February 13, 2020

Scupper 241

Thursday

I spent the morning working on final preparations for the staysail track and winch installations, starting with final hole preparation in the newly epoxy-filled holes.  With the tracks and winches mocked up as needed, I drilled and tapped the 26 holes required for the tracks, and 12 holes for the pair of winches.  Then, I masked around the T-tracks to prepare for installation.

Inside the cabin, I now had a series of small holes through the old overhead liner (or, in the head for the starboard staysail winch, the finished liner).  At the track locations, I used a large holesaw to remove the liner in way of each fastener, leaving ample room for large washers and nuts that would bear directly on the underside of the deck above.  At the winch locations, I removed squares of the old liner to allow room for a backing plate beneath the winches.  In the head location, I’d have to cover the large hole with a cosmetic cover plate later, but the location above the galley would be covered by the new cosmetic plywood overhead in the near future.

With all the overhead preparations complete, I cleaned up the enormous mess created by the work.

To install the staysail tracks, I applied a good bead of sealant to the deck, then fastened the tracks with 7 stainless steel fasteners each, securing them below with large washers and nuts.  I cut off the excess bolt length, leaving the fasteners recessed below the old overhead.  Back on deck, I cleaned up the excess sealant and removed the tape to complete the installation.

I prepared two fiberglass backing plates for the winches, then installed the winches with sealant and stainless fasteners.

I installed the new lead cars for the staysail, and prepared to mount the removable track ends.  I’d forgotten to prepare the fastener holes for these ends when I did the tracks, so now I marked the fastener locations, then drilled out the core at each location before filling the void with thickened epoxy, leaving it to cure overnight.

Next, I turned to the jib/Yankee tracks.  As with the smaller staysail tracks, and working from my earlier layout, I drilled and tapped the holes at each end of the track, then temporarily secured them with screws so I could drill the remaining holes along the track.  I was pretty sure the tracks on both sides were in a solid fiberglass part of the deck, but I paid attention to the drill spoils to look for signs of core that I’d have to drill and fill.  Fortunately, all fastener locations were in solid fiberglass, so I could go ahead and tap and countersink all screw locations for the 5/16″ fasteners that would secure the tracks.

This time, I marked and drilled the holes for the track ends as well.  I didn’t have enough of the fasteners I needed to do both tracks, so with time running out anyway I’d await final installation till I received the fasteners.

Finally, I drilled and tapped the fastener holes in the poop deck for the lazarette hatch locking hasp, but the fasteners wouldn’t arrive till next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  7 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  29°, light snow.  Forecast for the day:  Snow, 3-6″ forecast, 30°