Launchpad McQ's Catalina 30 Atomic 4 Saga

[Launchpad McQ]

Hey wristsister!
There’s more twists and turns coming for sure, and most of them not good....yet I won’t drop any spoilers but I’m somewhat on the 3rd rebuild attempt now. I’m still impressed with the speed you got your daughter’s A-4 rebuilt, pez-candy painted, and reliably operating. Hopefully she’s out there on the water enjoying the boat. We set a deadline to have the boat seaworthy and on the water for the upcoming Fleetweek.....3 Fleetweeks ago As long as we don’t hit another major setback with the motor and my impending vasectomy is successful to preclude any more Sept/Oct babies, we’ll be out there for Fleetweek 2020...or maybe 2021. I should leave myself a little wiggle room

[wristwister]

Yup, she's still sailing the Tartan and her Barbie engine is still purring along. I too was amazed how simple it was to rebuild that engine (although I suppose the fine folks at Moyer deserve some of the credit).

I was sailing with my kidlette down there earlier this summer. Got all the way to the south bay and wrapped a dock line around the prop. We sailed her back and into the slip, she batted her eyelashes at a strapping young lad in the Yacht Club, and he dove and untangled the prop. Funny, I never seem to be as successful finding volunteers to help me with boat chores.

[Launchpad McQ]

Haha! That poor hormone-intoxicated guy jumped in the 50 degree marina water full of boats with dodgy electrical grounding that 'never pump out' their holding tanks!? I hope she at least gave him a kiss for his effort!

[ndutton]

Reading through the high drama and comedic prose of the past 21 months, at this point in the epic I'm wondering what the aggregate expense has been thus far. We have $6500 in the initial purchase, at least one $1200 tow, more ill fated engine repair attempts than I care to go back and count, perhaps but unknown if there have been any other repairs unrelated to the engine and all the while making decisions in consideration of future resale.

So, if I can ask, how much has been invested in this $6500 boat?

[JOHN COOKSON]

I think a better term in this case would be sunk cost not investment.

Boats are more of a hobby than an investment. Unless you cruise a lot and live on the boat. Then it becomes a lifestyle. Still usually not a good investment. Of course there are exceptions. Classic in demand and improved boats, like your Westsail, might command a higher price. Then again there are labor hours............

Anyway, in McQue's case I think his hobby is to work on the boat with no definite end in sight. Different strokes for different folks. I know in my case i would sink the boat and write off the cost. But that is only me. I'm not McQue.


TRUE GRIT

[ndutton]

I have spent more on mine than it's worth too but the difference is there was never a resale consideration in any decision whereas in McQ's case there was. This is not a comment on whether or not there should be, that falls under the different strokes mantra.

Where I was headed with my comment earlier today was this forum's repeated suggestion to do it right and cry once (credit D. Neptune if I recall correctly).

[Launchpad McQ]

Well since you guys asked, and my wife doesn’t read this forum.... the answer to the money question is: A lot. Seriously though I’m not bashful about ”opening the books,” especially since I’m always hoping to help others learn from my mistakes. A friend of mine once made the recommendation, “if it’s a hobby, don’t save receipts.” Unfortunately I didn’t take his advice and I have a spreadsheet documenting everything I’ve spent over $5. Every stainless bolt, every bottle of simple green, every waxing pad, everything.

The seller was asking $6500 for the boat but I paid $5000 after negotiations. The tow to the boatyard was covered by the towing insurance and the aforementioned exercise in foolishness saved the cost of the tow back. We ended up spending just under $4000 during the haul out including haul & splash, yard expenses, equipment rental, and materials. I spent $1000 to buy a spare A-4 that ended up being scrap (story to follow) and I’ve probably got close to $2000 more in rebuild expenses at this point for my engine. But those are just the “big expenses.” All the $100 trips to West Marine have added up to quite a bit.

I was going to make this point in a future post, but my philosophy on old houses, cars, boats, and airplanes remains unchanged: If you plan to pay someone else to do the work, you can’t afford it....unless you’re wealthy. To Neil’s point, would I have been better off buying something already in seaworthy condition? Absolutely. In fact I recently found a 1986 C-30 for co-worker that he ended up paying $15k for and is a much better boat, for probably $4k less than I have into mine after 5 years of on-again-off-again work. When it comes to the A-4 specifically, if I had to do it over again, I’d buy the $3500 “short block option” from Moyer no question. Even though I’m not under a deadline to get the engine running, I’ve spent much, much more time working on the engine than I wanted to. Multiple trips to the machine shop etc. (I have two kids now after all).

Ultimately, the boat is serving its purpose well. It’s a private, clean, quiet-ish, always-available place for me to sleep 4-6 nights/month when I’m in SF for work that I don’t spend on hotel expense. (“Cheap” hotels in San Francisco can frequently run $200+/ night when they’re not sold out for some tech conference in town) We allocate $400/month into a dedicated bank account for the boat to cover slip fee ($275ish), with the remainder going to insurance, quarterly bottom cleaning, and repair expenses. The way we see it, we’re money ahead. If I’m being totally honest, in hindsight taking out a loan for a larger 2-cabin Catalina 34 might’ve been a better fit for us in the long run but five years ago taking out a $40,000 loan for a boat was unfathomable. It would still be very hard to justify given this boat is paid for. Sometimes it’s hard to look at the total dollar amount we’ve spent on the boat without a tinge of remorse but surprisingly, my wife has the more sanguine outlook on the issue. She’s quick to point out “for a mountain kid from Colorado who’d never been on a boat bigger than a canoe, you’ve learned a lot about boats!” The difference between the cost of a turn-key boat and what we’ve spent on our fixer-upper has been deposited in the “the bank account of experience,” and that account balance is growing by the week

[ndutton]

Ultimately, the boat is serving its purpose well. It’s a private, clean, quiet-ish, always-available place for me to sleep 4-6 nights/month when I’m in SF for work that I don’t spend on hotel expense

Has this been the goal from the outset or has it changed along the way? Does it remain the goal looking forward?

[TomG]

There's an old airline pilot saying that goes "The best part about being an airline pilot is you can live anywhere you want. The worst part about being an airline pilot is you can live anywhere you want."

At my airline, about half the pilots live outside the domicile and fly in to work each week. It's a constant hassle and you either have to spend a thump on a hotel or you live in a crashpad. Neither is a very good choice. What Jonathon has done is make a silk purse from a sow's ear. Knowing what he knows now, I'm sure he'd make a few changes in his plan, but that goes to the other old saying: "Good judgment come from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment."

[Launchpad McQ]

Has this been the goal from the outset or has it changed along the way? Does it remain the goal looking forward?

The plan hasn't changed much Neil. Priority number one has always been a comfortable sleeping quarters but having a seaworthy boat we can sail has always been a close second. Early in the boat shopping process we determined that we could get more "living" space per foot in a powerboat but we wanted to learn to sail.

*Tangent Alert*
When I was younger I flew sailplanes (aka gliders) and I see a lot of parallels between the relationship of sailplanes/airplanes and sailboats/powerboats. The former requires a heightened sense of the environmental forces (and a deeper knowledge of them) at work on the machine while the latter gives you the luxury of "powering through" the environment. I've always enjoyed "the journey as much as the destination" so I think we made the right choice joining Team Sailboat vs Team Powerboat.

[Launchpad McQ]

With the disassembled engine back home in Denver, I could finally progress with this absurdly-too-long engine rebuild project. I found a local machine shop with a good reputation and brought the block in for cleaning and inspection. Given the fact the shop was in Denver, I expectedly had to answer many questions about what this little flat head engine was out of, and how it travelled the 900 miles from a sailboat in San Francisco to a city a mile above sea level. We agreed on a course of action to include ultrasonic cleaning, magna fluxing for cracks, and measuring before committing any more money to the block.

A couple weeks later I got the good news that the block was in decent shape for its age, especially considering this was a raw water cooled block who's water jackets were doubtfully ever maintained in any meaningful way. The cylinders would be bored .10 over, new valve seats cut, and multiple thread repairs made using a product called a "Time Sert." (a solid helicoil-like product) I gave the green light to the machine shop to proceed with the work, warmed up my credit card, and gave Ken a call. The list included:

-New Pistons .10 over
-New Rings .10 over
-Full Gasket Set
-New Crankshaft (Rods & Mains .10)
-New Rod Bearings .10 over
-New Main Bearings .10 over
-New Intake Valves
-New Exhaust Valves

While I was waiting for the parts to arrive, I got terribly sick. The doctor diagnosed me with an acute case of severe dumbshititis and the symptoms included purchasing an additional Atomic 4... sight unseen...off Craigslist...from Los Angeles...and shipping it to Denver...in wintertime. Uhhhh, yeah. I did say it was a severe case right? Well, thats exactly what I did. It seemed like "too good of a deal to pass up." This late model A-4 was supposedly from a fresh-water cooled boat, "running like new," and $1000. I figured this rebuild was taking me so long, I'd give this running A-4 a fresh coat of paint, ship it out to SF, drop it in the boat, and then sell my soon-to-be rebuilt motor for enough money to cover the cost of everything once I got it finished. "It was like getting a free motor!" Needless to say, it didn't go as planned. First of all, the 'Craigslist motor' wasn't even close to the condition it was advertised as. The block was badly rusted in many places and almost rusted through in one spot. Secondly, it appeared that at some point in transit the block likely froze and there was a crack in the head right below the temperature sensor sensor boss.


Dumbshititis. When it hits me, it hits hard.

I tried to convince myself (and my wife) that I was not truly losing my mind and that I would salvage the situation. I would take the best parts of the two motors and build one "Grade A" motor to be ultimately installed in our boat while taking the less perfect parts and assembling them into a "Grade B" motor to be sold at some hypothetical later date to some hypothetically desperate sailor looking to salvage their sailing season from some hypothetical crippling engine condition and in need of a replacement "Grade B" motor.

Just then things started to look up. My original block was back from the machine shop, bored, cleaned, and ready to be assembled. I'm pretty sure I cracked a beer and just stared at the engine for an hour.





Since now no expense was being spared on this rebuild, I figured nothing less than a fancy, expensive, time consuming Eastwood Ceramic engine paint job (fire engine red of course) for this soon-to-be-pin-up-of-the-month would be appropriate. I turned the block over to get a better angle at the paint removal and that's when I saw it. When I say "it" I mean the incontrovertible sign that I had likely just crossed into Narnia, the Great Beyond, the Event Horizon, the Other Side, the place where no sane man dares go:



"A crack in the block that I just spent over $1200 in parts and machining for!? I thought the machine shop had magna fluxed it!? WHHHHHHAAAAATTTTT THHHHHHHEEEE FFFFFFUUU#%@!"

[Surcouf]

You have to admit that human nature has proven in history that it can be the absolute worse .... but also that some kind of strange and unexpected sense of humor emerges out of nowhere in dire circumstances !!!

free adapting from Shakespear : «**Back unto the crack, chaps!*»
Good luck

[wristwister]

Yeah, wouldn't the magnaflux have picked that crack up? Guess I'll just have to wait for the next chapter to find out what happened.

By the way, is that a YJ in the background? I'm doing a build up of a YJ in my shop right now.

[Al Schober]

Wow! Isn't that a bummer? I'd be interested in hearing what the magnaflux guy has to say/suggests..
Looks like freeze damage from a poor winterizing job. Question now is whether to write it off or to try and save your investment. One plus is that it's in an area of low thermal/mechanical stress. A crack in the upper deck would be the kiss of death (perhaps that's the only area they looked at for the magnaflux?). My thought is that the crack could be ground out a bit then sil-brazed - but you'll want to get the opinion of someone who's tried such a fix (I haven't).
Another reason to go to glycol cooling!

[ndutton]

Did you pressure test the water jacket prior to disassembly (this saga has gone on so long I can't remember)? I ask because all too often we hear of guys jumping into disassembly and losing out on one of the most important tests that can be made.

Several years ago I acquired a late model A4 for free. The very first thing I did was the pressure test (successful) which confirmed a viable block and manifold. Only then could I be confident proceeding with the rebuild.