110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME 04353 | 207-232-7600 | tim@lackeysailing.com
During the morning, I washed and lightly sanded all the new tabbing that I'd installed over the past week or so, removing hard edges and preparing the areas for later steps.
I also prepared the underside of the new cockpit hatches.
Whatever the final repowering choice for the boat might be, the existing engine foundations had to go. I'd left them in place during the early stages of interior surface prep as the time approached to clean up the greasy mess in the engine room, after which at some point I sanded and cleaned up the existing foundations before moving on to other things, but I had no confidence in the old foundations and now seemed a good time to remove them. The original work was rough and ugly, and wouldn't make a good basis for the new installations.
Photo Taken on 1/13/12
Photo Taken on 2/22/12
Not entirely unexpectedly, the old structures were quite easy to remove. Awkward angles for the various tools required were the only thing that made the job more difficult. The original Atomic Four foundations featured a wooden core (probably oak) covered with layers of heavy roving that tabbed into the surrounding surfaces. I found much of the tabbing could be pulled away with minimal effort after starting with a chisel, and some of it came up by hand once I got started.
The hardwood cores were black and dank, and there was plenty of disgusting oily grime beneath the tabbing indicative of seepage from the bilge itself, but generally sound despite that.
Once I'd removed the two pieces, I chiseled out any remaining putty that had been used to initially secure the wood to the boat, and ground away any remaining old tabbing or other residue to prepare the engine room for new work.
Total Time on This Job Today: 5.5 hours
