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.