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Thursday

To begin, I lightly sanded the newly-filled core areas, just to scuff the surface and remove any hard ridges.  I also sanded the fiberglass patches on the foredeck.

Afterwards, I finished up cutting all the material for the rest of the job:  4 layers of 1708 biax for each section of the deck.

With all material cut and ready, I spent the remainder of the day wetting out and installing all the new fiberglass over both forward sidedecks and around the poop deck and cockpit sidedecks.   At the poop deck, I extended the large after pieces of cloth right over the steering room hatch, though I didn’t wet out the center portion.  I did this to help the material hold together once wet out.  I’d cut out the center section later.

Total time billed on this job today:  8 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  14, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 20s

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Wednesday

After uncovering the fresh core on the poop deck, I went over all areas lightly with a sander to remove any epoxy ridges and otherwise prepare the surfaces for the next steps in the process.  Afterwards, I vacuumed and blew out all the dust, and solvent washed each area.

With everything dry, smooth, and clean, I made paper patterns of each section, following the outer line of the ground tapered areas on the adjacent decks.  I’d use these patterns to cut the fiberglass for the new top skin laminate.

To bring the recored areas up close to flush with the inner edge of the adjacent deck, each section would require two layers of new material directly over the new core (I could re-use the core patterns for these pieces), plus two larger pieces to overlap and tie into the surrounding decks.   This meant a lot of material cutting ahead.  My initial plan was to work on some of the additional prep work on the foredeck and forward sidedeck areas, such as filling any gaps around the edges of the core, filling in solid material in various voids and around the chainplates, and filling the kerfs in the core as necessary, after which I’d leave the new work to partially cure while I cut material, with the idea of doing the fiberglassing later in the day.  This way, I hoped, I could keep working with green epoxy and avoid another interim sanding step.

As it happened, I changed my plan during the day, but for now I got started with the chainplate slots.  Earlier, I’d covered all the original chainplates with two layers of clear packing tape as a nonstick device, and now I temporarily installed the old chainplates back in their slots, holding them in place with clamps or a pin through one of the bolt holes as necessary.  I did this to maintain the slots and their positions during the epoxy and fiberglass work ahead.

I wanted to fill the voids around the chainplates with solid, reinforced epoxy, but later I also wanted to remove the chainplates and fiberglass right over the holes, avoiding the issue of cutting the glass around the chainplates and its related irritations.    So while the slots would be there, petrified in epoxy, I needed a down-and-dirty reference for re-finding the holes once I’d fiberglassed over the top.  To this end, I made the simplest, quickest patterns that could help me do the job:  a piece of paper over each chainplate, slotted over the metal itself, allowing the paper to wrap up the nearby bulwark where I outlined the paper edges with a marker right on the still-unsanded bulwark for ready realignment later, and easy relocation of the slots.  I did this for all 12 locations.

Meanwhile, I cut, from 3/8″ solid fiberglass, blocking to fill the various voids I’d left in the new core at certain hardware locations, and trial-fit everything in place.  Then, starting on the foredeck and with the two sidedeck areas, I epoxied in the blocking, and filled the voids around the chainplates and elsewhere with reinforced, thickened epoxy.  For the port foredeck, in way of the anchor line hawse, I filled the entire large void over the original opening with epoxy, though all I really needed was some at the edge; later most of this plug would get cut out, but it would make it easier to continue and fiberglass with the entire void filled.  I focused first on these four forward area as my plan was still to work to do all the fiberglassing of these areas later in the day.

My hope was that I could spend some time cutting new material while the epoxy around the chainplates partially cured, at which time I could remove the chainplates and continue the glasswork.  So for an hour or so, I cut various pieces of material for the two small foredeck patches, and for the starboard sidedeck.

Somewhere in here I changed my plan for the remainder of the day, probably because I realized that it was more important for the next day’s work that I continue some of the gap-and chainplate-filling tasks on the after portions of the boat, where there was still plenty to do, and I decided it would be more efficient to concentrate on all the prepwork first, even though it would mean another quick round of sanding the next day.  So with enough material cut for the foredeck patches, along with the starboard sidedeck, I changed tacks and got back to work on the remaining detail work, using thickened epoxy to fill all the edge gaps and fill the kerfs, and installing  more solid blocking in the core voids on the after decks.

Meanwhile, I installed four layers of new biaxial fiberglass over the two foredeck patches:  two layers over the new core, bringing it up level with the inside edge of the deck, then two larger layers overlapping the adjacent deck and each other to complete the lamination.

Late in the day, once I’d finished up all the other epoxy work, I went ahead and removed the taped-over chainplates, now that the epoxy around them had cured sufficiently.  This left neatly-formed slots through the deck and surrounded by solid material, but next time, after a quick smoothing with a sander, I could easily fiberglass over the tops of the slots for a clean and strong lamination with fewer obstructions.

Total time billed on this job today:  8.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  32, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 35

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Tuesday

To begin, I unloaded the sandbags from the newly-laid core on the sidedecks and elsewhere, exposing the new core.

I had other commitments away from the shop later in the day, so with only a limited amount of time I chose to focus on the new core installation at the poop deck.  After final preparations, I installed the core in the same manner as the rest of the deck.

Total time billed on this job today:  1.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  Clear, 20°, 4-5″ snow yesterday afternoon and overnight.  Forecast for the day:  Clouds and sun, near 40

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Monday

Working on an unrelated shop project over the weekend, I decided to take a few moments to disassemble the two side anchor rollers from the old bow platform, which would leave the wooden portion available for easy patterning; frankly, the platform was in my way.  The old stainless steel rollers–one on each side–featured a 5/8″ thick threaded rod passing through the meat of the platform, secured with a nut on each end, along with wood screws to secure the roller frames to the side of the platform.    The wood screws were easy enough to remove, but the large nuts seemed at first not to budge–but then simply shattered apart on each side under the wrench pressure.  At that point, it was a matter of a little elbow grease to force the old roller assemblies off the shaft, then hammer out the shaft from the platform itself.

After double-checking the positions of the previously-marked cutout areas on all the core pieces, I removed the core and cut out these areas, the final step before core installation.  After various other preparations, including gathering sandbags, plastic sheeting, and so forth, I got started on the core installation with the two smallest pieces on the foredeck.  Here, and for all other areas to come, I began by wetting out the core on both sides, getting epoxy resin into the scrim and the kerfs between core blocks as much as possible.  In the voids on deck, I wet out any exposed/adjacent coring, filled the empty space beneath the deck edge with a thickened epoxy mixture, and applied epoxy adhesive to the substrate with a notched trowel before pressing the core into place and applying weight to hold it while the epoxy cured.

Continuing, I repeated the process with the large area of the port sidedeck…

…and then the corresponding area on the starboard sidedeck.  Here, during a quick break in the activity while changing gloves, I took advantage of the rare “clean” moment to snap a couple pictures of the deck and core after applying the notched adhesive and all other related preparations.

Moving aft, I similarly prepared and installed the new core in the narrow sidedecks outboard of the cockpit.

I would have liked to install the final core pieces on the poop deck , but didn’t have enough weight bags to continue.  However, this gave me an opportunity to first install solid 3/8″ fiberglass strips, 1″ wide, around the perimeter of the steering room hatch opening.  These would seal off the core around the opening, and provide strength and stiffness to the whole area as well.  I glued these in place with more thickened epoxy, clamping them around the opening for the glue to cure.

Throughout the day, in a series of three separate installations to prevent excess heat buildup during curing, I installed about 13 layers of 1708 fabric set in epoxy resin in the main mast step area, bringing it close to flush with the adjacent deck.

Total time billed on this job today:  7.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  0°, mostly clear.  Forecast for the day:  Increasing clouds, light snow in the afternoon, 1-2″ forecast.

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Friday

After a quick water wash, I lightly sanded the epoxy skim coat in the deck areas to be re-cored, cleaning up thoroughly afterwards.

I made simple paper patterns of each area, pressing thin paper into the deck openings and tracing with a marker before cutting out the pattern for a test-fit.  In known hardware locations that wouldn’t change with the reinstallation, I marked out areas to eliminate the core so I could later fill the sections around the hardware (including chainplates and stanchion bases, and around the perimeter of the steering room hatch) with solid material.  I chose not to eliminate coring in way of the old stern cleat locations, as I wasn’t sure whether these locations might change with the new Norvane windvane installation.  Once I finalized those locations later in the project, I’d do the standard core removal at bolt locations through the completed deck.

With my patterns complete, I spent the remainder of the day cutting out new 3/8″ balsa core to fit all areas, as well as a series of 1708 fiberglass layers from which I’d build up the mast step reinforcement.  I left most of the core whole for the test-fitting to double-check the locations for hardware core omission, but before final installation I’d remove the core from those areas.

Total time billed on this job today:  6.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  0°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sun and increasing clouds, low 20s.

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Thursday

With another round of sanding, I dressed up the newly-exposed inner deck skin in all areas, cleaning up and beginning to smooth the rough surface and getting into corners with a detail sander.  The end result didn’t look vastly different, but this step would help ensure that the new core had the best possible bonding surface.  I also sanded the immediately-adjacent deck surfaces where necessary to remove the molded nonskid pattern.  I’d get to the rest of the deck sanding soon, but for now my focus was on the major repair work.

At the forward end of the starboard sidedeck outboard of the cockpit, I cleaned up the raw hole left in way of the stanchion base, removing loose material and sanding belowdecks as well as from above, so I could begin patching the area.  After vacuuming and solvent-washing the deck areas under repair, including this spot, I masked over the opening from below to form a rudimentary mold, and applied a piece of fiberglass from above, covering the opening.  Later, once this layer cured, I’d add additional reinforcement from beneath.

On the port aft side, I’d cut slightly too far out when I removed the top skin, just outboard of where the core actually ended, so I ended up with a kerf in the edge of the conjoined top and inner skins.  To reinforce the cut, I lightly sanded the underside of the lower skin from inside the cockpit locker, then installed some tabbing across the cut areas.  The rebuilding from the top side would complete the repair to this area.  I had to put a couple small weights in place on top since the inner section had sprung up slightly after the cut.

The nature of the original core installation left an irregular series of lines, dips, and high spots on the inner skin, along with variations in the texture of the substrate.  My earlier round of sanding cleanup had helped, but it wasn’t possible to completely sand the area smooth.

To clean up and stabilize the surface and better prepare it as the bonding substrate for the new core to come, I elected to skim coat the exposed inner skin with thickened epoxy now.  This would mean one more round of light preparatory sanding afterwards, but the surface was irregular enough that I didn’t want to count only on the troweled application of epoxy adhesive to even these areas out during core installation.  So with several batches of epoxy mixed with cabosil, I skimmed over the inner skins in all areas, filling the low areas and exposed cloth weave and creating the beginnings of a smooth substrate that would accept the core well later on.

Total time billed on this job today:  6.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  10°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 20s

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Wednesday

Starting on the coachroof, I cut out the top skin in way of the mast step and removed the core beneath.  I had to expand my initial cut towards the stern as I found the damaged core extended further from the old wiring holes than my first cut allowed.

On the starboard sidedeck, I cut out a large section of the top skin, keeping clear of the coachroof and bulwarks to allow a sufficient flange of the original decks for tying in the new laminate later.  I had to extend a portion of the cut near the forward end in the inboard side to expose all of the damaged core and allow for its removal.  Other than a short section at the forward extreme of the cut, where the core was still sound, most of the remaining core was badly deteriorated (no surprise given the softness of the deck before).  I scraped and chiseled out all the old coring, and most of the core beneath the cut flanges as well.

On  the foredeck, I’d marked two small areas that had seemed slightly suspect:  one around the starboard forward stanchion, the other in way of the large hawse hole on the port side.  Now, I removed a small portion of the top skin at each location, revealing mildly water-damaged core material that I removed as needed.

Finally, I removed a large section of the port sidedeck, revealing core that had rotted almost to nonexistence throughout most of the area.  I removed the detritus, ensuring that there was sound core at the ends of my cutout.

Now I went around all the areas under repair, using various tools to ream out all of the remaining core bits from beneath the flanges on the edges, scraping these areas as clean as possible.

On the starboard sidedeck outboard of the coaming, I pulled away by hand a fiberglass patch that had been part of the previous repair to the stanchion base area, leaving a gaping raw hole that I’d repair anew and, one hoped, more effectively.

To tie in the eventual repairs with the existing deck laminate, I needed to prepare all the adjacent areas by grinding away the gelcoat and creating a tapered edge over which the new top skin would later be installed, and I spent the remainder of the day on this dirty chore.  At the same time, I ground out a few cracked or otherwise cosmetically-damaged areas that would require some fill work (there’d be more of this to come), along with the test holes I’d drilled in a few areas on the deck.

In the cockpit, I removed a fiberglass flange around an erstwhile icebox hatch ( there was no icebox beneath), opening up a large hole in the cockpit for later repair.  I’d initially thought that removing the flange would leave the inside portion of the hatch intact, but the entire assembly lifted out once I’d cut the flange at deck level.

Total time billed on this job today:  9 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  Mostly cloudy, snow showers, 32°.  Forecast for the day:  Sun and clouds, snow showers or squalls, temperature dropping through the 20s

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Tuesday

Before beginning the deck repair work, a few items remained for me to remove, starting with the mainmast chainplates.    Access was fair to most of these locations, but in the head, where two of the port chainplates were located, the sewage system hoses and a shelf in the cabinet made access tight.  I improved the access by removing the shelf, which was necessary for reasonable access to the aftermost chainplate bolts.  As I went, I removed obsolete wiring bundles from the head locker, and also from the hanging locker on the starboard side.  After a time, I successfully removed all the chainplates and put them aside for later assessment and possible refabrication.

I took a moment to cover the engine, which was partially disassembled, with a towel and some plastic sheeting to keep out debris and dust during the bulk of the deck project again.  Afterwards, I spent a few minutes in the cockpit removing  an access plate from the cockpit sole, along with a trim ring around the manual bilge pump and the cover plate over the engine controls–all to improve access for surface preparation, repairs (as needed), and eventual painting.

I went over the entire deck, sounding with a hammer and otherwise determining the condition of the decks and locating any areas requiring core repair.  Several of these areas were readily apparent, namely both sidedecks in way of the chainplates and the poop deck, and I marked the rough location of these areas for future cutting.  In other areas, I marked any isolated areas of suspect soundings–mainly small latent voids–and when I felt it was necessary I drilled 1/2″ holes into the core to determine its condition.  I was happy and a little surprised to find that other than the large areas on the sidedecks and poop deck,  most of the deck was sound as is, including the foredeck, coachroof, and cockpit areas.  I marked off some marginal areas around one or two stanchion bases and the large hawsehole on the foredeck for possible core removal.

At the poop deck, I removed a wooden frame from around the steering gear hatch, which exposed the coring within (all of which was badly rotted) and would make cutting and repair more straightforward.

The coachroof in way of the main mast step seemed sound, other than localized damage around some old wiring holes.  However, it appeared that the step had compressed the core material beneath, causing a slight depression, so I decided to remove the step and replace the core beneath with solid fiberglass.  Because of some corrosion at the mast base itself, the owner wanted to cut off a few inches of the mast to remove the bad area, and this might also lead to rebuilding or replacing the step with a higher version to help make up for the height difference–all to be determined over the course of the project.

To remove the step, I chipped out some filler material surrounding the four lag screws (hex head),  then easily removed the screws and the step itself.

I made a simple template to help me properly relocate the step later, using the forward hatch frame as my reference guide.

In the cockpit, I removed the mizzen step  just to clear the way for more effective surface preparation.

Now I was ready to get to work on taking apart the deck for repair, and I chose to begin at the poop deck.  Here, the damaged area ran around the entire stern of the boat, from the winch islands on both sides and across the poop deck.  Leaving an edge of the original deck in place, I used a saw to cut off the top skin, over half the stern at a time; the core was in such poor condition in post areas that the skin was easy to remove by hand once the cuts were complete.  With the skin removed, exposing the black, rotted core, I scraped out the old core material from the flat areas, and dug out what I could for now from beneath the cut edges.

With the port half de-cored, I moved over to the starboard side and repeated the process.  Here, the aftermost chainplate was still in place for the moment, awaiting eventual removal, but it was easy enough to work around for the moment.  At the forward corner of the new opening, just aft of the winch island and in way of the aftermost stanchion base location, the core (and/or a mass of solid fiberglass) was more heavily fused to the inner skin than anything I’d ever run across, the apparent result of a previous spot repair to this area that had been visible on the top skin, and this caused some damage to the bottom skin that I’d have to repair before installing new core.

With the bulk of the core scraped out from around both sides, and beneath the flanges to the extent possible for now, I cleaned up and disposed of the detritus.  I’d continue work on other areas of the deck next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  7.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  19°, light snow.  Forecast for the day:  A few inches of snow, then changing to rain and eventually warming to the 40s

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Friday

Working from above decks, I eased into the day with whatever hardware I could remove from the poop deck and around the lazarette (steering gear) hatch, starting with the hatch itself.  To ease access to and fro, I removed the steering wheel, padding the end of the exposed shaft with a rag to avoid painful contact with the raw end.

The lazarette hatch was in poor condition and would require some repair, and the piano hinge securing it was similarly poor, with rusted fasteners that eventually ceded to my removal demands; having the hatch out of the way eased access to the locker so I could remove the bolts securing the two center stern pulpit stanchions, along with a flagpole holder.  I also removed some old hardware from the seat area above the helm (there was no cover for this and I planned to build one later), and a few installations in the cockpit well, including the engine instrument panel (which I’d previously noticed was already disconnected).

Next, I returned to the port cockpit locker to remove the remaining hardware from this side, including the port-side pulpit base, a mooring cleat, and the three chainplates.  Two of the three chainplate locations here had already had their fiberglass sheathing removed at some point in the past, exposing the chainplates for relatively easy removal.  The forwardmost chainplate still had its fiberglass in place over the chainplate, but by removing the nuts and hammering through the bolts, I more or less easily pushed the light tabbing away, allowing me to then rip it mostly free by hand.  The chainplate beneath was corroded, and water ran out when I removed the fiberglass.  Later, I’d return and further clean up the old glass, but for now I had the chainplate free and that’s what mattered.

To ease access to the furthest reaches of this locker, I removed the exhaust hose from its outlet, and then a tailpiece fitting, all of which cleared the way for me to reach the nuts securing the final hardware above.  From there, it was relatively simple to remove whatever nuts I could from beneath and install vice-grips on the remainder so I could spin the fasteners off from above.

The starboard locker didn’t allow the same access, with the top of the quarterberth protruding, as well as some pumps and hoses at the aft end of the locker.  To begin, I removed the locker lid and hinges here as well, then removed a horrible rusted old electrical box from the space.  Then, I removed the final stanchion base, located just outboard and reachable from inside the locker.

Next, I turned to the coaming bolts.  I could reach most of the nuts while reaching into the locker from the cockpit, and did so.  The furthest bolt aft was out of reach, and since I wasn’t worried about salvaging the coamings, I thought nothing of grinding off the bolt head from outside and pushing through the stud; I also did this on a couple reluctant bolts in the winch island.

Afterwards, I easily pried the coaming away and removed it.  I was pleased that the coamings had been removable with so much less effort than I’d anticipated.

I removed the bolts from the forward two sets of chainplates on this side, with a fair bit of effort and contorting.  Unfortunately, I lost the center chainplate into the bilge somewhere when the last bolt, which I’d been fighting for some time (the holes in the chainplates and the knees themselves were small and held the bolts tightly), came free suddenly, and the chainplate dropped down out of the slot.  This was annoying, but of little matter since it was clear all six of these after chainplates would require replacement.  I couldn’t reach the aftermost chainplate from the cockpit and left it in place for the moment.

All that remained was the final pulpit base, a mooring cleat, and a couple small pieces of hardware on the starboard poop deck.  Access to this area from beneath was theoretically possible by crawling from the port locker and through a narrow-ish passage between the aft end of the cockpit and the steering gear locker, but after considering it for a time–it was late in the day after a long week–I declined to crawl in there.  Instead, I drilled out the fasteners for the remaining hardware from above, allowing me to remove all the hardware.  I’d deal with the final chainplate another time, and would worry about reinstalling the hardware and the access here when the time came.

With the extended hardware removal stage now complete–much of it had been a fight–I looked forward to getting on with the deck inspection and repairs starting next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  7.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  Partly clear, 20°.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 38°

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Thursday

Preparing to move aft into the cockpit and after deck areas, my first chore was to clean out the various equipment stored in the two cockpit lockers.  I added it to the pile I’d accumulated in the other shop.  The starboard cockpit locker, shown in the first photo, was shallow as the quarterberth extended into this area, and this feature would greatly compromise access to the after sidedeck and poop deck.  Access to other areas from the port locker, which was full-depth, was good.

First, though, I wanted to wrap up the work in the cabin and coachroof.  All that remained for now was the old teak handrails, which were through-bolted to the cabin trunk and, in the after four bolt locations, blind-bolted to a corresponding pair of short handrails in the main cabin.  Earlier, I’d removed any nuts from inside that I could, but had already run into several that spin the fasteners (hidden inside the top rail beneath bungs).  I was prepared to take whatever steps were required to attempt to remove the existing rails intact, as they were in fair condition if weathered and somewhat worn down by the ravages of time, but after talking it over with the owner we decided that there was no need to spend the time on a careful removal, as it made more sense to replace the rails in any event.

So rather than laboriously removing bungs and fighting with old and buried fasteners, I simply chiseled out the fasteners at each location, breaking free the handrails and exposing all the fasteners on both sides.  Not a pretty process, but efficient.  Then, I cut off the heads with a cutoff wheel, and pushed through the studs, completing the handrail removal in short order.  I pulled free the interior rails with the cut fasteners still installed and set these aside for possible re-use.

One of my tasks for later on was to inspect and address as necessary all the chainplates.  To gain better access to the starboard main chainplates, two sets of which were located inside the hanging locker, I removed the interior locker doors, which in the narrow passageway made access to the locker inconvenient.    I’d get to the chainplates in more details soon, but for the moment my goal was to finish all the hardware removal in the after part of the boat.

Ignoring for now the lack of access to the starboard side outboard and aft of the cockpit, I focused on the port side, starting with the winch island, on which was installed the sheet winch and, on this side, two cleats.  After easily removing the winch drum to expose the innards and the bolts securing the winch to the island, I prepared to remove the winch, only to discover that the design of the winch base and its mechanisms–along with the fact that someone had used hex-head bolts to secure the winch–limited access to some of the bolt heads, which wouldn’t allow a socket or wrench to fit the hex head.  The base was designed for flat head machine screws, with countersunk holes milled into the base, and it would have been possible to get a screwdriver or driver bit onto such fasteners, but the hex heads in three of the six locations did not allow for wrench access as is.

With the nuts removed, my first thought was to simply pry up the winch base, bolts and all, and deal with removing the bolts from the bases later.  However, the base was immobile when I attempted to pry beneath, stuck either because the bolts were corroded into the aluminum backing plate, or else with sealant (which would later prove to be the case).  Instead, I realized I could remove more of the winch housing to increase access to the bolt locations, a simple–if frustratingly unnecessary–matter of removing four Allen screws, after which I could remove center part of the winch.  This freed the two large gears, which were directly in the way of the fastener heads.  I lifted off one of the gears only to find that it contained loose roller bearings–who knew?  These scattered about, but fortunately I contained them all and despite my initial disbelief and annoyance, I found that reassembling them would be easier than I’d feared.  Never mind the poor design and installation that led to this requirement in the first place.  That’s a topic for an other time.  All that mattered right now was removing the hardware.

With the gear out of the way (I left the second gear in place, not wanting to tempt fate), I eventually managed–still with difficulty–to remove the remaining fasteners.  The winch base was still solidly adhered to the island, so before prying it off I reinstalled the gear and its bearings, and the housing to secure them back in place, before finally and with substantial effort with a flat bar managing to pull the winch free, along with a good chunk of the winch island beneath.  Apparently this winch was installed with an adhesive sealant.  These are among the reasons that something so seemingly simple as taking off a few screws can take such a long time on these old boats.  And here I was, thinking that by starting with the winch islands I’d be starting with the easiest thing.

Armed with my hard-won knowledge, I turned to the starboard winch island.  This time, everything went more easily, as I was prepared for what I needed to do.  While I still had to remove more of the winch innards than anyone would ever thing would be appropriate for such a basic task, this time I avoided removing the gears completely, but even so there was one bolt that I could only back out so far before the angle simply prohibited the head from passing by the gear above.  But it was loose enough that I could pry the winch off the island, including the single recalcitrant bolt, and on this side of the boat the winch didn’t seem to have the huge blob of adhesive beneath, so the base came off more easily and without undue damage to the boat.  Even so, this silliness with the winches took up the entire balance of the morning, when I’d expected it to take not even half that.

Before moving into the cockpit locker, I removed the locker lid hinges, setting aside for now the heavy locker lid and providing unfettered access to the space.  There was ample room in the locker to move around and reach most of the fasteners I needed to, though it was a long, narrow reach to the poop deck, which I discovered now was not accessible from the hatch in the middle of the deck (which provided access only to the sealed, watertight compartment containing the worm steering gear and its opening through the transom).

I removed whatever nuts I could:  all but one of the coaming bolts, and a few others, but had to resort to vice-grips on a number of the fasteners that spun when I tried to remove the nuts.  The coaming bolts were 2″ longer than they had to be, but fortunately in most cases I only had to break free the nuts before I could spin them off by hand.  The forwardmost chainplate was still embedded in the builder’s original fiberglass, but the after two were exposed, which was a plus.

After some time curled up in the locker, I was ready to return to deck to remove the fasteners I’d prepared,which finally freed the after stanchion base, an abandoned water tank fill, and most of the coaming bolts.

The original coamings were in poor condition, heavily weathered and blackened, and the owner chose replacement.  It looked to me like the coamings might be heavily bedded and adhered to the boat with sealant (or, worse, 5200), as I could see a continuous line of sealant along the entire top edge of the deck where it met the coaming.  So I was prepared for the worst in removal:  that is, that I might need to break them free piece by piece, something I’ve had to do before on other projects.  There were three bolts still in place through the top edge of the winch island, but fortunately these weren’t too tough to remove (one of the heads eventually spun off and broke free of the stud, which was good because I was getting nowhere with the nut).

With all the fasteners removed, I used a 5-in-1 tool to begin to slice and loosen the sealant bead.  Imagine my surprise when the coaming began to pop free with little resistance.  It didn’t take long for me to loosen the entire length and pop free the coaming in one piece:  a real bonus, not only because it took less effort than expected but also because it gave me the old coaming as a template for the new, all of which was at least a modicum of compensation for the difficulties earlier in the day.

With the coaming out of the way, and a little time left in the day, I removed the deck plates from the three after chainplate locations, and also a U-shaped bracket from the sidedeck.

Total time billed on this job today:  7.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  26°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 40°