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1975 Dufour 27
Refit | Saturday, November 22, 2008 I spent a few hours on a variety of small tasks, beginning with the aluminum rubrail. With a helper lined up for Monday morning to provide a critical second pair of hands, I wanted to get the rails ready for reinstallation. Originally, the extruded aluminum rails had been riveted to the hull. During the early stages of the hull work, I removed all the rivets and overbored and filled the holes. I planned to install the rubrail using machine screws, and needed to drill out and mill countersinks in the rubrail to accept the new flathead screws. Ordinarily, I would have chosen something like a #10 screw for this, but because somebody in the past had refastened the occasional popped rivet with large-ish screws, thereby creating large holes in the rubrail, I had to match what had been done before. So at each hole location (pairs of fasteners located approximately every 2' on center over the length of the rail), I drilled a fastener hole for a 1/4-20 machine screw, and milled a countersink to accept the screw head. Afterwards, I cleaned both sides of the rail to remove remnants of dirt and contaminants. |
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Next, I laid out and cut the new port blanks--one for each side of the hull and a third for the coachroof skylight in the head--using the old pieces as templates. Once I had cut the new pieces using a jigsaw, I test-fit each in its respective opening to ensure proper fit. All three fit without further modification. Then, I drilled fastener holes in the new material, again using the old blanks as templates to locate the holes. The ports used barrel fasteners to secure them, so the fastener holes were 1/4" diameter to accept the female side of the barrel. I set these aside for Monday's work list. |
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I installed the hinges on the anchor well hatch and two cockpit locker hatches, and then installed the three pieces on board, filling the last gaping locker openings. With this, I wrapped up the day's work, and was confident that the bulk of the remaining work would be completed handily on Monday. |
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