Work Day 13

Today I started to lay in more cabin floor supports. The big issue was dealing with the forward supports.  Trying to understand how they would fit together with the bilge, as well as actually making them the correct height so the bilge and the floor are at the same level.  So I began by cutting down the front bulkhead and the other support to the correct size. Then I laid up the rear support with epoxy so it could set in.  before laying up the forward support I need to do two things.  Shave down the bilge so the cut I made on the front is even.  Second is to install the forward cabin top again.  After placing the forward cabin top, it became clear it was going to sit on top of the bulkhead for support. So had to keep that in mind while placing it.

rear support and forward bulkhead

You can see the gap at the bottom because of the uneven cut

Preparing the forward cabin floor by attaching mast support piece.  

Basically laid up epoxy and fiberglass CSM to make sure this was attached. Then will just have to drop it in the pre made space to lay it up evenly.

Took a preview stab at stripping the keel to see what it was going to be like. I sprayed some compressed stripper on the keel and then went at it three coats worth with a stripper knife.  As you can see not very easy. This was 20 mins worth of work....So it will take a lot. But there is big value to stripping then sanding, as best I can tell, the green paint gunks up the sanding discs way faster then anything. The green paint is what I can get off pretty easily as well.

So next work day, dropping in the forward cabin floor.  And beginning to sand!

Work Day 12

Today started to tackle the floor installation. It has been a little slow because I realized I would need a lot more fiberglass in order to create a laminate layer on the cabin floor. Combined with the 20 degree weather not being friendly to epoxy there has not been much progress. Yesterday it started to warm up again so I jumped out and started getting the deck ready and laying up the keel.

First the floor supports.  I had to finish by grinding back the rest of the floor left on the aft wall of the cabin.  Once this was done I sized up the floor support we cut.  Turns out we left it 3/4" too high, this would take a long time to sand so I simply ran over to wood shop and cut it down.  Then I laid it in with west system 610 epoxy.  The first day I capped the epoxy tube hoping to use it again, that was a joke.  I came back the next day to do some lay up work and it was not even budging.  So I think you have to use the tube all at once.  Anyway after coming back to the support the next day it seemed solid.

So I began to lay the second support. This would be the first challenge since it was free standing. When we cut these with a sawcaz(our first mistake, should have used a jig saw) our cuts left some gaps between cabin and wood.  I figured I could fill it with epoxy, which was true to a point.  But it was clear the gaps would eat up a lot of the epoxy glue.  Balance when laying the second support was critical because this would determine slope of the floor.  The level indicated a down hill toward the bow, which I was ok with because that would assure water flowed to the bilge.  The deck plywood was already bowing a little so it would hopefully drop it there.  The one angle I am worried about is how flat the top of the second support is. If it sits at a forward or backward angle it will be impossible to lay a deck on it unless I sand it down and increase the downward slope (which will be added down the line).

Day 1 laying in the aft support to the wall

using the wood atop kept the second support standing upright during the gluing process.

Here you can see the third support(not laid just placed) backs up to the bilge.  

Before laying down the third support I wanted to figure out the bilge situation and replace the forward cabin floor.  Because that wall will be critical to determining positioning.  So I think I will lay the third support tomorrow.  Plus I need to shave off 3/4" on it. Oddly enough the second support did not require a 3/4" cut to make it level.  At the forward end of the bilge will be the wall. But for the wall to be there the forward cabin level needs to be placed.

I will have to devise a way for the forward wall to support the deck floor.  I am thinking of taking plywood extra or maybe a small 2X4 and fiberglassing it in as a lip. Supporting it with fiberglass means I will not have to nail it down and risk ruining plywood integrity.  Also, I believe the fiberglass lip will work, that is how I planning to do the seats.  But I need to place all the other supports first, then figure out what height to put the lip at then check it, then coat with epoxy and fiberglass.


The day before this I finally finished the fiberglass job on the keel!!! Yeah!!!! It is up to the levels I think it should be, I will then coat it in low density filler and sand it to take shape.  I am going to hold off on that job until I paint.  I decieded the same thing with the filler on the machined holes. I grinned down the one hole on the port side and saw that I was really just moving paint around. So when I strip off the paint I will make sure these are flush and good looking!  But the projects are done! Also not pictured, but I did lay up fiberglass and epoxy on the inside of these machined holes for added strength.

This final keel fiberglass job.  One strong girl!

Though you cant tell this is actually smooth to the touch and seamless.  Can't tell where the repair is and the boat begins.

Also, fun side note. My go to supply store has been jamestown distributors....yes I will take my discount for name reference now.  They are good people helping boaters. I called asking about paints for this boat and what the layup strategy should be.  Basically the white stuff that you see around the ground away keel is the original boat gel coat. This was the precursor to epoxy barrier coat. As a result....lucky me I get to grind down to the gel coat and apply an epoxy barrier coat to the entire boat. That will serve as a primer coat then I can paint bottom anti fouling and the top side paint.


Also today I sized up the buoyancy bags in the boat.  Unfortunatly the bow buoyancy bag did not fit in the forward hull.  It would have to be about 2/3 deflated in order to do so.  So I shoved the two long bouancy bags I had up there. They each produce 100 lbs of buoyancy which is only about 75 lbs short of what the bow bag did.  The stern bag fit fine. Which means I am light on buoyancy now but, honestly I don't think its much of a priority for this boat. There is no place to put the buoyancy and it will only be a day sailor on a lake for me. So, not like it needs to be the titanic.  I think it will offset the keel ballast so it will give me time to think while the boat takes on water ha ha..and at $90 a bag for stupid plastic floaties...I am ok not buying more and returning one.

The two forward bags. One on either side of the support.  

The stern bag sitting behind the rudder pipe.

Final task of the day was to tackle the plywood rotting delamination on the forward cabin .  The plywood was pretty dried out by now. So I used the rest of the 610 epoxy tube to essentially pump the wood full of epoxy at different layers. Then I used clamps over night to ensure it stays shut.

You can see from the right side that the wood will be much closer together. This also includes delamination from the fiberglass laminate.

Well that's all for now, waiting for jamestown order to come in with more fiberglass to lay up the laminate on the deck floor, hopefully the epoxy will last. I am about 50% through my gallon kit.

Work Day 11

To be honest this was actually two really short days combined.  One was spent in the wood shop fabricating the next round of wood pieces for the forward cabin core replacement and then the mast reinforcement.  After cutting them out in the shop I took them over to be epoxy laminated.  This included the other sides of the pieces I was already working on.  I foolishly bought more roller brushes, not necessary. I had forgot about  the convenient yellow squeegee that had come with the kit, these things are way better at spreading around epoxy evenly on wood.

The wood laid out, the triangle and rectangle have just been cut but not coated yet.

After coating the wood to dry, I laid up another layer of fiberglass on the keel.  This time I had my CSM(chopped Strand Mat) which was 1 million times easier to bend around the shape of the keel and stick.  On the down side it was less this then the 6oz cloth.  But two or 3 more layups and it will be good to go.

This keel will be able to take any hit by the time I am done with it!

Forgot to include pictures the other work day of the bilge bin that had been sanded down with the angle grinder.  That was a pain to do but it was pretty clean and ready for some fiberglass lay up.  

You can see the fiberglass has been ground down and that the cracks are really obvious.

On day two I actually laid down the glass, it cured really well.  Just laid down one coat on the inside of the tray with a lot of epoxy.  I will drill out the bolt holes later.  I think one layer on the bottom of the box to totally seal and reinforce the cracks and this guy will be as good as new.  Obviously will need to lay up some fairing on there, not sure how I am going to sand this when that happens :(.

You can see how thick it is at the end where the black cracks are.  Epoxy has soaked through the cracks to the other side so I am not too worried.

Next I applied some of the new filler I got shipped in to the fiberglass lay up I did on the hull.  This was the filler I was waiting for, since I ran out of the small patch kit filler.  It had the distinctive maroon color of the filler at the end. I will sand it down when the weather gets better and is not going to rain. Hopefully this will be the last sanding job on these machined holes. 

While I am on the subject of the hull, I got a little restless at Lowes and bought some paint stripper in a spray paint can while I was picking up some solvent prep for the epoxy.  I tried it on the hull with my paint stripper iron just to see what I was in for in the future.  Not a pretty site, its going to be nasty and messy.  Though the stripper worked to get the green off, it left the copper oxide on and in tact. That will have to be sanded away, which will be dangerous and nasty.  Maybe I will have to do that back at the storage facility where its just rocks on the ground and no one will be around to breathe it in.  

This is after two or three paint scrapes to the area I applied the stripper.

Next I decieded to work inside where it was warm, which was both required and appreciated. The outside temp was 50 degrees which is on the border low end for mixing and applying epoxy.  So inside where it was nice and 70 in the shop I mixed away.  It occured to me that the cabin floor would need a laminate made, this would probably be easier to do outside of the boat(seems like a messy task once its installed).  So I figure I will lay up the main laminate and then install it in the boat, then finally add the filler once its installed to paint.  This way I can still mount anything that needs to be done.  

So I laid up the remeaning fiberglass weaving I had to make one layer on the center portion of the deck.    After coating this layer I realized I would need at least 3-4 lay ups for this to become a laminate.  I started with 6 oz fabric.  From reading on line I need at to alternate layers using CSM and woven for 3-4 layers ending with really heavy layer on top.  Rookie mistake realizing this after, apperently its hard to bond multiple layers after the first woven layer has dried, becuase of all the bumpy surfaces.  But not too woried, nothing a little epoxy cant fix. Speaking of which we are about half way throught the gallon kit. Less then thrilled about that seeing as I still have to install the the dang thing and do 2-3 more layers on the cabin floor.  But if I need another one I will buy it.

The layout, I figured I could get the edges when I install CSM to the side of the hull.

After it was soaked in epoxy

A nasty corner of strands that came undone, but you can see how flat the rest is.

While I was inside I also thought it was time to hitch on the forward cabin laminate to the new core. I tried to save the laminate because I knew it would be a pain in the ass to remake it, as evidenced by this cabin floor business.  To do this I sanded down as much of the laminate as possible to make it flat.  There was some old epoxy that was just not leaving (maybe 1/8" in some places).  So I used some high density epoxy thickener to fill in the gaps and then clamped the whole thing down to cure.  Seems to have worked pretty well because epoxy came out the sides and in the screw holes from the center.  Hope it sticks!!!

My clipped up contraption

I am debating wether or not to fill one of the fiberglass holes.  The cap for one of them is pretty beat up and I cannot imagine why they installed two of them so close together.  I will just lay in some fiberglass and build it up to the level of the laminate.  Same things with the back edge where the wood is exposed.  This will take a day or two.  This is good because I actually need to dry out the remaining core some more before I bond it to this new core. Not sure how I am going to do that yet, but its a work in progress. I would guess with all the prep work it will be at least another week before I lay this all in the the boat. But 90% prep will make 10% execution go smooth.  

The other thing I should mention is hauling this crap around, I have all sorts of epoxies and cans of solvent that I cannot leave at the shop every day, so the trunk of my car looks like a mobile meth lab in the back. Since security is tight at work, I would prefer not to leave these in the car.  So made a convienent  carry case.

Last thing wanted to talk about is the vision of what the cabin install looks like and the lay up. After setting up the other day a few things occurred,  I will need to cut a hole in the cabin floor that I am glassing up now to make room for the bilge.  The question becomes when, after its installed on top of it, or before hand when its out of the boat or place and then outline and cut.  Also there is a question of elevation positioning.  So going to try to sketch it up real quick and upload it.  I do not profess to have any artistic abilities..

Work Day 10

After shaving down the fiberglass over the drilled holes it was clear I only needed one more layer of fairing compound before its completely set to paint.  I will need to wait until more fairing compound comes in on wednesday.  So with that I moved on to the keel, I laid down 4 sheets of fiberglass over the keel.  After that, the bottom of the keel came back to the original size.  We need to cover the top with more fiberglass in a second layer to even out the keel.

After that worked on prepping the pieces in the cabin for next week. First I laid them out. Laid down the struts, the cabin floor and the cabin wall.

You can see the top of cut cabin floor attaching to the wall 

the floor laid down with the wall extending above

the black void is where the cut out cabin piece goes

 In a prep I began to cut out the forward cabin fiberglass piece, you will recall it still has the angular piece on the end.  Since we installed a new tall wall we need to cut off that portion of the fiberglass.

Note how I chopped off the back so its a flat peice 

Notice I sanded it all flat so I can lay down a 3/4" plywood on the bottom of this and attach with epoxy.  The wood will actually extend and cover the whole back end (will not go in like the picture shows).  Then this piece will be laid into the cabin, attached with wood glue and will be reinforced by fiberglass tape.


Next I set about in prepping the bilge.  It was pretty badly cracked and would need a lot of work so no new water would seep down in the hull.

You can see the crack from the back here

I sanded down all the crack lines so we could lay fiberglass next time

 Last thing I had to carve the bilge out, the bilge will meet the flat wall at the forward portion of the cabin.  This will allow it to be mounted to the wall and sit on the nuts and bolts.

The slice 

The dotted line to cut along....

Next day I will lay down the fiberglass in order to reinforce the bilge.  Once its cleaned up then we can finally lay it back in the boat.  I will cut out the plywood section so it can be the low point in the boat.

Work Day 9

Today I spent playing with more epoxy.  After sanding down the cabin floor at the wood shop I began to paint the wood with epoxy.  It was  particularly windy day here in OK so crap from the ground kept getting stuck to the epoxy, but its not a big deal because I will just sand back the area I will be painting over.  The epoxy really did reinforce and protect the wood.  Even after one coat the wood seems more sturdy and really impervious to water penatration.

My plug for west systems!  

The wood drying on the first coat

Unfortunatly never got to do the back side of this wood. I tried to dry out the roller and stopping it from being a one use item....Well that didn't happen. After coating the back side of the cabin floor wood, the roller just fell apart. I will have to buy another one in order to finish coating all this wood.  But there is no rush on that since I am waiting anyway for the shipment of goods next week before I can install it.

Next I started to take a look at my dried epoxy and fiberglass repair job on the machined holes.  It actually didn't turn out half bad.  I went to the store and finally bought my own orbital sander with several different type of sand paper discs.  I used this sander to grind down my work flush with the boat surface.  After one grind it became clear where I screwed up. There were some uneven crevasses that I did not scoop enough fairing compound into.  Should have seen it because these were too deep to sand. So ground it back and then coated them again in fairing(which is pretty standard to do twice).  We will see if the grinding tomorrow comes out.  Although, today they were pretty flush with the boat surface.

before grinding

after grinding bottom hole

applying new fairing compound to even out and ridges or lows 

Next I went on prepping the cabin surfaces, mainly the cabin floor for the forward area. I ground back as much of the wood as I could with 60 grit sander paper.  This actually worked pretty well. Though I still had 1/8" gap in the surfaces some places it is was sanded back flat so that epoxy could fill the void between the plywood and the fiberglass.

you can see the orbital sanding lines here.

this is the original condition after I peeled off all the plywood.

Next I attempted to even out some the keel. I used some the fairing/thickened epoxy mixture to create a good base and fill the rest of the holes in the keel.  This actually would create a good layer for fiberglass to lay down on the next day. I tried to shape it so it took the keel shape. Turned out pretty good.

could have put a little more on the top here.

notice I sanded back the keel more so you do not lay fiberglass on any paint that might chip away.

 Finally I tried one last task for the day, raising the boat off the trailer with a car lift.

Our strategy was to back the boat in the lift area.  then to wrap towing straps around the extended yellow arms and run them under the boat in front and behind the keel.  This would have been a great idea and appeared to be a good one, it just wasn't meant to be.  As we raised the boat off the trailer (only began to lift weight off the springs, did not actually leave the trailer).  Something snapped!  I looked assuming it was one of our straps and to my surprise it was not.  Turns out the arm closest to us in the picture broke.  There are two bolts that hold the arms in place(when you swing them at an angle under your car).  Well they can take a lot of vertical pressure.  But because the boat straps also pulled in they pulled sideways, something they were not designed for. So the bolts sheered off on one arm.  Luckily it gave out before the boat was off the trailer. The shop was pretty good about me breaking the thing, after all they said it was ok to use the lift. I just hope it gets fixed!  Because this baby all together is 17k!  So after the boat lift fiasco, we called it a day and put it away. It sucked that it did not work, because I could have painted here as well as taken care of the pressure dent.  The dent is a growing priority on the work list as I will be in the cabin more and more here in the future.  

Work Day 8

Today was the first day of putting the boat back together.  Not surprised it went a little slow.  It was basically a learn and play with epoxy day.  Started out by grinding the areas out around the machined holes. The goal for the day would be to patch them up.

The ground away portion of the machine drilled hole

The fiberglass layup routine was actually pretty easy.  You just cut circles and lay the peices atop eachother, painting each successive layer with epoxy.  It is actually pretty tricky to cut up the fiberglass woven together.  But once you cut it, and paint it, it sticks.

The first layer of glass is applied

This is after all the layers had been set down.  

 After this first one I sanded down the next drilled hole. It was in a little trickier of a spot on the boat.  So I took a break before laying up the glass and switched the activities.  So I worked on trying to preserve the center piece I cut out yesterday.  All the plywood was still on the bottom of the center portion. If I could peel it back since it was delaminating, I could easily use this piece again and simply apply new plywood and slap it back in the center.

This is a picture with the plywood taken off.  If I sand it down I can get the rest off.  

 This should be pretty easy cutting new plywood and then mounting the wood back on the cabin floor.  I will need to wait to do that thought for the buoyancy  bags.  But I can begin sizing up the wood tomorrow.

 The rest of the afternoon I sanded more of the keel so I can begin the fiberglass lay up tomorrow.  In prep for that I injected the keel drill holes/cracks with epoxy.  I will fill them a little more tomorrow and lay up glass.

the cabin struts

the floor board in the cabin

The rest of the day I spent prepping the wood to be epoxy coated.  This involved sanding down the boards and cleaning them in order to coat them in epoxy.  After filling the second drilled hole with fiberglass epoxy ran out of time to cover the boards.  So will have to cover the boards tomorrow morning.

Goals for tomorrow:  cover the boards with epoxy so they are ready to go as soon as we get the 610 epoxy next week sometime.
-sand down the fiberglass work to check the drilled holes
-lay first layer of glass on the keel
-take care of relieving the pressure dent.