Donald Sea

Donald Sea Restoration project of The Donald Sea. A 53’ New York Canal tug built in 1964.

Over the years, some sections of steel have corroded away from standing water and moisture. All of this damage was hidde...
22/09/2023

Over the years, some sections of steel have corroded away from standing water and moisture. All of this damage was hidden behind the wood furnishings. The largest sections were under the starboard side kitchen bench and also under the sink.

Another area that needed attention is on the second deck where the bulkheads meet with the deck plating. A failed fiberglassed repair had re-exposed the holes on the side. I’m betting the interior corrosion formed from water dripping down from the second deck and collecting in the kitchen. My temporary fix for this was removing the old fiberglass and covering the holes with a sheet metal/jb weld combo. This has since kept any water from seeping into the boat from the outside.

Thankfully, non of the corrosion has affected anything structural. I’ll detail my steelwork plans as well as some of the cutting and welding I’ve already done in my next post!

My main goal before haul out was reducing as much on board weight as possible. When she was last put in the water I was ...
19/09/2023

My main goal before haul out was reducing as much on board weight as possible. When she was last put in the water I was told she was reaching the limits of the yard’s 70 ton travel lift. I still don’t know the exact weight, but I’m guessing she is sitting around 60 tons.

With this in mind, I knew I also had to inspect all the steel bulkheads and deck plating for corrosion. So I decided to gut the entire interior and scrap all of the old wood panelling. I was sad to have to tear all that good craftsmanship out, but getting to the bones of the Don was absolutely necessary.

I spent most of July removing all the old wood panelling, cabinetry, furnishings, and insulation from inside the boat. It took about 7 trips to the dump to get rid of roughly 3,000 pounds of weight.

Along with the wood, there was also lots of old line, steel towing wire, and iron piping in the forward rope locker and engine room that I was able to get rid of.

She’s on the hard!!!It’s about time for a Donald Sea update. I haven’t been the best about keeping you guys in the loop,...
18/09/2023

She’s on the hard!!!

It’s about time for a Donald Sea update. I haven’t been the best about keeping you guys in the loop, but rest assured that I’ve been hard at work the past two months.

I sailed from Bayonne headed for Carteret on Sunday afternoon with Alex Plowucha and Jill Melford to pre-position the Don for haul out in Staten Island. She was pulled out this morning at high tide.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me the last five months to sail this old girl from the canals all the way down to NYC. While there is still a lot of work to do, this is a huge milestone that I’m happy to share with all of you.

I’ll follow with more posts, pictures, and videos over the next day or so to go into greater detail on what went on the last two months!

Thought some of you might find this interesting. Before the Empire State VI (SUNY Maritime’s late training ship) was sen...
05/07/2023

Thought some of you might find this interesting. Before the Empire State VI (SUNY Maritime’s late training ship) was sent off to Texas to be scrapped, I was able to save an old burner door the school was throwing out.

The Empire State VI was an old break-bulk steam ship built in 1961. She was powered by twin 600 psi D-Type Foster-Wheeler boilers. Each boiler had 4 burners, to my knowledge we were still burning bunker-c fuel. One of the pictures below shows me punching out the carbon that collected on the air diffuser plates.

The door I have was most likely a “used but good” spare that the cadets trained on to learn how to swap out burners. It’s cast iron and weighs around 100 lbs. I’d like to incorporate it on the tug somehow, maybe as a wall center piece. Otherwise it would make a great wood-fired pizza oven door 😂

Happy 4th of July!Cut the air tank out this morning and hauled it out of the engine room. Thankfully Kacper came by to h...
04/07/2023

Happy 4th of July!

Cut the air tank out this morning and hauled it out of the engine room. Thankfully Kacper came by to help because there was no way I could’ve done that alone 😂 So much more room down below now.

Inside of the tank is full of mud and has a pin hole on the bottom. Always remember to blow down your air receivers! Not sure if I’ll be able to find someone to sell/give that away to. The compressor, motor, and pressure switch work perfectly fine, so someone may find some use for them.

Big harbor freight haul today in preparation for the next engine room projects. I haven’t had a lot of time to start gut...
02/07/2023

Big harbor freight haul today in preparation for the next engine room projects. I haven’t had a lot of time to start gutting the past few days. My parents needed an extra hand demoing their new kitchen!

Next steps will be replacing the air compressor and hydraulic reservoir, ripping out the old potable and sewage systems, converting the main engine to electric start, and re-designing the hydraulic steering system.

The current air set-up takes up too much space and is overkill for what I need air for. Currently, I only use air for engine start and my road-rage horn. I’ll be downsizing to a smaller tank for to be used for work air and the ship’s whistle.

My hydraulic system is circulated by an engine-driven hydraulic pump. It works fine, although output pressure is dependent on engine RPM. I also cannot steer if the engine is offline, which would not be fun in an emergency! The new setup would have a seperate pump running off of an electric motor to maintain a more constant pressure.

The battery set-up will be a bit more fun. At the moment the generator is electrically started. However there isn’t an alternator so the batteries aren’t trickle charged as the boat is running. I spent many mornings on the canal manually charging up the starting battery with a wall plug in. Not ideal! I’ll attach a diagram I found online to give you all a better idea of how I will try to set that up.

Took the Amtrak this morning back upstate to drive my car down from Brewerton. I took a quick stop by the Don before goi...
27/06/2023

Took the Amtrak this morning back upstate to drive my car down from Brewerton. I took a quick stop by the Don before going home to see how she’s settling into the new neighborhood. She’s got great backlighting from Port Elizabeth. No better spot to watch the ships roll in!

Some shots from the trip today, my mom was watching us sail by from the statue’s live camera 😂
25/06/2023

Some shots from the trip today, my mom was watching us sail by from the statue’s live camera 😂

We made it!!!! 1430 on the dot at Elco Fisherman’s Marina. High tide and slack water. Pulling in was super smooth and so...
25/06/2023

We made it!!!! 1430 on the dot at Elco Fisherman’s Marina. High tide and slack water. Pulling in was super smooth and some of the Marina members helped position the tug. Thank you Alex Plowucha, Kacper Kozian, Roury Higgins, and Liam Sammons for making the journey with me (And the Sammons family for hosting us for dinner, of course). I could not have done it without any one of them. This is only the beginning, so much more to come with this beautiful boat!!!!

On our way! ETA to Bayonne is 1430.
25/06/2023

On our way! ETA to Bayonne is 1430.

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