110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME 04353 | 207-232-7600 | tim@lackeysailing.com
I continued the process on the coachroof. The second application of fairing compound, after sanding, had brought most areas close to where they needed to be, with only sporadic low areas requiring additional attention for now. I applied a third coat of compound to those areas as needed.
Moving back to the sidedecks, I worked on the port side to ream out the remaining bits of core and debris from the edges of the large after section and smaller forward section.
On the narrow poopdeck, there was a fairly large (one square foot or so) area where the top skin had delaminated from itself, leaving a noticeable void. The core in this area was sound, and a layer or so of fiberglass was still adhered to the core. I cut out the damaged portion of the top skin through the voided area, leaving the core and remaining portions of the upper layers in place
On the foredeck, a bit more investigation required me to cut out the 10" wide center plywood "beam". I cut the decks just outside of the plywood, and removed the plywood and fiberglass top skin easily in one piece. The balsa on each side was dry and sound.
There'd be more work ahead on the outer edges of the foredeck area to clean out old core and otherwise prepare the area for the next steps, but first I opened up the final area on the sidedecks requiring repair, a large section of the starboard sidedeck outboard of the cockpit, and more or less identical in scope to its counterpart to port.
Once more, there was a large section of kerfed (and now wet) plywood in this area, surrounded by balsa. By now, I'd given up on speculating how and why the plywood was in any portions of the deck, wanting only to remove it and repair the decks to sound condition. Whatever its original purpose, it had long since failed to work. I cleaned out the damaged core from the large open area, leaving cleanout of the perimeter edges for next time.
Total Time on This Job Today: 7 hours
