October 1, 2020

Skeedeen Phase 6-6

Thursday

With a short day in the shop around other commitments, I focused first on the through hull patches.  After a light water-wash and scuff with sandpaper on both sides of the epoxy-filled holes, I skimmed all areas with a thickened epoxy mixture to fill minor voids and wet out the surfaces before installing fiberglass patches inside and out–two layers in, three layers out.

To provide clear access to the transom for prep and painting, I had to remove the swim platform, which was secured at its inboard edge with three angle brackets to the transom, and three supports running from the bottom of the hull to the outboard end of the platform.  The platform was secured to these six locations with screws through the brackets and into the teak, so removal of the platform itself was straightforward.

The tubular support brackets proved to be simply screwed into the hull laminate at the bottom edge of the transom, so these were easy to remove as well.

However, the upper brackets were throughbolted, not unexpectedly, but access might prove to be something of a challenge, particularly on the outboard brackets.  From inside, there was no direct access to the transom here:  the only existing access was through a deck hatch on each side, but unfortunately these hatches were located several feet forward of the transom, too far a reach for me.  The centerline hatch was closer to the transom and I expected that I could get to the fasteners for the midships bracket without issue.  It was apparent from inspecting the brackets that they’d not been removed the last time the boat was painted, somewhere around 15 years earlier, so they’d been in place since original construction.  I’d assess their removal more in the immediate future.

While in the area, I removed the rubber exhaust flapper, which was secured with a substantially rusted hose clamp–which fortunately succumbed to screwdriver pressure despite its appearance.  The flapper itself was in good condition and would be reused later, though with a new clamp to hold it in place.

Total time billed on this job today:  2 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  48°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 70°