As part of the deck hardware redesign project, the old winches, organizers and clutches have been removed. Once these were removed, we found wet areas of deck core under them so...remove old core, cut and install dry balsa. Sounds easy until you factor in the hardeners that don't want to play nice so we get to to remove and repeat. Finally get it to a workable state, then pull out those power tools and fair, fair, fair. Soon enough it will be time to start vacuum bagging which sounds straightforward until you remember this is all on the deck, which is the ceiling of the cabin and gravity is always on. Now add in the fact that this is a project lead by Captain Perfecto and so there is no "good enough", it has to be completed to a finish better than new and you see why I say recoring is a pain in the butt. Hopefully soon we have a perfectly dry and sound deck ready to accept the deck hardware. I will tell you that there will be LIBERAL use of butyl tape on all the insertion points so we never have to do this again.
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| The girls cabin looks like a haunted house right now. Or a work space draped in plastic to keep the dust down. Same thing. |
Let me remind you all that we did not buy a project boat. Ours just needed a "little"bit of work. I say this because just today someone was asking whether or not they should take on a boat that the sellers have deemed a "project" boat. If a seller is calling it a project, run screaming in the other direction.
On a happier note, the front cabin now has an installed hand rail and cabinetry on the port side where once there was a cramped head.
Want to make Captain Perfecto's eye twitch? Point out that you can see the teak bungs covering the screws. He spent more time than you can imagine trying to get the grain to match perfectly so they would disappear. It confounds him that they are visible. I told him they were almost decorative and hey, its just craftsmanship on display. I have yet to convince him but he has accepted it somewhat due to other pressing projects.
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Visible bungs or not, we have more storage and I LOVE storage. |
I have to figure that all used boats are 'project' boats. But it is certainly disappointing to find wet core material where you thought there was none. What a PITA. Forward cabin looks awesome, though, so you know that the whole boat is going to look this good in the end. We know the phrase 'it's only money' already. Anyone getting into the refit game should be sure they can say that phrase tongue in cheek and still sleep at night. Hope you can get her painted. She would be like a new boat.
ReplyDeleteLike Fort Knox. It'll all pay off in the long run, somewhere in the deep blue.
ReplyDeleteI take it you've tried polishing the painted hull already with no or limited sucess?
ReplyDeleteSeriously consider using Interlux Perfection and DIY. It's designed for amateur application and gives very nice results. Pro paint jobs run close to $1K / foot on topsides. That buys a lot of boat drinks down south. It will take about 1 week depending on weather with the boat hauled out to do a nice job. It also depends on the condition of your hull. Ours was really nicked and banged up from a dinghy withe external oarlocks. Lots of fairing required. Bank on 1 coat of primer and 3 top coats.
We did the topsides on our little 30' monohull twice with Brightsides. (We did it twice because Brightsides fades after a few years and we wanted it glossy to sell it. We also did a colour change from dramatic blue with big yellow stripe to boring blue with boring white stripe to make it easier to sell. Absolutely drama free and very easy to paint topsides (Decks are another matter).
The hull us in good shape. The problem with the paint is we think the owners did a compound and wax job before listing. The hull is painted with Awlgrip and compounding it is a no no. So while it looked great on the sales dock, they have ruined the paint. Grrr...
DeleteWe knew painting would be expensive but have not seen anywhere near a quote for $42,000 for it. I thought the estimate of $17,000 was high!
I'll take a look at the Perfection though and see if that is an option.
I'm surprised to read that you are replacing wet balsa with more balsa, at least where the deck gear is through-bolted. You might want to consider solid glass pads, or sealed and epxied plywood inserts, because when you epoxy those to sealed core on all sides, you are essentially drilling and bolting through a material that can't allow future wetness to migrate to the core. The Don Casey book on deck and hull repair shows this well.
ReplyDeleteI've had to do this job and as well as doing the "epoxy donut" trick, I use 1/4" aluminum backing plates to spread shearing loads. I most recently used these methods for a boarding ladder mount on my side deck of the plastic boat: http://alchemy2009.blogspot.ca/2013/07/reboarder-patrol.html
We thought about that but in the end decided to stick with the original design/engineering. We are changing course from what the yard/po did though by, you know, PROPERLY bedding the hardware to avoid moisture ingress in the first place.
DeleteThat certainly works as well. I would suggest at a minimum gouging out bigger boltholes (use a smallish Allen key on a drill) and taping underneath the hole, filling the hole until level with the deck with a thickened slurry of epoxy, and then drilling right through the center of that to isolate the core. Proceed with the usual caulking of the bolts and the undersides of whatever is being mounted, plus a backing plate. I'm at 15 years and no drips using this method on some of the cleats on my old sloop. I found a good summing up of what I'm saying right here: http://captnmike.com/2012/05/24/re-bedding-deck-hardware/
DeleteAdding an epoxy donut, in exactly the way you describe, is included in the repair plan. This technique has been applied to all the deck hardware re-bedded during the refit. It is such a pitty this wasn't done by the boat yard as it would have avoided thousands of dollars of unecessary time and expenditure during the re-fit. Ironically it was thr rotted core on a chain-plate bulkhead that opened the door to re-fitting the entire boat and has (to date) delayed our sail departure date by 4 years!
DeleteI can not believe Mark actually wrote on the blog.
DeleteAmazing.
That Vberth is looking A Maze Zing. Seriously, what can Mark NOT do. Sorry to hear about the deck rot...another unexpected rot issue with your boat, but you know, oh well. At this point getting so close to leaving I imagine you are ready to just screw the damn things in and move on. You'll (Mark) will sleep better at night though now knowing you aren't allowing your deck to rot.
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