January 6, 2017
Halcyon 6
Friday
Picking up where I left off, I continued work on the deck hardware removal, from the starboard chainplates and mast step to the hardware on the aft deck. There were no particular suprises during this process; several of the fasteners were either stuck in place or broke off during removal, as before.
In the cockpit, there were a few more things to remove at the forward end, and I took care of those along with removing the vestiges of an old electrical system and the cockpit and seat drain hoses.
At this time, I was undecided how to proceed with the deadlights in the cabin. The owner reported that they did not leak, and the lenses were in good condition (starboard better than port). Knowing well the challenges and frustrations involved with reinstalling these types of frames and lenses, I was tempted to leave the windows in place and work around them, but I’d have to contemplate that more. Typically, I did not like to leave anything in place during painting projects, but then again sometimes well enough was best left alone.
In the cabin, I removed a few existing wires and light fixtures, along with the sink drain plumbing, supply hose, icebox drain, and water tank fill, all of which I planned to replace later in the project.
One of the other items on my work list, and slated for attention very soon, was to remove the obsolete head discharge through hull on the starboard side and patching the hole. The owner requested a simple portable toilet for the space.
The interior cabinetry and panels were generally sound, but in some areas there was water damage to the veneer and plywood laminations, most notably at the forward end of the cabin on either side of the mast support column. The after portions of the settee bases also showed some similar–yet less dire–signs of damage from moisture over the years. Whether these panels could be saved with a bright (varnish) finish remained to be seen, but I thought a simple alternative–which I’d effected on another Sailmaster project a few years earlier–might be to patch and paint these panels instead, saving the structural elements but forgoing the challenges of inefficient veneer repair.
With that, most of the dismantling was done, and I looked forward to diving into the first stages of surface prep and related work shortly.
Total time billed on this job today: 5 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
20°, dusting of snow. Forecast for the day: becoming sunny, 20s.