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.

I spent the morning sanding the hull-deck joint once more, this time with the finishing sander and lighter paper as the repair neared its final contours for now.  The end result was mainly where I wanted it, other than a few tool marks and other minor areas that would require some touch-up.  Otherwise, I’d be moving on to final finish-sanding stages.

At the same time, I sanded the various small hull patches, where I’d removed damaged gelcoat, with the finishing sander and by hand, working to keep these areas fair.  I also located a couple additional areas requiring attention and dished these out as needed with a sander to prepare for fairing.

After requisite cleaning, I spot-applied epoxy fairing filler where and as needed over the hull-deck joint and the various hull patches.

The owner asked me to remove and fill the hole from the tank vent on the port forward side, so during my earlier sanding stage I’d ground out a small area around the vent and, from inside, removed the existing fitting and masked over the hole.  Later, I filled the small hole in the hull with thickened epoxy, then applied two layers of 1708 over the opening; late in the day, I added a layer of fairing compound to try and catch the repair up with the adjacent areas I’d been working on.

Finally, in those areas required, I added additional fairing compound to the small patches here and there on the hull.

I started out by applying another round of fairing filler to the hull-deck joint, wanting to ensure that I had ample time for the job.  While the overall profile of the area was good, there were numerous (slightly) low areas requiring the additional filler, as well as continued work at the top edge.  As with other times working on this area, I masked off the top and bottom edges beforehand to ensure clean lines and minimal contamination of adjacent areas with hard-to-sand epoxy, removing the tape immediately after the fairing compound application.

The topsides were in good condition, but there were several areas where the gelcoat was pockmarked with small voids.  While I knew there’d be other small repairs throughout the topsides, for the moment I focused on these known places and, as needed, marked and sanded them to prepare for epoxy filler.  The gelcoat voids were shallow, and my preparations included only removing affected material in shallow amounts, just through the yellow gelcoat in most areas.

With sanding complete, and after cleaning the affected areas, I applied a coat of epoxy fairing filler, using a wide trowel on most of the repairs.

During the remainder of the day, I continued the bulk hull prep and sanding, starting with the counter on both sides and working through 60-80 grits on the 6″ finishing sander.  From there, I continued with the transom, removing old stickers and vinyl graphics (I’d previously measured and noted details of the graphics for future reference) and sanding as needed, then working my way forward on the port side, eventually meeting the section near the bow where I’d begun the process some time before and completing the first passes.  There’d be more hull sanding to come, but the initial rounds removed gloss and prepared the surface for future steps.

In a short morning work session, I sanded the new epoxy fairing compound on the hull-deck joint with 80 grit discs.  I was pleased with how well the joint turned out after a single coat of fairing compound.  Other than some shallow and expected low areas, the contours were close to where they needed to be, with additional work ahead mainly focused on finishing off the top edge of the repair, where it transitioned to the molded toerail, and also at the stern ends.

With only a short time available, I finished up by giving the shop a rough clean after the week’s efforts.  Next time, I could continue with the second round of fairing filler, and more work sanding the remainder of the topsides.

As usual, I started the day with a round of sanding, now to scuff the new fiberglass and ease any hard edges.

After cleaning the area, I applied a coat of fairing filler over all areas, tapering it to the bottom edge of the sheer strake and, at the top edge, beginning to form a clean rounded edge to enhance and replicate the original molded character line.

I had a bit of time left in the day, so I continued work on the topsides, sanding most of the rest of the starboard side with a 6″ finishing sander and working through 60-80 grits.  I left only a smallish section on the counter that was too high to reach from the floor, and too low/far away to reach from the staging, as well as the uppermost portion of the quarter near the transom where there was fresh epoxy work.

Another round of sanding brought the hull-deck joint to a point of readiness for the next step:  fiberglassing.  Since the immediate goal was an appropriately-flat, generally fair surface, but not  a final finish, the few minor low spots leftover from trowel marks were either nothing to worry about, or something I could (and later would) fill with a skim of thickened epoxy before applying the tabbing.

After cleaning, I applied tape to both sides of the area in question, using wider tape at the base to allow room to make a sort of drip edge to help avoid any resin runs down the topsides.  A few minutes with the tape saves much potential labor in removing hardened bits of epoxy from adjacent areas.

Starting on the starboard side, with a batch of thickened epoxy–just epoxy and silica–I skimmed the prepared area with a squeegee to fill some of the remaining lows, and also to wet out the entire area in advance.  Afterwards, I applied two layers of 1708 tabbing–6″ and 4″–over the hull deck joint, keeping the layers aligned at their top edge, butting the adjacent pieces and staggering the joints between layers by half, like subway tiles.

I repeated the process on the port side.  Near the port bow, where a flared copper tube/tank vent protruded, I protected the open tube with a small square of tape, then glassed right over it; this would be easy enough to cut out and remove once the fiberglass was cured.  I also glassed over the hole on the port quarter near the transom for another tank vent, but this could be redrilled later.

These processes consumed the day.  I removed all the masking tape from each side once the resin had gelled to the point where runs were no longer an issue; the few runs that occurred happened mainly at butt joints between pieces of tabbing.