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Matt met a fellow sailor who happened to get a picture if his own boat with us in the background. Sigh. Hopefully soon we will be out there again!




-- Post From My iPhone

Long Time No See

I have been remiss in my postings, but the progress has been tremendous.

To address some questions we've received about the cockpit sole, I'd like to say that we knew we needed to do it because about one third of the sole was squishy and produced a sound like water been squeezed in a sponge when pressure was applied. Water was seeping up through the rudder post shaft also. There was about one quarter inch of very alarming flex back there. It was really really apparent. When Matt cut the first hole in it at the very stern, about a gallon of black putrid water gushed out.  Again, it was really really apparent. If you're in doubt, I'm sure you're fine.

As to why we are pouring so much energy into this boat, we think about it this way -- we paid 500 dollars for a customizable hull and are now customizing it to be what we want. Also, we are having a crash course in yacht repair, cabinetry, and just about everything else.

In my last post the cockpit sole had just been opened up.  We lifted and scraped all of the wood out until there was just a one layer skin of fiberglass in the bottom. We could no longer stand in the cockpit but had to stand inside the lazarette openings on the inside of the hull.

Matt laid a series of squares of plywood down in a bed of thickened expoxy, so each one is isolated to reduce the chance of the entire sole rotting away again.

Meanwhile at home we are working on the bulkheads and the split rudder.

I don't have step by step pictures of the rudder, but I taped up over the split, clamped the two sides tight and poured straight epoxy down into the crack. I did this probably ten times before the crack was completely filled. I sanded it back to its original shape. Now she needs to be covered in Barrier Kote and repainted with bottom paint.

More later, I need to upload additional pictures.

Cockpit sole=open

Nothing but rot under the Fiberglass.

-- Post From My iPhone

I am Lazy

Matt spent two days grinding off the neven surfaces and beveling the portlight openings to prepare them to be glassed over.  This apparently resulted in such a cloud of dangerous particles of fiberglass flying around that we needed to upgrade the shopvac and put a filter on the fan that ventilates the tarp enclosure. So sad I missed all that.

Structural fairing compound goes up right onto the lexan windows we installed last year.

Meanwhile, my job is to clean the adhesive and paper off of the bowmar windows we bought at Bacon's, which allows me to stay home and not in all the fiberglass. Sweet. Also, I made a cover for the tiller. I think the diligence score looks something like this: Matt: 400,000 Carrie:  2

Getting ready to paint the decks

In order to glass over the existing windows, remove all the deck fittings a repaint, we have to keep her safe from rain. Probably should have started sooner than march, but there has been a lot of snow. Went to Lowe's and picked up about thirty PVC pipes and joints.

It starts to go up.

It starts to take shape.

We hang the tarp up.











Pretty neato. We used zip ties, which didn't even last a week. We came back to find the whole thing lying in the mud. Went back to the old drawing board, put it back up with bolts and nuts and used PVC pipe cement. So far so good, she made it a week.

Now that things are a bit more secure, everything is coming off and out, hatch covers, sliders, handles, instruments .. .

Seems like going back to square one.

This is the color of my broken heart. My teak faced bulkheads are out. Rotten on the bottoms. Not doing much good, were they? We lost all the nice trim boards that were attached to them, too. 

Head, meet dinette. Hanging locker, meet galley. Looks big inside now, and it also looks nearly as creepy as it did when we bought it. Nothing like demolition to make you feel really fricking sad. And fill your yard up with bulkheads and bow rails and stuff.

-- Post From My iPhone

Plans, plans and more plans

If it doesn't snow too much, this weekend we are building a PVC frame to hang a tarp on. I'm taking my new Sailrite Ultrafeed down to the club and we're going to sew it into the correct shape (hopefully). If I have time I want to put some covered screen vents on and maybe a door. Let's see if the execution can keep up with the idea . . .

Split Rudder: Step One, Remove Rudder

Completed without incident. Hope the rest of the repair goes as well. Much to my surprise, the whole assembly did not plop out at the speed of gravity once the retaining pin was removed, but had to be slowly pulled out. The whole thing was very reassuring, and surprisingly still well lubricated.