8/3/08 - Initially I concentrated on areas where there was visible weeping on the underside fastener nuts.
I used a combination of tools. Here a standard 3/8 inch drill with a composite cutting wheel. It skipped around a lot, but got some of the intial skin cut-outs done. The vast majority of balsa was painstakingly removed with a 3/8 inch wood chisel. That was the safe and methodical tool to use; a grinder is too powerful.
Lousy exposure, but you can see the rotten balsa next to the lighter colored (ergo good but wet) balsa. Amazing how well these boats were made; I'd completely neglected sealing the deck gear and the deck was still pretty stout.
Close-up of some of the ugliness. Even dark-colored stuff like this turned out to be pretty hard to remove.
As I continued to investigate, I moved closer and closer to the mast post. Almost all of this required a chisel to remove. It's dicey business because you don't want to puncture or fracture the outer skin. Patience.
Same area, different angle. Some of the core was definitely balsa, but I think there was some cedar in there too.
9/6/08 Other things took priority during the balance of August. By this date I had a clean surface and I'd removed all the balsa (rotten and just plain wet) from a majority of the deck.
One of the tough decisions I had to make - after thinking about it for a few weeks, I couldn't figure out a good way to work around the mast support. The rot came right up to the upper plate and what wasn't rotten was wet. Sawzall time
During the investigation stage (when I still held out hope of doing spot repairs), I drilled big holes in the outer shell to dry out the balsa. But as time wore one, I realized that was wishful thinking.
Had to take care not to damage the outer shell. I used a 4 1/2 inch grinder to take out a lot of the inner skin and balsa. Best were the sanding wheels, 36 grit for tough parts, 80 grit for finer surfaces such as this.
Ground down the outer perimeter, knowing that I'd have to peg the corners of the interior glass with thickened epoxy.
View forward. I spent some time squaring off the forward edge in order to facilitate core layup. If you look carefully, you can see the blond balsa forward.
9/14/08 First sheet of core pressed up fast. Find your centerline and try to keep all courses in line. It makes the perimeter layup much easier.
9/15/08 Second course. It was warm and dry. I gave the stuff a full day to cure before adding another course. It was important to clean up extruded blotches of thickened epoxy before it cured (inside and protruding through holes in the outer skin). The stuff's like cement.
9/16/08 Almost all the way aft. Finally got to use clamps.
Paranoid about amine blush, I religiously scraped the excess off before it kicked. Then after it cured, I washed and then scuffed, the areas where epoxy had extruded before laying another course.
9/18/08 - With the aftmost segment done, I moved outboard, working my way forward.
9/21/08 - Finalized the layup. I spent some days grooming the seams, eliminating depth mismatches (meaning shaving core).
Not sure why the color difference; it all looked the same color in my basement.
Little notes to myself that I wrote as I was cutting the core.
Ground back a lot of interior skin, much more than recommended.
10/10/08 - D-Day (3-day weekend). I think I'd have done it inside even if the weather had cooperated.
Table of materials. I also spent some time writing up a step-by-step procedural guide. It turned out to be useful, but there's a lot of art in this, and the guide only went so far. The most important element is the helper. She will remain nameless until I successfully complete sea trials without punching through the deck.
Plenty of masking didn't hurt.
More masking inside. It worked perfectly. Both for the glassing and several weeks afterward, as I tacked the perimeter with thickened epoxy, applied three boundary coats and eventually painted the interior.
1st sheet of glass. Didn't need so many push pins, but the large ones are the ones to use. White areas are the 3/4" cutouts for deck hardware fasteners. They'd be filled last, with thickened epoxy.
If I had one regret, it was not spending enough time squeegie-ing the runny epoxy before the first sheet of glass. I was worried that it'd set up before I got the glass laid in. That was not a problem. For the squeegie - make sure you stroke parallel to the core hatching (grooves), I fear I didn't get very good penetration.
Break time view from the cockpit.
11/1/08 - The surface was a bit rough (chopped glass with a thin veneer of epoxy), so I applied three clear boundary coats of epoxy with a roller. Then cleared amine blush, scuffed the surface and washed with acetone. Painted a week later with Dura-White from Pettit. Had Sherwin-Williams add some beige tint. This stuff's for boat interiors and has a "tough hide." Matte finish, but it feels and looks scubbable. So far so good.
Next to last task - welding the mast support upper section. So it's down to Ballard Sheet Metal.
The welder used enough care that all four securing bolts are semi-loose. There are 1/8 inch to 3/16 inch gaps on the flange from 40 years of wear. I'll be filling the gaps with thickened epoxy so that I end up with 100% contact flange to deck surface.
Step after that is installing all my deck hardware. Will try to capitalize on the good weather Thanksgiving weekend.
Deck Looking Aft. Final step will be loading the mast and checking the shroud lengths. I took about 1/4 inch off of the mast support, so I expect problems.
I was able to install all of the deck hardware close to the companionway hatch. Railings, Mast Step and Deck Organizer required a second set of hands. All the fasteners are fastened through-deck.
As the snow melted off and we returned to rain, I noticed leaks in two of the windows. So I (carefully) removed them, cleaned off the old sealant (thankfully I had used removabled caulk back in 1990), and reinstalled them. Ran into the expected problem of stripped lugs, and had to use oversized screws in combination with washers. We'll see if it works.
Shot from the window opening. If you magnify, you can see the injected shim that I installed on top of the mast support.
August was a lifetime ago. Welcome to the new Ketchikan.
