Commander 227

[Rico]

Pretty!

Very nice shine!

I considered going with the classic blue hull with red waterline stripes. I really like the scheme for classic looking sailboats like the Commander. It will complement the wood nicely.

Unfortunately the dark blue reaches VERY high temperatures in the bright California summer sun... so I needed a light color.

I caught a lot of grief when telling people that the Mephisto Cat would be Gray -but to my relief everyone changed their tune when they saw the finished product...

The finish looks beautiful and you will get no votes against on the dark blue!

[Commander227]

I have not had much time for the Princess lately and spring is right around the corner. Average Ice out for Lake Minnetonka is April 15th. To quote some dude in a flannel shirt, "git er dun"
Pic #1; Rudder about ready to install after cutting the prop aperture, glassing and gel coat. just need to sand and apply the VC-17.
Pic #2; Motor assy. set in place, needs to be aligned with the shaft, but I had to send the shaft to the machine shop to have the keyway lengthened.(sure wish I could learn to read a tape measure).
Pic #3; Bulkhead trimmed and varnished, still need to make the rest of the interior trim and the door to the head and touch up the cuddy paint. (also install the head)
Pic #4&5; Fabricated and installed the new companionway sill. I did this before fabricating the rest of the trim to be sure I had the right angles and a good fit. Need to finish the last few coats and install remaining pieces.

[Commander227]

Pic #1; Coaming boards ready to reinstall, Sanded to bare wood (again)and doweled all the PO holes. The wood was quite rotten at the joint between the board and Knuckle so I hardened the spongy areas with West System thinned with acetone, then put them back together with West thickened with adhesive filler. Then 3 coats Perfection Varnish, sanding with 320 grit between coats, then a 180 grit sand down followed by 320. 3 more coats with 320 between, another 180/320 sand down and 2 final coats. after it cures a few days I'll wet sand and buff.
Pic #2; The coaming board mounting holes were stripped out and the plywood was rotten around the holes. I step drilled with a Unibit (my favorite tool) until i got to good wood, then filled with West thickened with high density filler. Next I'll drill and tap to 1/4-24 and install the boards with machine screws.
pic #3; I brought The Princess back to my shop (it wintered in a friends shop) now that the paying winter work is done. It will be much easier to find time for her now that shes close.
I still need to install all the cleats, chocks, traveler, hardware for the running rigging, chainplate beauty rings and drain grates, place and paint the waterline, apply barior coat and bottom paint, finish motor install, pull out the lead pig and replace with battery boxes..... Its nearly 50 out today....Tick, tick, tick.

[Commander227]

I considered going with the classic blue hull with red waterline stripes. I really like the scheme for classic looking sailboats like the Commander. It will complement the wood nicely.
caught a lot of grief when telling people that the Mephisto Cat would be Gray -but to my relief everyone changed their tune when they saw the finished product...

Rico,
I feel a little like a sell out for opting for the flag blue scheme, it being all the rage in daysailers these days, but I really do like it. I was torn between the flag blue, yellow to match my Ensign & Bright red. I think I will break from pop culture and go with a white waterline instead of the red.
Mephisto Cat looks fantastic in the gray!!!! Classy and original. Gray is also a great choice as it is an easy color to touch up and blend when you get the first inevitable dock rash.

[ebb]

BEAUTIFUL WORK!
Exquisite.

Must say I liked the Commander when she was all stripped and primed all WHITE.

What a sweet looking boat the Commander is!

[Commander227]

Today after work Tim and I were installing the coaming boards on The Princess when disaster struck!! We had removed the gantry lift straps and moved the boat stand pads high up on the freeboard to apply the barrier coat. We looked at the boat and talked about it's stability before climbing up. I worried that the keel which was sitting on some 2x6s on the cement floor could skid out and the boat would rotate inside the stands, but the barrier coat was too soft to put the straps back on and I really wanted to get the coaming boards on tonight. Well, that is exactly what happened just as we were both on one side of the boat; Tim pushing on the board to flex it into position and me with drill in hand to pop the first hole. The Princess started to go over...Tim, the experienced scow sailor, started climbing to the high side and looked ready to jump over the rail to stand on the keel to keep her from turning turtle while I rode her down and jumped out just before she settled on the floor. No one was hurt and the damage seems limited to a couple of gouges from the boat stands amid ship, some dings on the toe rail in two spots, and the straps played havoc in the fresh barrier coat when we righted her, all in all it could have been much worse.

[Rico]

Holy knockdown!

I've read many times on the board that these little boats always pop right back up after a knockdown... I guess it is not so true in the dry!

Still a testament of the sturdiness of these boats.

I'm glad everyone is OK.

[Commander 147]

You've been trying so hard to "get er done" and apparently pushing a wee bit too hard.

I'm really glad you and Tim are OK and the Princess can be repaired. Things could have gone far worse.

With the exception of the new damage she sure is starting to look good though. You're going to have a really fine boat when you do finish her.

[bill@ariel231]

Yikes, glad nobody got hurt. paint is easier to fix than people.

[ebb]

Sorry for the mishap.

To my knowledge this is a first timer on this Forum.
Thanks for letting us know.

Always wonder about these things happening
- and what damage is sustained.

Tell us what if anything happened to the hull-to-deck joint.

I'd like to know how you will go about fixing the LPU.
I've got Awlgrip on my topsides.
Have no idea on 'patching and repainting, etc.


Best of luck. Like you say it could have been much worse.
I believe that shinola happens but
there is a special kind of good luck swedish angel that looks over our fleet.

[Commander227]

After seeing the pile of boat bling on Rico's page I knew I'd have to spiff up the Princesses jewelry. I had two boxes in the truck; one for the chrome platers, containing the stem fitting, Pearson ID tag, lights and drain grates. The other box containing the cleats, chocks & window frames I was bringing to be re-anodized.(much cheaper than chrome plating) When I got to the plate shop the guy asked about the other box....shot me a price to plate the both boxes....($500.) my head started spinning with the thought of all those shiny things, I think I agreed...next thing I know I'm driving away thinking about some old saying ....something about a fool and his money.

[Commander227]

My first inclination was to make the hull deck joint disappear like "Mephisto Cat" but as the Commander has a near vertical freeboard amid ship I was nervous about not having any protection for the new paint. I wanted something that would stand proud of the freeboard by at least 1/2".
I found this profile at Eagle Molding. It is made to accept the original stainless trim piece. It comes in 16' pieces so there is only one joint to miter in, and it went on very nicely. I filled the void with 4200.

[Commander227]

When I bought the Princess, the waterline was just 1" tape, was 4" too high, and not plumb with how I felt the boat should balance so I did not have any reference as to where to place it after the paint job. I poured over all the plans in the manual, looked at all the pictures I could in the Gallery and came up with a enough points to run the line. Then I worried and worried about it's placement. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and I put the blubbers in the well to remove enough ice to float the Princess, guessed the weight of the mast and rigging and donned my hip boots armed with a china marker. I figured she was at her design attitude when water ran into the mid ship scuppers at an equal rate from the bow and the stern. Then I made as many marks as I could reach without having ice cold water run into my hip boots, pulled the boat back out, turned her around and marked the stern. After I got her back into the shop I used a borrowed laser level (the rotating beacon type), leveled out the boat by placing the laser's line 1" above my marks and followed the laser for the lower tape line. Then i raised the level 3.5" to shoot in the upper tape line. You can see in the photo how close we were to the line we came up with from the pictures and drawings. Bob came back over and started to repair the damage from our little mishap and shot the new line. After seeing the white barrier coat I changed my mind from VC-17 bottom paint and used white Vivid instead. So having a white waterline wouldn't work so I had him shoot it in red.(without getting spousal approval, she has not seen it yet)

[bill@ariel231]

mmmm... shiny!

I think you got a bargain on the chrome plate. I had a quote for $500 for just my nav lights (haven't done those yet).

[jshisha]

Looks great!

I have rechromed the stem piece and the cover for the tiller shaft. I am afraid to chrome plate the cleats and chucks for fear that the chaffing of the lines will peal off the plating. How long do you think the plating will holdup?