'Glassing in the quarterberth port

Thanksgiving with my family and a few doctors visits. Just part of the schedule when trying to get time to work on the boat. All of those events took me away from Reedville for several days. Driving to and from Washington, D.C. can be tiresome. And I will be going back in a few days for some minor out-patient surgery.

In-between the interruptions I continued work on filling in the old round port providing ventilation to the quarter berth. I cut up some layers of 17 oz. biaxial cloth to fit the diameter of the opening and epoxied them in place. From there I used the plastic template I had created some days earlier to cut up successive layers of 6 oz. woven cloth. These were epoxied into place until the entire area was built up.

Plug it and cover it.

Yes, still more wetting out to be done...

Pro tip: don’t use paper or tape for the epoxy overrun. The epoxy just ignores it and sets up on the glass anyway. And I knew that prior to taping it up. Dummy at work yet again...

I put a heat lamp on the whole thing and let it set up for the day.

The next day I came back and started in on sanding the hardened epoxy. After a quick wash to remove the amine blush I did a a couple of passes with the 5” grinder and the 6” sander. Despite my weak fiberglassing skills the layup was nice and fair with virtually no high spots that needed working down.

Ready for AwlFair.

I grabbed the vacuum to remove any dust and then washed the entire area with acetone. After mixing up a batch of AwlFair and troweling it on, I was done with that for the day.

I love AwlFair...

I took a quick trip to the bow and sanded the last AwlFair application near the forward part of the anchor locker and it is ready for priming when that occurs next Spring.

Done enough.

When I came back next I discovered the limitations of PeelPly. I had considered just using plastic between the wood backing plate and the epoxy buildup. I should have.

The wooden plug was firmly fixed in place. If it had been in a more accessible location it would have been fairly easy to remove. It was not.

So, breaking out the “Wonder Tool", my Fein Multimaster I was able to cut and pry the plug out in small bits. Ultimately it was notas onerous a task as I had envisioned.

Bits and pieces.

 

And since I had it ready I changed the blade and chopped off the wooden dowels I used to plug the old winch holes on the cabin top near the cockpit when filling them with epoxy.

Eh, no one will see it.

After some sanding with the 6” Mirka DA and some of board filing I applied another skim coat of AwlFair.

Break out the heat lamp again.

Filling and fairing never seems to end.

I awoke this morning to the sound of rain beating on our metal roof. There are times when it is a comforting tattoo that signifies a quiet day of coffee in bed, catching up on the goings-on the world (via the Internet...) and finding some small chores around the house to work on.

Not today.

I rolled out of bed early, put on boat-yard clothes, grabbed some breakfast, checked the NYT and then started to load the yard-truck with the required tools for the day's effort. I did a quick run down the street to check in with George Butler to make sure the skiff was covered and dry. Check.

Next stop was “Ronin”. Despite being a dismal drizzly and rainy day the temperatures were in the mid-sixtes. I unloaded tools and set up the work table. The goal was to sand off more AwlFair compound, check for imperfections and continue on the iterative process of getting the decks ready for priming and painting.

Grey day.

First thing was to identify those spots that needed sanding and more filler. I grabbed my new LED work light and went around the decks hand sanding the smaller spots. I had filled the hardware holes a few days earlier with West System epoxy and a little bit of micro-fiber filler. At the same time I worked some AwlFair into low areas and scratch marks.

Plugged and some fairing.

Wooden dowels to stop the epoxy leaks.

After that I spent some time working the board file on the cabin-top near the cockpit to get the area fair. Still not done yet but getting there.

Before and after:

Up front in the bow there was an area that had a bad layup and probably some hits that destroyed the deck where the anchor line ran. I had worked up a couple of applications of West System with microfibers to build it up. I machine and hand sanded the buildup.

Ugly epoxy layup.

Sanded, faired and AwlFair applied.

The next effort for the day was to prep the old quarter-berth hole for patching. I measured the opening, adding a few inches to the diameter of the backing plate. I cut the backing plate out of some scrap wood that I had lying around the shed but quickly found out that the gap between the hull and cabin liner was pretty tight.

Where’s my compass when I need it?

I ran the 2” pneumatic sander along the edges of the filler plate to make if fit. The problem was that it was thicker than than the opening available to me. Next step, fit it.

When I went to put it in place,the plug didn't even begin to slide into place. So, since I was going to have do some glass-work to finish off the ragged hole at the base of the quarter-berth I cut it away at the interior liner. 

 

After getting the plug to fit I wrapped it with Peel-Ply and maneuvered  it in.

Ready for epoxy.

The day was getting on and I decided to wait until the next session to finish the repair. I’ve learned to never rush a task.

Tools for removing stuff.

There’s a fairly long running thread in the C&C email list that I fanatically follow. It concerns the travails of removing and fixing/replacing the fixed ports of some of the new models of C&C’s. I thought that I’d put up a quick post to address some of the questions that others had and to show some tools that posters on the list had recommended.

I knew early on in the ownership of our boat that cleaning up the old Plexus would be a significant effort. I had pulled and replaced to original ports 15 years ago and just used silicone sealant between the new ports and the old, hard Plexus.

Not ideal but worked okay for the subsequent years.

As part of the deck repainting project, I decided to do it correctly this time around.

So, as a response to some the listers who are getting into this project and to answer some questions about what tools to use to remove the old Plexus I thought I’d post a few photos of the tools that I used.

3” Angle grinder.

This tool is brutal but effective. It takes a careful hand to keep from really making a mess of the exterior gelcoat but it can be done. This removed large quantities of Plexus.

Ingersoll-Rand 2”/3” high speed pneumatic sander.

This tool will remove a large amount of material also but it is much, much more delicate.

An air compressor is required for this tool so the overall investment is high. The tool itself is not very expensive and I bought a bag of 50 2” 80-grit sanding disks for cheap money. Like all sanding projects I buy lots of sandpaper and the minute it is no longer pushing dust I pitch it and slap on another. It’s cheaper than my time.

Fein Multimaster.

One of my absolute favorite tools. I bought this before the patent expired and before other tool makers were allowed to produce oscillating tools. Were I do buy another I’d still buy the (much) more expensive Fein. The quality is leagues ahead of the new tools. I used 40-grit paper initially and then graduated to 80-grit for the fine detail sanding of the corners and the final passes on the inside flats.

Last but not least, hand-sanding blocks.

Don’t laugh but a small 3M soft hand block with 80-grit Stikit sandpaper does an amazing amount of material removal. And it has the benefit of allowing me to do some fairly fine and detailed sanding when necessary.

Sanding doesn’t always have to be a chore. Good tools make a big difference.

Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI) and (bonus!) wooden boats.

I have been doing quite a bit of sanding, primarily using my Mirka Ceros 6” DA sander on successive applications of AwlFair filler. I’ve been doing so much of it that my left forearm is beginning to exhibit some of the symptoms of RSI. Makes sense I suppose.

Nothing terribly interesting to report as far as the work goes. I continue to fill and sand and fill and sand. One of the things is the disturbingly large number of spots that I miss. I’ll work my around the deck, inspecting and marking potential spots for grinding and filling. After finishing that process and then coming back the next day to sand I am continually finding cracks in need of grinding that have been missed. Worse are those spots that I have ground out and completely missed when it came time to apply the AwlFair.

Nonetheless, although it is fairly uninteresting work I am making progress. I think that after a few more passes on the deck I will be ready to cover them with the construction paper I bought earlier this week. Since it is pretty certain that I will be shooting the primer and topcoat sometime next Spring I want to try and keep the decks dirt, grime and grit free as possible.

Second pass with AwlFair.

Filling large depressions and bolt-holes.

Interestingly, in the picture shown above, the large area filled in with AwlFair is a slight depression in the deck that contained one of the original winches, in this case for the mainsheet. I’m assuming (and hoping…) that it was designed in from the factory. The same thing occurs on the port side as well.

The original control setup that I inherited was comprised of four non-self-tailing winches arrayed across the cabin top to work all the halyards and lines that were led aft. Early on I ditched two of the old Barients and replaced them with Harken 40 aluminum self-tailers. When the boat is put back together I am completely re-designing the layout of the lines led aft. A reduction in the number of lines is high on my list but that’s a chore left for later. Bottom line is that all the used and un-used holes in the deck will be filled, faired and painted over.

The port side after board sanding.

After that session more filler went on. Before leaving for the day, after cleaning up my tools and equipment I decided to just sit and ruminate. Catch up on progress and to-do notes for the project.

Does this qualify as a “man cave”? Not with that pink chair...

The next day I came back and, surprise, did more sanding, concentrating on the four fixed port openings. I’ve been paying particular attention to these because of the large radiating cracks in the gel-coat and the damaged backing lip for the ports themselves. I’m carefully prepping these for installation of new ports when the decks are painted next year.

Went on heavy and got sanded away.

What would I do without my trusty construction pencil?

While my work effort was proceeding over the past week or so, I managed to move the Butler skiff over to the the place where it was built, Reedville Marine Railway, so that some leaking and rot damage could be attended to. Since I have neither the time nor the skill to do the woodwork on it, I hired a local woodworker and wooden boat repair professional to deal with it. Smart move on my part.

Been sittin' for a year and the barnacles were happy...

Rotten wood coming out.

I think we found the leak….

New wood!

Of note: the original mast from the Chesapeake Bay buyboat, "Elva C” shown in the background of the picture below is now a feature in the main room of our house. A bit of local history that fits with the fact that our house used to have a wooden boat building concern in the backyard.

Anyway, the woodwork is completed and now I need to do more sanding on this boat too.

My arm is not wild about the prospect of that... 

Week Five - Amateur Woodworker

Work progresses on the hull. Despite still being extremely cold the sanding and priming of the hull continues. Still more snow has shut down operations in this area on several occasions. During the last week I have been away much of the time, back in Arlington visiting friends and seeing my family.

I checked in on Ronin last Friday and not much the way of “action photos” to show but Charlie and I did spend some time discussing the merits of painting methods and the appropriate spray guns. After listening to Charlie describe shooting techniques and the quality of guns he uses, I really felt out of my depth. I know that when I go to shoot my decks that the results will be “interesting."

A spray gun for every job (pro tip, the Sata, 2nd from right):

Primed and ready for yet more sanding:

I’ve turned my focus back to working in my shed on the cabin sole yet again. Confession time: a few weeks back I set up everything to make a rip of the first 4X8 sheet that would become the two pieces in the main cabin. I measured, measured again, set up a guide and took my time to make sure that I had everything set up correctly. It all looked okie-doke.

One thing though. I wasn’t sure about what was the best blade to use in my trusty old Bosch jigsaw. Now, I have used that tool for many things over many years yet for some reason I overthought the problem. So, since we know that everything on the Internet is true, I did a search for the correct blade to use.

Put the recommended blade into the jigsaw, flipped the switch and started in on the cut. About half-way down cut, the blade torqued, veered off on an angle and that was that. One completely ruined expensive sheet of teak and holly plywood. After calming down, I inserted the blade that I had originally planned on using, set up the guide and made a “test” cut on the now useless piece of plywood. Perfect...

After ordering another sheet, I went the simple route after getting some advice from my friend Vincent who built our house and just used my Skillsaw. Another perfect cut.

Sooo, after after getting over my understandable doubts about my abilities I pulled out the router to carve out the section that will be used for the hatch boards. After practicing many times with some cheap stock, I put in a 1/2” by 1” router bit and fired it up.

I got it about 97% correct this time. I wasn’t paying attention but the old cable sole being used as the template had delaminated in some spots and as I was running the router down the line, the guide dropped into some voids in the ply. Not pretty but I will do some work with West System and pieces of salvaged laminate and it should be okay. The 1/4” teak edging on each side will hide some of the problem I hope.

Prep and router cut:

The problem with rotten templates:

Prepping the cut-out for three hatchboards:

Later during the week I pulled the second sheet of plywood out and started laying out the templates for the two sections at the navigation station and galley. The one in front of the head is still on the boat so I was only able to cut out the one in the v-berth.

By and large these cuts went okay although there is a very slight gap between the two sections in the galley/nav area. That’s due to the problem of making a third cut-out based on a (rotten) template of the original cabin sole boards.

Laying out the old cabin sole templates and screwing them down:

Finished with routing the edges:

Panels arranged on the shed floor:

When the weather warms up and I can get stable temperatures in my shed I’ll start sealing the plywood with epoxy and then applying the finish coats to the surface.