Chainplates

Since everything else has been removed from the boat it was no big surprise that I now choose to remove all the chainplates. I had tried not to do this but i have come so far now to leave them in place would probably come back to bite me. They had obviously been a source of water leaks before so rebedding them would help that. Once removed I could properly clean them up as they had been painted over many times and one was even encased in fiberglass. I widened the top deck fiberglass (all new and painted) with a dremel to allow for removal. Unbolted they removed quite easily with a little hammer persuasion. I was surprised to find that two of the stainless steel plates showed signs of corrosion (heavy pitting) right where they penetrated the deck. This would have been below the teak decking but just above the fiberglass. I have no choice but to replace them so I will have to fashion the replacements from some 1/4" stainless stock. Luckily I can use the old ones as templates.

Roller Mount

Enough coats of varnish for the bow roller platform and all the other pieces I was varnishing at the same time. Now to put some holes in this piece of wood. First I made the 3 holes that would act as the primary bolt holes through the platform and the deck. From there I was able to mark the deck where I would need to drill. The holes through the deck were drilled out at 5/8" then filled with thickened epoxy. These I let sit for a day then drilled them out again with a 3/8" hole. This will seal the deck core should any water infiltrate the hole. The bolts for the primary holes are 3/8" stainless hex head 6 1/2" long. They protrude below deck about 1 inch. My next trick will be to make a backing plate to sandwich the deck and platform. I will use the 1/4" aluminum plate again but access to this point of the deck and hull is extremely tight and is blocked by the Sampson post running vertically up through the deck in the middle of the for-peak.Now for the rest of the holes. All of the rollers are attached with 3/8" SS bolts finished off with an acorn hex nut. These are all through bolted in the 2" wood platform. There are two other holes that will go through the plat form into the toe rail but will have 3/8" SS lag bolts instead. The finish appearance will be the same. My biggest concern is that the overhang may be too great. It looks really cantilevered out there. This is really only for launching, retrieving and storing the ground tackle. When the tackle is set, the rode will be run through the deck chock and onto the Sampson post so there should be no torque on the platform. Time will tell. This is the configuration for the Danforth and Claw. If I switch one out to a CQR I might be able to slide the rollers back a few inches. I just dont have $750 for a new anchor now. Sailcare did my sails way to fast so I have alot of money tied up in 3 sails that will sit on the shelf for a year.

Bightwork

Before the new bow roller platform can be mounted I needed to finish it off with varnish. I had some other items I had stripped and sanded ready for varnish so it was worth while to do them all at the same time. The two dorade boxes and lids, two winch mounts and a stern light mount. In the picture you can see the Sapele and Teak are not that for off in color, only in grain.

I continued with the same formula that has served me well on the toe rails and mast restoration. The first coat is an Epifanes Rapid Coat with a teak tint, light sanding then 5-7 coats of Epifanes Woodfinish Clear Gloss Varnish. This has worked out well timing wise because it is still too hot to spend more than 30 min on the boat at a time. I did have enough time this past weekend to template and cut out a new galley bulkhead skin (1/8") and will sand on it a bit more before applying. Working out the clamping and installation took longer than making the piece fit.

Bits and Pieces

This week was lots of work in the shop fixing, making and tweaking. I rebuilt the Whale Gusher manual pump. I can't imagine it was original but it easily was 30 yrs old. Removed it and stripped it down then sand blasted the aluminum casing. A new coat of paint inside and out, a rebuild kit with new flappers and diaphragm. Even made a new handle top out of a golf ball. Pictures showing before, after and the rebuild kit. It was previously installed in the Starboard cockpit lazarette. I don't think this is a good location. I wouldn't want to be pumping out with the entire lazarette open to the elements. It is recommended that a manual pump be located below where you can close the hatch and pump her out. I think it's new location will be on the new engine compartment side wall on the starboard side, through the open bulkhead. This way it won't be visable all the time and you will be able to sit on the berth and pump.

Got to work on the new mounting and backing plates for the lifeline stanchions. Previously they were mounted on a teak base on top of the teak deck. Both of which are gone now, a piece is in the picture below on the far left as a comparison. Overall thickness was about 3/4", 3/8" for the base and 3/8" for the teak deck. The new polypropylene thermoplastic composite bases I made from scrape race car splitters and are 1/2" thick. These will be painted the same color as the deck. The backing plates are 1/4" aluminum. There were no backing plates prior so this will be an improvement.

There was some final tweaking of the roller platform and placement of the rollers. Now it is time for varnish then mounting. Still mid to upper 90's so I'm staying off the boat and in the basement work shop.

Bow Roller Platform

So my two bow rollers arrived after much debate (internal) on which two styles to get. I know that I will have different ground tackle requirements for lake sailing vs ocean sailing so I wanted a combination of rollers that could accommodate fluke style, plow style and claw style anchors in different combinations. The two Lewmar rollers I have now seem to fit the best and will give me a good balance for primary and secondary anchoring.
The new platform has been formed from a nice piece of Sapele that I finally committed to cutting after exhaustive cardboard template work and rework. First it had to fit the boat in size, scale and proportion. Then it had to fit in the for-triangle between two line chocks and over the for-stay bracket. When the rollers arrived it then had to be reworked to accommodate them and finally they had to be positioned so the blades on the two different anchors could store and deploy side by side in harmony.
The mounting will be finalized this week with a custom 3/8" aluminum backing plate, then 5 coats of varnish and coring and sealing the mounting holes. Once that is done then an anchor chain pipe installed through the deck to the for-peak chain locker. The rest of this past week was spent making all the custom aluminum backing plates for the life line stanchions. It has been too hot to be in the boat finishing up the galley work.

Galley Work

I thought I was done with bulkhead replacements. I switched over to working on fixing up the Galley cabinetry and only planned on some minor touch up. Of course once I started to remove things to get at the cabinet work the hidden stuff all crumbled and replacemrnt was the only option. The issue was I had not planned on this and was running out of marine grade plywood.

This technically is not evern a bulkhead other than it does run to the underside of the deck but really just forms the side of the galley cabinet. The PO had covered up most of the ills with some P-lam that once removed showed a lot of bondo work trying to extend the life of bad plywood. I was able to salvage the stove enclosure which was still good and all the hardwood trim but the rest and it's failed tabbing had to go.

Once removed I made cardboard templates and tried to fit them onto what remaining 3/4 marine ply I had left. At $100/sheet I did not want to buy another. I squeezed it onto two pieces whose joint can be hidden behind some seat supports. Not ideal but not really a structural member either. To finish it off I really need a piece of 3/16 ply veneer to cover it all.

I also did alot of work repairing all the cockpit seats/locker covers that had failed. The repair was with thickened epoxy and fiberglass to strengthen and some SS corner braces. The teak needs to be cleaned and sanded on all the pieces and the least bit of teak left in the cockpit but that will come later. Big news this week was the arrival of the bow rollers. More on that later.

Tabbing

Starting in on the tabbing this week. It has been very hot and uncomfortable so I have not had too much time aboard. Tabbing is the process of overlaying the fillets with strips of fiberglass to adheare and strengthen the attatchment of the builkheads to the hull or deck. The joint is cleaned, sanded and prepped as needed. The strips are cut to length and then saturated with neat epoxy resin. Once they are fully wetted out you wet out the joint and apply the fiber glass. A disposable brush is used to help it adhere and apply more epoxy where needed. When you are really good you can apply successive layers when the epoxy is hot (kicked) but not cured to get a better bond. Otherwise, like me, you wait till it cures, come back and whipe off the epoxy blush with solvent and sand down for the next layer. Everyone has their own process but I like a fillet covered by a 3" strip and then a 6" wide strip of biaxial fiberglass cloth on the primary structural joints. Minor cabinetry elements I will glass in with only one layer over a fillet.