MV Jezebelle: Renovation

The renovation page shows the latest work first.

The half-bath (head) is nearly complete, just need to install the ceiling and door.

The plumbing is complete. We installed ⅜” pex water lines to save on hot water usage, a water manifold distribution system and a water filter with a settlement, carbon, and UV bacteria filters.

The pilothouse and console is nearly complete, just need to add a little trim around the windows, build the cabinet doors and install the chart plotter.

The exterior Salon cabin walls have been painted, doors and windows installed.

Current

During Reconstruction

The first day we looked at the boat

The workbench in the engine room is done.

Added engine room doors with a fire rating of 2 hours. Still need to paint the walls.

Installed a 30-amp, 240-VAC inverter with a 24-VDC battery charger. Haven't installed the solar panels yet to complete the off-the-grid type electrical system we're going for.

All new fuel lines were installed, and we added a fuel transfer pump fuel polisher. Next to the transfer pump is the air compressor.

The hydraulic powered anchor winch has been installed.

Installed a hydraulic power unit to operate both the 12” bow thruster and the anchor winch. It's a dual hydraulic system, hydraulics power can be provided by either a clutch driven pump on the main engine or an electric hydraulic pump powered by the generator.

All the new pilothouse windows have been installed. We used quarter inch laminated glass, before we could install them there was a little bit of metal work to do around a couple of the windows.

Installed the new 4’ x 6’ hatch that the new Skylight will be attached to.

We are about 85% finished running new wiring for both the 120VAC and 24VDC systems, R-13 insulation has been installed, new plumbing ran and other misc. projects completed.

The plan is for Jezebelle to operate mostly from 24VDC solar power and batteries, the lighting, refrigerator, bilge pumps, the engine room exhaust fan all from DC power, then use a DC to AC power inverter for anything that needs 120VAC.

I left the original 6-cylinder Cummins 100-KW, 240VAC 3-phase genset on the boat for backup power, plus I'm considering other uses for it, perhaps a hydraulic backup propulsion system. We then purchased a 5-kw genset to keep the battery charged in case solar couldn't keep up with our usage. Pictured from feft to right, a three position cut off switch to change between shore power, the 100-KW genset and the solar/batteries, next is the 240VAC, 3-phase breaker box then the 24VDC breaker box.

R-13 insulation in the ceilings and walls installed.

New exhaust blankets and soundproofing installed.

New water heater installed

Completed a project I've been putting off for years, removing the last of the shrimp gear, pulleys from the engine room ceiling and the power take off from the main engine that ran the shrimp net winches.

After the power take was removed, we needed pulleys to run auxiliary equipment (hyd’s for a bow thruster and an air compressor) off the main engine. I was shocked that Cummings didn’t offer a pulley for the KTA-19 engine. The power take-off equipment had three pulleys included but they were on a wide clutch flange that just would not work well. I used a plasma cutter to cut the flange off the pulley and a good friend used his large machine lathe to clean it up, it worked out great.

It's hard to imagine all this was hanging on the front of the engine

Pulley behind clutch flange

Updated Pulley

Pulley and Belt Guard

Also rebuilt the workbench in the engine room. When we purchased the boat the batteries were mounted on top of the bench and it wasn't a flat space so I relocated the batteries below the bench and made a flat work space with a V-channel to catch liquid that spill and mounted a work vise. There's room for 10, 6-VDC deep cycle batteries for the solar power battery storage (work in progress).

One thing that troubled us with the Salon floor plan configuration was the engine room exhaust fan duct work was in the middle of the Salon. We decided to relocate it to the starboard wall near the new lube oil fill necessitating an exhaust louver on the side wall that was splash/leak resistant. The new engine room exhaust fan is run by a variable speed 24VDC motor with a maximum output of 2,000 cfm at 20-amps.

There’s a 150 gallon lube oil tank in the engine room that originally had its fill on the back deck. When we extended the cabin, I relocated the fill to the starboard wall as shown. The other fitting is for the sanitary pump out. I made a template out of wood before cutting the metal.

4th of July weekend, Mary and I used the boom truck to load the new hatch cover base on the boat and unload some scrap metal and junk. You can see, during construction we use the back deck as a catch all and this will probably be the last area on the boat refurbished.

Glad you don’t mind getting your hands dirty Mary, couldn’t have done this today without you…..

For the last few months I’ve been working on a number of smaller side projects, mostly metal repair.

Removed the window A/C that was mounted between the stern windows in the pilot house and one mounted in the upper deck. A number of rust holes in the cabin walls were patched, welded 3-inch sections of pipe back in place that were removed when we extended the cabin and I removed the port cabin hatch to have more room in the new galley.

Started the wood framing for the living space on the main deck including the galley, half bath, area for the pilot house couch and the new steps into the bow stateroom.

Before & After Photos

Pilot House Metal Work

Upper Deck

Upper Deck Clean Up

Starboard Cabin Hatch Removed

Framing New Galley & Half Bath

Bow state room

It was a cold and snowy winter...

A lot work was completed on our project in May and June. We finished removing the insulation from the fish hold in total, 70 yards of insulation was hauled off. The welding on the cabin extension was completed and the salon door's metal frame was installed.

To make sure the metal door frame hadn't warped when it was welded in place, we set the salon doors in the frame, pictured below. The doors fit perfect. Then we mounted temporary pine doors in the frame to use during construction.

It was hard to fine much time to work on Jezebelle in 2013 because of the demands of my daytime job and family matters. So, for 2014 I hired a crew to help with some of the more laborious jobs of the project, like, removing the insulation from the fish hold and finishing the welding on the cabin.

Removing the insulation was one aspect of the project I REALLY under estimated. Jezebelle was a freezer boat. The fish hold is 19' foot wide, 24' long, with 8' ceiling height and it had 8-inches + of insulation on it all. Not normal insulation, it had a 1/2 inch of concrete and wire on the front and back with hard foam in between. Very time consuming and hard to remove, we had to use concrete saws and jack hammers to strip it off..

So far we have half the fish hold cleared of insulation and have already filled up a 30-yard dumpster. I'll be so happy when this part of the project is done.

The cabin door frame is finished, radius corners made, hinge reliefs cut, hinge mounting plates welded in place. The frame is now ready to weld into place and mount the doors. In this photo I'm cutting the hinge relief, the hinge mounts were welded on the frame next.

Salon doors are ready for glass and hardware.

During the winter months we've been working in the shop. The skylight/hatch was finished up (except for latches). It was stained, clear coated, window glass installed, and then the metal base was painted. Then started building the salon cabin door.

To help protect the skylight from the elements when not in use, Mary is preparing to make a cover. We moved the skylight and now have it in the front room of the house to help make it easier for her to work on and it's warmer than the shop. She's completed the pattern, and is planning to sew the cover from material called “Sunbrella”, all we have to do before she can start sewing, is pick a color. The same color will be used for the other covers and awning on the boat.

The main cabin/salon entrance will be double doors, 48-inches wide and 72-inches tall, 1-7/8 inch thick made from quarter-sawn red oak, same wood used for the skylight.

The doors are about ready to stain and varnish. Now I'll need to build a metal door frame to mount them in that can be welding into the salon wall. The radius corners in the metal frame may take a little time to form.

The door windows and low panels will have radius corners to match the main cabin windows we plan to use. After the frames were glued together, radius inside corners were cut then glued into place.

Radius corners glued into place.

Radius corners, epoxy and a door sketch

As with the skylight, West System epoxy was used to glue all the joints together.

Here the door frames have been cut to size and the mortise and tenon joints made.

Cutting a mortise

Here’s a drawing of how we plan to remodel the main cabin and pilot house.

For the lower deck, we plan to build the bow state room first. Then, in what was the fish hold, build the stern state room and guest bunk room.

Lately, we've been thinking "what if" we left some cargo space on Jezebelle. Could we help pay for our travels by transporting cargo? If we left the fish hold intact, there would be over 3,700 cubic feet of cargo space, about the same as a 45-foot semi trailer, but only one state room on the boat. Or maybe a better plan would be have the same bow state room, add a guest bunk room and still have 2,600 cubic feet of cargo space. We could always add the stern state room later. Oh well, just something we're thinking about.

The current deck hatch into the fish hold is a 4 by 4-foot opening. The new hatch is 4 by 6-foot with a red oak skylight. This new hatch and hinged skylight will be positioned over the main state room below deck. The larger hatch will allow equipment and materials to easily be lowered below deck during construction, natural lighting for the state room and as an emergency exit.

Old hatch

Red oak skylight construction

New hatch under construction, installation in 2013

The old steps into the engine room were removed and the hole in the deck covered, a new opening was cut in the salon floor for new steps into the lower deck living quarters, 2-inches of concrete was jack-hammered and removed from the original cabin floor and an opening cut into the engine room stern bulkhead for a new entryway for the engine room.

Later, hardwood stair treads will be added to the steps.

Rough opening welded in place for the new engine room door.

Stairs under construction to access lower deck

In this photo the new cabin walls have been installed, lengthening the main cabin (salon) interior by 7-foot with a 5-foot exterior covered canopy/awning area. Later, near the end of the project, openings will be cut for new windows and the exterior cabin walls painted.

Here, the new upper deck is in place and the original back cabin wall has been roughly cut out.

Another photo of the interior extension. Haven't removed the old steps to the engine room yet and there is still 2-inches of concrete on the floor that will be remove later.

Mary's helping install the upper deck in this photo. Diesel fumes from the boom truck was bothering her, so she wrapped a shirt around her face

An interior shot of the cabin extension, haven't set the upper deck section or cut out the back cabin wall yet.

An exterior shot of the extension before we set the upper deck.

In this photo, my son Will is helping install the new cabin walls.

Preparing to set the new walls, here I'm cutting off the metal side plates from the original 5-foot overhang that had covered the deck winches, which will now become part of the interior ceiling.

While shmping, Jezebelle was a freezer boat; the shrimp were bagged then kept frozen below deck in the fish hold. In this photo I’m using a boom truck to remove the aluminum freezer coils from the fish hold. My brother in-law Pat Eve and my son Brandon helped remove the 5 freezer coils which totaled over 700 pounds of aluminum.

Once most of the demolishing work was completed, we were ready to begin extending the main cabin. To maintain the original Shrimp boat look, we only wanted to extend the cabin enough as to have a space for new stairs to the lower deck.

This is a picture of the main deck cabin after we removed all the rooms. Before, there were two bunk rooms, a galley, full bath and dinning area. This was the only living space on the boat while the crew was out shrimping for weeks at a time. Filled up a 30-yard dumpster cleaning out this cabin.