| Bolero
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November 13, 2007 I continued with hardware removal today. I began at the aft deck, and removed the remainder of the traveler hardware and riser blocks, along with a padeye on centerline and the cover plate for the boom crutch slot. Access to the remaining bits of hardware at the far end of the deck near the transom wasn't really possible from inside, so I chose to drill the fasteners out from above and remove the mooring cleat and two turning blocks. With a new hatch opening planned for somewhere in the deck, future access for replacement of this hardware would be better. I also drilled out the fasteners holding the backstay fitting to the deck, and removed the block and tackle from inside (near the cockpit, but found that there was something else holding the backstay in place, so I couldn't simply pull it through the deck. I couldn't reach back there with anything, so further removal efforts remained pending. |
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Next, I moved on to the chainplates. These marvels of strength and installation prowess were secured through the deck alone, without any thought towards transferring the rigging loads to the hull or even over a wide area. It was good to see them go. Before beginning the removal, however, I took a series of measurements to each chainplate, both from the stem (by hooking a tape over the stem fitting pin) and from the mast partners. I noted these on a finely-tuned drawing for future reference when the time came to replace them. The port side came off easily, but the starboard side--which used different fasteners and a different "support" system from beneath--was more time-consuming, and eventually I even had to grind off the head of one of the round-head screws from the top, since the nut hung up on the threads from below, and vice grips wouldn't hold the head securely enough for the force required to turn the nut. |
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The previous owners had had a new toerail of sorts installed in the not too distant past. Consisting of a slim piece of teak surrounding the deck edge, it was clearly not particularly beefy nor well installed--I had noticed a loose section earlier--so I hoped that removal would be simple. I was unsure of what sort of fasteners they'd used in the installation, but thought that since the installation was quite new, it wouldn't be a problem to remove them. All the fasteners had to go since many of them had been driven too close to the deck edge, and ended up partially entering--and even splitting--the hull laminate, leaving visible bumps on the outside of the hull. Removal was, fortunately, very easy, and took far less time than I'd anticipated. Since there were no plans to save the rail, and it wasn't a nice-enough piece of stock to make any attempts at saving worthwhile, I used a chisel to split the top of the wood off at each bunged fastener location, exposing the screw head. Fortunately, the screws were Phillips head, and backed out easily, with only a few obstinate ones where the heads were stripped out. I left these till all the surrounding screws were out, then simply broke the rail around the screws, leaving them where I could get them with vice grips. The whole process took under an hour, when I'd feared it might take most of the afternoon. There was a small amount of black polysulfide beneath the rail, which was easy to break free. I removed the stem casting, to be replaced later, and also removed some small rails on the foredeck, as well as the foredeck cleat and one small padeye. I left the headstay rig in place for the moment, though I could see that the rod or pin connecting it through the deck to a support beneath was badly corroded. But I wanted to get into the forepeak area and check things out from within first, all the more so after discovering that I couldn't remove the backstay piece as I'd hoped. |
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I removed the badly-corroded mast step, which was even worse when viewed from beneath, and removed the timber to which the step had been secured. I noticed that a longer timber beneath, which sat atop the structural floors, was showing signs of rot, so I removed it as well. Of course, the carriage bolt heads used to secure it spun when I tried to unbolt the nuts from beneath--carriage bolt heads always seem to spin when one tries to remove them--so I ground the heads off from above and pushed the bolts through. I was actually a bit concerned that the heat would start a brush fire in the mess in the bilge beneath--a full 6" depth of leaves, dander, and dirt. I didn't see any trees sprouting roots, but it wouldn't have been a stretch. Apparently, the finer points of boat maintenance had been lost on previous owners. I removed a vertical support that had been there to support the deck, provide a step tot he foredeck, and to mount the halyard winches. |
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With the timbers out of the way and saved
for reuse or as templates, I cleaned out the bilges, first removing the
heavy debris by hand, and then vacuuming out the rest. I also
removed some old and badly corroded copper bonding straps, whose only
purpose seemed to have been to create another avenue for corrosion where
none would have existed otherwise. With that, the decks were stripped clean of all hardware and woodwork, and I was ready to move on to the next stage of the project. |
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