| Circe
| Thursday, July 30, 2009 I dedicated much of the morning to preparing the myriad fastener holes in the coachroof, sidedecks, and foredeck for patching and filling. In each instance, I created a counterbore around the top of the hole and reamed out the inside of the hole to remove old sealant and loose debris, and in many cases ground a small depression in the deck around the hole, to provide more surface area for filler. In a few places, I ground out some cracked and loose gelcoat from around the previous hardware installations. For larger holes that required patching, I ground out an area wide and deep enough to accept new fiberglass. I also opened up and removed the core from one area on the coachroof where I'd earlier identified a problem, but had yet to address. |
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It was time to turn my attention to the cockpit, but since I was hoping to hold off on the heaviest sanding till after lunch, I decided to work on removing the rudder first, which had been bothering me for some time. I'd had the tiller head soaking in penetrating solvent for some time now, and a combination of heat, prying the tiller head slightly apart at the split with a screwdriver, and blunt persuasion finally got it to come off the top of the rudder post. As expected, there was a significant layer of corrosion on the shaft and key that had welded the aluminum head in place. |
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The two bronze pintles were secured to the rudder with three peened-over bronze pins. To remove the pins, and therefore the pintles, I drilled one side of the pin, and then hammered them through to the other side. The pins were in poor condition. Once I'd removed the pintles, I could start to pull the rudder and shaft out of the boat. Because of the concrete floor, it wasn't possible to pull the entire shaft out while it was connected to the rudder, so I first removed the rudder from the shaft; it was secured with two bronze lag screws and two bronze bolts (with their nuts encapsulated in filled holes in the rudder). All four fasteners came out easily, allowing me to drop the rudder and complete the shaft removal. |
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After lunch, I sanded the cockpit area, beginning with sanding the nonskid smooth on the sole and seating areas. Then, I sanded all surfaces with 80 grit and a vertical-axis random orbit sander, before rounding out the day with more fastener hole and patching preparation, and grinding out larger patch areas around the old instrument holes in the cockpit bulkhead and cockpit well. |
 
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