Back to work

It was another sticky hot day yesterday, but there was no rain in the forecast, so I detarped in preparation for some work outdoors at some point. Way too disgusting yesterday, but expecting more of the same humidity and heat today, I got an early start this AM. Turns out today is absolutley beautiful - a perfect day for sailing...

Anyway, I got out the tools, Tyvek suit and respirator, and went out to the boat and I was greeted by this:
bird crap all over the coach roof and hatch. Just curious, I thought I'd check down below because I didn't have the hatch boards in place, and they even hit inside on the companionway steps and sink! And this is only second time I have left the tarp off overnight. Oh well, there will be plently of clean-up before this project is all done.

So I got to work. I hacked and gouged out all the balsa I could along the edges of the opened section of the deck. Then I stuck the 60 grit disk on my sander and went to work grinding the backs of the three panels I had cut out, then did the same to the lower skin of the opened section of deck.

After vacuuming all the dust, I wiped everything down with acetone. Next, I'll cut the pieces of Core Cell to replace the balsa core in this section, and dry fit them into the holes. I'm thinking I'll lay some fiberglass over the extra thin sections of the inner skin and patch a couple of holes before the first layer of Core Cell goes on. In any event, I'm ready to epoxy!

Not Entirely Idle

Holy smokes! Three weeks since an update. Almost the whole month of July. Egads! But I haven't been entirely idle. Let's see:

• No recoring. Excuses? It's been raining or bloody hot. Tarping and re-tarping , as I've said before is a royal pain. At least build a semi-permanent shelter if you do something like this. I balked at that initially because I was worried about neighbors. Heh. Turns out, they get to look at my blue tarp and staging all Summer now.
• Chain Plates. I finally got the rear chainplate off by breaking the lone stripped bolt and nut that was holding it on. It wasn't too difficult really, the brass was all corroded and compromised anyway. Then, I brought the chainplates in to Gowen Marine after I called them to find someone who could fabricate one or two for me and inspect the others. The ones from the side decks were pronounced "solid" and perfectly good, and the mids from each side were straightened. I couldn't determine if they were supposed to be bent or not, and both were bent at different angles, so I had them straightened. A new rear chainplate was fabricated from 316 stainless and is no longer the weak link back there! The old one had been bent and otherwise deformed and was scary. The transom will rip off before this puppy gives way!
• Sanding coamings. More of the same. It seems endless. I'm not happy with the way the rotted section is looking. Also, I'm thinking I may need some type of "cleaner" to bleach the wood and make them look more uniform. I'm concerned all the imperfections will only be highlighted by the varnishing.
• Tops in Quality. OK, gripe time. I've been emailing back and forth for around three months ow, no hurry, really. I'd take measurements and email them, and the rep would ask for another measurement that wasn't on their web page. Finally, I asked if he could email me whatever measuring guides he had so I could look at the whole thing already. He did. Two pages. One was basically an updated page from the web site. The other started on I'm guessing the second page of some other document, because the first item was numbered 6. Anyway, I measured everything and remeasured again and sent an email on Monday, 07.17.06, which said, "I'd like to place my order, here are the measurements, was else do you need?" No reply. So on the 19th, I emailed him to see if he had recieved my order. He said he was just looking at it, but didn't see two measurements that I had mentioned in the email. So, I copied them from the email I had sent, and said, "Do you mean these? If not, tell me what else you need." No reply. I figured, maybe he's busy. I don't want to be too annoying, etc. Then, finally, I emailed on Monday, the 24th. I got a reply from someone else that said he was on vacation and wouldn't be back until Monday the 31st! I asked this person if it had been ordered, she said "no" since he didn't get my credit card info... Grrrr. Nice. Guess I'll wait until next Monday, two weeks after I tried to place my order - and they're at least four weeks out, I was told. (Which to me, sounds like at least six weeks now the way they operate.) But hey, what's 2 weeks anyway, it's not like it's holding me up or keeping me from going in the water or anything. But it sure doesn't build any confidence in these jokers either. I wish I had an alternative.
• Stanchions. Now it's "nice story" time. I was hoping for a used stern pulpit and couple of gated stanchions to complete the safety lines when the deck is all put back together. So, I posted a "pushpit and stanchions wanted" notice on the 2 forums. A very nice fellow Ariel Forum from Rhode Island followed up and offered to check his local consignment shops. No luck on the stern rail, but when I asked about stanchions, he said he had found a couple that might work. Low and behold, they showed up in the mail! They are not an exact match, but close enough, considering a gated stanchion at TiQ started at $175! I asked how much and he said "Consider it a boat warming gift." I'm truly blown away and very touched by such a generous and nice gesture. A whole-hearted "thanks" Bill, and drinks are on me when we meet - not that you'll ever read this. :)

Treating Wood Rot

I have an area of rot on one coaming and asked for advice on the Ariel Forum. One of the pros there told me to do the following, which I am in the process of doing.

I hope "Mike Goodwin" doesn't mind being quoted:

1st- soak the area with white vinegar

2nd- soak it with real antifreeze ( not the "earth friendly" west coast stuff ), the stuff that kills cats and other small animals if they lap it up . It also kills rot spores . This soaks in and absorbs and replaces the moisture in the affected area . Remember PEG? Same stuff.

3rd- put a fan on it an let it dry real good , in my area that could take 48 hrs or more this time of year .

Now coat it with epoxy.

The vinegar kills rot and pickles the wood and soaks in deeper than anti freeze or epoxy. The antifreeze kills rot and soaks in more than the epoxy (it is chemo for rot). The epoxy fills the voids where the wood fiber is lost, bonds it back together, and seals it off from air and moisture (2 things rot needs to survive).

Using this method I have never had rot come back .

I am currrently in the process of treating the coaming this way and will hopefully begin prepping the coamings for varnishing - however I'm supposed to do that.

In any event, it's a nice distraction from the gruesome deck work ahead. Especially knowing that, by presawing all of the bloody starboard side deck where it wasn't even close to necessary (which actually may be a "good" thing since the delamination isn't as bad as I had thought and perhaps this little project will nip the whole core mess in the bud...) OK, back to reality. Now, I've created much more work for myself by sawing up all of the side deck, since I need to repair ALL those seams regardless of whether or not I recore the deck underneath. Oy!

Stripping Varnish 02

Just a quick note on stripping varnish. I had one more side of a coaming to do and thought I'd give chemical stripping a whirl since a few forum folks with much more experience than I had suggested it. The results? A resounding "go chemical"! It is much less labor and sweat intensive, and even a little more rewarding when you just kind of scoop the goo off. This particular kind is not smelly or offensive in the slightest, either.

Rotted Core

Now this is more like it. It's crazy, but after the long afternoon, I was relieved to find some "bad" core. The stuff came out much easier.

Of course, Sunday was a wash - what else? Threatening thundershowers throughout the day. So I took everything off the boat, put the staging away, and retarped the boat. This routine gets real old.

One Panel Off

OK. I'm new to this, but I'm guesing this is NOT delaminated!

I started with my circular saw a buzzed 4 or 5 panels along the side deck. I finished cutting them out with a dremel and cutting bit. Worked pretty well.

Then I went about prying up this piece. I chose it because I thought it'd be the worst one. This was my first clue there wasn't a lot of delamination here. Tough job, but I finally got it up in one piece.

Next, I went about removing the not-so-bad core. It took me all morning to chisel/pry/scrape the stuff out of this one area. Although the core was definitely wet along the coachroof side and one spot along the toe rail where a cleat was mounted, there were no really rotted sections.

In light of this, I'm rethinking my approach. I was anticipating doing the side deck with 4 or 5 panels. But if looking at the core along the cut line is any indication, I may determine whether or not to even tackle a section if wet core didn't show up in the perimeter.
but now I think I'll cut smaller sections so they'll be easier to get off and so I can determine even if I'll remove that particular section...

Long morning, but a really nice day! Onward through the fog.

Back at it...

After a week of vitualy nothing being done, I did some cleaning and organizing in the garage tonight in preparation for tomorrow - the sun is scheduled to make a showing as is my circular saw. Come hell or high water, if I do nothing else, I am cutting some deck...

Anyway, here's the hanging coaming. Each end of the line is attached to an eye bolt, then run up through the blocks hanging from the rafters. I end up with a "loop" in the middle which I pull to raise the coaming. It does raise evenly with this setup, but now the tricky part is keeping the two lines together as I pull, but, as I said, at least it can raise evenly.

A thicker rope would help, but I'm calling this setup "good enough". Thanks, Scott.