Wednesday

The new layer of fiberglass inside the repair area required minimal prep:  just a quick water wash and some light sanding to remove any rough edges and scuff the surface slightly.

After confirming the pre-cut core pieces still fit as I expected, I prepared for the installation by wetting out the core on both sides, saturating the scrim and top surface with epoxy.  Then, I applied thickened epoxy adhesive to the deck with a notched trowel, and installed the core on both sides, along with the solid fiberglass platform for the mast step.  Pressing the core into the  adhesive, I filled any small gaps around the edges and weighted the whole area down beneath a layer of protective plastic, leaving it to cure overnight.  By necessity, there was little else I could do at this point to advance the project, so I spent the rest of the day working on other things.

Total time billed on this job today:  1.5 hours 

0600 Weather Observation:  25°, fog.  Forecast for the day:  Mostly sunny, 51°

Tuesday

The mast beam and filler required some sanding first thing, to remove any excess epoxy and otherwise prepare the surface for new work.

After cleaning up, I made a basic paper pattern of the repair, and cut a single layer of 10 oz. cloth to fit the inner skin and cover and tie in the mast beam and new work below.  To ensure that the additional fiberglass and the new core didn’t end up too high, I test-fit a piece of the 3/8″ core in several places to judge its height against the existing edges; the height looked good, so I could proceed with my plans.

I cut new core to fit the areas to each side of the mast step and test-fit and fine-tuned the pieces in place.  The fiberglass mast step was intentionally higher since it would ultimately become part of the original raised step platform.  To prepare for the work ahead, I masked off and covered with plastic the adjacent deck and cabin trunk areas, and the forward hatch.  I’d looked into the possibility, early in the project, of removing the forward hatch to keep it out of harm’s way, but decided the risk of damaging the hatch during removal was too high, so decided to leave it be.

After a final round of cleanup and prep, I skim-coated the new mast beam work with an additional layer of thickened epoxy, to make up any low spots and generally smooth the area.  At the same time, I filled the reamed-out edges around the perimeter of the deck with thickened, strengthened epoxy, and wet out the entire inner skin to prepare for the inner layer of fiberglass.

I took a break to work on other things while I let that new epoxy work start to tack up slightly before returning to install and wet-out the new fiberglass layer over the entire area (within the existing deck edges).  I considered whether to try and install the new core once the fiberglass had started to tack up, but thought this would have ended up too late in the day and would have rushed things, so I decided to let the new work cure overnight before proceeding.

Total time billed on this job today:  4.75 hours 

0600 Weather Observation:  32°, mostly clear. Forecast for the day:  Mostly sunny, 53°

Monday

To build the mast beam, I ordered a 36″ long piece of 3/4″ prefabricated fiberglass sheeting for the job.  Since the beam trough had an overall height in the center of 2″ or more, I could use three layers of the fiberglass to create the full beam thickness as needed.  The length of the trough was just over 36″, but since it tapered to nothing at the ends, the 36″ length would work out well.

To begin, after sanding the smooth factory surface on both sides of the raw material, I cut a 6-3/4″ wide strip of the fiberglass as needed to fit within the trough.  A test fit showed that I needed to slightly ease the bottom corners, since the corners of the molded trough were rounded, and afterwards the blank fit properly and sat more or less flat on the bottom of the trough.

Each piece of fiberglass would require shaping at the ends to accommodate the deck camber and changing depth of the trough at the outboard ends, so I marked the blank on each side at the ends, following the curve of the deck’s inner skin.

In the bench, I used a grinder and belt sander to remove the excess material, after first connecting the marks with a ruler to give me guidance on all sides as I ground away the excess material from each side, creating an angle that corresponded to the shape of the deck.

I measured the length of the flat part of the first piece, then cut a second layer to that measurement (26″).  With the second layer atop the first, I repeated the marking and shaping process.  I didn’t try to shape these pieces to a razor’s edge at the ends of the tapers, partly because it was a substantial effort to remove the excess material to begin with and I saw no reason to do more work than necessary; and also because I intentionally kept the heights of the new beam just slightly below the adjacent decks, since I did not want the rock-hard beam to end up higher than its surroundings.  Instead, I planned to make up any slight height differences with some strengthened epoxy during installation.

After some eyeballing and measuring, I determined that I could use one more layer of the 3/4″ fiberglass for the top and center section without needing to remove too much material to make it work.  I didn’t want the center of the new beam to end up higher than the surrounding inner deck skin, nor did I want to have to remove too much material from the raw stock, but since the overall depth of the beam trough was over 2″ at centerline, it ended up that I needed only to remove about 1/8″ of height from the whole piece, in addition to the curved tapers on each end.  This was a do-able prospect.

This is how the three sections looked when stacked up on the bench.

After final cleanup and surface prep, I installed the new beam, one layer at a time.  The messiness and time-sensitive nature of this work, as usual, obviates step-by step photos.

I began with an epoxy coat over all interior surfaces of the beam trough, and used some thickened epoxy to fill a few places where the drill bit I used in the early stages of the old beam’s removal had slightly run into the bottom of the trough.  I also masked over from inside the mast step bolt holes and the old wiring holes, to prevent epoxy from spilling through these openings during installation.

After wetting out the underside and edges of each beam section, I installed them in epoxy adhesive thickened with high-density filler and cabosil, using a notched trowel to apply the adhesive and leaving plenty of extra along the vertical edges to fill the small gaps.  Once the top section was in place, I used a thickened  epoxy mixture strengthened with choppings to finish off the top shape of the beam, filling the areas left by the short steps in each of the three layers.  I kept this filler just slightly lower than the adjacent deck as well, to prevent undue sanding later, as this filler would be quite hard and difficult to sand.

After lunch, the beam area had tacked up enough that I could do some preparatory work for the new mast step platform.  With a steel ruler in place between the short remaining section of the old platform (left in place for this purpose) and the marks I’d made on the forward hatch, I measured the height and found that it was just shy of 3/4″ (and taller at the forward end), so I thought I’d use another piece of my fiberglass sheeting to build the platform base.   The mast step needed to be solid fiberglass, and I’d originally considered building this up myself once the core was in place around it, but this was a quicker solution that would make building and shaping the little platform that much easier.  (Review the original platform design and shape here.)

I wanted to install the solid base, then glass over the top of it with the new top skin for the deck, so I needed the whole thing to be an appropriate height below the desired finished height as dictated by the ruler.  This meant that I had to remove some material from the underside of the piece to make it fit properly, mainly at the aft end, where it was too high, but I also had to shape and dish out the bottom to fit the general curvature of the deck beneath.  After some incremental shaping, I eventually got the new piece to fit the way I wanted it, essentially two layers’ thickness below the finished deck height.  (This gap is hard to see beneath the ruler in the bottom row of photos, but it’s there.)

To roughly match the shape and character of the original platform I was attempting to reproduce, I cut a bevel on the forward end of the fiberglass, which would ease the transition and shaping of the platform into the finished deck later.  The narrow area just forward of the mast step would be at nominal deck height (just a little lower), but instead of balsa core here, as in the original construction, I planned to fill that gap with solid fiberglass later, once the core was in place.  This would ensure that the wiring runs would never leak into any coring as they had in the past.

When I’d removed the old part of the platform, I found that this left a gap in the deck skin below, and over a couple “lifts” of epoxy I’d filled this void over the course of the day, finishing up with a final layer once I’d completed work on the mast platform and bringing the void up to inner deck level.

Total time billed on this job today:  5.5 hours 

0600 Weather Observation:  28°, mostly clear. Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 57°

Thursday

Picking up where I left off, I attacked the remains of the wooden mast beam.  Based on the small sections I’d removed last time, I expected a difficult time ahead.  I used a saw to cut a series of kerfs lengthwise through the wood, which was how the saw fit; there wasn’t really room to cut across the narrow dimension, but I added a few diagonal cuts where I could.  To my pleasure and surprise, this made the final removal startlingly quick:  I found that in short order I could remove large slivers of the wood, which then released the rest from the edges, so in no time at all I’d removed all the wood, leaving behind a nearly clean trough in the deck.  The wood may once have been secured in place by the laminate (I suspected the laminate was built up right over the wood once it was in place), and there were some minor ghosts of wood stuck to the laminate, but whatever bonding had been there originally had long ago failed as the wood became saturated, and because any bonding of this nature would have been minimal and weak to begin with.

With all the core and beam removal complete, I cleaned out some additional core remnants from around the edges of the openings, scraping out the final bits of core with a variety of tools.  Then, I ground a tapered area around the entire repair, removing gelcoat and laminate at a slight angle from the inside of the opening.  At the edges of the coachroof, I used some tape to mark the absolute outside edge of the grinding, as I wanted to leave just a bit of the original nonskid outside of the repair to allow me to properly fair in the new work, as well as maintain the nonskid line without getting into the smooth gelcoat of the cabin sides.  At the same time, I sanded the exposed inner skin, and cleaned up the edges of the mast beam trough as needed to remove any overhanging laminate and so forth.

For the moment, I left the short after end of the old mast step platform untouched, as I planned to use it as a reference point for building up the new platform.  Once I’d done that, I would prepare the after end and laminate the new top skin over the entire area.

After cleaning up the worst of the mess, I finished up the prep work with some detail sanding as needed, getting by hand into tight corners, edges, and within the overhang around the edges as needed.  I ordered some solid fiberglass sheeting with which to build the replacement mast beam, but for now I’d done about all I could till the new materials arrived.

Total time billed on this job today:  5 hours 

0600 Weather Observation:  35°, light rain. Forecast for the day:  Rain, 44°

Wednesday

When the owner bought this boat last fall, he knew that there was an issue with the coachroof in way of the mast step, and possibly with the mast support beam beneath, and brought the boat here for this specific repair.  As such, the overall scope of the job was limited to this area.

On deck, this issue manifested itself with a series of cracks across the coachroof,which, while indicative of the sort of construction at hand–that is, a deck structure in a highly-stressed area working independently of the other main structures in the boat, i.e. the deck was not tabbed to the bulkheads–it was still clear evidence of the stresses on the area.  However, there was no outward sign of deck compression, and I suspected that the molded raised area beneath the step was reinforced with additional fiberglass.

Belowdecks, while the structural components were hidden beneath the full molded cabin liner, there were additional cracks and signs of water ingress and wet wood-colored staining.  Anecdotal information suggested the support beam hidden within the molded liner, and which spanned the opening to the forward cabin between the structural bulkheads, was built of wood, but exactly how the whole arrangement was constructed was unknown at the beginning of the project.

Though the scope of the project was outwardly limited to the known issues on the coachroof, I started out by inspecting the whole deck and cockpit as a matter of course, sounding with a hammer and noting nothing of extreme importance.  I did note one confined area of top-skin debonding on the port sidedeck (likely a latent construction void), and an area of suspect core beginning near the rudderpost on the starboard side of the cockpit.  While these were noteworthy in their existence, neither required any immediate attention, though monitoring them going forward would be prudent.

Most of the coachroof appeared sound, namely the after portions in and around the companionway hatch.  As anticipated, however, the area on each side of the mast step presented with obvious signs of debonding, delamination, and damp or sodden core.  I used the sounding hammer to determine the outer reaches of the obvious damage, and marked off the areas with tape.  The inside edge of the tape would be my cutlines for opening the deck for repair.  The apparent extent of the damage on the starboard side extended beyond the forward hatch, while to port the area was slightly smaller.

To prepare for the work ahead, I covered the sidedecks and foredeck with protective plastic, and assembled various tools, lighting, and electrical cords as needed.

My first order of business was to remove the mast step itself, and also the wires leading through the deck, which were in poor condition with the insulation dried and cracked away, exposing corroded wire strands within.   Belowdecks, I removed a teak trim piece from the opening, as this covered one of the bolt holes for the mast step.  The underside of the trim was covered with standing water from within the molded liner, clear evidence of ongoing moisture issues that didn’t bode well for the wooden mast support.  With the trim removed, I unbolted the mast step with a small socket, and removed the wiring from the immediate area.

I drilled into the deck in a couple locations around the mast step to gauge the laminate thickness and overall core condition, then, beginning on the port side, cut open the top laminate inside the tape lines, ultimately exposing the core for removal.  As expected, the core material was wet, though not rotten in most areas on the port side.  I removed all the laminate and core from the opening, using chisels and an oscillating tool.  The core just beyond my cutlines fore and aft was still dry and sound.

Now I cut a small access hole in the exposed inner skin, allowing me to begin to assess the mast beam that I expected would be hidden beneath.  In this small access hole, near the mast step, I exposed a layer of badly water-damaged wood, apparently plywood, but once I removed the bad material I exposed additional wood–still wet, but sound.  At this early stage, this served only to begin to educate me on the construction beneath, as well as the conditions I could anticipate, and from what I could see through this small hole, it was apparent that the mast beam was going to require replacement as well.

For the moment, I left the molded area beneath the mast step alone, as I wasn’t sure how the overall deck was constructed and wanted to work my way back to that area once I’d learned more about the scantlings.  I figured I would probably have to remove the raised, molded flat area, however, so before I continued I made a quick template of the mast step location, registering it off the nearby forward hatch for reference, and also marked the plane of the surface on some tape on the hatch; these marks and templates would help me rebuild the area and install the mast step in the same location later.

Next, I repeated the deck and core removal on the starboard side.  Here, I found the core was in much worse condition than to port, which was pretty much what I expected since the outward visual signs and deck inspection had suggested this.  Once I’d removed all the material from within the new openings, I reamed out the core from beneath the deck edge along the side of the coachroof and around the forward hatch, and cleaned up the area for now.  As on the port side, the core at the edges of my cutlines was clean, dry, and sound.

With a sounding hammer, I worked out the approximate dimensions and location of the mast beam below the exposed bottom skin; this was relatively straightforward, but till I could begin to expose things and truly understand the construction I was dealing with, I erred on the side of caution as I marked out the beam’s location, as I didn’t want to cut unnecessary or unwanted material.  Once I had the extent of the beam roughly and conservatively marked out, I began to carefully cut away the skin to expose the entire thing.  To begin, I left the mast step assembly in place, since although I assumed the beam ran directly beneath it, I wanted to be sure before I removed the molded flat (which rested on an area of solid glass rather than core in the original top deck structure).

As I exposed the mast support, it became clear that it was completely wet, but further construction details also became apparent.  Because of the deck camber, the beam tapered to each side, and in the center, where it was thickest, there had originally been a layer of plywood, perhaps 1/2″ thick, and this was the heavily rotted wood I was removing as I cut.  Below this, however, was a dense, still-solid layer of wood which, while clearly wet, had not deteriorated.

Now I had exposed enough to know that I needed to cut away the mast step platform, so I did.  This exposed the rest of the mast beam.

To figure out what I was dealing with, I drilled a series of holes in the center, thickest section of the beam, then chiseled out a segment of the wood till I reached the bottom and sides of the molded housing.  It became clear that the beam was probably a piece of standard 2×8 pressure-treated construction lumber; because it was treated, it had not rotted, but the wood was completely saturated throughout and from side to side.

It was getting late in the day, but now that I knew what I was dealing with, I started at the port edge and began to remove the beam, drilling and chiseling away another section; because of the deck camber, the beam had tapered away to zero thickness near the deck edge, growing thicker as I moved inboard.  I’d come up with a more efficient way to chisel out the remaining part of the beam next time, but for now the day was done.

Total time billed on this job today:  6.75 hours 

0600 Weather Observation:  32°, mainly cloudy.  Forecast for the day:  Mostly cloudy, 43°

Tuesday

I’d planned to shuffle boats around Monday, but the weather outside was unpleasant, with sleet changing to snow that lasted all day, so with no desperate hurry, I decided to wait to move Adeline (currently called Snow Squall, ironically enough) into the shop, hoping for better weather Tuesday.  I fiddled around the shop on various maintenance projects for most of the day.

Tuesday dawned cold and raw, with an inch or so of now-icy snow on everything, and I wished I’d just done the move on Monday after all.  Nevertheless, it was time to get the boat indoors so that there’d be time for the new snow to melt off before I could get to work.  So after some adjustment to the trailer pads, I moved the boat indoors uneventfully.  Once the snow on deck had loosened up a bit after a few hours, I pushed most of it off onto the floor to hasten the melting and drying process overnight.

Total time billed on this job today:  1.5 hours 

0600 Weather Observation:  30°, partly clear. Forecast for the day:  Becoming partly sunny, 41°