Happy Holidays!

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season!  May your time with friends and family be merry and may you want for nothing!

 Here is a quick update before I go to work this morning from Monday's project.  As you know, I removed the bulkhead, but there was a trim piece on the junk bulkhead that I wanted to save.  It is a nice piece of mahogany and a single piece of wood.  It would be quite time consuming to reproduce, and the wood alone would cost a fortune.  So instead, I decided it was worth the time to try to salvage the piece.  It was nailed into place with little brad type nails which were flush.  To get them out, I had to chisel some wood out of the way so that I could get a pair of vice grips in there to pull the brads out.  I think the job was successful.  When I rebuild, I will be reconstructing the bulkhead with screws instead of nails so that if I (or the next owner) has to do this job again, it will be much easier to deconstruct.

I also had a good time screwing around with the Macro setting on my little point and shoot camera, and all of these photos were taken with the macro setting on.  Below are some photos of the rotten bulkhead in close.

If you were in doubt....

I have quite a bit to cover for today's work.  It was quite productive, even though it was short and I ran out of light.  In case anyone was curious, it was a balmy 23 degrees Fahrenheit with occasional snow flurries.  Sounds like a beautiful day in the State of Maine to me!!!!

Let us revisit last weekend's progress.  I had a short time to fiberglass the open through hulls because it was in the 40's.  The picture to the left should look familiar from last weekend.  Today, when the piece of plastic came off, there was a royal mess underneath.  Unfortunately I did not get the piece of plastic taped tightly enough to the hull of the boat, so the epoxy resin was able to run and pool where it was not supposed to.  That means that I have to now sand it off, and maybe try again.  We will see how it turns out once I get the excess epoxy off, and whether adding more glass to the through hull holes will in fact make them stronger than they are already.  I am hoping that with the bottom paint on the bottom, I might be able to chip the glass off, because the bottom paint is supposed to shed growth on the hull.  Maybe I will get lucky, but more than likely, I will have a lot of sanding to do.  That will be a project for another day. 

 Now we come to today's project.  If you were in doubt about how damaged some of the interior parts of the boat are, here is the photographic proof that I am not making this stuff up!  I removed the main bulkhead in the cabin today.  You can see it leaning up against my truck, and you might be thinking that it doesn't look so bad.  Take a peak at the picture below.  I made myself a cardboard template for when I get the plywood to replace the bulkhead.  I then laid the actual bulkhead that came out of the boat on top of it for comparison.  As you can see, a substantial portion of the bulkhead is missing.  This is because of major water damage, not just from water sitting in the interior of the boat while it was on land, but also because the chainplate leaked substantially down onto the plywood.  When I took the chainplate out after the bulkhead was removed, I saw what the issue was.  There were 2 screws missing from the chainplate bracket, and once that came off, I could see that the sealant that was used was gone.  These will be things that I will be modifying/repairing when I get there.  First things first though! 

In the above picture, it shows the inside of the galley cabinet with the bulkhead removed.  There are also lots of pieces of rotten plywood on the floor from the removal process.  The challenge that is upcoming is how to get an entire bulkhead into the space where it needs to go, since it was likely put in place with the cabin top not on the boat yet.  One possibility is to cut the bulkhead into two pieces and then scarf or lap (types of joinery) them together if the entire bulkhead will not fit. 

I have to give credit where credit is due.  I am not a genius that just knows how to do all of these things innately.  I have spent a lot of time reading as much as I can about boat repair, and I have spent quite a bit of time working on boats at summer camp and the local non-profit community sailing organization.  To be fair though, This Old Boat by Don Casey has been indispensable!!!  When I don't find what I am looking for in Casey's book, Fix It and Sail by Brian Gilbert usually has what I am looking for.  I also have to thank my dad for all of his help on this project, from going to look over the boat in the buying process, to letting me bounce ideas off of him, to letting me borrow his copy of This Old Boat while I work on the project. 

Thank goodness for global warming?

It was in the 40's yesterday, which is a bit unusual for Maine in December.  That being said, it was a good thing because it was warm enough to do some fiberglass work.  Since I will be using a composting head for the boat, I do not need the 3 through hulls that were associated with the previous traditional head on the boat.  That means I can patch the holes in the hull, and have fewer through hulls to maintain and worry about. 

Here are some basics for fiberglass.  I was using epoxy resin for yesterday's project.  It is the strongest, most water resistant resin out there.  It is also expensive.  I used it because where I am patching will be underwater, and therefore needs to be water resistant so that osmotic blisters do no occur on the bottom of the hull.  Osmotic blisters occur when water penetrates the layers of fiberglass.  This ruins the strength of the fiberglass, and is quite expensive to fix.  The epoxy resin gets mixed to a specific ratio (5:1 in this case), then the layers of glass fabric and mat get soaked with resin.  The layers get progressively bigger as you add them because then each layer will grab more of the existing hull and have more hold strength than if each layer is the same size, or the bottom layer is the biggest.  In this case, I had one layer of fabric on the outside of the hull, with 2 layers of mat and 2 layers of glass alternated on the inside of the hull.  Doing the repair in this manner makes for an extremely strong fix, which is important when patching the hull.  I will have to do some fairing (read: LOTS OF SANDING) of the glass layers after they have set and are hard.  This will make them basically invisible as fixes on the hull, and also make the hull smooth so that it cuts though the water very well. 

 Left: The layers of glass laid out in prep for soaking (aka: wetting out) with epoxy and application to hull.

Below: Plastic sheet taped to hull to form glass work to the shape of the hull so that less sanding is necessary, and less material will be removed in the process.  One through hull hole is still left to be patched due to temps dropping below 40 degrees.

A final note: The tailgate of the pickup makes a great work bench for doing projects for the boat.

Shins + Boats ≠ Friends

I know it has been a few weeks since I have done an in depth post.  The reason is because I spent 2 weekends working on car problems, followed by having to buy a new vehicle.  It was also USA Thanksgiving recently, so that made work on the boat go on hold. 

First, I have to talk about my truck.  It is a wonderful vehicle, and a wonderful replacement for the Outback I had.  When I transferred the "essentials" that I generally keep in my vehicle from a station wagon to a regular cab Toyota Tacoma pickup, it was an exercise in downsizing.  I still don't have it all worked out.  I generally carry a toolbox (mostly because I have had cheap, unreliable vehicles so tools were a necessity), jumper cables, extra oil, windshield washer fluid, ice and snow scrapers (yes, even in the summer, because you never know!!!).  There is generally a lot of other junk that accumulates in my vehicles because there has been space for it.  In the Tacoma, there is not.  My toolbox occupies the space where a passenger's feet would be, and the other "essentials" are tucked into whatever space I could make them fit into.  There were also many things that could not fit, because there is so little space in the cab.  You might be asking yourself, "Why don't you use the bed, since it is a pickup truck, after all?"  Here is why:  I live in a small city with many homeless, transient, impoverished people.  Anything thing that is not locked will disappear.  A cap for the truck isn't in the budget at the moment either.  That means if I can't fit it in the cab, it goes into the apartment.  Also, even though it hasn't been acting like it, it is winter here in Maine.  That means that its raining/snowing/sleeting/etc. on a regular basis.  Those are not good conditions to keep things out in.  With those things being said, I do have to say that I think that the truck is going to be a better solution to schlepping my stuff around, since in 4 months or so, I will be putting the boat in the water, and therefore moving boat stands, sails, dingy, moving out of my apartment, etc.  The pickup just makes sense.  Plus, having a rear wheel drive, standard transmission vehicle in the winter is a lot of fun!! 

Meet Yoda, the Toyota.  ;)

Hatches in the bed, moving them to the shop for rebuilds

Sandbags in the back for weight 

Now, on to boat related things.  This weekend I was able to take a quick trip to the boat and remove 4 out of 5 hatches to take them to the shop so they can be rebuilt.  All of the hatches are junk, and have to be rebuilt.  I was also able to clean up a bunch of junk left by the previous owners that I have no use for/don't know what it's use was.  I have not decided what I am going to do for all of the hatches, but I have a few ideas.  I know that I would like the forward hatch to have a clear Lexan (name-brand composite material used for windows, portholes, display cases, etc) cover to let light into the v-berth.  I will have to see what the budget looks like to see if that will happen.  I might also make the lazarettes (hatch) in the cockpit out of foam and fiberglass, but again, we will see. 

This brings me to tomorrow.  SPOILER ALERT!!!!  Because the weather is supposed to be 45 and sunny, I can do some epoxy work on the hull and glass over the through hull holes in the head.  I thought that for certain I was going to have to wait til spring for that to happen.  Who knows what else I might get accomplished tomorrow as well.

I will finish with an explanation of my title.  Anyone who has sailed knows what I mean without explanation.  I spent four years racing dingies on the college level.  During the sailing season, I was black and blue from knee to ankle.  Several years later, my shins still bear the bumps from the 420's I spent so much of my college sailing career in.  I also remember as a child going out on my dad's boat.  We all ended up with inexplicable bruises on our shins.  Apparently it is just a part of sailing.  Over the weekend, I was getting off the boat, and tripped on something, nailing my shin on a ladder.  My shins have taken so much abuse from college sailing, it did not hurt so much, but ended up with a pretty substantial bruise.  Even without racing, being around the boat gives me bruises.  This is why shins and boats will never be friends!