Today I gave the boat a well deserved cleaning and wash down to get the years or muck off the surface. Took it to a great little shop we have that stores the boat outside covered for $2 a day and all the tools we need for free! Sweet deal. After taking a more detailed look at her there are several projects that we need to complete. Below are just a few of them.
Crack in the keel- After further forum and online research this boat (I think just the keel) was molded in two pieces, left and right. So when water dripped into the keel it expanded and contracted through thawing and freezing and split a little open at the leading edge. The split is about 1/4" in diameter and 5" long. Nothing too bad, after grinding out one side looks like just needs to dry out. The issue will be taking care of the water source not just drying it out.
Recoring the outside cabin seats- The moisture meter indicated that the seats were above 35% moisture reading. This means the odds of plywood rot are very very high under the fiberglass. So I plan on taking these out as one of the sides already has a clear fracture from a precious owner trying to see under it. I suspect we may need to just gut the entire cabin fiberglass to get the boat to dry out.
Sealing up two holes in hull- There were two machine drilled holes in the hull, probably for water drainage. One was just forward of the keel on the port side. The other was just above the waterline on the port side about 4 ft from the bow. This is a pretty easy job with epoxy since they are so small. The boat has been draining water constantly out of the hole near the keel which is a major indicator of what could be inside the boat. I suspect it means rip the deck and dry for several days to a week depending on temperature.
This is the hole drilled near the keel.
Deck- The deck will need to be repainted. The back part of the deck might need to be recurring, but I will wait and see, it looked to be in good condition. One option is to strip the paint, recore any areas then instead of painting lay down epoxy and teak/pine deck 1.5" strips. It would sure look beautiful. But that is a long way off. Deck hardware will mostly stay might end up getting a winch we will see.
Port Side Dent- This seems to be my most major concern. On the trailer the port side seems to have dented in. This was not found by the inspector which was a frustration. From what I have read, it could just be a pressure dent that pops out in the water and off the trailer. It will certainly effect painting, might just be worth it to float the boat with no paint after all repairs and done and see what happens. That way we can repaint the trailer and what not.
Trailer- Will most likely need work, two new tires at some point. Possibly upgrading the axle and suspension. But honestly that will be a project for a year after the boat is finished up.
Painting- I am debating on bottom paint, the way I sail will most likely be pulling it out of the water every time not leaving it in. I am kind of opposed to paying for a slip just now. No close good sailing marinas exist. So, that would dictate a thin freshwater paint like VC17. Then I hope to put blue paint on the hull with gold bootstrap and maybe blue on the upper deck cabin housing(the area that is currently green above deck). This is a large ambition but needs to be repainted anyway so we will shoot for the stars. This is easily several months away so will come back to it later. First the structural problems and drying out the boat.
Tomorrow will work on ripping the seats out to really see how wet it is down there....
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