Inside The Barn

With the very predictable wet west coast weather in beautiful B.C., Paramount was moved to the barn for the work to begin.

Rockin' Robbie, a legend in the Granville Island Boat Yard (GIBY) was set to work on removing the 40 years of anti-fouling paint in preparation for Interlux barrier coat to be applied. After completely sanding the hull back to gel coat, a propane blast heater was set-up in the tent to ensure the hull was dry before being sealed. Rob applied three coats of barrier, and two coats of bottom paint.

The hull was found to be in overall very good condition, with only a couple of very small blisters that required filling and fairing.

The woodwork was removed from the helm station, headliner and old paper insulation removed from the interior and helm at the same time as the engines came off.

The bilges were cleaned and painted. "Captain Scotty" was in the bilges for weeks, scrubbing and cleaning under areas that had been inaccessible for 40 years. Where the generator was and under the outlaying soles were particularly dirty. The engine boxes were not as dirty as pictured - we dumped the engine oil and some antifreeze when we tipped the engine up to remove it.

Lift Day & 427 Engines removed

Granville Island, Vancouver B.C. 11 November 2008

The make ready work completed, Paramount is hand-bombed from the end of the dock to the lift bay. The engines were readied to pull and the companion way temporarily removed to allow access for the crane and allow the engines to go back in fully built after dyno-testing.

The lift operator came up with a nice solution to the stress placed on the rub rail along the hull when the lift straps are used, previous lifts had broken screw heads off in the aluminum trim, Jay cut Styrofoam pieces to keep the straps away from the hull/bottom join.

The family (and friends) all came down to see Miss P out of the water and on her way to being restored.

13 November 2008

We had planned to build an A-frame device across the engine bays to lift the port engine over to the starboard side to lift it out the companionway.

The crane operator was really good and able to stick his boom in the port side salon window and lift the port engine across for us. This saved us a couple of days building an adequate frame and hoist.

First we pulled the starboard engine out the companionway, he then repositioned his truck to move the port over to the starboard engine's stringers, then he moved back around to pull the port out. The generator was removed as well as it was never used, an unnecessary fire risk and dead weight. There were lead ingots in the bilge to counter the weight of the gen-set, these have been set aside until the boat is back in the water, in case some levelling is necessary.