Easy Kid-Boat Jobs: Cleaning the cowl vents

One of the few jobs that my mom and dad gave me today was to clean the cowl vents, which are air vents all over the boat. I did this job over two days.

Cowl Vents Part 1 (Sunday's work)

You have to take off the top on the deck (in two parts), then you have to wash the first part and second part with vinegar and water (works best). I used a normal rag and a wash basin. Then I had to sponge the deck lightly (because it's teak) because the deck is dirty from all the gunk that has been blown into the air vents and then just laid there. I had to clean out the inside of the PVC tube. Then I put caulking in the holes in the deck and silicone in the screw holes in the base and then re-attach the base to the deck so it's watertight. Dad showed me how to do it properly the first time. Then I put the top part on and put silicone into the 3 screw holes before putting the screen back in. Then I wiped off the excess silicone.

Everything was very dirty. One of the two cowl vents in my parents cabin had a dead wasps nest in it. The one in the head had a LIVE wasp nest with 3 wasps inside, 1 was alive but very sleepy and then died in the wash basin because it was full of water. I also found larvae, dirt, mold, mildew and some of the old silicone or calking that had come off of the deck. When I lifted up the bases I found some small bugs, they were very small. I think they were no-see-ums.

Today I did 5 of the 6 easy ones. The forward one is more complicated because it has a screen and a self-efficient fan. Tomorrow I will do the 6th easy one and the 7th at the bow (which is the front).

Today it wasn't too hard. I would say the hardest part was the washing of the curved tube. Because your hand fits in but then you can't move it around a lot. The weather was hot. The teak deck - if you weren't wearing shoes - which you should be so you don't wreck the teak - will burn your feet. I wet the deck so my feet wouldn't hurt. My mom set up an area of shade with our Kammock fly (like a tarp) to make it cooler for me to work at my washing station.

I also had to fix the hose because where the end connects to the nozzle was bloating it from the water pressure and every so often if it was left unattended it would shoot the nozzle off. So I cut 3" off the hose with a knife and reattached the nozzle. Now there is no bloatation.

My workspace for Day 2. On Day 1 I was working at the stern under the fly.

This is what the deck looks like under the base. Most spots were pretty dirty. This one had a wasps nest on the side of the PVC tube going into the boat. I knocked it off with a screwdriver and dropped it overboard.

I have a feeling that the 6th cowl vent will have a dead wasp nest it. That's the one in my cabin. I think the one at the bow will be hardish because it's in a weird position with a 3 legged metal frame overtop. I don't know why that frame is there.

I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow.

Cowl Vents Part 2 (Monday's work)

Looking down into my cabin through the PVC and a good view of the wasps nest I had to get rid of

Today I did the last 2 cowl vents. This was pretty quick. About 15 minutes for my cabin and 30 minutes for the one at the bow. The one in my cabin did have a dead wasps nest in it. I just fallowed the protocol (see Part 1). The forward vent on the bow was more complicated. I removed the top where the air goes in but it was pretty clean. I unscrewed the big part (the base), then turned it around and looked in it and cleaned that out with vinegar and water and rinsed with water. Used the silicone and caulking to make it watertight when I put it back together. The top part was a bit squashed so dad is looking v-berth for a spare while I write this. He didn't find one.

It was a very wet job because when you are rinsing everything off the water flows onto the deck and under your bum and sits there. Also Grace was playing with the hose and kept on spraying my shirt when I told her not to.

This is was the teak looked like after it was cleaned off. You can see how much has worn away since 2001. Mom and Dad say there is plenty of teak left though.

Next job is for me to help my sisters wash all the leaves and dirt out of the cockpit from the fall before the boat was wrapped. After that I want to finish the book I've been reading (The Wishsong of Shannara, book 3 of the trilogy) and go to the pool because it's really hot.

Bye and my next blog post might be about the cockpit.

Liam