After delivering another boat to the outboard dealer first thing in the morning, I got to work on preparing the decks around each of the areas currently being recored,  With a grinder, I removed the gelcoat and tapered the adjacent laminate as needed to accept new fiberglass patches once the core was complete, providing a roughly 2-3″ wide area for tying in the new material.  I also sanded the  exposed inner skins of all areas, leaving just some corners and detail work to deal with shortly.

At the same time, I prepared the edges of several other areas to be repaired in the cockpit, including the instrument holes on the bulkhead, the engine panel opening, the pedestal opening, and an obsolete locker opening at the port aft side, plus the inside of the hull in way of three through hulls in the counter that the owner had removed (I’d prepare the outsides of these three holes later).

With some plastic pattern material leftover from one visit or another from my canvas contractor, I made patterns of the sidedeck and foredeck core openings.  For now, I focused on these areas forward of the cockpit, as I hoped to button up the sidedecks as soon as possible so I could get to work on the coachroof repairs, and there were some minor inner skin repairs to be completed on the areas outboard of the cockpit, plus other details that I’d get to once I had core in the sidedecks.

From these patterns, I spent the rest of the day cutting 1/2″ balsa core to fit, getting all the core prepared for the port side (forward of the cockpit) and foredeck before the end of the day.  At the foredeck patch, I cut out sections of core and prepared 1/2″ solid fiberglass material in way of the two bow cleats.  Next time, I’d cut the core for the starboard side, then get to work installing the sidedeck core.

Before continuing work on the sidedecks, I inspected the coachroof all over, sounding with a steel hammer to locate any questionable areas that might require attention as well.  Most sections seemed to be sound, fortunately, but I did find an extended area with evidence of damaged core leading aft from a Dorade vent opening on the starboard side.  I sketched out the rough outline of the damage on the deck for later attention.  I wouldn’t start work on the coachroof till the sidedecks were repaired to the extent that I could work on deck without tiptoeing between the open sidedeck areas, but I wanted to order replacement core and needed an idea how much additional I might need for the coachroof.

Next, I worked on cleaning up the deck areas already open for repair, focusing on removing the final bits of plywood from the areas beneath the winch islands, and cleaning out the deck flanges around the openings to get rid of the last bits of old core and prepare these areas for new work.  Cleaning up the broader field areas of each repair would come later when I got into bulk sanding and in conjunction with some minor repairs needed to sections of the inner deck skin, mainly to cover unwanted holes and, in a few areas, to repair some inner skin damaged during the core removal.  I used various chisels and reamers to rid the hidden edges of excess core, and used a wire wheel attachment on a drill to take care of the rest in the narrow slots.

Afterwards, I thoroughly cleaned out the slots as needed, with brushes and compressed air, and solvent-washed with acetone.  On the port side, where one of the repairs surrounded a chainplate slot, I cut a piece of plastic to fit the slot and keep it open while I epoxied around it.

During the rest of the day, I mixed many batches of thickened, strengthened epoxy and installed it beneath the deck edges all around, forcing the mix all the way to the depths of all the openings.  At three of the exposed stanchion locations, I added 1/2″ prefab fiberglass blocks beneath the bases to strengthen the installations and later accept the fasteners; only the midships base on the starboard side remained partially visible after installation, as the two after locations (outboard of the cockpit) were buried deeper and surrounded with more of the thickened epoxy.  I chose to fill these edges at this early stage and before grinding the adjacent deck areas to prepare for new fiberglass because I’d often found that the flanges, if ground first, tend to “curl up” at their inboard edges as the thinned material loses its overall integrity, and this can complicate core and laminate installation later.    In any event, this bulk sanding event was next on the agenda once the epoxy cured, the final prep required before new core installation.

I picked up where I left off on the starboard deck, starting with the large area I’d previously identified roughly amidships, near the chainplates.  Since the damaged area extended near or through some of the chainplate slots, I noted some measurements of the slots for future reference.

Then, I cut off the top skin along my lines I’d marked, exposing the core beneath.  I immediately expanded the cutout at the outboard aft corner, as the wet core clearly extended further in that area, and found clean, well-adhered core almost immediately, which was good news.  In other areas, my original cuts exposed sound core at the edges.  Most of the rest was saturated mush, which I cleaned out now.

On the port side, when I brazenly cut out the entire slot in way of the inboard genoa track, I’d found there was much more sound core in there than I’d thought, as the damage was surprisingly confined near the fasteners, and removing sound, well-stuck core is a real chore that I preferred to forgo if possible.  So on this side, I took a more piecemeal approach, though first I drilled out all the fastener holes with a 5/8″ Forstner bit, as before, which exposed some of the core and gave me insight into the conditions beneath.

Hoping that perhaps the core damage here was similarly confined, I turned to a 2″ hole saw to expand a couple of the holes as a test.  This didn’t give me enough confidence, so from each end I began to incrementally remove a 3″ wide strip of top deck and core, which inevitably led to me opening the entire slot once more, but only because it was necessary and clearly obvious once I removed each section.  Most of the core along the edges of the cutout was sound, though I reamed out portions and would return later for additional work, along with all the other areas currently exposed for rebuilding.

Just forward, at the chainplate area, there was a section of plywood core, which extended from the large chainplate against the cabin trunk.  I’d removed most of this, but the portion still beneath the remaining deck flange at the cabin trunk was well-stuck, though completely dark and wet, and resisted efforts to remove.  I tried various tools in my arsenal to little avail, and eventually drilled out the four bolt holes through the plywood to help loosen it and give me a chance.  This helped, but there was still more to be done here.  In the meantime, I reamed out the damaged core as needed from beneath the exposed flanges at the other edges of the opening, removing the bulk of the old material pending some additional detail work later to clean out the rest.

With my 5/8″ bit, I went around the boat and drilled out all the fastener holes left in the sidedecks and foredeck, including stanchion bases, cleats, chainplate fasteners, pulpit, and other hardware.  Mostly, this revealed core in sound condition, which was good news, other than the midships stanchion base (P3) in the port side, which was already in an area currently opened for recore.  The stanchion bases appeared to be plywood-cored beneath for added compression strength.  Later on, I’d fill all these holes with a thickened epoxy mixture.

I’d now addressed all the most significant areas on the sidedecks requiring inspection and repair, so I finished up the day and the week by cleaning up a bit.  With some messy work ahead in the immediate future–especially grinding and sanding–I took a moment to close off the deadlight openings to prevent as much dust as possible from getting inside the boat.  At my suggestion, the owner had earlier masked over these openings from the outside, a down-and-dirty (or would that be clean) way to keep out dust during the early parts of the project.  This had worked fine, but now the tape was coming apart a bit, and in any event I’d soon be sanding the cabin trunk in these areas, so I used paper and tape to cover the openings from inside, which would do the job required till much later in the project when it was time to start masking for paint.

 

With a hammer, I inspected the sidedecks and foredeck, sounding for core damage or significant voids from debonding, latent construction flaws, or other issues.  In this way, I identified and marked several areas requiring additional attention on both sidedecks, including small sections just forward of the areas where I’d removed the winch islands.  There was also a large section at the forward end of the foredeck, though for some reason I didn’t photograph the markings.

Preparing to expand the open deck area on the port aft deck, both behind the winch islands (where the core was visibly damaged) and forward as well, I got off on a tangent when I started to make some measurements and notes regarding the position of the stern pulpit mount, which I wanted to note so I could add solid fiberglass beneath it when the time came.  As I made the measurements, I realized it would be better to make a simple pattern of the hardware and its fastener pattern, and this led to me making patterns of all the necessary hardware on the sidedecks.  At a minimum, I planned to fill all the fastener holes as a matter of course, and then mark these locations with small pilot holes so the hardware could be easily relocated after paint; in other areas, deck repairs would cover or eliminate certain hardware locations as well.  I also didn’t have the hardware itself on hand for marking fastener locations later, so taking the time to make the patterns for all salient hardware served a number of useful ends.  As needed, I either registered the patterns with something indelible on the boat nearby or, in the case of the stanchion bases, made rubbings of the molded bases in the deck to help relocate the holes correctly.

Before continuing work on the port aft deck, I removed a water tank deck fill that was in the middle of the space, a relatively quick diversion.

Now, as needed, I cut the top skin of the deck away on either end of the port winch island area, leaving sufficient flanges in the adjacent decks for tying in the repairs and digging out the old core all around.  At the forward end, the water damage extended a couple inches through what remained of the plywood core, and slightly into the balsa core that began several inches forward of my original cutout.  I opened this area enough to ensure sound core all around.  I cut around the molded stanchion base, leaving enough of the deck for the new work to tie in later.

Continuing, I moved forward to a section of the sidedeck that seemed to be compromised because of some of the genoa track fasteners near the cabin trunk.  Already a large-ish area, I found once I opened the top skin that the damaged core continued towards the deck edge (toerail), so eventually I had to expand the opening further towards the toerail, again choosing to cut around the little molded stanchion base to preserve its shape, which was molded at each location to ensure the stanchions stood straight and upright.

With a 5/8″ bit, I drilled out all the fastener holes from the long inboard genoa track.  The owners didn’t plan to replace this track, as they had other plans for the sheet leads, so at a minimum I’d be filling all these holes, but all the holes aft of my core repair showed damaged core, while most of the holes forward seemed to display sound core.  Ultimately, I decided to remove a strip of the deck encompassing all the holes along the aft half, leaving me a 3″ wide strip to recore and repair.  For now, I left the forward half as is, but would expand the openings into one or two holes that seemed to be dark with moisture infiltration a little later.

The next spot requiring attention was outboard of one of the chainplate slots alongside the cabin trunk.  Here, I eventually followed the damaged core in a narrow band from the slot towards the toerail, expanding my opening only as needed to remove the damaged material.

Just aft of the stem, the pulpit, large round opening from a deck plate, and forward cleats had turned the core to mush from extended leaking.  I cut out a couple square feet of the top skin, then found I had to extend aft another few inches to capture all the damaged core.

For now, this completed the major demolition work on the port side, though there was more work ahead to complete the preparations in each of these areas, and a few smaller question marks to investigate.

I moved my operation to the starboard side, and began work around the starboard winch island, both forward and aft much the same as on the port side.  I had enough time before the end of the day to make the necessary cuts, remove the old core, and ream out the edges as needed.  I’d continue with the rest of the starboard side deck next time.

I was out in the world on other business during the morning, but that gave me a chance to pick up a few more angle brackets so I could finish securing the staging planks, which was my first task upon arrival at the shop.

Afterwards, I spent the remainder of the short afternoon on the winch islands.  The owners chose to have me remove the molded winch islands entirely, since the wooden floors inside the cubbies were badly rotted and poorly-designed, and they decided they’d prefer external bronze winch stands and a cleaner, simpler appearance while at the same time addressing what would otherwise be a difficult repair.  I had no idea what removing the winch islands might reveal, but now was the time to find out.  The owners had already removed the winches, hardware, and coamings, leaving behind only the molded islands and some of the teak cap.

It was apparent from brief inspection that I could remove the molded islands rather quickly with a grinder and cutoff wheel, and this proved to be the case.  I started on the port side, and cut near the bottom of the islands on both ends, and along the raised portion near the scuppers in between, staying far enough away from the toerail and molded T-track support to allow me to trim this more accurately later.  On the inboard side, I cut between the cubby openings to release the entire island in one piece, revealing the rotten plywood floor within.  The plywood was rotted nearly to dust along the outboard edges, which were “downhill” and had collected water over the years, and this material came out almost on its own.

I repeated the basic removal process on the starboard side.  I cut a bit closer to the toerail here, since now I knew what I’d find beneath.  (On the port side, I had already trimmed the original cut closer to the proper ending point once I’d removed the island itself and could see what was going on inside.)

Once I had the loosest material cleaned out, I chiseled out the remaining plywood; where it was still sound and stuck, it was stuck well, but it didn’t take too much effort to remove most of the remainder from both sides, with only some light residue left to clean up.  The basic construction was this:  The plywood floor was essentially uncovered core material, adhered to a full inner skin beneath and extending beneath the decks on either end.  This was good news in that removing the islands and plywood didn’t leave large holes in the deck, but less good in that the plywood extended forward and aft beneath the adjacent top deck skins, so the water had had unfettered access from the unprotected winch island cubbies to the still-hidden core on each end.  I already knew the core in the small after deck sections needed work, as this was visible through some deck plate openings on both sides, but how far–and to what extent–the damage extended forward remained to be seen.  I’d have to inspect and open the decks forward of the winch islands’ locations to determine this.  In the meantime, I cleaned out all the old plywood from the exposed areas, and beneath the lips to the extent possible, leaving further investigations for next time.

I spent the day building the staging out at deck height.  I didn’t plan on the job taking the full day, but with many modifications required to suit this boat, it just plain took a lot of time to get set up and everything secure.

My staging towers are 5′ tall, which on this boat was not high enough for a comfortable working height on the decks, so I knew I’d need to raise the planks further.  To begin, I collected a bucket full of 8″, 6″, and 4″ blocking to work with.

Even at the stern, the lowest part of the sheer, I found I needed extra height, so I began there with 6″ blocks atop the staging towers, which I secure with screws and fender washers.  To get around the transom at a comfortable height and proper distance, I had to provide extensions off the tops of the towers so the transverse plank could run closer to the wall.  From scrap plywood, I installed the extensions, securing them to the tops of the staging towers with screws and with additional support from cleats secured to the wall framing.  I probably might want to add a little platform to cover that empty angle at the stern ends, but one learns to look down and watch foot placement whenever moving around staging planks.

With the aft end established on both sides, I worked my way forward, starting with the port side.  I had to add blocking to each staging tower, and as I moved forward I had to increase the height:  first to 8″ after two planks, then to 12″ for the final, monster 12′-long plank that I used at the bow.  Providing space for the additional blocking required another small add-on plywood support on the third staging tower to increase the available width and hold the pair of blocks required for the 2″ step-up there.  I secured all the blocks with multiple screws, then, once I’d arranged all the planks and positioned the stands and planks where they needed to be for proper access to the decks along the way, I secured the planks with four angle brackets, two at each end of each plank.  With the extra height required everywhere, I made sure the whole arrangement was tightly secured together to limit movement.

The second side went more quickly since I could start by securing the extra blocks to each of the staging towers in advance, as well as pre-position the towers where they needed to go, based on their counterparts to port.  I ran out of angle brackets, so would need to pick up six more to completely secure all the planks; for now, I had to make do with one on each end of most of the starboard planks.

This gave me a sturdy and comfortable working platform all the way around the boat, so I could do as much work as possible from standing height.  It would have been nice to avoid the small steps in two places on each side, but needs must.  I might add some fluorescent paint to highlight the steps later, but I didn’t have any on hand.  Now I was ready to get to work on the decks.

Briefly, I finished up the hull sanding with some light work on the few small patches I’d filled last time.  Afterwards. I vacuumed and solvent-washed the hull while the staging was still set at hull height, and to help me identify any areas that might require additional attention later.

With hull work done for now, I broke down the staging, planning to rebuild it presently to deck height, but in the meantime I took advantage of the good access to the lower part of the hull so I could restrike the waterline (aka top edge of the bottom paint).  I began by checking the boat for athwartships level; she was out by a smallish amount, listing to starboard according to the after level.

In small increments, I adjusted the jackstands till the boat was level at bow and stern.

Earlier, I’d marked and documented the existing paint and striping lines, as well as the apparent “actual” waterline, or scum line visible on the paint.  It was clear from the original condition that there was a bit of droopiness at the aftermost end, only the last foot or so, but rather than just remask to the existing line–still mostly visible after sanding–I wanted to correct this line and, more importantly, set up properly to strike the boottop later in the process, which would be more significantly impacted.  These photos date to the beginning of the project.

So in my usual way, I set up horizontal level beams at stem and stern, using layout marks I determined from my notes and previous photos (specifically at the stern), then used weighted string between the beams to mark the new line on both sides.  I’ve done this dozens of times and described it almost as often, so I shan’t detail the process again here.

The end result was a series of pencil marks on the hull, to which I could strike the new masking tape line to define the bottom edge of the hull paint, i.e. the top edge of the bottom paint.  I didn’t change the position of the line in an oberall sense; most of the new line ended up right at the original location, but there was some minor adjustment and repositioning at the ends as expected and desired.

This left the way clear to move the staging to deck level, where I planned to spend the next weeks doing surface prep and repairs as needed.  I’d start that next time.

 

In a short workday, I lightly sanded the small patches on the hull, this time using only a 4″ palm sander and 120 grit paper (or by hand).

A few of the spots required an additional application of epoxy filler, so as needed I cleaned and reapplied to several locations.

Preparing for an afternoon meeting with the boatowners and the canvas contractor, I removed some anchor chocks and other hardware from the sea hood, which hardware needed to be removed eventually anyway.  During the meeting later, the owners and I agreed that for the dodger’s sake, it would be best to remove the three raised ribs from the top of the hood, replacing their stiffening structure with some thin core and new fiberglass instead–since the front edge of the dodger would use a curved track to secure it to the deck, eliminating the raised sections would ensure that the dodger could follow the line it needed to.  More on this all later in the project when it happens.

I sanded the small patches on the rubrail as needed, this time with 80-120 grits, and at the same time sanded the entire topsides with both grits, bringing most areas to their final stage of readiness, other than minor ongoing repairs in select areas.

Next, I went over the entire hull with a close visual inspection, marking any small areas requiring additional attention–gelcoat chips and scrapes, chipped transom corners, a small air pocket or two, and other minor pockmarks.  With such areas duly marked, I went around with a small rotary grinder and ground out loose and damaged material, or slightly dished out as needed the minor interruptions to allow for better bonding with the repair filler.  Then, I applied epoxy fairing filler to these various areas around the hull.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the shop and boat after the week’s sanding efforts and to prepare for a meeting with the owners and canvas contractor on the morrow.