Tuesday

Late last week, we had a meeting at the boat to look at and discuss details of the dodger installation.  To prepare for that meeting, I set up a quick analog for the boom height, which was the critical factor in determining the dodger height.  After measuring to the gooseneck location on the mast, and allowing for the depth of the boom below its attachment point, I mocked up the setup with a 2×4 acting as the mast, and a string (which I led to the closest wall and leveled it) to represent the bottom of the boom in a horizontal position.

The net outcome of the meeting was that the owner decided against building the dodger.  The boom height was lower than any of us thought, and the dodger would have been quite small and confining.  This would have been workable if need be, but the owner had his own doubts about the project from the getgo:  while the dodger would be nice to have sometimes, the way he used the boat didn’t demand having one, and usually didn’t need it at all.  With all this, the deciding factor in abandoning the dodger project was the new rigid boom vang the owner had ordered and that we planned to install at the shop.  The new vang would extend far enough aft that it could have its own effect on the dodger design, and this ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back.

With that behind us, and after a day finishing up some details on another project at the shop, I got back to things with the cockpit coamings.  I’d already stripped (but not sanded) the old coating from the insides of the coamings, and now I worked on the outside faces.  First, though, I decided to remove the old sheet winches, which were slated for replacement with new self-tailing ones during this project, and with the winches out of the way I’d have slightly better access for stripping and sanding the wood.  These were easy to remove, and I took a moment to test-fit one of the new winches, which were slightly larger in overall diameter but still just within the footprint of the existing bronze winch bases, though the drums slightly overhung the edges.   I’d discuss this with the owner before proceeding, but the new winches seemed workable without major changes.

With that, I got to work removing the old coating from the outside of the coamings on both sides.  As before, this took some time because of the thinness of the coating and the character/texture of the wood beneath, which was somewhat weathered with much of the wood’s softer grain being long gone with the passage of time, leaving behind the slightly uneven and hard surface we associate with aged, weathered teak.

Afterwards, I sanded the coamings clean and smooth in all areas, working through 80-120 grits to bring them to their final appearance.  These would be left bare to weather naturally from here on out, along with all the other woodwork on deck.  The nature of the existing woodgrain meant that some texture remained in the coamings, as they had long ago weathered past the point of glassiness, but the clean appearance would soon weather evenly to match the texture.

With the coamings stripped and sanded, I could reinstall the various bronze coaming cleats I’d removed at the onset of the job.  On the port side, there had been two of these cleats all along, though the after one had been installed without the little bronze backing plate like its brethren.  Now, I reinstalled this cleat with a new backing plate to match its counterpart.  On the starboard side, there’d been only a single cleat, and the owner asked me to install a second one to match the port, which I did now.   The new cleat to starboard would give the owner a good place to secure the roller furling line, which meant that I could remove the lame hoseclamped-on plastic cleat from the nearby stern pulpit, which had been the previous setup.

I recommended a spirited sail on a choppy day to splash the new bronze–and the bare teak–with salt water to begin and accelerate the aging process and desired patina.

After final preparations, I painted the underside of the sea hood, the first step towards preparing it for its final installation.

Total time billed on this job today:  6 hours (including Friday)

0600 Weather Observation:  28°, cloudy.  Forecast for the day:  Snow and rain showers, 35°

Thursday

The sea hood required some light sanding, and then touchup with quick-drying filler to finalize the shape and contours of the after reinforcement.  Now the hood was ready for primer and paint.

I spent most of the day working on the teak project, starting with the handrails on the cabin top.  After paring away the excess bungs, I stripped and sanded these rails clean, to 120 grit.  At the same time, I removed the excess bungs from the companionway trim and sliding hatch.

Next, I stripped and cleaned up as well as possible the teak trim at the aft end of the cockpit, around the rudderpost and forward of the outboard well; Cape Dory did not choose the best wood for these pieces, which I suppose is fair enough, and they’d soon weather to a fine gray color in any event.  The clamping bracket for the outboard had once been finished as well, but as this was simply a short length of 2×6, I didn’t make any great attempts to sand it fully bright.

The owner and I had discussed the possibility of installing a vinyl “eyebrow” on the cabin trunk.  We’d seen some anecdotal photographic evidence of another Typhoon Sr. with a too-short and not-that-well-done eyebrow that looked unfinished, but still gave a hint of how a real eyebrow might enhance the boat’s appearance.  I had the thought of using vinyl tape to create the accent without having to go through the rigorous routine of trying to bend wood around the forward curvature, which was substantial on this boat, so with the owner due to be at the shop the next day for a meeting about the dodger, I took a few minutes to attempt a mockup using 1/2″ masking tape to test the concept.

While the first attempt needed some fine-tuning, particularly around the forward part of the trunk, and wasn’t necessarily quite right yet, it started to give a sense of things. With  he upcoming meeting,  I didn’t want to spend more time on it till we’d had a chance to decide whether it was worth pursuing.

During the afternoon, I worked to strip the old finish from the insides of the cockpit coamings on both sides.  This was surprisingly slow going, but in fact because there was so little finish actually on the wood, it took longer to scrape it away; heavier layers of coatings seem easier to heat and remove.  IN any event, by the end of the day I’d stripped all the finish from the inside faces of the coamings, leaving them ready for sanding to complete the work later.

Total time billed on this job today:  6 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  26°, mostly clear. Forecast for the day:  Mostly sunny, 42°

Wednesday

After lightly sanding the new seahood fiberglass at its trailing edge, I test-fit the hood once more.  It fit well, and the curvature was what it needed to be to clear the sliding hatch.

I temporarily reinstalled the wooden hatch trims to ensure that the sea hood fit around them properly.  I found that these forced the sides of the sea hood out just a bit, flattening the curve and causing minor interference issues, so with the trims removed once more, I beveled the cuts to match the inside angles of the sides of the sea hood, and this cured the problem.  Satisfied now with the fit, I used a drill and a small bit to mark the deck at each of the screw holes in the sea hood mounting flange.

After removing the hood again, I applied a coat of fairing compound to the after reinforcement to fine-tune its shape and those of the fillets and surrounding area.

Back on the boat, I used a 1/2″ bit to drill out the top laminate and core from the new fastener locations for the sea hood.  The core was dry in all areas, but the spoils highlighted an interesting blue color to the laminate that I’d not seen before; this was present at all hole locations.  After cleaning up, I masked around the holes as needed and filled them with a thickened epoxy mixture, leaving this to cure while I worked on other things.

While I had the hatch off, it made sense to begin the wood stripping with the small trim pieces on the sliding hatch.  Once I’d sanded the wood clean, I installed bungs in the exposed screw holes on the top trim.

On deck, I decided to continue with the companionway hatch trim and work my way out from there, so to begin I removed the two vertical pieces of trim flanking the companionway–these had no bungs, and, as it turned out, not a stitch of sealant–and sanded them clean down on the bench.  Then, I reinstalled them with some butyl sealant behind, and later installed new bungs in the open screw holes.

Continuing, I turned to the trim just inside the companionway opening, which was partially finished (sides) and partially bare (forward). With heat and a scraper, I removed the heavy, dark finish from the sides, then sanded clean the bare wood.

To finish up the day’s work on this project, I installed new bungs in the handrails, and the starboard cockpit coaming.  I’d be able to sand these smooth at the same time I stripped and sanded these parts, saving some time later.

Total time billed on this job today:  5.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  36°, partly clear. Forecast for the day:  Mostly sunny, 44°

Tuesday

The work list for August West was eclectic and generally of the minor maintenance category, beginning with the exterior brightwork, including toerails, handrails, cockpit coamings, and various other trim bits.  The existing finish  was old varnish and/or Cetol in poor condition, and the owner wanted to strip it all back to bare teak and then let the wood weather naturally from there, which look and lack of maintenance was in keeping with his vision and use of the boat.

In the same general exterior appearance category, the owner requested that I repaint and change the color of the boottop and bottom, and also replace the cove stripe to match.

We also planned to enhance the sailing experience with new self-tailing winches for the genoa, a tiller extension, and a rigid boom vang, all of which I’d be installing soon.

The owner also wanted to install a new dodger, and to that end he had purchased an old fiberglass sea hood that came from a Cape Dory 25; the existing companionway had no sea hood, and while one wasn’t required, it did make sense to install one and provide a better landing point for the dodger.  We didn’t know if the old sea hood would be adaptable to this boat, but it seemed a worthy (small) investment to give it a try versus building something from scratch.

The old sea hood was structurally sound and in generally good condition, and I set it in place over the existing hatch to get a sense of its fit.  I knew it would be too long, since the CD Typhoon Sr. features a rather short companionway hatch, but shortening the hood would be straightforward.  In a perfect world, it would have fit cleanly and without need for other modification, but in reality, while the hood fit over the companionway well enough, it interfered with the wooden trim that acted as guides and hold-downs for the existing sliding hatch, as it wasn’t quite wide enough to clear the existing trims.

I considered and rejected various options for dealing with the fit, from doing nothing and giving up on the sea hood (not really a desirable option), to extending the wood trim (maybe), to making the sea hood taller on the sides (fussy and not really practicable nor attractive nor desirable), but in the end I decided it made sense to see about modifying (i.e. cutting narrower) the existing wood trim to accept the sea hood, which was a simple option since the sea hood almost fit as it was, and there was no need for the trim to be as wide as it was other than consistent appearance–and that wouldn’t be an issue since the modified trim would be inside the sea hood and not visible.  Plus, conveniently, all the bungs were missing from the wood trim (and the handrails and the companionway trim and the coamings), so removal of the trim ought to be a snap.

Happy with that idea, I made a few measurements and marks to denote the new length of the sea hood, since now it extended well past the companionway opening.  Down on the bench, I fine-tuned the cut line and made the cut with a jigsaw.

Back on deck, I test-fit the shortened hood.  I’d been conservative in my initial cut, and while with the hood propped up on the wooden trims it sat nice and high and allowed the companionway hatch and trim to slide beneath, I could see that once I lowered the hood to deck height (by removing/modifying the wooden trims), the companionway hatch trim would no longer clear the hood, so I decided to cut off another 1-1/2″ to better allow for that.

At the same time, I removed the teak trim on either side of the hatch; this was as easy as I’d anticipated, as there was little sealant and all the screws were exposed.  I’d worry about the trim modifications later, but for now, with the interference removed, the sea hood flange sat nearly on the deck, though the little raised molded flats on either side of the hatch–designed to accept the wooden trims–prevented the hood from fitting properly on the deck itself.  The raised flat was perhaps 1/4″ high, and I’d need to remove about the outer 1/4″ of its width, so the amount of material to remove was minimal.

I figured those raised areas were solid fiberglass and therefore felt that it would be a pretty easy modification to trim the outer portions flush with the deck, which would allow the hood flange to rest flat on the deck; it appeared that the existing camber of the hood was a close (and workable) match to the cabin top.  To prepare, I marked the deck at the outer edge of the sea hood flanges, indicating the drop-dead don’t-grind-beyond line, and made some marks to represent the inside of the sea hood, then drew reference lines where I needed to remove the material.  Then, with a grinder and an angle flap disc, I carefully removed the offending material from each side, after which the hood fit quite well, as I had hoped.

Happy with those modifications, next I temporarily reinstalled the wooden trim pieces and marked where I needed to cut them as well, before removing them again and taking the whole arrangement down to the bench for some final work.

To prepare the sea hood for final touches and refinishing, I first sanded off the old paint from the underside, sanding enough to ensure good bonding but not overly worrying about removing all the paint since this part of the hood would never be visible once installed.  On the top surfaces, I sanded away a layer of old paint and primer–both were in good condition and sound, but the color was an off-white that wouldn’t work as is–and sanded smooth the original gelcoat beneath.  At the trailing edge, I removed a strip of the gelcoat down to bare laminate to prepare the surface for some needed reinforcement, as the hood was a bit flimsy there.  I had hoped to build a small extension beneath the opening, as per the original, but the hood was now a close fit with the sliding hatch and there simply wasn’t room, so instead I planned to add a stiffener on the top edge.

For that, I cut a strip of 3/8″ prefab fiberglass to fit, and after final preparations glued it in place with epoxy adhesive and epoxy fillets.  To hold the shape of the hood, I temporarily screwed the flanges to the bench, and added some support beneath the center of the opening.  Once the epoxy securing the new brace cured, it would hold the curvature nicely.  At that time, I also planned to shape and blend the new reinforcement into the adjacent areas for a seamless and intentional appearance.

Finally, I made the cuts on the teak trims so they would clear the sea hood.  With these pieces conveniently on the bench, I took a moment to sand off the old finish as needed, back to clean wood.

Total time billed on this job today:  4.5  hours

0600 Weather Observation:  32°, mostly cloudy. Forecast for the day:  Mostly cloudy, 55°

Monday

First thing in the morning, while it was still calm, I removed the tarp from the boat, preparing her for moving indoors soon.  A few weeks earlier, during another warm spell, I’d taken the time to dig out the boat from snowbanks and move her to location near the shop; though we hadn’t had any more snow since then, and in fact the melt had continued, it had been nice knowing that the boat was nearby and ready for me whenever I was.

Much later in the day, after I’d wrapped up several hours of work on another project, which included getting the second shop bay ready to accept August West, I moved her indoors, where after removing some straps and tie-downs, my first order of business was to lift the mast off the deck to get it out of the way for the project.  For now, I rested the mast on some sawhorses in the shop; I had a little mast-related work on this project as well.

Total time billed on this job today:  1.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  32°, mostly cloudy.  Forecast for the day:  Partly sunny, 56°