's Cruise Wayne's crew went to work on her. 

The first step was to remove the cockpit, a process which took a week and resulted in some discoveries. We have had fuel quality problems for quite a while, and were looking forward to cleaning out the tanks. Only accessible when the cockpit is removed, we found that not only were they badly polluted, but they were also slowly leaking in various places. Out they came. To remove them the main engine exhaust system had to come out, and while we're in here we might was well do that right. This phrase would be repeated many times....

Iron sick beam ends

Iron Sick deck beam

It was easy to see why the beams holding up the cockpit floor were flexing. MAYAN had originally been built with iron nails and they cause what it called "iron sickness" in the oak beams. It's clearly visible in the beam on the left. it also showed up as holes in other beams, no trace of the original nails, just weakened wood with the stain of iron running through it.

Corroded fuel tank

Once the leaking fuel tanks were pulled from under the old deck, it became obvious that they were far worse than we'd imagined. One tank like the photo on the left occupied the space under the cockpit seats on either side, and then a small day-tank to port. Nearly every joint and weld was slowly oozing diesel fuel. While the tanks had clean-outs, which can be seen in the picture, the only way to get to the clean-outs was to remove the cockpit and then remove the tank. We won't be doing it that way in the future.

I think that "while we're in here" should be engraved on a bronze plaque just above the Engine Room entrance! The list grew and grew and grew...... Ultimately, we ended up with a yawning hole in MAYAN where there used to be a cockpit, fuel tanks, and the main engine exhaust. In the photo below you can see Wayne just after we completed removing the fuel tanks. The rudder head is just to the right of his left elbow and we've tossed a sheet of plywood onto of the floor frames so we can have a place to stand while working. Now, to start putting things back together!

Wayne Ettel in the hole that was MAYAN's cockpit

Fuel Tanks

Over the years the expectations for fuel consumption have gone up and up. Originally, MAYAN had an sixty horsepower gasoline engine and a fifty gallon fuel tank. That would push her along at about 5 knots at full throttle and at cruising speed she could travel for about one hundred miles. Of course this assumed there wasn't a headwind or any sort of seas. When out cruising, this meant that one couldn't rely on powering anywhere. The engine was primarily for getting in and out of port and short distances when it was completely calm. There was no refrigeration or heat, no electric lights or navigation instruments, certainly no expresso machine or microwave!  Things have changed. 

We had previously replaced what was left of MAYAN's internal ballast with larger batteries, bring her capacity up to 1,400 Amp hours. We had also installed a hydroponic diesel heater, microwave, expresso machine, refrigeration, RADAR, navigation system, AIS, etc.... All this is considered "normal" in a modern boat MAYAN's size, although almost all of it is entirely hidden from view, leaving the sailor with the illusion that they are sailing in the 1920s. Sometime in the 1970s a 130 horsepower MBZ diesel had been installed, which is capable of moving MAYAN right along at a cruising speed of 7 knots, but with the old fuel tanks she only had a range of about 90 miles. It was time for more fuel.

We also had reservations about the size of the cockpit well. It simply held too much water when a boarding wave came along. The solution was to make the cockpit seats wider. This made the cockpit foot well smaller, the space for the new fuel tanks larger, and the cockpit seat wide enough for people to sleep on deck if they choose to. A triple win! In the picture on the right you can see the new planks which made the seat wider and more comfortable.

While we were at it, there's that phrase again, we decided to increase the size of the secondary sheet winches. In the photo on the left you can see the large primary winches, Barient #35 size. The original secondary is the Barient #22 at the far right in the photo. Between the two original winches are the Barient #28s which we bought from a Cal-40 owner, they were original equipment aboard those wonderful boats back in the '60s when they were built. We repurposed the Barient #22s to upgrade the halyard winches for the spinnaker and fisherman staysail halyards.

We also decided to relocate the fuel fill plate while we were at it. These used to be located in the cockpit seats, and when the weather got rough  a pool of water would sit atop the fill plate. Naturally, this lead to salt water getting down into the diesel fuel and allowing the algae to grow in the fuel tanks. A terrible problem we had been fighting since we bought the boat. 

By locating the fuel fill plates on top of the winch islands there can't be any standing water atop them, it's easy to wipe up spills without staining the teak, as it's varnished up there, and it's much easier to get the fuel hose to the fill plate without banging into the cockpit combing. All great features of this new locations. 

 

With the fuel tanks approaching completion, the fill lines cut in and the new winch mounting bolts installed. Garrett started doing the dry fit of the new cockpit prior to varnishing and installation of the inset panels. 

Garrett is popping out of the hatch in the cockpit floor which allows access to the prop shaft and rear side of the main engine. It also provides a tremendous amount of air flow through the engine room when one has to work on the motor in hot weather. The cockpit floor is built of plywood covered in epoxy and carbon fiber, substantially stronger than MAYAN's old cockpit floor even when it was new.

In the upper left you can see the rudder head and the cut out in the cockpit floor around the horn timber. The wheel box will eventually go over this and hold the steering gear. 

Much of the fuel tank construction was performed by Garrett. They are built of carbon fibre and epoxy, a material vastly superior to welded metal. Of course, they would look terrible if they were exposed and spoil the feel of the 1930s, so they'll be completely hidden under the seats and cockpit sides. On the right you can see the two carbon fuel tanks with all bronze fittings. There are baffles internally to avoid slapping sounds while underway. Also, unlike the old tanks which had a stand-pipe to pick up the fuel above the sludge in the bottom of the tanks, these tanks are built to have the pick up at the lowest point in the tank so that any sludge is immediately transferred to the traps and filters where it can be removed.

Once all the cockpit bits were installed, it was time to add the teak grating and decking, the portholes which allow fresh air into the engine room, the engine instruments, and a lot of varnish before we re-installed the wheel box, wheel and binnacle. 

There's a wonderful tradition with Alden schooners. Every one of them that I've been aboard has a port hole which opens from the outside and leads into the engine room. At first I didn't understand the purpose of it opening from the outside. Then I read a article in an old Rudder magazine in which Alden described being aboard an 1920s fishing schooner far out at sea. A fuel line had leaked and caused a fire in the engine room. The only way to get to the fire to put it out was to open the hatch in the deck at the top of the engine room. When they opened the hatch, the fire got a lot more air and the flames roared out through the open hatch. Eventually, the crew managed to get buckets of water down the hatch and put out the fire. But, from then on, every Alden design has a port hole opening from the outside so that one can push the nozzle of a fire extinguisher into the engine room without opening a hatch and feeding massive amounts of fresh air to the fire.

With her new larger fuel tanks, MAYAN now has a range of over 500 miles without reducing speed to improve fuel consumption, and while running the refrigerations, heating, microwave, and espresso machine. You have to have the espresso machine running!

In the next post we'll go into various other projects that were the result of following the "While we're in there" creed including new rail caps, new jib sheeting system and a new samson post.